You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2009.
For years, Christine Laine, MD, MPH, has recommended annual mammograms for her Philadelphia-area female patients ages 50 to 70.
But now the internist plans to follow the revised breast cancer screening recommendations issued Nov. 16 by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The guidelines, published in the Nov. 17 Annals of Internal Medicine, say women younger than 50 do not need routine mammography screening and women 50 to 74 should get a mammogram every two years. The guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do breast self-examination.
The revisions mark a shift from the task force’s previous guidelines, issued in 2002, that recommended screening mammography every one to two years for all women older than 40.
“The new recommendations differ in a relatively nuanced way from the previous recommendations in that they’re evidence-based,” Dr. Laine said. “I think that all clinical guidelines should be based on evidence. … We should be screening to maximize benefits and decrease harms.” Continue Reading via American Medical News
MIDDLETOWN, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana Medical Licensing Board is being asked to consider a longer suspension for a doctor who state officials say wrote prescriptions that caused or contributed to the overdose deaths of nine patients.
The board last month approved an emergency 90-day suspension for Dr. Phillip Foley of Middletown after the state attorney general’s office said he recklessly prescribed painkillers and sedatives.
Foley has defended his practice, saying he always made sure his patients had legitimate problems before prescribing medications.
Attorney general’s office spokeswoman Molly Butters said it would seek an extension of Foley’s suspension when the licensing board meets Thursday in Indianapolis.
The son of a woman who was a patient of Foley’s said he believed it was time for the state to take away his medical license.
Rob Shrock, of Warren, said his mother, Geri Shrock Brown, of Marion, was prescribed anti-anxiety and painkiller medications by Foley. She was 62 when she died in 2006, days after she was hospitalized for an overdose.
“We found her on the floor,” Shrock told The Herald Bulletin of Anderson. “I’d been trying to get my mom away from him for years and she just wouldn’t do it because she wanted her medication.” Continue Reading via Omaha World Herald
One forensic pathologist claims Craig Prescott ultimately died from hypertensive heart disease following an incident in the Stanislaus County Jail last April.
Another said, no, heart disease did not cause the 38-year-old former deputy’s death. A lack of oxygen to the brain did.
You might wonder how these two doctors, presumably trained to do the same thing, came up with such contrasting conclusions. Is this common in the world of forensic pathology?
That Dr. Eugene Carpenter, under contract with the county coroner’s office, would find a different cause of death than Dr. David Posey, hired by the Prescott family, isn’t rare at all.
“It is not uncommon,” said Dr. John Howard, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners. “An autopsy means ‘to see for one’s self,’ and two different observers looking at different times will sometimes see different things.”
So which is right? Continue Reading via The Modesto Bee
Doctors in Maryland hospitals soon may find themselves the targets of covert surveillance.
That stranger in the corridor reading Newsweek or texting on his iPhone actually may be taking notes on whether physicians and other health care workers wash their hands after leaving patients’ rooms.
In early November, the state launched a safety initiative using $100,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — popularly known as the federal stimulus package — funds to help hospitals train “secret shoppers” to monitor health workers’ hand hygiene. Forty-five of the state’s 47 acute care hospitals have joined the voluntary initiative.
The Maryland effort is believed to be the first time that government funds are going to train secret observers to keep an eye on doctors. At the same time, Rhode Island health officials have ordered video monitoring of surgeries at one hospital after a rash of wrong-site surgical errors.
Hospitals increasingly are turning to these surveillance methods and others, such as motion sensors and radio frequency identification chips, say patient safety experts. Continue Reading via American Medical News
If you really want to remake health care and lower costs, do something about medical malpractice, doctors are telling Congress. But malpractice insurance costs are actually stabilizing in most parts of the country, even as Congress lurches along on legislation some say should do more to address it.
A big majority — 94 percent — of malpractice premiums either stayed the same or decreased in 2009, according to the annual Medical Liability Monitor survey. The news follows a four-year trend of medical liability insurance premiums dropping nationwide.
The decrease in premiums is due to a drop in the number of medical lawsuits filed, according to Lawrence Smarr, president and CEO of the Physician Insurers Association of America. Why are the number of cases going down? Continue Reading via NPR.com
WASHINGTON – – Compromises and more compromises.
The health care bill that the Senate will begin debating next week is the result of numerous compromises that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., worked out to unite Democrats behind a procedural vote Saturday that brought the legislation forward.
But many lawmakers still have problems with portions of the bill and have indicated that unless it is amended they may not support it when it comes up for a final vote.
Here are some of the sticking points likely to figure prominently in the debate. Continue Reading via Chicago Tribune
LAS VEGAS – A prominent Las Vegas surgeon told a federal judge Monday he will plead guilty for his role in the so-called Medical Mafia conspiracy.
Dr. Mark Kabins’ plea agreement marks the first conviction in a wide-ranging federal investigation. The alleged conspiracy involves some two-dozen Las Vegas lawyers and doctors.
On the surface, it looks like a sweet deal for Dr. Kabins, in that they are not recommending any prison time for him. But a closer look shows what a major development this is in the Medical Mafia case.
Dr. Kabins was charged along with attorney Noel Gage and so-called medical fixer Howard Awand in a medical malpractice conspiracy involving a patient named Melody Simon. But FBI agents think there’s a much bigger conspiracy that may yield additional indictments. Continue Reading via LasVegasNow.com
After careful analysis of both the good and bad provisions of the U.S. Senate health system reform bill (HR 3590), the Texas Medical Association has determined that it will not support the bill until it undergoes some necessary and significant changes.
“We know that our patients – insured and uninsured, elderly and poor – need a much more efficient, effective, and accountable health care system,” said TMA President William H. Fleming III, MD. “But, on the whole, the Senate health plan is bad medicine for our patients.”
As health system reform legislation continues to move through the U.S. Congress, the TMA message to our senators and representatives remains constant: “Fix What’s Broken and Keep What’s Good.” The association is basing its assessment on a 17-point set of principles the TMA House of Delegates adopted earlier this year. Continue Reading via Texas Medical Association
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott took legal action last week to defend the state’s recently enacted medical malpractice reform laws.
In 2003, the Texas Legislature responded to a lack of physicians and doctors’ rising medical malpractice insurance premiums by imposing a 10-year statute of repose on medical malpractice lawsuits. That provision prohibits plaintiffs from filing medical malpractice lawsuits more than a decade after the act that forms the basis of their lawsuit. In the state’s brief to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General James Ho explained that the 2003 law was enacted because “the Legislature concluded that indeterminate and unpredictable liability regimes drive up the cost of healthcare and reduce access to physicians. Continue Reading via Gainesville Daily Register
HOBOKEN — Democrats will continue to push for some version of the public option in the U.S. Senate, despite threats of a filibuster from two senators over the controversial provision in proposed health care legislation, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said.
Speaking inside the Hoboken University Medical Center emergency room, Menendez said today a modified public option could draw support from U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who announced their opposition to the elements of the bill over the weekend.
Menendez suggested adding a so-called trigger clause, which would only put the public option into effect if certain conditions are not met in the future. These conditions could include expanded competition in the marketplace or a decrease in insurance premium costs.
“There are other public options possible,” Menendez said. “They have only said they oppose the public option in its current version.” Continue Reading via NJ.com
