A newly launched website tracks the complication rates of about 17,000 surgeons across the country. The idea is to help patients choose the person who’s going to operate on them based on his or her safety and performance records in comparison with their peers. The database, Surgeon Scorecard, was established by ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative….
Continue ReadingArchives for July 2015
Six Reasons You Might Be Feeling Forgetful
Aging brings many unwelcome but normal challenges to health and fitness, including possible lapses in memory. But some such problems can be the result of common behaviors you can alter to improve your brain’s ability to remember things, and retrieve them more easily. Here, courtesy Harvard Health Publications, are six common contributors to memory impairment…..
Continue ReadingFDA Expresses E-Cigarette Concerns for Kids
The popularity of electronic cigarettes has grown a lot faster than the body of science about their potential health effects. But the toxicity of nicotine is well known, and the FDA is raising concern about how e-cigarette nicotine could affect children. The agency has put the e-cig industry on notice that it plans to require….
Continue ReadingResearch Your Doctor’s Payments from Drug and Device Makers
For patients in our home territory of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, here are some quick links to look up your doctor’s payments last year from manufacturers of drugs and medical devices. District of Columbia. Virginia Maryland This comes from the ProPublica database, which has obtained the numbers from the federal government in….
Continue ReadingWhen a Toothache Becomes a Medical Emergency
Although rumblings have begun to include dental care under Medicare coverage, medical plans generally don’t cover your teeth. And for some people who forgo dental care because it’s not subsidized, a routine tooth problem can escalate into a serious medical issue. Christopher Smith was one of those people. His story, as told by USAToday.com, started….
Continue ReadingERs Often Misdiagnose Urinary Tract Infections
Anyone who’s ever had an urinary tract infection (UTI) understands the misery it causes and the urgency of its victims to resolve it. Even worse is when you’re diagnosed with a UTI and you actually have something else. It’s more than a little unnerving that urinary tract and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in women are….
Continue ReadingWearable Sun-Protection Devices
Surely no one has failed to get the message that protecting yourself from the strong rays of the sun is one key way to avoid skin cancer. Just as surely, lots of people still fail to slather on sufficient sunscreen and/or cover up with clothing. Here’s another way to nag them into compliance: wearable sun-protection….
Continue ReadingHow Escalating Tests Can Lead to a Sad Outcome
The medical community increasingly accepts that care in the U.S. often involves unnecessary and inappropriate diagnostic testing, a subject we’ve written about for years. But sometimes showing in detail how overtesting can be dangerous is far better than just talking about it. A recent post on KevinMD.com by Dr. Rourke Stay, a radiologist (physician who….
Continue ReadingFeds Go After Websites Selling Suspect Medicine and Devices
Partnering with international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, the FDA last month put the screws to more than 1,000 websites that illegally sell potentially dangerous drugs and medical devices directly to consumers. Operation Pangea VIII, as described in a news release, was a global cooperative effort led by INTERPOL in which 115 countries participated. For….
Continue ReadingCan You Tell Fact from Malpractice Fiction?
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. That seems to be the rallying cry in too many medical-legal quarters. So once again, we offer a short quiz to separate the truth from what some people only wish was true about medical malpractice, courtesy of the civil justice website PopTort. 1…..
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