Patient Safety Blog

DC Medical Malpractice & Patient Safety Blog

• Lasik surgery: a study in medical risks, complications, lack of official followup June 20, 2018
  Caveat emptor, federal officials are reminding patients anew about an eye surgery that tens of millions of Americans already have undergone and all too many may believe ── wrongly ── is all but risk-free. In fact, significant numbers of the 9.5 million Americans who had laser-assisted operations, the so-called Lasik procedure, may show vision improvements, […]
• Hospitals and nursing homes need to do more to stop ‘boomerang’ abuses June 19, 2018
  Uncle Sam soon will step up what may be a positive trend: getting hospitals and nursing homes to halt the unacceptable boomeranging of elderly patients between them. But will Trump officials be as quick with health care providers as they have been with poor, sick, and old patients to employ not just carrots but also […]
• NIH ripped for Big Alcohol funding and advising on $100-million drinking study June 17, 2018
  The National Institutes of Health, perhaps the world’s leading medical research institution, has moved fast to try to fix self-inflicted damage to its reputation caused by a controversial $100-million study on alcohol and its harms. NIH Director Francis Collins halted the study, and an advisory group backed his action, lambasting researchers for soliciting funding and counsel from […]
• San Francisco voters send strong message cracking down on kids’ vaping June 15, 2018
  San Francisco voters, upholding their elected leaders’ enlightened lawmaking, bashed Big Tobacco and its interests, providing a potent primary election message to public health officials nationwide to curb the growing menace to young people posed by e-cigarettes and vaping. By a 2-to-1 margin, Bay Area residents supported their Board of Supervisors’ tough ban — which […]
• For early-stage breast cancer patients, dreaded chemo may be unneeded June 13, 2018
  Breast cancer patients may get a welcome respite from one of the disease’s dreaded aspects — its aggressive and costly treatments. New research suggests that thousands of women with early-stage breast cancer who now are told to get chemotherapy don’t need it, while a larger, significant number of patients can benefit by halving the time […]