Big Pharma loves to blast away at opposition lawyers and their clients, criticizing them for seeking justice in the civil system over claims of significant harms. But, c’mon, man, as a certain top political leader likes to say to express his flabbergasted skepticism. Wealthy corporations and their counsel marshal enormous, costly legal resources to bully,….
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Medicine struggles with hype, disinformation, and miscommunication
The quality of medical-scientific information is strained — and patients should know this, be warned, and watch for ways to protect themselves from bungled communication, bluster, hype, misinformation, and disinformation. Although regular folks may have unprecedented access via the internet to resources on medical services and developments, a trio of recent news articles underscore the….
Continue Reading$1.7 billion verdict underscores complexity of vehicle liability cases
Even the strongest believer in the wisdom of juries in civil lawsuits had to take a pause. But, yes, the verdict in an Atlanta case has been correctly reported. Jurors deliberating on the damages caused in roll-over of a Ford 250 truck did, indeed, order the automaker to pay the family of two people killed….
Continue ReadingAsk the doctors and they’ll fess up: MD misbehavior occurs too often
Patients may be reluctant to think ill of their doctors or to imagine that highly educated, rigorously trained professionals could mistreat or cause them harm. Doctors themselves know this picture is way too rosy for some of their colleagues. In a survey of 1,500 practicing MDs, all of whom voluntarily responded to an online questionnaire,….
Continue Reading3 giant drug store chains hit with $650-million judgment for opioid harms
CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart are getting expensive lessons about corporate responsibility in filling prescriptions, as federal courts in San Francisco and Cleveland separately have faulted the companies for inundating communities with staggering quantities of addictive painkillers. Those drugs caused such great harm that the three major drug chains must pay two Ohio Counties $650.5 million,….
Continue ReadingA top FDA tobacco expert suddenly quits — to work for Big Tobacco
The ink was barely dry on statements from the head of the federal Food and Drug Administration about a planned external, independent review of the agency’s tobacco oversight division when one of its top regulators created a personnel stink of his own. Matt Holman, chief of the office of science in FDA’s much-criticized Center for….
Continue ReadingBig Pharma’s rough summer could be a boon for struggling patients
Big Pharma has run into a rare rough summer — and that could be positive news for all the rest of us regular folks. Just how? Consider: One of the world’s largest makers of prescription medications — which also is one of several pharma titans implicated in the record-breaking opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis,….
Continue ReadingWhen admitting a loved one to a nursing home, be sure to read what you sign (because you could be sued later)
When seniors need full-time institutional care, or when the injured or debilitated require similar 24/7 attention, loved ones — and even friends — must take care to read and re-read any documents that nursing homes and other long-term care facilities shove before them to sign during the stressful admissions process. That’s because the owners and….
Continue ReadingHospitals’ ‘charity’: 2.3% of patient revenue vs. $60 billion in tax breaks
Play this one out in your mind: a guy you know at church — he’ll be the first to let you know he makes $200,000 a year — tells you about how he gave to charity a junker car worth not more than $4,600 (2% of his income). Now what’s your reaction if you learn….
Continue ReadingOpioid drug overdose crisis is ripping up communities of color
The opioid drug abuse and overdose crisis is not only smashing fatality records, it also is slamming poorer people and communities of color and taking a savage toll on younger black Americans. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has analyzed data from Washington, D.C., and 25 states, finding in its study published online,….
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