It’s a new story but an old story too: For-profit spine surgery centers recruit patients with promises of relieving their long-standing back pain with tiny cuts and high-tech lasers. Then comes a string of malpractice lawsuits from patients crippled by the surgery. Then the journalists mount the evidence: Big profits, many operations, little scrutiny from….
Continue ReadingArchives for May 2011
Multiple CT scans increase “incidentaloma” risk
Children at emergency departments in the U.S. had five times as many CT scans in 2008 as they did in 1995, according to a recent study, increasing not only risks associated with radiation exposure but also risk of “incidentalomas,” the term physicians use for incidental findings that could be (but probably aren’t) cancer. In addition,….
Continue ReadingSupreme Court hints that Vermont’s prescription data laws violate free speech
Several Supreme Court justices strongly suggested recently during oral arguments that Vermont’s attempt to restrict the use of drug prescription records for marketing purposes violates corporate free-speech rights. Vermont’s law is aimed at so-called data miners, companies that buy prescription records from pharmacies – minus patient identifying information – and sell them to drug makers…..
Continue ReadingNew York creates fund for infants with neurologic damage due to medical errors
As reported in more detail on our child safety blog, New York state has created a new fund to pay medical expenses for infants who suffer brain and nerve damage because of medical malpractice and other medical errors. The fund, which is due to go into effect on Oct. 1, 2011, allows medical costs to….
Continue ReadingLiposuction Produces Only Temporary Weight Loss
A pioneering new study of the popular liposuction surgery finds that the fat which a surgeon sucks out from one part of the body gets added back in elsewhere by Mother Nature. The study published in the journal Obesity found that within a year, all the fat suctioned out in a liposuction was regained by….
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