In a good news/bad news scenario about end-of-life care, more people older than 65 are dying in hospice care and fewer are dying in hospitals, but patients also are hospitalized more frequently in the last three months of their lives. They’re also more likely to spend time in intensive care units, and frequently receive hospice….
Continue ReadingArchives for February 2013
Aggressive Removal of Clots in Brain Arteries Works No Better than IV Clot-Busting Drugs
The fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. is stroke-approximately 800,000 people have a stroke each year, and about 130,000 of them die from it. About 9 in 10 strokes result from a clot blocking an artery in the brain. If blood flow isn’t restored quickly, brain tissue is damaged or destroyed, and functions like….
Continue ReadingThe Health Hazards of Counterfeit Drugs
Counterfeit drugs are a global problem. There’s no single solution to curbing the availability of falsified, substandard and unregistered drugs, but a report issued earlier this month by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is a meaningful effort to acknowledge and address the problem. The IOM is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides unbiased and authoritative….
Continue ReadingCourt OKs Nursing Home Contract Even Though Confused Patient Could Not Have Understood It
Someone old enough to be a consenting adult is also, presumably, someone who understands what he or she is being asked to consent to. But not in one Florida appeals court. A recent court decision in Florida concerning a 92-year-old woman’s signature on her nursing home contract changes the basic premise of what it means….
Continue ReadingNC Mom Speaks Out Against Secret Settlements of Malpractice Suits
When Laurie Sanders lost her 6-year-old son Christopher to a malpractice incident at a North Carolina hospital, she refused the hospital’s offer of settlement that would have required her to keep quiet about what happened. “I didn’t know how everything would end as far as the lawsuit, but I did know that it wouldn’t end….
Continue ReadingBenzodiazepines Are More Popular than They Deserve
Benzodiazepines are strong drugs prescribed for a range of problems, including lung disease, depression and anxiety. Adverse outcomes, including life-threatening side effects, have been associated with benzodiazepines, but until now there has been little data on how frequently these drugs are prescribed, and who uses them. As reported on ScienceDaily.com, a study recently published in….
Continue ReadingObesity Analysis Is Larded with Potential Conflict of Interest
An article published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) about obesity research prompted a lot of health journalists to respond, but their interest wasn’t about this growing (sorry) health problem-it was about the possible conflict of interest that the otherwise prestigious journal might have sidestepped. Both Gary Schwitzer, editor of HealthNewsReview.org….
Continue ReadingStudy Shows Why Mice Don’t Make It for Researching Some Life-Threatening Conditions
Mice are unwelcome residents of your cupboard, but they are popular residents of medical labs that use them as surrogates for humans in conducting disease research. Recent developments, however, have demonstrated that for at least three major health problems, the tiny rodents are not good subjects from which to draw conclusions about human treatments. The….
Continue ReadingCourt Secrecy Undermines Usefulness of Product Safety Database
In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act established a database to enable consumers to report and become informed about hazardous products. The law was a response to product scandals such as toys made in China that contained unsafe levels of lead. Two years ago the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) launched SaferProducts.gov. It….
Continue ReadingWhat Drugs Can You Take Safely During Pregnancy?
Innumerable websites offer information about medicines that pregnant women can take safely. But because evidence is limited about many of the drugs listed and because the advice about them is inconsistent, the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety conducted a review to see if their guidance is reliable. Guess what? In many cases, it’s not. And….
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