Doctors working in hospital emergency departments face chaos, violence and high stress every day, and usually they get the diagnosis and treatment right. But, and it’s a big but, as often as one in seventeen ER visits ends with a misdiagnosis, which can have deadly consequences. Those medical misdiagnosis are newly estimated by Johns Hopkins….
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Cautions increase on link between problem pregnancies and heart disease
As cardiologists and other medical specialists grow increasingly aware of big differences in the heart and circulatory health of men and women, researchers also are prodding doctors who take medical histories of female patients to be sure to ask simple but important questions about their experiences with problem pregnancies. That’s because vital preventive information can….
Continue ReadingFDA knew of, but didn’t act on little devices’ deadly racial problems
Until the coronavirus pandemic struck, few regular folks knew about pulse oximeters, much less had one on hand for urgent use. The devices, which fit over a finger, are supposed to give fast readings on the levels of oxygen in patients’ blood — a key measure of their respiratory wellness. But the devices, whether in….
Continue ReadingU.S. toughens law to ensure patients’ full access to their medical records
Patients have hit a red-letter day in the long, too-difficult struggle to win control of a crucial part of their care — their electronic medical care records. Hospitals and other caregiving institutions no longer can block access to these documents, with federal law now holding them accountable for any runarounds they may try. As Stat,….
Continue ReadingPro sports show seamy sides in mistreating women and head trauma
While fans may wax poetic about how sports show humanity at its finest, the grim and even sleazy aspects of U.S. games also have been on full display in recent days. The poohbahs of two of the nation’s most popular pastimes have acted poorly and spoken loudly as to how, maybe they don’t really give….
Continue ReadingHospitals seek to hike prices by up to 15% as safety, quality concerns grow
Hospitals have raised major alarms with insurers, businesses, and patients by asserting that spiking costs for medical staff, especially nurses, will lead them to increase their prices in the days ahead by as much as 15%. This would be a budget-busting move, breaking contracts the caregiving institutions have struck with employers and insurers, leading not….
Continue ReadingCautions issued over prenatal genetic tests in IVF and for rare diseases
Expectant parents, doctors, and regulators need to reconsider the rising use of gee-whiz genetic testing as doubts emerge about popular blood screenings to detect rare prenatal disorders and a costly test relied on by couples undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. This is what the New York Times reported about what researchers have found about preimplantation….
Continue ReadingHead trauma: A hidden harm for battered women
Women suffer significant, sustained damage from head traumas inflicted on them during domestic abuse, and victims themselves, doctors, law enforcement, and too many others have underestimated the severity of this problem. Here is the harsh reality of too many women’s terrifying experiences, as reported in a tough-to-read but important New York Times magazine article that….
Continue ReadingRacial bias: Another reason for patients to get and correct their own medical records
Patients, for their own protection, long have needed to secure copies of their medical records and correct inaccuracies they find — a safeguard that has grown even more vital as research builds about unacceptable biases that doctors and others may show in their recorded observations about those in their care. In two separate, published dives….
Continue ReadingMaryland’s medical examiner crisis is occurring nationwide, too
It’s a grim issue that too many of us would want to ignore in the best of times. But the coronavirus pandemic and its collateral harms have pushed beyond their limits the medical experts who study death, locally and nationally. In Maryland, the chief medical examiner has resigned, and a deputy has been designated as….
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