From the monthly archives:

April 2006

Malpractice in West Virginia

April 30, 2006

Tough malpractice reforms are putting plaintiff lawyers under pressure, and reducing malpractice rates. In other words, it’s working:
Sensabaugh said the caps have allowed cases to be settled quickly and reasonably, and have provided stability for medical insurance carriers.
That stability, said David Rader, president and chief executive of West Virginia Physicians’ Mutual Insurance Co., enabled [...]

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The 2006 Bitter Pill Awards

April 30, 2006

This year, Bitter Pill Awards were presented in four categories to drug companies engaging in over-zealous and questionable marketing practices. The drug industry’s national lobbying group, PhRMA, received two awards, and the remaining three awards were shared among makers of five of the nation’s most well-known drugs: Lunesta, Ambien/AmbienCR, Lipitor, Crestor and Strattera.
(via PharmaGossip)

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"Demand to be tested"

April 30, 2006

A radiation oncologist is giving this tidbit of advice to patients exposed to polluted water in Massachusetts:
Sacher urged people exposed to Nyanza to get regular checkups and seek medical care whenever they have symptoms that seem unusual or last longer than expected, like a cold or respiratory problem lasting more than a week. They should [...]

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"Too posh to push"

April 30, 2006

C-sections are up in the UK as well:
Last year the government introduced a new coding system that classifies caesareans as either elective or emergency. Preliminary figures show that, last year, 45% were elective, compared with 55% classified as emergency procedures. This compares with an estimated 7.5% elective sections in 1998.

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The new standard of defensive medicine

April 30, 2006

64-slice CT scanners. Expect most who enter the ER with chest pain to receive these scans soon:
At this point, most doctors agree that the new scanners should not be used to look for problems in healthy people. In addition to the radiation risk, CT scans may pick up tiny spots of plaque on artery [...]

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Graham’s next

April 30, 2006

In Dean’s continuing medblogger interviews.

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DEA and pain

April 30, 2006

The DEA investigates a pain specialist and suspends his prescription writing privileges. It’s been over a year and the physician still hasn’t been charged with anything. In the meantime, the physician is forced to practice alternative pain treatments.

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Reducing the jackpot

April 30, 2006

These physicians should have settled, using the retrospectoscope:
Lawyers for the gynecologist hit with that $28 million medical malpractice award two weeks ago have asked a Sanford judge to reduce it to less than $300,000. Attorneys for Dr. Robert Bowles say that’s what the victim asked for in pre-trial settlement talks.

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Cover the Uninsured Week

April 29, 2006

May 1-7th brings attention to this health crisis:
The ProblemNearly 46 million Americans, including more than 8 million children, are living without health insurance – forced to gamble every day that they won’t get sick or injured. That’s a risk no one should have to take. Uninsured Americans live sicker and die younger than those with [...]

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Welcome to Canada

April 29, 2006

Where private health-care is a growing reality.

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Fed up

April 29, 2006

More are becoming fed up with rushed, harried doctors, and turning to holistic care:
Walking around Victoria, I saw signs of this new two-tier health care everywhere I went: yoga studios on every corner, organic cafes, Ayurvedic health centres where people are encouraged to try healing the herbal, holistic way. Maybe it sounds flaky, but you [...]

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Doctor shopping is illegal

April 29, 2006

And Rush Limbaugh got caught.

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Legal and medical evidence

April 29, 2006

There’s a good discussion going on at DB’s discussing how lawyers and physicians define what acceptable evidence is:
We who favor special health courts believe that this story provides a classic example of poor definitions of evidence. We expect the same definition of evidence for our medical practice and any judgment of malpractice. Having a son [...]

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Medblogger interview

April 29, 2006

Clinical Cases and Images is interviewed by a medical librarian.

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MRSA

April 29, 2006

A women is infected with MRSA after getting her eyebrows waxed.

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Orlistat

April 29, 2006

GSK is hoping OTC Xenical (Orlistat) will be a blockbuster. Don’t expect miracles however. From UptoDate, here is the results of a meta-analysis of the prescription version:
Almost two-thirds of the subjects completed the first year of treatment. Weight loss at one year varied from 5.5 to 6.6 percent of initial body weight in [...]

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