In the spring of 2020, health workers were serenaded, cheered, and greeted as courageous heroes for their 24/7 commitment to battling the frightening, new coronavirus pandemic. People — especially New Yorkers with their nightly eruptions — could not contain their admiration and gratitude for medicine’s marvels, with spontaneous and sustained demonstrations breaking out, as one….
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Patients can’t escape reminders of U.S. health care’s brutal costs
Soaring medical costs crush the finances of far too many patients, as the public was reminded by the release of an annual report on the high toll of cancer-care spending and a surprising congressional reverse aimed at reining in runaway prescription drug prices — or at least attempting to. Leading organizations dealing with cancer treatment….
Continue ReadingAching backs lead to dubious surgeries and billion$ in revenue$
As the nation rapidly grays, not only are middle-aged and older patients undergoing increasing numbers of knee, hip, ankle, and shoulder surgeries, back operations also have spiked — and a significant number of these procedures may be unwarranted and harmful. Spinal surgery is a booming business for orthopedic surgeons and hospitals, with Wall Street analysts….
Continue ReadingAs experts ponder vaccinating our kids, Covid orphans tens of thousands
The battle to quell the coronavirus pandemic and especially its deadly Delta variant surge soon may extend to the nation’s children. A drug maker has submitted required data and formally requested from federal regulators an emergency approval for a vaccine for youngsters ages 5 to 12. Officials say they will take up this request, pronto,….
Continue ReadingMDs urged to better police their own, as health disinformation runs amok
Doctors must step up and better police their own ranks, taking a helpful warning from medical malpractice lawsuits in dealing with problem practitioners or systemic wrongs. That’s the wise view of Dr. Shah-Naz H. Khan, a neurosurgeon and a clinical assistant Professor of Surgery at Michigan State University (shown, right). Her trenchant commentary — published….
Continue ReadingOnline portals let patients get their medical records. They’re full of errors, and patients can get them corrected.
As doctors and hospitals switch to electronic medical record systems and try to amp up the business efficiency of their enterprises by opening online consumer portals, more patients may access their caregivers’ files on them, including doctor notes that may be shocking in their inaccuracy. Heather Gantzer, a doctor practicing at Methodist Hospital in St…..
Continue ReadingU.S. must do so much more to shield our youth from sexual abuse
Grownups got sordid reminders of how much work still must be done to protect the nation’s young from sexual exploitation, as top female gymnasts assailed the FBI and Olympic organizations for allowing the wanton predation of a serial criminal and the Boy Scouts offered yet another billion-dollar proposal to try to resolve tens of thousands….
Continue ReadingPandemic’s deadly toll rises each day. Why isn’t everybody taking it seriously?
Nineteen months after the coronavirus pandemic first began to rage, the nation has racked up mortality and morbidity statistics that are tragic and horrifying: 1 in 500 Americans now has died of the disease People older than 85 make up only 2% of the population, but a quarter of the total death toll Among those….
Continue ReadingSpiking deaths, health crises, and amputations: Diabetes is ‘out of control’
More than 100,000 people in this country died last year due to diabetes. That’s 17% more than the year before. And in younger age groups, it’s even worse: deaths from diabetes climbed 29% last year among those ages 25-44, federal data show. The figures should raise huge alarms that diabetes, as exposed by the coronavirus….
Continue ReadingQuestions grow about billions flowing to specialists over medical hardware
Patients, regulators, hospitals, and doctors themselves need to open their eyes and ask tougher questions about the eyebrow-raising trend occurring among a specialized set of “sawboneses” — orthopedists and neurosurgeons. Hundreds of them are profiting handsomely, not on their medical skills but rather their investments in and relationships with surgical hardware. The specialists also are….
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