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Prescribing Pitfalls, Doctors Told To Be Careful, UK
According to a study conducted by the General Medical Council (GMC), approximately 1 in 20 prescriptions GPs in the UK write contain an error. The researchers found that although doctors take prescribing seriously, improvements need to be made in order to lower the rate of prescription errors...

Debt Collectors Visiting Sick Patients In Hospital
Imagine a debt collector visiting sick people who owe money, coming up to their bedsides in hospital, and you might think that this was a description of a new movie - it is not; it really does happen. Debt collectors, according to the Minnesota Attorney General, Lori Swanson, have been confronting debtors in emergency rooms and hospital wards...

Fake Cancer Drug Altuzan (Bevacizumab) Warning By FDA
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning doctors and other health care professionals that fake cancer drug, injectable Altuzan (bevacizumab), has entered the country. Bevacizumab is approved in the USA as Avastin, and sold by Genentech. Injectable Altuzan (400 mg/16 ml) is approved in Turkey, but not the United States, the FDA informs. The fake product has no active ingredient...

Sexual Misconduct Among Most Commonly Reported Online Violations Of Professionalism By Doctors
Results of a survey published in a research letter in JAMA this week, reveal that sexual misconduct and prescribing without an established clinical relationship are among the most common ever reported online violations of professionalism by doctors in the US. For their survey, Dr S...

84% Of Anesthesiologists Involved In Surgical Catastrophes
According to results from a survey published in the March issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, the official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), over 80% of anesthesiologists have been involved in a fatal or serious incident to a patient during a surgical procedure...

Physicians Mistakenly Believe That Poor People Sue More Often
Contrary to the common perception among physicians that poor people sue doctors more frequently, Ramon L. Jimenez from the Monterey Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute and his team demonstrate that socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, in fact, tend to sue physicians less often...

Older Anesthesiologists Face More Litigation
A study in the March issue of Anesthesiology, revealed that anesthesiologists over the age of 65 years had more frequent litigations and were linked to a higher severity of patient injury. Lead researcher, Michael J. Tessler, M.D. said: "We observed a modest but significant increase in the rate of litigation against older anesthesiologists...

Some Doctors Do Not Tell Their Patients The Truth
A significant minority of practicing doctors do not agree that patients should always be told the whole truth, even though The Charter on Medical Professionalism insists on openness and honesty, researchers from Harvard Medical School and other institutions in Massachusetts reported in the journal Health Affairs...

Some Physicians Do Not Agree With, Uphold Standards On Communication With Patients
A significant minority of physicians responding to a national survey disagreed with or admitted not upholding accepted standards of professionalism for open and honest communication with patients...

Most GP Complaints Resolved Locally, UK
According to an analysis of complaints in the latest edition of inpractice, the Medical Defense Union's journal that appears twice a year and is aimed at GP practice manager members covering topics like complaints, RCN indemnity changes and dealing with estranged parents, over 90% of 2,410 complaints made by GP members in the year April 2009/2010 seem to have been resolved locally...

Paper Clips For Root Canals Lands Dentist In Jail
When dentists do a root canal they are supposed to use steel posts, and definitely not paper clips. A dentist from Massachusetts has just received a 1-year prison sentence at the Bristol County House of Correction, for using paper clips for just such procedures - he had faced charges of assault and battery, as well as defrauding Medicaid to the tune of $130,000, and intimidating a witness. Dr...

Breast Implant Boss Arrested
The scandal of the faulty, badly made breast implants from French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) continues with the arrest of Jean-Claude Mas, 72, who according to police has been held at his home in Six-Fours-les-Plages in the South of France...

Research Misconduct Revealed in UK
A BMJ survey revealed that over one in ten (13%) UK based scientists or doctors have witnessed that colleagues intentionally changed or fabricated data during their research in order to get published, whilst 6% of respondents reported they are aware of possible research misconduct at their institution, that has not been accurately investigated...

Researcher Who Studied Benefits Of Red Wine Falsified Data Says University
An extensive misconduct investigation that took three years to complete and produced a 60,000-page report, concludes that a researcher who has come to prominence in recent years for his investigations into the beneficial properties of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, "is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data"...

Point-Of-Care Testing, Avoiding Medical Errors
Given that many medical tests are nowadays rapidly performed at the patient's bedside compared with tests that required sending samples to a laboratory and waiting for results, last month's special issue of Point of Care: The Journal of Near-Patient Testing & Technology reveals that as more of these point-of-care testing (POCT) technologies are integrated into patient care, car...