Last autumn, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) revised the guidelines for prescribing statins. Those drugs compromise the body’s ability to produce cholesterol, and are intended to prevent heart disease. It was a controversial decision; some people questioned the science that would classify many more people as candidates for….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2014
Drug Shortage Endures
A couple of years ago, we wrote about the complicated problem of drug shortages and an effort on behalf of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government to address it. So what happened? A lot, and not much, it appears, according to a recent story in the New York Times. Although the….
Continue ReadingA Call to Revoke Zohydro Approval
Given all the recent bad news about the overuse of opioid drugs and the overprescribing practices of some physicians, it’s hardly a surprise that last week several federal lawmakers and public health advocates called on the FDA to withdraw its approval of Zohydro, a new opioid painkiller. As reported by NPR.org, Zohydro hit the market….
Continue ReadingColon Cancer Rates Drop … For Some People
A study published last week in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians reported results that caused a lot of jaws to drop: Rates of colon cancer fell by nearly one-third in the last decade, and the reason, it said, was because more people were getting colonoscopies. You’d expect the organization responsible for conducting the study….
Continue ReadingHospital Errors Remain Too Common Because of Doctor Deficiencies
The high rate of hospital medical errors has been acknowledged in all quarters of the health-care industry, and we’ve certainly done our share of blogging about it (“Why Can’t Hospitals Clean Up Their Medical Errors?“). Certain measures, such as the federal government’s error-reporting systems have been developed to address the problem. But they’re not working,….
Continue ReadingFlorida Stands Up to Anti-Consumer Malpractice Cap
To the people trying to prevent patients harmed by medical errors from seeking adequate redress in the courts, “tort reform” is their weapon of choice. It’s code for limiting financial judgments plaintiffs may receive. But according to Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik, tort reform is nothing more than “shutting the courthouse door to….
Continue ReadingMore Frustration in Medical Cost-Shopping
Apart from the challenge of knowing what’s good medical advice from any medical advice, few things are as aggravating about the provision of health care as not knowing ahead of time what it will cost. We’ve addressed how medical procedures can be surprisingly unknowable – see our blogs, “The Cost Creep of Pap Smears” and….
Continue ReadingDoctor Wants to End Consumer Drug Advertising
Because it believes patients are tuning out the warnings, the FDA is considering allowing drug companies to shorten the endless list of possible side effects they’re now required to include in advertising directly to consumers (DTC). As Dr. Melody T. McCloud writes on KevinMD.com, the whole industry needs a rewrite. “Why not rid the airwaves….
Continue ReadingBlood Test for Alzheimer’s Raises Thorny Questions
Last week, a report published in Nature Medicine offered the blockbuster news that, in 9 of 10 cases, a blood test can identify people in their 70s who are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease with a couple of years. The news carries a mixed message. As explained on NPR.org, the test is much easier than….
Continue ReadingNursing Homes Escape Oversight, Patients Suffer
A flurry of news stories the last few weeks about the dismal safety record of U.S. nursing homes has renewed interested in beefing up inspections where 1 in 3 patients in skilled nursing facilities suffers a medication error, infection or some harm related to treatment, according to a government report by the Department of Health….
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