The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo (“Texas Appellate Court”), in its Memorandum Opinion dated March 18, 2020, addressed a nurse’s whistleblower claim against her employer, a Texas hospital, regarding mandatory work shifts. The Texas Appellate Court… Read More
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FDA Issues Draft Guidance Regarding Breast Implants
On October 24, 2019, the FDA issued “Breast Implants – Certain Labeling Recommendations to Improve Patient Communication” containing recommendations concerning the content and format for certain labeling information for saline and silicone gel-filled breast implants. The FDA stated that it… Read More
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FDA Issues Safety Alert Regarding Fecal Transplantation
On June 13, 2019, the FDA issued a safety alert in which it stated, in part, “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is informing health care providers and patients of the potential risk of serious or life-threatening infections with the… Read More
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FDA Orders Manufacturers Of Surgical Mesh For Pelvic Organ Prolapse To Cease Sales And Distribution
On April 16, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered the manufacturers of all remaining surgical mesh products indicated for the transvaginal repair of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) to immediately stop selling and distributing their products in the… Read More
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Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Are A Curse To Both Health Care Providers And Patients
Kaiser Health News (KHN) recently reported in an article entitled Death By 1,000 Clicks: Where Electronic Health Records Went Wrong the results of “a months-long joint investigation by KHN and Fortune has found that instead of streamlining medicine, the government’s… Read More
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Almost Half Of U.S. Adults Have Cardiovascular Disease
The American Heart Association (AHA) announced on January 31, 2019 the findings of its Heart and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update that was published in its journal Circulation. The researchers found that 48 percent of all adults in the United… Read More
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FDA Formally Accepts ClinGen Expert Curated Human Genetic Data
On December 4, 2018, the FDA formally recognized a public database that contains information about genes, genetic variants and their relationship to disease known as ClinGen Expert Curated Human Genetic Data. The FDA’s action is intended enhance the efficient development… Read More
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Drug And Medical Device Companies Paid $8,180,000,000 To 631,000 Physicians For Travel, Research, Speaking Fees, And Meals In 2016
Open Payments is a federal program, required by the Affordable Care Act, that collects information about the payments drug and device companies make to physicians and teaching hospitals for things like travel, research, gifts, speaking fees, and meals. It also… Read More
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Maryland Has Highest Hospitalization Rate For Opioid Use
Between 2005 and 2014, the rate of opioid-related inpatient hospital stays in the United States increased 64.1%, from 136.8 per 100,000 population in 2005 to 224.6 per 100,000 population in 2014, representing a 5.7% average annual growth rate. During the… Read More
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Study Suggests Hospitalized Patients’ Outcomes Are Better If They Are Treated By Physicians Who Are Female
A study published online in JAMA Internal Medicine on December 19, 2016 entitled, “Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians” found that patients who were treated by female physicians had significantly lower mortality… Read More