When Congress authorized creation of the Sentinel Initiative in 2007, it was concrete acknowledgment that the failure to follow up on the performance of medical devices recently approved by the FDA was compromising patient safety. Five years later, medical device followup is still a work in progress, and there’s no reason it can’t be moving….
Continue ReadingArchives for February 2012
Sending Deficient Hip Implants Overseas
File this story under: exporting your problems. That’s what Johnson & Johnson did after the FDA said the company wasn’t allowed to market its artificial hip in the U.S. because J&J’s own studies showed the device was unsafe. As recounted in the New York Times, not only did J&J pawn its questionable product off on….
Continue ReadingTesting for Colon Cancer Offers Mixed Messages
A recent series of articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) presented a less than clear picture of colon cancer screening. Gary Schwitzer, writing on HealthNewsReview.org took on the muddled message offered by the science journal, and the popular media’s woeful effort to offer context and meaningful advice to consumers. We’ve tackled….
Continue ReadingAsthma Inhalers and the Demise of Primatene Mist
For a long time, Primatene Mist was the go-to relief for asthma sufferers in the midst of an attack. Known as one of many “rescue inhalers,” Primatene was used during critical moments to deliver epinephrine that opened airways and enabled breathing. But as of this year, Primatene, the only asthma inhaler that was available over-the-counter,….
Continue ReadingEnergy Drinks: Their Contents Are a Mystery
Red Bull. Rockstar. Monster. They could be the names of ultimate fighters or black diamond ski runs, but as any American not living off the grid knows, they are the names of energy drinks, a food category that exploded into consumer consciousness in the late 1990s. Basically, whether marketed as food or dietary supplements, they….
Continue ReadingHow to Avoid a Misdiagnosis
A recent post on ABC News about an alleged medical misadventure made many readers shudder. It was the story of a Wall Street billionaire who claimed his doctors told him for a year he had meningitis that turned out to be cancer. Of course, the sooner you diagnose cancer, the better your chances of survival…..
Continue ReadingSecond Opinions Are Good Medicine for ‘Overtreatment’
The epidemic of overtreatment in U.S. health care is figuring ever more prominently into public policy and private care. We’ve repeatedly discussed how this country medically defaults toward testing, screening, prescribing and treating. We’ve shown how such “over care” isn’t the best practice, nor does it necessarily extend lives or reduce suffering. A recent post….
Continue ReadingUnorthodox Tips for Surviving a Hospital Stay
Most of the time when a doctor prescribes care for a hospital patient, it involves tests, drugs and other medical interventions. But one physician, self-identified as the Happy Hospitalist, has some decidedly less clinical advice for hospital patients and their loved ones. Hospitalists are physicians who care only for inpatients; generally, they do not have….
Continue ReadingInsurance Plan Puts Priority on Primary Care, and Patients Should Benefit
So much about the health insurance industry is wrong, so much compromises good care and patient safety, that when an underwriter makes the right decision it deserves attention. WellPoint Inc., according to a recent AP story, plans to boost primary care reimbursement and initiate payment for care management, a patient-protective practice it previously did not….
Continue ReadingElectronic Health Records Make Doctors Accountable — and Some Don’t Like That
Electronic health records (EHRs) hold much promise for reducing medical errors and improving quality of care, but the prospect that patient advocates can use EHRs to do an autopsy of where a patient’s care went wrong has some in the medical industry sounding an alarm. Last week a story (actually a press release, on closer….
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