Rofecoxib (trade name: Vioxx), approved for treatment of osteoarthritis 
and pain, has won a supplemental indication for rheumatoid arthritis, 
the FDA announced. Further, the label will be modified to warn patients
and health care professionals about certain gastrointestinal risks, and 
against chronic use of the medicine at a specific dosage. The geriatric
section of the label will also be modified, the FDA notes.

The FDA today issued a revised "Medication Guide" for Accutane with 
more safeguards to prevent prescriptions for women who are or may become 
pregnant. The FDA originally issued an Accutane "Med Guide" in January 2001.

The nation's health policy community is mourning the loss of the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality's director, John Eisenberg, M.D., who 
died on March 10 of a brain tumor. He was the federal official most reponsible 
for ensuring significant funding for patient safety research, and had coined
his agency's mantra, "TRIP" for "translating research into practice." He had 
keynoted NCPIE's national conference in May 2001; AHRQ was recently named 
to NCPIE's Board of Directors.

A guideline designed to improve patients' understanding of the degree of 
risk from medicines, developed by the European Union, may in fact lead to 
overstating one's risk, U.K. researchers found. The guideline recommends 
the use of risk descriptions such as "very common" to "very rare." People 
who relied on these qualitative descriptions greatly overstated their 
probability of experiencing a side effect, compared to people who read a 
numerical description of possible risk. One co-author of this study, discussed 
in The Lancet for 9 March 2002 as a "research letter," is NCPIE member 
D.K. Theo Raynor of the University of Leeds. 

Almost one-fifth (19%) of adults reported having communication problems 
with their physician, but among Hispanic respondents, one-third (33%) had 
such problems. Almost one-fourth of African-Americans, and over one-fourth 
of Asian- Americans, reported having problems such as not understanding 
their doctor, or having questions they did not ask. Further, while 79% of
African- American respondents said they understood information on
prescription bottles, only 66% of Asian-American respondents and 64%
of Hispanic resondents said they understood such information. "Diverse 
Communities, Common Concerns: Assessing Health Care Quality for Minority 
Americans," was released today by The Commonwealth Fund at a briefing in 
Washington.