Doctors, hospitals, and their malpractice insurers like to demonize lawsuits brought by injured patients, but these legal actions provide a powerful way to identify problem practitioners, and the medical profession should see this truth and use it to better police its own ranks. That’s one of the recommendations from medical-legal researchers at Stanford University, who examined….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2019
Doctors retreat on low-dose aspirin advice, underscoring that one size seldom fits all
After persuading as many as 7 in 10 American adults to take a daily low dose of a common painkiller to protect against heart disease and cancer, experts now say it is time for more nuanced advice on who should and who shouldn’t take the daily baby aspirin regimen. Recent studies have shown that the….
Continue ReadingClinicians are facing up to the preventable harms that ICU’s inflict on many patients in the process of saving lives
Doctors and hospitals finally are owning up to and treating mental and physical damages inflicted on some of the sickest and most vulnerable individuals in their care—the 5 million or so patients who get helped in intensive care units, published research shows. Although ICU patients may get dramatic emergency care that saves them from deadly….
Continue ReadingIn battle for science and against anti-vacciners, experts reckon with social media’s sway
As doctors and public health officials coast-to-coast battle infectious outbreaks — of measles, mumps, meningitis, whooping cough, influenza, as well as typhus, hepatitis, and TB — the nation is also struggling with the right response for yet another contagion: the viral spread of medical misinformation on social media. Medical nonsense isn’t new, and savvy patient-consumers long have….
Continue ReadingElectronic records mess threatens patient safety, investigation finds
Tempting though it may be to dismiss doctors’ howls about electronic health records—maybe they’re Luddites or they’re just another group of high-paid workers beefing about their job tools—the persistent and significant nightmare of the complicated computer systems has been this: Do they harm patient care? The answer now may be: Yes, billions of taxpayer and….
Continue ReadingHealth care has its share of gaming by the deep-pocketed and powerful
The rich and powerful may seem to run amok as the nation lurches through its latest gilded age. But sometimes: They get reined in by public shaming, as seems to be occurring with a developing scandal over insider deals in the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). It takes prosecutors to check abuses, as is….
Continue ReadingRise in ‘medieval’ ills and other infections should send a big health warning
Americans have battled for at least a decade over the role of government in individuals’ health, specifically through health insurance. But communities across the county may be grappling with the baleful and more direct consequences of society’s ignoring others’ well-being, as a public health crisis erupts over the re-emergence and spread of “medieval diseases.” Say….
Continue Reading$29 million jury verdict in talc case underscores need for asbestos regulation
Although research has shown that asbestos can cause cancer and other harmful illnesses and the federal government has sought to limit and even ban its use, yet another sizable judgment in a tainted talc case and the discovery of the substance in a popular cosmetics line shows how America’s oversight and regulation of risky materials….
Continue ReadingA lesson on vaping from sugary drinks of yore: Crack down on Big Tobacco
Those who are senior enough to remember the allures of sweet drinks like Tang, Hawaiian Punch, and Kool-Aid also may need to be sage enough to share a deep, evidence-based distrust and disapproval for the nefarious actions of Big Sugar and Big Tobacco. Those suspicions may need to be renewed in regulators’ crackdowns on vaping, its….
Continue ReadingIn celebrity death and diagnosis, cautions for all on stroke and cancer
For Americans of a certain age, the power of celebrity and sad news — the early death of acting heart-throb Luke Perry and the announced Stage 4 cancer diagnosis of game show host Alex Trebek — may offer important health warnings about two leading causes of death: strokes and cancer. Strokes kill 140,000 Americans each year—that’s 1 out….
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