The RxProfessor

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical I was pleased to lead the ideation and execution of Preferred Medical’s virtual 5K from June 25 through July 2. It was the first time either the company or myself had attempted such an event and it certainly was a learning experience (we will heed those lessons for… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical I had the privilege of being on the faculty of the International Chronic Pain Virtual Summit that was held on June 18-19, 2020. It was an early start for me in Atlanta each day (4:00am Eastern Daylight Time) but very much worth the investment as every speaker had a deep and… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical The costs of COVID-19 are obvious to those paying attention: more than 122,000 deaths (as of June 22), a historic rise in mental health problems (depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide), more than 45 million newly unemployed people (as of June 18), and a 52.8 percent… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical I think we can all agree that 2020 sucks. But as difficult as the first five months have been, “fall” in the title does not refer to civilization. Instead, it refers to the upcoming season from September 22 through December 21. How can we prepare for the future… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical Employers enacted BCP with HR and IT moving PDQ from WAO to WFH for COVID-19 … SMH. The world is filled with acronyms but the most important one right now, for every employer, is WFH (work from home). Because of shelter-in-place restrictions to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19,… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical Healthcare is complicated. Healthcare delivered as part of a workers’ compensation claim is even more complicated, for manifold reasons. But stakeholders often do not act as that’s the case because they look for a simple solution to complex problems. For those with the problem (in this case, an… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical New habits form within 21 days. That time has passed (and then some) during the societal freeze of shelter-in-place related to the novel coronavirus. This tumultuous time has exacerbated existing issues and accelerated trends for entire countries, individual companies and industries like workers’ compensation. Because of that, this… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical This week I want to share two articles about the brain and its incredible adaptation to life. The first article is about how the brain can change with regular aerobic exercise. The second article is about how childhood trauma changes your brain but not necessarily forever. As I’ve… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical This week I have two articles to share with you about drugs. The first article is about how to properly dispose of unused medicines. The second article is about the work still needed to combat the opioid epidemic in its broadest and continually evolving sense. Below are these… [Read more]

By Mark Pew, Senior VP, Preferred Medical This week I have two articles to share about opioids. The first article reports on a study of prescribing patterns in the U.S. The second article is about how Australia seems to be following in the United States’ footsteps when it comes to opioid use. Just 1% of… [Read more]