Even though drugs to boost testosterone might cause heart problems, the FDA recently approved another one (see our blog from earlier this month). Now, just weeks later, the agency has moved to require testosterone products to carry labels warnings about possible blood clots. The concern is over blood clots in the legs which can travel….
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Military Medicine: Much Malpractice, Little Oversight
The news is not surprising, but still shocking: the nation’s military medicine system is rife with lapses in quality of care that hurt service members and their families, and very little is being done about it, according to a long investigative takeout in the New York Times. I say not surprising, because attorneys like me….
Continue ReadingSenator Smacks Down Dr. Oz for Diet Supplement Nonsense
Dr. Mehmet Oz , a popular TV personality, is better known for his charisma than his medical expertise, and no wonder why – he’s constantly hawking dubious treatments, and recently the chair of the U.S. Senate’s Consumer Protection panel called him out for it. Oz’s shilling for diet supplements now has the attention of comic….
Continue ReadingCompany Fined Millions for Selling Contaminated Eggs
Quality Egg LLC didn’t exactly live up to its name by mislabeling and marketing eggs that were well past their sell-by date, and two employees compounded those errors by bribing a federal agriculture inspector to look the other way. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the Iowa outfit was fined $6.8 million for selling….
Continue ReadingSuggested Reading — ER Doctor Become ER Patient
It’s too bad that Dr. Charolotte Yeh, an emergency physician, had to get hit by a car before experiencing emergency medicine from the other side of the bed. But she learned an important lesson we hope will be shared widely among her peers. Following are excerpts from “‘Nothing Is Broken’: For an Injured Doctor, Quality-Focused….
Continue ReadingResistance to Change Drives Malpractice Claims
Attorney Steve Cohen is used to people calling him because they want to sue a doctor. What he’s not used to is when the caller is a prominent doctor. She was a friend of his, he explains in an essay on KevinMD.com, who is board-certified in three specialties, and lives in Washington, D.C. Her mother,….
Continue ReadingBeing Hospitalized Can Cause Illness
Every year, approximately 1.7 million people in the U.S. acquire an infection from being in the hospital. What’s becoming an even more ominous outcome of that experience is post-hospital syndrome – a condition of extreme vulnerability to a variety of health threats to which recently discharged patients are subject. A case study of the syndrome….
Continue ReadingHarmed Patient Deplores Failure to Investigate Bad Surgical Outcome
Medical mistakes are a fact of life, and they’re always troubling. But the problem’s compounded when an adverse outcome has been reported and no one bothers to investigate. That’s what happened nearly four years ago at the Cleveland Clinic when government inspectors investigating a claim threatened to sever the renowned facility’s right to receive Medicare….
Continue ReadingFDA Approves Another Testosterone Drug Despite Heart Concerns
Studies have proved that taking testosterone can raise a man’s risk of stroke, heart attack and death, so why did the FDA just approve another testosterone replacement gel? Not only are there scads of testosterone meds and delivery systems – gel, cream, patch, injection – there are also an increasing number of lawsuits over their….
Continue ReadingGrand Opening of openFDA.gov
Information is power, and as of this month, there’s a new power source of information about drug effects. openFDA.gov is an initiative of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand access to and use of reports of problems associated with drugs. Although the public is welcome to plumb the database assembled from other federal….
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