Determining whether a patient needs a blood transfusion and, if so, how much blood he or she should be given, can be key to the patient’s long-term well-being. Recently, researchers found that survival rates in heart patients undergoing surgery were similar whether the amount of blood that was transfused was large or small. Surgeons and….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2015
When Doctors Don’t Listen, Patients Don’t Thrive
We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again: Doctors provide better, safer care when they listen to – and hear – what their patients are saying. Some doctors realize this, and one of them wrote about it last week in the New York Times. In an op-ed titled “Dr., Shut Up and Listen,” Dr. Nirmal….
Continue ReadingDeath to the Annual Physical?
Dr. Zeke Emanuel, opinionator and recent White House policy advisor, weighed in last week with his own New Year’s resolution: to skip the annual physical exam, a time and money waster that potentially does more harm than good. Emanuel’s op-ed in the New York Times made a lot of good points, mostly about the inability….
Continue ReadingRuling Makes Cruise Lines Subject to Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
It seems like every month brings another story about some dire medical problem aboard a cruise ship where the subjects’ misery is compounded by their inability to seek legal relief. But after more than a century, it looks as though cruise passengers now might be able to sue for medical malpractice. As reported last month….
Continue ReadingNiche-Market Drug Maker Rewards Doctors for Dangerous Prescribing Practices
It’s common knowledge that medical providers often are paid by pharmaceutical companies to promote their products. What’s less well understood is how that clear conflict of interest creates danger for patients. Today, another lesson in how money and safe patient care don’t mix well when it comes to powerful prescription drugs. In November, The New….
Continue ReadingMyths and Facts About End-of-Life Care
No one looks forward to a time when he or she is unable to express desires for getting or refusing medical care, or to when they must do so on behalf of someone else. Having a health-care power of attorney and a living will helps to spell out your wishes, but according to a recent….
Continue ReadingDrugs in Search of Disease: The Emerging Scandal of Dangerous Diabetes Drugs
In the last couple of decades, the number of people deemed to have diabetes or its precursor, “pre-diabetes,” has boomed, right along with sales of diabetes drugs. But an investigative report last month shows how the new drugs haven’t improved outcomes, that conflicts of interest were front and center and that the FDA’s stamp of….
Continue ReadingSuggested Reading: Proven Treatments Are Ignored in Mental Health Care
In a five-part series last week, USA Today illustrated just how deficient mental health care is in the U.S., and why, as the newspaper said, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” “The USA could dramatically improve the lives of the 10 million Americans with serious mental illness if it would make wider use of….
Continue Reading