From the monthly archives:

March 2005

March 31, 2005

People are dying because of emergency room waits
11 percent of patients leave the ER because the waits were too long (8 to 9 hours in Ontario). A case in point was a 24-year old with meningitis. After waiting 8 hours without being seen, she went home and later died.
These problems are [...]

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March 31, 2005

A hospital is urging patients who had recent colonoscopies to get tested for hepatitis and HIV because the instruments may not have been disinfected adequately
One instrument you want to be sure is disinfected properly would be a colonoscope.

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March 31, 2005

A doctor was sued after penis lengthening surgery ruined the patient’s libido
“Eric Neuberger, 31, contends his pre-operation libido let him ‘engage in intercourse approximately 30 to 50 times a month.’
But his sexual appetite was destroyed by Dr. Rodney Barron’s work, Neuberger said.”
Not sure that phalloplasty commonly causes a decreased libido. Any urologists care to [...]

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March 31, 2005

Another case of PML hits the MS drug Tysabri
PML is a rare demylinating disease that occurs in 6 per 10 million patients. This is the third case that is associated with Tysabri. Investors are not happy.

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March 30, 2005

An alternative medicine physician is in trouble for prescribing steroids to football players on the Carolina Panthers
“A South Carolina doctor accused of writing steroid prescriptions for three players on the Carolina Panthers says he prescribes the drugs only when medically necessary.
Dr. James Shortt, an alternative practitioner under investigation by federal and state officials, said in [...]

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March 30, 2005

A student is saying many of his colleagues graduating from Pennsylvania medical schools may move to neighboring states because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance
The malpractice situation is affecting new graduates as they become more attuned to the current crisis.

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March 30, 2005

Today is National Doctors Day!
“* The first Doctors Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Ga. The idea came from Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Cha Almond, and the date was the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery. (On March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Long of Barrow County, Ga., [...]

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March 30, 2005

“I will not treat you and I don’t need this shit.”
The response of a physician in South Africa who refused to treat a patient with HIV.

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March 30, 2005

No surprise, the neurologist who testified that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state is under constant fire
“He’s called some doctors who disagree with him ‘pro-life fanatics,’ and others quacks and charlatans.
No legitimate neurologist in the world, he says, would look at the evidence in this case and dispute that Terri Schiavo is in [...]

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March 30, 2005

People who rely on their primary-care doctor to coordinate their health-care needs fare better than those who don’t“In addition, having a long-term relationship with a doctor resulted in fewer hospitalizations and other reductions in health-care costs, the researchers found.”

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March 29, 2005

“Doctors need to understand that we are businessmen””nothing less, nothing more””and the sooner we accept this the better.”
The New Yorker writes about the intersection between money and medicine. (via kottke.org)

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March 29, 2005

Hospital advertising to consumers is now coming under scrutiny“Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs had come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the recent Vioxx debacle. Experts across many fields felt that the huge advertising effort behind Vioxx and other cox-2 inhibitors contributed to an over-prescribing of the drugs, and the subsequent heart-related problems experienced [...]

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March 29, 2005

over my med body! hosts this week’s Grand Rounds
Get all the scoop from the best of the medical blogs.

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March 29, 2005

A police officer faces charges for delaying an OB speeding on the way to a delivery“Rather than release Chidiac [the OB] at that point, Lilliston [the officer] drove him to the hospital and marched the doctor to the maternity ward with his motorcycle helmet still on and his hands cuffed behind his back.
A nurse urged [...]

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March 29, 2005

Missouri signs malpractice litigation reforms“The law limits an award for noneconomic damages in medical liability cases to $350,000, down from $500,000; regardless of the number of defendants in a case, and there is no inflation adjustment on the cap.”

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