Generally, when a prescription drug becomes available over the counter (OTC), it’s a good thing-it’s less expensive and available more quickly. But as a recent report on MedPage Today explains, often, something gets lost in the translation from Rx to OTC. And that loss has the real potential to harm patients. Advertising for the newly….
Continue ReadingArchives for September 2012
ProPublica Expands Patient Safety Services Site
All year, ProPublica, the public-interest investigative journalism organization, has been beefing up its service information for medical consumers. In recent months, we’ve covered its nursing home inspection reports, and its Facebook page for patients reporting medical harms. Last week, ProPublica introduced a new site where medical consumers and medical providers can participate in ongoing conversations….
Continue ReadingA Factual Appraisal of Medical Malpractice and So-Called ‘Tort Reform’
“Tort reform” is the call to arms for people who believe that medical malpractice litigation is responsible for a host of problems and inefficiencies in the medical industrial complex, and that monetary awards for medical mistakes should be limited as a way to right the listing ship of justice. Baloney. As we’ve repeatedly covered, the….
Continue ReadingDrug Treatment for Mild High Blood Pressure Is Often a Bad Idea
One of the strongest risks for heart attack and stroke is hypertension, or high blood pressure, which is a measure of how hard the heart is working to pump blood. The medical establishment has been aggressive in addressing hypertension with prescription drugs. But a new study in BMJ (British Medical Journal) concludes that treating patients….
Continue ReadingHow Not to Promote a Heart Association Fund-Raising Event
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the U.S. for both men and women-more than 600,000 deaths every year. The estimated annual cost of heart disease in the U.S. is more than $316 billion for health-care services, medications and lost productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You’d have to….
Continue ReadingTask Force Questions Value of Ovarian Screening Test
In what’s becoming a pattern of late, another cancer screening test has been deemed overused and unnecessary by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The independent group of experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine has determined that tests for screening healthy women for ovarian cancer are more harmful than beneficial, and should not be….
Continue ReadingMedical Device Maker Withdraws Libel Claim
Chalk one up for the truth-tellers. And one big black eye for sellers of dubious medical devices who try to use the courts to bully skeptics. Late last month, Advanced Aesthetic Concepts, a medical device distributor, filed a libel claim against FairWarning, an investigative journalism organization, and Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. The company….
Continue ReadingWe Don’t Know Enough About Antibiotic Use in Animals
The use-and overuse-of antibiotics is a hot topic in health care, largely because of the ability of bad bugs to mutate and develop resistance to treatment. Our most recent discussion of the problem concerned the diminishing number of drugs to treat gonorrhea. As much as antibiotics are prescribed and abused for human use, according to….
Continue ReadingFeds Get Sued Over Sloth in Enforcing Food Safety Laws
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 3,000 deaths every year are caused by food-borne illnesses and about 48 million people-1 in 6 Americans-gets sick from food contamination. A couple of nonprofit consumer advocacy organizations don’t believe the federal government is moving fast enough to address the problem, and last month….
Continue ReadingPhysical Fitness Improves Quality, If Not Quantity, of Life
Another study reinforces the benefits of physical fitness: it might not lengthen your life, but fitness goes a long way toward helping you live better. Published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study examined the association between midlife fitness and chronic diseases later in life. It followed 14,726 healthy men and 3,944 healthy….
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