As we approach the New Year 2014 the effects of medical malpractice errors continue to be felt with devastating results. It is estimated that hospitals throughout the United States are responsible for preventable medical errors which cause some 210,000 patient deaths per year. Preventable medical errors include surgery performed upon the wrong part of the patient, [...]
Source: BBC Health News One of the problems with lung cancer, other than its frequent late discovery, is that the cancer adapts and becomes resistant to chemotherapy treatments over time. Once adaption occurs, there is no current treatment available and patients with the disease die from it. Scientists across Britain are undertaking a mapping of [...]
Source: UC Irvine Health News, Making Breast Cancer Surgery More Precise; ucirvinehealth.org One of the many problems facing breast cancer patients is weather their surgeon cut out all of the cancer in her breast during surgery. The goal in a lumpectomy is to completely remove the cancer while preserving as much normal breast tissue as [...]
Sources: David A. Hyman, MD, JD ; and Charles Silver, JD; CHEST 2013; 143(1):222–227 Take it with a grain of salt as it comes from a physician-lawyer and a lawyer, but strongly consider a well-researched article published in a peer reviewed medical journal which seeks to dispel the 5 Major myths that are consistently brought up [...]
Sources: Best Doctors and the National Coalition on Health Care Joint Study; American Journal of Medicine; BMJ Quality and Saftey Cancer is diagnosed more commonly than most physicians, themselves are aware. A series of recently published studies indicate a misdiagnosis rate from 15% to 28% of the time. There are a number of reasons cited by [...]
Sources: JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) 2013;309(8):800-805; National Cancer Institute, SEER Cancer Statistics Review ADVANCED breast cancer, or metastatic breast cancer (spread through the body) effectively tripled among women younger than 40 between 1976 and 2009. These are women whose cancer had already spread by the time it was diagnosed. In this small, but statistically [...]
Sources: U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institutes of Health Childhood Disease Rates have been kept low with the advent of vaccination programs. Childhood disease is common in the early months and years of life. Some upper respiratory viral or bacterial infections—colds, bronchitis, or croup—are quite common. Also common are ear infections, sinusitis, impetigo [...]
Sources: American Cancer Society; and 30+ years of medical malpractice experience EARLY detection of breast cancer, before it causes symptoms, is the key to cure and long-term survival of this disease. The goal of screening exams for early breast cancer detection is to find cancers before they start to cause symptoms. Breast cancers that are [...]
Sources: National Cancer Institute; Journal of Clinical Oncology; Lancet NEOADJUVANT therapy is treatment given before primary therapy. For example, a woman may receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer to shrink a tumor that is inoperable or a woman whose breast tumor can be removed by mastectomy may receive neoadjuvant therapy to shrink the tumor enough to allow breast-conserving [...]
Sources: AARP, The Magazine, Story by Beth Howard; the Leapfrog Group By Gayle R. Lewis, Esquire: Hospital malpractice continues to be a major health concern. The Leapfrog Group is an independent, national not-for-profit organization "founded more than a decade ago by the nation’s leading employers and private healthcare experts." According to their website, "The Leapfrog [...]