That’s the sellout price for a spine surgeon. Give or take a few million. Like police officers, whose thin blue line separates them from “the other,” medical researchers and doctors are loath to diss their fellow professionals. But this week, the code of omerta was breached with a series of critical reports in The Spine….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2011
Once Again, the FDA and Avastin Are Doing the Hokey Pokey
A couple of months ago we gave a shout-out to a physician who had written a commentary about Genentech’s efforts to have the FDA bless the use of its drug Avastin for treatment of certain breast cancers. He had objected to the use of patient testimonials as compelling evidence to support such appeals because they’re….
Continue ReadingThe Too-Slow Evolution of Electronic Medical Records
One person, two scenarios: the first almost effortless, the second chock-full of hassles. And with those hassles comes the danger of a malpractice event and a preventable patient injury. Consider: Our Patient — we’ll call her OP — had an appointment for a chest X-ray in the morning, and an appointment for a blood draw….
Continue ReadingFinally, the True Story of “Tort Reform” on HBO
A favorite whipping boy of the medical industrial complex is the alleged wave of lawsuits that need to be squashed for freedom to reign once more in America. Now, a new documentary airing on HBO exposes the truth behind so-called “tort reform.” The documentary is called “Hot Coffee” — after the infamous case of spilled….
Continue ReadingDefective Hip Implants Prove that New Isn’t Always Improved in Medical Devices
DePuy’s now notorious metal-on-metal artificial hip, known as the ASR, was marketed as the next great thing in orthopedics, but actually was a recycled old design that ignored warnings from industry insiders that the all-metal construction was subject to dangerous flaking of metal fragments inside the patient’s body. That’s the conclusion of a new takeout….
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Strikes Two Blows Against Patient Safety
On one side you have what Justice Hugo Black evocatively called “organized money” — the corporate interests dressed, in this case, in the garb of drug manufacturers: White coats with hundred dollar bills stuffed in the pockets. On the other side: Regular folks: consumers, patients, and individual doctors. Who wins in the U.S. Supreme Court?….
Continue ReadingAdvance directives don’t apply during surgery
It’s the morning of your surgery, and you have been a paragon of preparation. Your advance lab work is complete, you’ve fasted for 12 hours, you arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule and are poised to sign the final paperwork before being directed to pre-op. You present the advance health-care directive you prepared months ago….
Continue ReadingWhat doctors are paid and how it affects your care
Chances are, you or a family member has been the beneficiary of a freebie from the doctor’s office, and we don’t mean a cherry lollipop when the kids got their tetanus booster. We’re talking drugs, often of the prescription variety, that a pharmaceutical representative has left after a marketing visit to the doctor’s office. “Samples,”….
Continue ReadingThe feds get serious about table-saw safety
The contest between flesh and bone versus the spinning blade of a table saw is always a rout. The 40,000 Americans who land in emergency rooms every year with such injuries are testimony that table saws are the country’s most dangerous commonly used power tool. This spring, the issue of table-saw safety has found a….
Continue ReadingTime of surgery doesn’t affect heart/lung transplant outcomes
A study examining outcomes of heart and lung transplant surgery has concluded that patients fare essentially the same whether the transplants are performed during the day or at night. Two smaller previous studies – one on kidney transplants and the other on liver transplants – had indicated that patients tended to fare worse if the….
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