Medical Issues (Injury & Error)

Pediatricians and Child Porn

Published: Oct 10, 2013 By Chris Kaiser Full Story:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/GeneralProfessionalIssues/42211 A recent report of a pediatric specialist involved in child pornography made me wonder about the magnitude of pediatric physician involvement in child porn. The sentinel case was that of Christopher Pelloski, 39, the former director of Ohio State University’s pediatric radiation oncology program. Internet […]

S.F. hospital: Body found in stairwell is that of missing patient

CBS NEWS Full Story:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57606631/body-found-in-hospital-stairwell-may-be-missing-patient/ SAN FRANCISCO A body discovered in a San Francisco hospital stairwell was that of a female patient at the facility who disappeared more than two weeks ago, hospital officials said Wednesday. San Francisco General Hospital Chief Medical Officer Todd May said at a news conference that officials were still awaiting […]

Robot Surgery Damaging Patients Rises With Marketing

By Robert Langreth – Oct 7, 2013 11:00 PM CT Full Story:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-08/robot-surgery-damaging-patients-rises-with-marketing.html Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver announced last year that Warren Kortz, a general surgeon on the medical staff, was the first in the Rocky Mountain region to use a technique known as robotic surgery to remove gall bladders through one incision in […]

Cosmetic surgeon who took iPhone picture of unconscious woman’s ‘unusual genitals’ for his portfolio faces ban on practising

By ROB COOPER PUBLISHED: 10:44 EST, 6 November 2013 | UPDATED: 12:11 EST, 6 November 2013 Dr Erik Scholten faces ban after being found guilty of misconduct Surgeon was about to replace woman’s breast implants when he took photo He said he planned to show ‘anonymous’ photo to other patients as a comparison But the matron […]

Inappropriate Antibiotic Use Still High

Published: Oct 3, 2013 By Michael Smith http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/IDWeek/42052 Action Points Note that some of this research was only published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Despite years of persuasion and publicity, antibiotics are still drastically overprescribed for […]

Primary Care Malpractice Cases ‘More Difficult to Defend’

Allegations of malpractice in claims involving primary care practices usually center on the failure to diagnose or on a delayed diagnosis.

Patients of ‘No-Show’ Doc Were Paid Off in Kickback Room

Robert Lowes Sep 26, 2013 Full Medscape Article:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/811735 “Brazen” is the word federal prosecutors use to describe a medical practice in Brooklyn, New York, that was shut down after perpetrating more than $77 million in Medicare fraud. Its medical director and supposed owner, 58-year-old Gustave “Gus” Drivas, MD, almost never showed up at the […]

Oncologist Indicted for Poisoning Coffee of Lover, Colleague

Trial to Follow Nick Mulcahy Sep 27, 2013 Medscape Story:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/811786 An oncologist accused of poisoning the coffee of her colleague and lover at a top cancer center has been indicted on a felony charge of aggravated assault by a grand jury, according to a news report in the Houston Chronicle. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, MD, […]

Deaths Linked to Cardiac Stents Rise as Overuse Seen

By Peter Waldman, David Armstrong & Sydney P. Freedberg – Sep 25, 2013 11:01 PM CT Full Story & Map:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-26/deaths-linked-to-cardiac-stents-rise-as-overuse-seen.html When Bruce Peterson left the U.S. Postal Service after 24 years delivering mail, he started a travel agency. It was his dream career, his wife Shirlee said. Then he went to see cardiologist Samuel […]

Sulfonylurea Use Increases All-Cause Mortality Risk

Michael O’Riordan Sep 25, 2013 BARCELONA, Spain — First-line therapy with sulfonylureas significantly increases the risk for death in patients with type 2 diabetes when compared with treatment with metformin, a new study shows. Additional research showed that the combination of metformin and a sulfonylurea was also associated with a significantly increased risk for death […]

Cheating in Medical School

The reported prevalence of cheating among US medical students ranges from 0% to 58%.

3 stories of surgeons that I find disturbing

An orthopedic surgeon from New York reportedly has 261 malpractice suits against him. He has been accused of performing “phantom” and unnecessary operations.

How Many Die From Medical Mistakes In U.S. Hospitals?

by MARSHALL ALLEN, PROPUBLICA September 20, 2013 4:52 PM It seems that every time researchers estimate how often a medical mistake contributes to a hospital patient’s death, the numbers come out worse. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published the famous “To Err Is Human” report, which dropped a bombshell on the medical community by […]

Worsening Trends in the Management and Treatment of Back Pain

John N. Mafi, MD JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(17):1573-1581. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.8992 September 23, 2013, Vol 173, No. 17 > ABSTRACT Importance Back pain treatment is costly and frequently includes overuse of treatments that are unsupported by clinical guidelines. Few studies have evaluated recent national trends in guideline adherence of spine-related care. Objective To characterize the treatment of […]

Stunning News On Preventable Deaths In Hospitals

Forbes.com PHARMA & HEALTHCARE 9/23/2013 @ 8:50AM 25,722 views In 1999, Americans learned that 98,000 people were dying every year from preventable errors in hospitals. That came from a widely touted analysis by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called To Err Is Human. This was the “Silent Spring” of the health care world, grabbing headlines for […]

Physicians with financial interest in imaging equipment may order more unnecessary MRIs than peers

September 18, 2013 Healio.com Patients who are referred for knee MRIs are more likely to have negative results if a physician has a financial interest in the imaging equipment used, according to results of a recently published study. “In our work, we were able not only to evaluate the outcome of the knee MRI examinations […]

Spinal Implant Prices Vary, Process Drives Up Costs

The mean price of a pedicle screw was $878, while the range was $400 to $1,843, Bederman reported.

How Many Die from Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals?

An updated estimate says it could be at least 210,000 patients a year, more than twice the number in a frequently quoted Institute of Medicine report By Marshall Allen and ProPublica Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-us-hospitals It seems that every time researchers estimate how often a medical mistake contributes to a hospital patient’s death, the numbers come out […]

Statins Linked to Cataracts

Published: Sep 19, 2013 | Updated: Sep 20, 2013 By Chris Kaiser, Cardiology Editor, MedPage Today Action Points Statins clear cholesterol from the blood but they may do so at the risk of obstructing vision. Note that in both analyses, researchers found an inverse relationship with levels of LDL cholesterol and cataract risk, but not […]

Deaths from avoidable medical error more than double in past decade, investigation shows

By Katherine Harmon | Aug 10, 2009 06:45 PM Scientific American:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deaths-from-avoidable-medical-error-2009-08-10 Preventable medical mistakes and infections are responsible for about 200,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to an investigation by the Hearst media corporation. The report comes 10 years after the Institute of Medicine’s “To Err Is Human” analysis, which found that 44,000 to […]