Larry Probst made his comments Monday to The Associated Press at the Asian Games, where he met with Asian Olympic committee officials as part of a new outreach effort after Chicago lost in the first round of voting for the 2016 Summer Games last October.
Probst declined to identify the cities, but said the USOC is far from ready to put together another bid because it needs to first improve its presence internationally and resolve differences with the IOC over revenue sharing.
We have to build more, better and stronger relationships with people within the Olympic movement before it would be realistic for us to bid again, Probst said, adding that he doesnt have a timetable for a new US bid.
The 2022 Games will be awarded by the International Olympic Committee in 2015. The host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which has three bidding cities lt;emdash /gt; Annecy, France; Munich, Germany; and Pyeongchang, South Korea lt;emdash /gt; will be announced next July.
article source
Refreshing subject material and Free Automated Blog Content made available by BlogDominator.com
Tags: Relationships
McClatchy-Tribune
CHICAGO – Late in October, after the launch of a new database detailing doctors financial ties with drug companies, Dr. Daniel Carlat sat at his computer and began searching for information about colleagues.
He found several doctors who had potentially compromising relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.
But he was surprised to find that several other physicians he considered very ethical people had received thousands of dollars in payments from pharmaceutical firms.
You dont want to use a very broad brush to characterize all the physicians listed in this database, said Carlat, an outspoken Massachusetts psychiatrist and frequent critic of his profession.
Some may be top-notch clinicians or researchers, while others may have questionable credentials.
How, then, should consumers interpret information they find in the new ProPublica database, the first to make extensive information about drug company payments to doctors easily accessible?
Here are things you should consider:
bull;Recognize that extensive research has found that small payments can sway doctors, even subconsciously, while influencing the medications they prescribe to patients.
Many doctors discredit the research; others say the evidence is clear and convincing.
All protestations to the contrary, the evidence shows that physicians are susceptible to influence, said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, director of PharmedOut, a Georgetown University Medical Center project that educates doctors about how drug companies influence prescribing practices.
bull;Make sure the drugs youre taking are safe, effective and appropriate for the medical condition.
If your doctor has ties with a drug company, find out whether the medications youre taking are made by the same company.
If so, ask your physician about the drugs, why theyre right for you and whether equally effective, less expensive alternatives are available.
bull;Try not to adopt a confrontational posture that might put your doctor on the defensive. Ask open-ended questions such as, Can you tell me more about your relationship with Company X? or Can you give me more information about this medication? said Guy Chisolm, director of the conflict-of-interest program at the Cleveland Clinic, the first academic medical center to disclose physicians ties to the pharmaceutical industry on its Web site.
bull;Get a second opinion if you have any concerns about the therapies youre undergoing.
If what you learn about your doctor is making you anxious in any way, get an opinion from another expert, said David Rothman, president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and professor of social medicine at Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons.
bull;Consider looking for another doctor if you get an angry response or the cold shoulder.
I dont think the fact that someone is making money from drug companies based on their expertise is necessarily a bad thing, but I dont think doctors should hide it either, said Dr. Walter Stadler, a professor of medicine and associate dean for clinical research at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Doctors shouldnt be ashamed of what theyre doing, and maybe, if they are, they shouldnt be doing it.
bull;Try to put the information in perspective.
If you have a doctor whos given a talk or two, thats not worth losing sleep over, said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a professor at Harvard Medical School.
But if your doctor is making tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, thats a different story.
The ProPublica database (propublica.org/topic/ dollars-for-doctors) examines payments in 2009 and the first half of 2010 from drug companies to doctors for lectures, consulting or advisory services, and a few other types of activity.
Funding for research is not included.
ProPublica assembled the information from public reports posted online by Eli Lilly and Co., GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca, Merck amp; Co., Johnson amp; Johnson and Cephalon Inc.
All drug and medical-device companies will be required to publicly disclose payments to physicians by 2013 under new federal legislation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have looked at the information, according to ProPublica, an independent investigative news organization.
Michele Friedman, 42, of Chicago said shes curious about her doctor.
She said she plans to check the database.
I examine every possible source of information about a therapy or a drug before I decide on it, said Friedman, who is self-employed and pays for her own health insurance.
After all, its my health.
Like Friedman, most people want to know about physicians relationships with the drug industry, and many worry about the potential impact on the doctor-patient relationship, according to a new survey of 1,250 adults issued last week by Consumer Reports.
That report, based on phone interviews conducted in October, found that 77 percent of respondents said they would be very or somewhat concerned about the quality of their medical treatment if they learned their doctor received payments from pharmaceutical firms.
Seventy-four percent said they disapproved of physicians receiving such payments for promoting drugs to other doctors.
article source
Fresh articles and other content and Blog Content Softwares made available by www.BlogDominator.com
Tags: Relationships
after we had been dating for four months, Enea says. She is also considering attending college on the East Coast, but is still planning to continue the relationship when she goes to college. By then, we would have been together for almost two years, so wed have a really strong relationship, she says.
In 2007, Education-Portal.com surveyed 200 students in long-distance relationships. and found that such couples live an average of 125 miles apart
and visit each other about 1.5 times per month. Habeggar and her boyfriend spent almost a year living about 500 miles apart, but still saw each other about every month. Enea sees her boyfriend every week because its only about an hour drive from her home to Santa Clara University.
But for both couples, Skyping proved to be the main form of communication. Skype is a free online program that allows one to see the person he or she is talking to over the computer through a webcam. Habeggar used Skype to have skype dates in which she and her boyfriend would watch movies together over the computer. Those really helped a lot, she says. But Habeggar also says Skyping was bittersweet. I could see his smile and hear his laugh that I loved,
but I couldnt actually be with him, she says.
