Are Short Doctors Unnecessarily Prescribing Growth Hormone to Children?

It's a strong possibility that your doctor is prescribing your child the hormone unnecessarily due to his or her own personal attitudes concerning height. A new study, led by Dr. J. B. Silvers of Case Western Reserve University, showed that some doctors may be just as swayed by their own attitudes about being short as by data, suggests a new study.

Do Doctors' Religious Beliefs Color Their Medical Decisions?

According to a new study, "The role of doctors' religious faith and ethnicity in taking ethically controversial decisions during end-of-life care", published yesterday online in the Journal of Medical Ethics, doctors who are atheist or agnostic are "twice as likely" to make medical choices that can end a terminally ill patient's life more quickly.

Is Settlement Enough In Local Autism Abuse Case?

According to a report in The Times Union, Michael and Lisa Carey, the parents of a 13-year-old autistic boy who died while in state care, have recently settled a lawsuit they had filed against a private facility the child had previously attended.

An Innovative Way to Cut Down On Emergency Room Waiting Time

Have a sprained ankle, need stitches, or feel a cold coming on? Don't want to wait for hours in the emergency room? You may not have to thanks to new systems being put in place by some area hospitals. Hospitals all over the country are now starting to use billboards, text messaging, and other types of technology to inform patients of the amount of time they will have to wait to be seen once in the ER.

Discover Why A Doctor's Apology Is Worth A Thousand Words

Apologizing for a medical mistake may save doctors thousands of dollars and the stress of a malpractice lawsuit. According to a new study, recently published in The Annals of Internal Medicine and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and Brigham and Women's Hospital, doctors that admit a medical error, apologize, and offer compensation are less likely to be sued by their patients.

Doctors Still Able to Obtain Liability Insurance After Being Sanctioned Multiple Times

The Medical Malpractice Insurance Pool of New York State (MMIP) affords insurance to those doctors that are the worst of the worst in New York State and don't qualify for tradiational medical liability insurance. These doctors can't obtain regular malpractice insurance because they have either been sued numerous times, been sanctioned multiple times by the Medical Board, or have lost their hospital privileges temporarily in the past due to negligence.

Make Sure You're Strapped In For This!

It's not uncommon for patients being operated on, taken to the hospital on a stretcher, or just being examined in a doctor's office to fall and injure themselves. Many of these patients are on the heavier side, weighing in at 300 pounds or more. However, you don't have to be overweight to fall during an exam or operation. Medical professionals are filled with anecdotes of times when patients of all sizes have rolled off an exam table and broken their arm, fell off of EMT stretchers and cut their forehead, or rolled off of a hospital bed fracturing their skulls.

Your Rights Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule and New York laws give you rights to your medical records. The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes standards that apply to records held by health care providers across the nation, and New York law sets standards for records maintained by health care providers within the state. Health care providders in New York must follow both the HIPAA Privacy Rule and New York law.

Did You Know that the Doctor Treating You May Not Have Slept in Over 30 Hours?

In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education adopted guidelines to limit the amount of hours that residents could be required to work. The guidelines stated that residents could work no more than 80 hours a week with no more than 30 hours of consecutive work. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recently moved to further alter these guidelines and asserts that while the 80 hour limit should be maintained, residents should be provided with at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep per every 16 hour shift. Other groups advocating for a reduction in hours argue that further guidelines should be put in place that further reduce the 80 hour week to a 60 hour week and that residents are still too tired to do their jobs properly.

Lifesaving Diagnostic Test May Lead To Serious Health Problems

In recent months, patients that have been administered CT brain perfusion scans, also known as "Stroke Scans", are experiencing hair loss, confusion, memory loss, and headaches as a result of massive radiation overdoses.

Doctors Don't Always Have To Take Pre-med Classes to Get Into Medical School

Mount Sinai Medical School accept approximately thirty-five students a year who have not taken pre-medical school course work into their medical program. This unorthodox practice is part of their special program known as "HuMed". The HuMed Program admits humanities students into medical school that have not taken any science classes.

