Tens of millions of Americans who have not kicked the harmful smoking habit or who have only recently done so may want to keep a watch on the work of a blue-chip advisory group as its medical scientists consider how much lung-cancer screening best benefits tobacco users. The panel is seeking expert comment on its….
Continue ReadingRadiation Safety
Walmart sees a bigger picture with costly imaging: frequent misdiagnosis
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….
Continue ReadingFDA ripped over breast implant safety as agency seeks mammogram change
Uncle Sam has paid what critics have called long overdue attention to women’s breasts and how surgeons and diagnosticians treat them. In an angry and emotional public hearing, women ripped the federal Food and Drug Administration for lax oversight of implants that surgeons use to augment and reconstruct breasts, even as the agency proposed its….
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 ReadingA new caution on how breast cancer care also can harm women’s hearts
As cardiologists and oncologists swap cross-fire about the conditions they treat and how they do so, here’s hoping that, above all, their female patients end up helped and not harmed, getting vital information about risks and benefits of therapies for two of the leading killers of women: heart disease and breast cancer. What’s behind the….
Continue ReadingAs breast cancer patients know, over-testing and over-treatment are big woes
Up to a third of medical spending goes for over-treatment and over-testing, with an estimated $200 billion in the U.S. expended on medical services with little benefit to patients. But getting doctors and hospitals to stop this waste isn’t easy, nor is it a snap to get patients to understand what this problem’s all about….
Continue ReadingSolar eclipse was awesome, and you can plan for the next one
Did you find the full solar eclipse to be thrilling and energizing? Hope so. And even if not, you can start planning to see the next one in 2019 in South America and parts of Asia, or in 2024 in eastern Canada, the central U.S., and part of Mexico. If you got your hands on….
Continue ReadingWomen challenged by disparities in many parts of their health care
Modern medicine isn’t addressing women’s distinctive health care needs as optimally as needed, with research further showing it may be time to dial down expectations about breast cancer screening, while heightening physicians’ awareness and best practices in eliminating gender biases. Women also may want to keep close tabs on how changes with the Affordable Care….
Continue ReadingAre dentists extracting extra revenue with unneeded X-rays?
The cost won’t exactly break the bank. But it might equal what you will pay for the oral health care that prompted the visit. When the dentist starts saying it’s time for partial or “bitewing” X-rays, just say no, a health care economist recommends. Austin Frakt, an expert writing in the paper’s Upshot column, hit a….
Continue ReadingDoctor, Do Less?
Now that the American Cancer Society has joined a growing chorus of experts and offered new screening guidelines for women with fewer mammograms and fewer breast physical exams, everything changes — just like that, right? Not that easy. As the New York Times points out, it will take time for patients to see these breast practice recommendations followed. “Once….
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