In two recent decisions, the FDA determined that the eyes have it. And that’s not a positive outcome. In November, the agency issued a class I recall of Avaira Toric Soft Contact Lenses, manufactured by CooperVision. (Class I is the most serious of the FDA’s graduated scale; see below for a description.) Last week, the….
Continue ReadingArchives for December 2011
Finally, Accurate Report Cards Will Be Released on Doctors’ Safety and Quality of Care
Knowledge, they say, is power. It’s also a necessary tool for crafting cost-effective medical practices and protecting patient safety. Medicare has an enormous claims database from which valuable knowledge can be mined. Finally, within about one year, employers, insurance companies and consumer groups will be able to unearth its information to produce “report cards” on….
Continue ReadingHow to Prevent Breast Cancer Is Still a Puzzle
Most of the recent media conversation about breast cancer prevention has concerned the topic of screening, and whether and when mammography is routinely appropriate. Last week, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a National Academy of Science panel that advises government and the public on issues of health and medicine, garnered front-page headlines with its study….
Continue ReadingPoll Shows Strong Support for Health Insurance Transparency
The Obama administration’s effort at health-care reform-known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA-has an image problem. Virtually every poll asking Americans what they think of its provisions demonstrates not only widespread disapproval, but widespread ignorance. Some pundits attribute our collective misunderstanding to the administration’s inept efforts to publicize the program’s features, some attribute it….
Continue ReadingStudy Shows No Advantage to Metal Hip Replacements
A new study in BMJ , the British medical journal, has revived interest in the issue of the kind of materials best used for hip replacements. Problems have long been reported from many quarters when metal is used to refashion both sides of the ball-and-socket hip joint. We wrote about one manufacturer’s defective product last….
Continue ReadingDoing Hospital Care in the Home
Unless the patient needs really intensive, round-the-clock care, most hospital-type care can be done in the patient’s home — where it’s safer, more comfortable and less expensive. That lesson is so well accepted that it was written into the federal health care reform law — to provide financial incentives for outfits called Independence at Home….
Continue ReadingBerwick Resignation Is a Loss for Responsible Health Care
Patients’ rights advocates lost a valuable team member this month. Dr. Donald Berwick resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for reasons wholly political. The respected, forward-thinking medical professional opted to leave rather than continue in the role for which President Obama sought Congressional approval, but resorted to a so-called….
Continue ReadingCanada Agrees with U.S. to Ease Back on Mammograms
In 2009 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended against routine mammograms for women in their 40s. That caused a political firestorm then, with ill-informed politicians claiming that bureaucrats were trying to hold back a lifesaving test to save money. The truth was, and is, that mammograms cause more harm than good unless the women….
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