As people become more aware of the waste associated with overdiagnosis and overtreatment and as the government strives to make the delivery of high quality health care more efficient and responsive, measures to connect patient satisfaction with provider payment are becoming popular. (See our blog about doctor rating services.) But one practitioner, writing on KevinMd.Com,….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2013
FDA Says Patients Need to Cut Dose of Sleeping Pills
People who take medication to help them get to sleep and stay asleep have always been cautioned about its potential for addiction and side effects ranging from the minor to the serious. Last week, the FDA deemed one class of this medication so dangerous that it’s requiring manufacturers to reduce its dosage. As reported on….
Continue ReadingMedical Student Gets Disappointing Lesson in Hospital Errors
Dr. Elaine Goodman had just finished her first year at Harvard Medical School when she became intimate with the consumer side of medical care. Her story, recounted on ProPublica.org, is a cautionary tale for everyone, professional or patient, and sheds yet more checkered light on patient safety in the hospital. Goodman learned firsthand, while her….
Continue Reading“Selling Sickness” Conference Comes to Washington, D.C.
Seven years ago, Australia was the site of the Congress on Disease Mongering. In 2010, Amsterdam played host to the Selling Sickness conference. And next month, from Feb. 20-22, Washington, D.C. is where like-minded folks will gather for Selling Sickness 2013: People Before Profits. These confabs reflect the growing interest in many quarters to rein….
Continue ReadingA Gloomy Portrait of Americans’ Health and Longevity
We like to promote our standard of living, but a recent analysis of health and longevity shows that compared with other developed nations, America’s collective health is decidedly suspect, especially for the young among us. As widely reported last week, including in the New York Times, younger Americans die earlier and have a poorer quality….
Continue ReadingFDA to Hold Hearings on Misuse of Powerful Pain Pills
Last year we wrote about a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Grand Rounds: Prescription Drug Overdoses – a U.S. Epidemic.” Powerful painkillers continue to be overprescribed, abused and mismanaged by doctors, as told in horrifying detail in an ongoing series by the Los Angeles Times. The FDA, in acknowledgment of….
Continue ReadingChoosing a Doctor for an Elderly Patient
Gerontology is the study of health issues that go with old age and aging. It’s a medical specialty because, like the very young, older people have different biological, psychological and sociological needs. Medicare, the health insurance program that covers people in the U.S. starting at age 65, addresses many of the financial concerns of this….
Continue ReadingWarning: the Color of Your Pill May Influence Whether You Take It
Beauty’s only skin deep, but for many people who take prescription drugs, appearance apparently strengthens the bonds of belief. According to a recent study in Archives of Internal Medicine, people who receive generic drugs whose color varies from one prescription to the next are more than half as likely to stop taking the medicine. That….
Continue ReadingWhat We Don’t Know About Imaging Test Radiation–A Lot
File this one in our ongoing series about miscommunication between doctors and patients. This time the subject is radiation and how little most patients know about it. Last week we posted an item about how doctors sometimes mislead, even lie, to their patients when discussing the risks and benefits of certain treatments or mistakes they….
Continue ReadingAmgen—The Latest Star in Big Pharma’s Cast of Miscreants
GlaxoSmithKline paid $3 billion. Abbott Laboratories paid $1.4 billion. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion. Eli Lilly paid $1.4 billion. And now, Amgen will pay $762 million for, as a U.S. attorney in New York said last month, “pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety.” Yes, folks, once again a major player in the pharmaceutical industry….
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