The medical community is waking up to an enormous problem with radiation – mainly X-rays and CT scans – used to diagnose disease and injury. Patients are getting too much radiation, and the excess itself causes injuries, many years down the road, in a big uptick in the risk of cancer. Even a “routine” CT….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2011
Fewer central line infections in ICU, but not in other wards
The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) caused by tubes inserted into major blood vessels decreased significantly between 2001 to 2009, but unacceptably high rates of infection are still occurring for patients in other hospital units and for dialysis patients, government researchers say. Central lines are tubes that are usually placed in….
Continue ReadingNew “Physician Compare” Website Doesn’t Impress
Patient safety advocates like me have long dreamed of cracking open for the public the vast trove of data the government collects on doctors, so patients could figure out who gets the best outcomes and guide their doctor choices accordingly. Medicare was supposed to start down that path with its new “Physician Compare” website, but….
Continue ReadingStudy takes aim at myth of high cost of drug development
Drug manufacturers claim their products are pricey because of the high cost and high risks involved in getting new drugs to market. But a recent study shows that these high cost estimates have been constructed by industry-supported economists and that R&D costs are not the barrier to drug development the drug companies maintain they are…..
Continue ReadingDoctor who botched prostate cancer brachytherapy procedures at VA hospital sanctioned
A physician who gave nearly 100 veterans with prostate cancer incorrect doses of radiation has been sanctioned by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The errors involved the incorrect placement of iodine-125 seeds in patients to treat prostate cancer. Out of 116 such brachytherapy procedures performed at the facility between 2002 and 2008, the VA reported….
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