Little ones may prove to be a handful to get around, but grownups need to be wary of products to make babies mobile. Child safety advocates have not only re-upped their warnings, in particular, about infant walkers, but based on a new study of data from hundreds of thousands of emergency room visits between 1990….
Continue ReadingArchives for September 2018
A harsh reminder: Medical errors are so common, they savage celebrities, too
Celebrities can play an out-sized role in medicine and health care: Just consider the public attention paid to Angela Jolie or Ben Stiller and their discussions about cancer screening and the disease’s risks, or Michael Phelps, Mariah Carey, and Carrie Fisher raising awareness about mental health issues, or, yes, Gwyneth Paltrow promoting a rash of wellness….
Continue Reading‘Fat shaming’ plays ugly role in medicine’s failing campaign to treat obesity
The medical establishment needs to take a hard, long look at its failing efforts to combat obesity and overweight, conditions that now affect just under 40 percent of American adults (93.3 million people) and 20 percent of youngsters (13.7 million) in the U.S. That’s because doctors and medical scientists have “ignored mountains of evidence to….
Continue ReadingDoctors too readily provide dubious treatments to vulnerable seniors
Doctors subject older patients to risky, costly, invasive, and painful tests and treatments, perhaps with good intention but also because they fail to see that the seniors in their care are individuals with specific situations with real needs that must be considered. If physicians too readily accept conventional wisdom in their field, for example, they….
Continue ReadingHospitals slammed for ventures that exploit patients and violate their privacy
Big hospitals can’t exploit patients and violate their privacy by throwing open their facilities to Hollywood for television shows that plump institutions’ reputations. And academic medical centers need to think twice before letting their leaders strike cozy deals to enrich a choice few insiders by hawking important diagnostic information collected with best intentions by medical….
Continue ReadingWhen doctors fail to stay up-to-date, patients suffer serious consequences
Doctors put their patients at grave risk by failing to stay current with professional best practices, eliminating outdated and ineffective therapies and approaches and instead learning and adapting better ways of care, notably treatments to help deal with the opioid crisis. Vulnerable children can pay an unacceptable price, for example, for pediatricians’ unwillingness to “unlearn”….
Continue ReadingWhile it can offer hope, medical research proves anew to be a fraught field
Even as a pair of prominent researchers saw their reputations crumble over controversies connected to their work, a University of Washington team showed anew the importance of rigorous, transparent, independent, and widely shared medical science to patients, in this case those with cancer. Let’s start with the seemingly positive take that’s accompanying publication in the journal….
Continue ReadingChilling reprise of ‘Dr. Death’s’ bloody spree should shame hospitals and alarm lawmakers
It carries the plot line of a compelling crime story: A knife-wielding assailant works his way into exclusive institutions across a metropolis. There, time after time, he rips into victims, inflicting great pain and suffering. He acts under the noses of people who should know better. He gets stopped only when someone in law enforcement….
Continue ReadingIs FDA’s new crackdown on e-cigarettes too little, too late?
Has one of the nation’s top health watchdogs awoken too late, barked too little, and, maybe won’t bite enough as Big Tobacco and its allies have addicted a generation of young people to nicotine? Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration, captured extensive media attention by hitting the alarm button about “epidemic”….
Continue ReadingCommon sense on kids and concussions, adult heart disease, frats and booze
Common sense and moderation can matter a ton in maintaining good health, as recent news reports show, particularly with kids and concussions, middle-aged adults and heart disease, and collegiate alcohol abuse. With youngsters returning to school and so many of them participating in sports and recreation programs, it’s good that the federal Centers for Disease….
Continue Reading