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Doctors Fail To Disclose Evidence About Spine Product’s Cancer Risk

Reporter John Fauber has published the latest in his “Side Effects” watchdog series, headlined “Doctors didn’t disclose spine product cancer risk in journal: Spine-product paper omitted key data.” Excerpts:

“Doctors paid millions of dollars by Medtronic failed to identify a significant cancer risk with the company’s spine surgery product in a 2009 paper about results of a large clinical trial.

The surgeons left out important data and claimed there was no significant link between the product and cancer.

The company and doctors had become aware of information on Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

Sepsis Drug Pulled From The Market Due To Its Inefficacy

The irony here is that Eli Lilly has advanced sepsis care (as a prelude to using their drug), and while Xigris hasn’t panned out, aggressive sepsis resuscitation has.

Eli Lilly is withdrawing drotrecogin alfa (Xigris) from all markets worldwide after a major study failed to show a survival benefit for patients taking the drug.

Xigris should be discontinued immediately in patients currently receiving it and should not be started in new patients, the company said.

The trial with the bad news on Xigris was Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*

Emergency Contacts In Your Mobile Phone: Let ICE Speak For You When You Can’t

A good friend and fellow physician sent me this notice. This is an important public service announcement.

An individual citizen, not the government, initiated the program.  If adoption of the program becomes a national standard, it will demonstrate people power and individual responsibility.

The key to Repairing the Healthcare System is individual responsibility. This program represents an opportunity for every individual to assume responsibility for themselves and alert everyone they know to be responsible for themselves.

A paramedic conceived ICE.  At the scene of accidents he found cell phones on an unconscious victim but he could not find whom to notify.

He thought it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized symbol to find a victim’s contact person In Case of an Emergency in the victims cell phone directory.

The ICE cell phone number could be Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*

Energy Star Food Rating System: Another Futile Attempt To Promote Healthy Eating?

The Institute of Medicine has just released it’s recommendation that all foods be rated with an ‘energy star’ system: three stars = good, zero stars = bad:

The Energy Star system is a model because it’s simple and easy to use, and also because it’s gained traction with industry, which now develops products with the rating in mind, committee members said.

Except that this rating system hasn’t gained traction with industry:

But the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute announced their own front-of-the-pack system, called Facts Up Front, in January. It gives information on calories, saturated fat, sodium and added sugars but doesn’t rate foods according to those components.

In a statement today, the GMA said it has “concerns about Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Women At Higher Risk Of Having A Stroke With Afib

You don’t want this…

When it comes to the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation, it pays to be a boy. Sorry, ladies.

An important question came up on my recent post on AF and stroke.

Why does being female give you an automatic point on CHADS2-VASc?  I keep seeing it, but I don’t see why that is.

It doesn’t seem intuitive that female AF patients should have more strokes. Why? AF should equal AF.

But it does matter. When it comes to AF and stroke, women are very different.

Here are three references that support the fact that female gender increases the risk of stroke in AF.

–First: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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