I took a deposition a few days ago that underlined for me why we need to have public report cards on primary care doctors so that patients can separate the mediocre practitioners from the really good ones. I wrote an article explaining the idea. Read my entire piece on Huffington Post, which I called “One….
Continue ReadingArchives for August 2009
Preventive Health Care: U.S. Is Dead Last Among Industrialized Nations
“Amenable mortality” is a body count of unnecessary deaths due to lack of preventive health care. The latest measure is not flattering to the American health care system. Researchers count these deaths by looking at premature deaths in areas like these: * Adults who die from breast or colon cancer before age 75, indicating lack….
Continue ReadingVertebroplasty: Another Expensive Medical Fad?
Vertebroplasty is a popular surgical technique for treating patients who suffer “crush” fractures of their vertebrae due to osteoporosis, the loss of bone mass that often comes with old age. Two newly published studies suggest that this procedure is going the way of other medical “fads” that showed early promise but failed to show a….
Continue Reading“Dead by Mistake” — the Staggering Death Toll of Medical Error
A new series of investigative articles by the Hearst newspapers concludes that errors in medical facilities are still taking some 100,000 lives per year — a decade after a national report first focused wide attention on the problem. Worse, the reforms that started after that report have been piecemeal and ineffective, according to the authors…..
Continue ReadingWho’s to Blame for a Missed Diagnosis?
That question was asked in a New York Times column by Dr. Pauline Chen, and her column prompted a number of thoughtful comments by both doctors and patients. Clear communication is a critical element to good diagnosis, and that puts burdens on both doctors and patients. Some of the comments on the column which I….
Continue ReadingSaving Lives — and Money Too — With Patient Safety Reform
A new report from Public Citizen proposes 10 cost-cutting, patient safety measures that would save an estimated 85,000 lives and $35 billion a year. The report, “Back to Basics,” analyzed the results of scientific studies of treatment protocols for chronically recurring, avoidable medical errors. In contrast to the high-tech tests and procedures that many experts….
Continue ReadingBroken Alarms and False Alarms in Medical Testing — the Swine Flu Problem
Swine flu testing is the latest example of an important issue for informed patients. Patients need to understand that some medical tests are valuable if there is a “positive” finding, but not much good at all if they are “negative.” The problem is that the test is “insensitive,” which means a negative result can miss….
Continue ReadingDoes My Doctor Have a Conflict of Interest? Why You Should Care
Whether or not a patient should get an expensive imaging scan or some other elaborate and expensive test is not always clearcut. But what should be clearcut is that doctors should not have a thumb on the scale when they’re balancing harms versus benefits. The balancing ought to be focused entirely on what’s in the….
Continue ReadingThe Medical Industry’s Own “Steroids in Baseball” Scandal
Another reason for careful patients to be skeptical about overly hyped prescription drugs came this week with news about the extent to which articles in important medical journals are “ghost-written” by drug manufacturers. According to an article in the New York Times by Natasha Singer, newly released papers from lawsuits involving Wyeth’s hormone replacement drugs….
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