As Walmart tries to work with its 1 million-plus U.S. employees in controlling health care costs, the retailing giant has not only struck a blow for quality medical treatment, it also has raised key questions about a costly and booming specialization in health care: medical imaging. Walmart decided to shake up this diagnostic field by….
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Bill takes aim at injustice for service personnel hurt by military medical care
Members of Congress have taken steps aimed at allowing service members to pursue actions in the civil justice system when they suffer harms while seeking medical services, a fundamental civil right now denied to military personnel. Members of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee heard powerful testimony from a Green Beret, an airman, and a judge….
Continue ReadingDoctors ordering wasteful and excessive MRI and CT scans, experts say
When patients experience bad headaches, severe chest pain, back or neck aches, or even when kids come in with gut pain that likely is appendicitis, doctors too readily push them into and through what may be hospitals’ over-sized cash-generating machines. It’s past time to end wasteful use of high-powered imaging systems, experts from the Mayo….
Continue ReadingJust the Facts, Ma’am: Medical malpractice lawsuits safeguard patients & improve health system
Facts matter, and, when amassed in a smart way, they can paint a powerful and accurate picture of reality, as is made clear with findings presented in the annual “Briefing Book” on medical malpractice from the Center for Justice and Democracy at New York Law School. As the Kentucky Supreme Court recently affirmed when it….
Continue ReadingMisdiagnosis: a medical menace to quality and safety of patient care
If patients weren’t already unhappy with drive-by medicine, in which clinicians spend on average of 15 minutes with them in an office visit, safety experts warn that too many doctors’ providing of harried care can worsen a medical menace that’s already hard to ignore: misdiagnosis. Figuring out what ails a patient and taking a correct….
Continue ReadingA harsh reminder: Medical errors are so common, they savage celebrities, too
Celebrities can play an out-sized role in medicine and health care: Just consider the public attention paid to Angela Jolie or Ben Stiller and their discussions about cancer screening and the disease’s risks, or Michael Phelps, Mariah Carey, and Carrie Fisher raising awareness about mental health issues, or, yes, Gwyneth Paltrow promoting a rash of wellness….
Continue ReadingDoctors too readily provide dubious treatments to vulnerable seniors
Doctors subject older patients to risky, costly, invasive, and painful tests and treatments, perhaps with good intention but also because they fail to see that the seniors in their care are individuals with specific situations with real needs that must be considered. If physicians too readily accept conventional wisdom in their field, for example, they….
Continue ReadingOverrun by sports performance chatter? Can questions on MBI bust the bunk?
If you can get your favorite sports fans peeled away from the latest broadcast pro event ─ whether it’s the basketball playoffs, hockey championship series, golf tourneys, or the heating up baseball season ─ a conversation of sorts could be sparked by dropping numbers on them. See what kind of rise you can get by….
Continue ReadingOver-screening skews disease research and puts harsh burdens on seniors
Medical over-screening and over-testing not only adds hundreds of billions of dollars in unnecessary costs to U.S. health care, it also may be skewing researchers’ understanding of what causes disease and imposing harsh burdens on older Americans. Stat, an online health and medical news service, has highlighted an intriguing study from the Dartmouth Institute for….
Continue ReadingExperts fret over how precise key basics may be in ‘precision medicine’
Although billions of dollars and lots of positive public attention have been lavished on the promise of genetic-based “precision medicine,” this therapeutic approach to treating cancer and other serious diseases may need more scrutiny for basics of quality control. National Public Radio deserves credit for airing some less-heard experts’ worries about the roles of at….
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