The news this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that as many as 48 million U.S. adults have high levels of bad cholesterol, and aren’t doing enough to control it, left out one conspicuous controversy: Should lots more Americans be taking statin drugs, or would it be a huge waste of money?….
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Getting the Best Health Care: Statisticians Are Our Friends
Today’s news has two reminders of why statisticians are our friends and allies when it comes to getting the right health care and avoiding dangerous and over-hyped treatments. The headlines: * Hormone replacement therapy after menopause not only increases the risk of getting breast cancer, but also makes the cancer more deadly. Details here. *….
Continue Reading“The Mammography Wars” and Doctors’ Conflicts of Interest
It was nearly a year ago that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force caused a huge uproar with the mildest imaginable recommendation about mammograms, and now two physician researchers say it might be time to point out that certain emperors are wearing no clothes. In their Sounding Board article in the New England Journal of….
Continue ReadingUse of rapid response teams hides hospital inadequacies, patient expert says
The use of rapid response teams could be masking underlying patient care problems in hospitals, according to a patient safety expert writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are teams of doctors and nurses assigned to provide rapid bedside care for patients who are in critical condition. The co-author….
Continue ReadingMagic Bullet Prevention for Heart Attacks Still Not in Sight
When a 44-year-old male friend dropped dead the other day from a massive heart attack — no prior symptoms, no warning of any kind — I wondered if modern medicine could have done anything to prevent the tragedy. The answer I learned is that low-tech still beats high-tech hands down in preventing America’s No. 1….
Continue ReadingRemoval of Healthy Breast in Cancer Patients: Overtreatment or Peace of Mind?
More and more women with cancer in one breast are now opting to have the other healthy breast removed as well, even though the statistics show survival odds don’t improve by having both breasts removed and most patients end up with chests that are numb to sensation. Peace of mind is cited by many of….
Continue ReadingPSA Test’s Inventor Says It’s Time to Say No to Routine PSA Screening
The man who discovered the PSA test for prostate cancer now says the test is so overused it has become a public health disaster with an annual price tag of $3 billion in wasted testing. Dr. Richard Ablin writes an op-ed piece in the New York Times calling for the test to be abandoned for….
Continue ReadingMedical Malpractice Is a Leading Cause of Preventable Death in District of Columbia
Deaths from preventable medical error kill as many people in the nation’s capital as guns, and far more than motor vehicle crashes, according to a new report from the D.C. Department of Health. The report, the first of its kind in the District of Columbia, analyzed the 5,168 total deaths reported to health officials in….
Continue ReadingAnother Good Clue that Your Hospital Takes Infection Prevention Seriously — Chlorhexidine
Memorize the name of this antiseptic wash and make sure your hospital uses it: chlorhexidine. Research continues to pile up that diligent but inexpensive efforts by hospital staff can greatly cut the annual toll of an estimated 100,000 lives lost to hospital infections. The latest simple step involves greater use of the antiseptic chlorhexidine to….
Continue ReadingPreventive Health Care: U.S. Is Dead Last Among Industrialized Nations
“Amenable mortality” is a body count of unnecessary deaths due to lack of preventive health care. The latest measure is not flattering to the American health care system. Researchers count these deaths by looking at premature deaths in areas like these: * Adults who die from breast or colon cancer before age 75, indicating lack….
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