The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a watchdog group, points out that the number of deaths (4,825) and injuries (21,000) from prescription drugs have reached record levels in the first quarter of this year, representing nearly triple the number of deaths in the last quarter. The blood thinner heparin and the anti-smoking drug varenicline are….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2008
Image Quality of Scans: A Mystery?
Patients who go in for MRIs are often told nothing is wrong, when in fact the scan is of poor quality and so misses the problem, as Gina Kolata’s story demonstrates. Doctors all agree that it is a good idea to get MRIs and other scans done at centers accredited by the American College of….
Continue ReadingVaccine Recommended Specially for Adult Smokers
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel that advises the federal government, is recommending that adult smokers under 65 should get a pneumococcal vaccine that was previously only recommended for anyone 65 or older. Federal officials usually take the advice of this panel, according to the article, and this is the first time an….
Continue ReadingOnline Anonymous Notification of Sex Partners For STDs
An online service called inSPOT allows patients who test positive for STDs to use a website to notify sexual partners, anonymously if they so choose, of the possibility that the partners were infected. A report done by the San Francisco Department of Public Health finds that since 2004, 30,000 people have used the service to….
Continue ReadingHow to Cope With All Your Information
Tara Parker-Pope at the NY Times Well Blog has an article about how patients can cope with the vast flood of information (and misinformation) that is now available to them through the Internet. Nowadays, people can look up their symptoms, self-diagnose certain conditions, find studies about the efficacy of various treatments, and find out what….
Continue ReadingReview: Mainstream Media Doesn’t Report Connections Between Drug Manufacturers and Pharmaceutical Studies
We have all looked at the newspaper and noted with interest that some new drug cures 75% of the people who take it. Some of us may have even based our medical decisions around information acquired in this way, maybe by going to the doctor and asking for that particular drug. Unfortunately, the study that….
Continue ReadingEmpathy and Time
Dr. Pauline Chen has an article about doctors, empathy and time crunches. She notes that many doctors would like to express empathy to patients when delivering terrible news, but due to the load of cases they are dealing with, are afraid of spending too much time comforting one patient when there are others that need….
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