In medicine, a culture shift may be underway in venture capital, which subsidizes the cutting-edge technology that keeps a culture moving forward. As reported by Kaiser Health News (KHN) in conjunction with NPR and KQED, for venture capitalists, the bloom is fading from expensive medical gee-whizzery. These days, such deep-pocketed supporters are more in favor….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2012
The Ups and Downs of Patient Ratings of Doctors
Rating things are all the rage, whether it’s semi-celebrities and their dance moves or food-truck burritos. Patients have always rated doctors, but until recently only in a casual, personal reference way. Thanks to the changing landscape of health care and the increasingly important issue of cost-effectiveness, more codified attempts at consumer health care ratings are….
Continue ReadingRadiation Treatment for Some Breast Cancer Patients Is Outdated
Old habits die hard, and in this regard the medical profession is no different from any other. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine were surprised, though, at the results of their study showing that despite the fact that radiation has limited benefit for some older women with breast cancer, the treatment is still being….
Continue ReadingMisuse of Antipsychotics Is Off the Charts
Off-label use of drugs-that is, taking medication to address a problem other than the one for which it was developed and approved by the FDA-is a common and often appropriate practice. Unfortunately, off-label use is also commonly abused and sometimes dangerous. Among the more alarming off-label practices these days is taking antipsychotic drugs-those used to….
Continue ReadingWhy Taking Away Patients’ Rights Won’t Heal Medicine’s Troubles
Watch this video from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today. Rep. Bruce Braley explains why the bill under debate to make it harder for patients to win malpractice lawsuits won’t heal any of the medical industry’s troubles. And it certainly won’t help improve patient safety. These “reform” bills turn up like bad….
Continue ReadingFDA Workers Say Outsiders Influence Medical Device Decisions
Lots of people are unhappy with the process by which the FDA approves medical devices, including patients who’ve suffered harm from deficient products and manufacturers who claim burdensome bureaucracy stands between them and profit. Congress has acknowledged that the process is less than ideal, and supposedly is trying to establish fair access to safe new….
Continue ReadingA Hidden Risk of Generic Drugs
If you suffer a terrible injury from taking a generic prescription drug, you have no legal recourse. So ruled the U.S. Supreme Court last year in a case that divided along political lines with five conservative justices throwing a new lifeline of legal protection to the generic drug industry. Now the consequences of that decision….
Continue ReadingSurprise! This Medical Bill Isn’t Covered by Insurance!
Before your gall bladder surgery, you did everything you were supposed to. You made sure the hospital, lab and surgeon were part of your insurer’s provider network. You cleared the time off from work. You completed all the preliminary lab tests. You bought some cool new pajamas, and brought your own pillow to the hospital…..
Continue ReadingDoctors Often Misunderstand the Science Behind Screening Tests
Here’s another arrow in the quiver of patients well-armed against deficiencies in (well-meaning but often wrong) preventive medical care. A survey published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that primary care doctors can be as confused as the rest of us when they ponder information about screening tests. “Most primary care physicians mistakenly interpreted….
Continue ReadingDrug Company Payments to Doctors—To Whom, How Much and for What?
ProPublica, a nonprofit enterprise that conducts investigative journalism in the public interest, continues to build its database of medical industry payments to medical professionals and health-care institutions. It’s a fine resource for anyone seeking to know the extent of the medical back-scratching that used to occur only outside the bright glare of transparency. As we….
Continue Reading