Who among us has not received prescription drugs in a container bearing more labels than a NASCAR vehicle has decals? Information and warning labels are applied to medicine bottles and packages, the thinking goes, because it’s the most immediate, and therefore most effective, delivery system for patient safety information. Except that it’s not working, according….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2012
Board Eligible and Board Certified: What’s the Difference, and Does It Matter?
Even if you can’t read the fancy diploma posted on your doctor’s exam room wall, there’s comfort in knowing an authoritative institution has conferred a lofty status on the person you trust with your health. But as a recent post on KevinMD.com by Dr. Christopher Johnson explains, certain terms denote different levels of medical accomplishment,….
Continue ReadingWarfarin + Antibiotics = Danger
Warfarin, the generic name for the most widely prescribed oral anticoagulant (blood thinner) in America, is used to prevent thrombosis (blood clots) and thromboembolism (blood clots that migrate throughout the body). People diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (rapid or irregular heartbeat), narrowed coronary arteries, who have had valve or stent replacement surgery or have a history….
Continue ReadingWe Know More About Medical Error and the Harm It Creates … But Not Enough
Twelve years ago, Helen Haskell’s son died because of a series of medical errors. That sad episode prompted her to found Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), which offers support and advice for people who share such tragedy. Haskell’s ongoing effort to quantify medical errors and the harm they can cause are detailed in her story….
Continue ReadingDanger Lurks when Drug Recalls Go Unnoticed
If you take drugs, especially long-term prescriptions you renew automatically, here’s another reason not to be complacent in the administration of your health care. A report published this month in the Archives of Internal Medicine found significant flaws in how drug recalls are communicated to medical providers and the consumers affected by them. Recalled drugs….
Continue ReadingYard Spray to Prevent Lyme Disease Flunks Out
Lyme disease, a bacterial illness transmitted by the bite of a deer tick, is a major health concern in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Health agencies are keen to prevent it, but some people believe that a government program to do so might be worse than the illness. The story is another example of how….
Continue ReadingAnother Measure for Rating Hospital Performance Is Rolled Out
Medical consumers now have another way to gauge how well hospitals safeguard patients. Courtesy of Leapfrog, a nonprofit organization composed of businesses and organizations whose mission is to improve the quality, safety and cost-efficiency of health care, a new assessment tool is available online. We regularly cover hospital safety issues, including how to rate hospital….
Continue ReadingBrain Games Are Fun, but Are They Science?
Here is the latest chapter in the long-running saga of snake oil treatments in the health and self-improvement market. TV advertisements for a product called Lumosity suggest that you can “reclaim your brain” by engaging in mind games at the bargain price of $15 a month. With a scientist’s dubious perspective, John M. Grohol, founder….
Continue ReadingWhy the Broccoli Analogy Doesn’t Work
The legal attack on “Obamacare” — the Affordable Care Act — often asks the question: If the government can make you buy medical insurance, couldn’t it also make you buy broccoli? A lot of us chafe at this glib analogy, which masks the free rider problem with uninsured patients who drive up the costs of….
Continue ReadingRisk-Free Procedure Maps Fetal DNA From Parents’ DNA
Among the main reasons a pregnant woman undergoes prenatal testing is to determine if the baby has genetic abnormalities. These invasive procedures-amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS)–involve testing the placental tissue, and they carry a slight (for most people) risk of inducing a miscarriage. But as widely reported last week, including in a story by….
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