Skyping and the weekly visits helped Eneas relationship. Its not as bad as I thought it was going to be, she says. Enea was surprised how she has now become closer to her friends by spending more time with them at school instead of her boyfriend.
The fact that both of them changed as people is what surprised Habeggar about her relationship. But now, I know that you need to expect to change together, she says. You cant go into a relationship not expecting things to change. You would change as people even if you were attending the same school. The key is to change together.
Habeggar also says its important to stay optimistic, communicate and most of all trust each
other. Its easier said than done, but trust is whats going to make it happen.
The Life in Perspective board is made up of teens who write for TimeOut. Maria Herd is a senior at Benicia High School. Reach her at lip@bayeareanewsgroup.com.
article source
Retain your current web log vibrant with the help of Add Automated Content To Your Blog available by way of BlogDominator.com
Tags: Relationships
By all accounts, the latest G20 communique isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Despite the polite smiles, the Americans and the Chinese seem determined to see heir currencies devalued while everybody else is
left scratching their heads. At APEC, the hosts decided to save the money that’s usually spent on the funny shirts that mark the group photo of the attending leaders. Bruised in Seoul,
they had little to cheer over the weekend in Yokohama.
For Indonesia, the lack of common purpose isn’t as much of a concern as it is for most other countries. Similar to India in many ways, this mixed economy is now better equipped to ride any regional economic storms than it was a decade ago. Both countries have weathered the recent global financial crisis better than most other countries, staying out of it almost untouched. Perhaps the biggest single reason for that state of well-being is their large consumer economies. The buying and selling of goods and services of the people and by the people has kept both engines well oiled, ticking over rather nicely even in the worst of times. For a developing country, the high degree of self-reliance is now the strongest bulwark against the swinging tides of our globalized world.
In Indonesia, consumer confidence is being expressed over and over again, in both word and action. While the national index remains at the highest levels ever, the signs of strong consumer sentiment can be seen across a myriad industries. With the July-September update of Roy Morgan Single Source now in hand, industry updates in the following weeks will illustrate how each acts as a piston of the collective engine. To begin with, the financial services sector, Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank has kept a reasonably steady hand on the wheel these last five years. Neither inflation nor the rupiah have run out of control, as in decades past. The pain we see when consumer prices go rocketing up at global and local levels, or when the effects of a fuel price hike cascade downwards, is not to be taken lightly. But each dip in recent years has seen a quick comeback in consumer confidence and consumer spending, every time.
While the economy grew, even as individual incomes climbed, the overwhelming majority of Indonesians continued to struggle with their usual burden day after day. Higher service fees and higher minimum balances saw millions leave their bank accounts dormant, virtually dead in their minds. Finally, the years of steady decline in the number of people with any banking relationship has not only been arrested, the signs of a turnaround are becoming visible. This may be seen as old news for those who misread the rapid growth in the number of bank accounts as an indicator of national health. They are the same people who mistakenly conclude that “accounts” reflect “individuals”, ignoring the growing number of multiple-account holders. They cannot see how absurd it is to believe that there were 80 million Indonesians who flew an airline last year, while the reality is a relatively affluent minority flying several “sectors” many times each year. When a journalist jumps to the wrong conclusion that there are 180 million Indonesians who are subscribers of cellular networks today, they start painting an unreal picture of the state of progress.
But the banking sector is always a good indicator of the country’s middle class, not just its wealthy few. At the quarter ending June the decline in the number of Indonesians with a bank account had plateaued. As at the end of September, the turnaround was easily visible. The number of people with ‘any banking relationship’ now stands at 20 percent of all Indonesians 18 years of age and older. Not only has ground lost over recent years been recovered, the numbers have hit an all-time high. Today, there are more than 25 million Indonesians with at least one banking relationship. As recently as March this year, only 17 percent of adult Indonesians had one. Not only have the number of accounts gone up, the number of actual account-holders are rapidly rising. Syariah banking is growing too, with Bank Mandiri in particular registering a commanding lead despite increased competition from old and new entrants alike.
Equally reassuring are other signs from the same industry. For example, the amounts in savings are growing too, across socio-economic strata, from the modest to the rich. Customer satisfaction is high, and getting better. Then there’s the concurrent growth in other financial products and services. While the number of people involved are still relatively small in comparison, the signs are good. For several years, the primary growth for the credit card business came from multiple relationships with the same affluent few. Banks chased the same people, stories of membership data available for sale, the sight of wallets strained with lots of plastic all became familiar everyday occurences. Now, the number of Indonesians with plastic cards, both credit and debit, is climbing again. 9 percent of adults have one already, but credit card penetration is still hovering at less than 2 percent.
The insurance sector is seeing rapid growth, but remains a nascent industry even today. While the number of accounts are growing, the number of new entrants remain small. Overall, penetration levels are still small, lingering at 1 percent. This is equally true with people who have ‘any investment’, also at 1 percent of adults. But loans are becoming increasingly popular, with 5 percent of the population now using one to advantage. The best news for the financial services industry is the reversal of the decline in active savings accounts. That augurs well for all Indonesians, not only those joining the banking fraternity for the first time.
These conclusions are based on Roy Morgan Single Source. In Indonesia, it is the country’s largest syndicated survey with over 25,000 respondents annually, projected to reflect almost 90 percent of the population over the age of 14. The insights are updated every 90 days.
The writer can be contacted at debnath.guharoy@roymorgan.com
article source
This blog page makes use of BlogDominator.com which supplies Automatic Blog Content to writers for free.
Tags: Relationships
”