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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Another Perspective on the Cardiac Malpractice Crisis in Maryland
Merrill Goozner has an excellent blog on the medical industry. Here’s his take on the cardiac stent “mill” in Baltimore, and how it has come to light and reached some measure of accountability. He writes on his “Gooznews” blog: … let us point out a few interesting aspects of this still evolving story. First, it….
Continue ReadingBaltimore Malpractice Cases Raise Broad Questions about Heart Stents
With lucrative fees for doctors, little oversight, and much disagreement about who needs stents in their heart arteries, it was perhaps inevitable that malpractice allegations of unnecessary surgery would explode into hundreds of lawsuits against a single cardiologist in Baltimore. But now a new report from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the federal….
Continue ReadingFDA recalls infusion pump and tissue stabilizer
The Food and Drug Administration has issued Class I recalls of Hospira Symbiq One- and Two-Channel infusers and Medtronic Octopus Nuvo tissue stabilizers. Class 1 recalls are the most serious type of recall and involve situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious adverse health consequences or….
Continue ReadingEight years on, diet drug Meridia withdrawn from market
A diet drug which safety advocates called to be withdrawn from public use eight years ago has finally bit the dust. Under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, the drug’s manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, voluntarily pulled the drug from the market due to longstanding concerns that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes…..
Continue ReadingDetailed heart surgery ratings now available
Until now, it’s been easier to rate appliances and restaurants than surgeons in most parts of the country, but that should change now that surgeons who perform cardiac bypass surgery are being rated on objective quality measures in Consumer Reports magazine. The consumer magazine recently published ratings of 221 surgical groups in 42 states online…..
Continue ReadingUpdate on Baltimore Cardiac Malpractice: Victims of One Doctor Could Exceed One Thousand
The scandal of Dr. Mark Midei, the cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, Maryland, is scaling new heights in the number of victims counted. The hospital mailed letters to 585 Midei patients informing them that an independent review shows they may have received heart stents unnecessarily for artery narrowing….
Continue ReadingBaltimore Medical Malpractice Scandal Shows Systemic Problems of Hospital Peer Review
Hundreds of patients appear to have received cardiac stents that they didn’t need from Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Towson, Maryland. So why did no one at the hospital blow the whistle? And why did the patients not realize that Midei was rushing them into unwise and risky surgery? Heart….
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 ReadingFrom Bitter Tragedy to Optimistic Hope: A True Patient Safety Story
Actor James Woods’ brother Michael died of a heart attack three years ago in an emergency room hallway in Rhode Island because no one was paying attention. Now, something good will come from Michael Woods’ death, thanks to a settlement reached between the Woods family and Kent Hospital in the middle of a jury trial…..
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