Are New Yorkers Being Pushed To Have Invasive Cardiac Procedures?

Medical research shows that patients that have open-heart surgery live longer than those that have PCI procedures. PCI procedures, while they may alleviate symptoms of heart disease, may not lengthen life expectancy. Even so, earlier research by Hannan suggests that procedures such as angioplasty and stenting procedures (procedures also known as percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI))are grossly overused.

Recently Had A Mammogram? You May Want To Get A Second Opinion

Diagnosing breast cancer can be difficult, and your physician may not have the skill to do so correctly. Research by the American Medical Association shows that the number of diagnostic errors is growing and that such diagnosis results in as many as 80,000 deaths each year.

When Bypassing The Emergency Room May Save Your Life

According to a new study conducted by the United Hospital of St. Paul, Minnesota, if you are having a heart attack, patients get faster care and are more likely to survive if they are brought directly to a hospital "cath lab" instead of the hospital's emergency room.

Doctors and Nurses Arrested In Massive Medicare Scam

Ninety-four people were arrested and charged yesterday for filing close to 4,000 false Medicare claims totaling around $251 million dollars. Among those charged were numerous doctors and nurses.

Strong Link Between Fibromyalgia and Suicide

Do you suffer from chronic, unexplainable pain? Has your doctor diagnosed you with Fibromyalgia? You may be at an increased risk of suicide, liver disease, and stroke. According to Danish researchers, a new study of death rates of women diagnosed with Fibromyalgia revealed that women diagnosed with this condition were ten times more likely to commit suicide than those not diagnosed with the condition. They also found a "higher than average" risk of death from liver disease and strokes.

Doctors differ in their opinions of why suicide rates may be higher in those diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Some physicians assert that Fibromyalgia is really a manifestation of psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and mood disorders. Others assert that the great pain associated with Fibromyaligia may lead those diagnosed to commit suicide in order to end the pain. Still others argue that the medications prescribed for the condition may be leading to an increased suicidal risk in these patients.

The researchers and physicians are not sure why patients with Fibromyalgia may be at a higher risk for liver disease and stroke. However, some say that research shows that patients with Fibromyaligia tend to be of greater weight, and exercise less due to the chronic pain that they suffer. This may lead to an increase in liver and heart disease.

Whatever the reason, this study should send a strong message to physicians with patients diagnosed with Fibromyalgia to evaluate their patients for pre-existing psychiatric conditions, to ask their patients regularly whether they having thoughts of suicide, and to monitor their condition carefully. They also need to monitor their patients' liver functions, and to encourage their patients to exercise as much as possible. 

If you have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, don't rely on your doctor alone to monitor your condition. If you are having thoughts of suicide, or severe depression, consult your doctor right away. Make sure that you and your doctor evaluate the suicide risks in any medications that you are taking, and don't be afraid to go to a friend if you are feeling sad. There have been great strides made in Fibromyalgia treatment in recent years. There are treatments that can help ease the effects you feel, and you never have to suffer alone.

Are "Meaningful Use Rules" Not So Meaningful Anymore?

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released its final version of the guidelines detailing the reporting measures that must be taken by healthcare providers to qualify for these incentives over the next four years.

True or False? Doctors Are Unwilling to Report Impaired or Incompetent Colleagues

Many doctors are unwilling to report their impaired or incompetent colleagues to the proper authorities.

A Surprising Mistake that Your Physician May Make When Treating You

Always make sure that your physician reviews your test results

Click to Donate Organ: Long Overdue

New Yorkers are now able to register online to become an organ donor, which should streamline the organ donation procedure.

Avandia Dispute: good or bad for consumers?

Years of uncertainty about dangers of Avandia medication leaves risks for consumers

Further proof that the Joint Commission is useless at enforcing safety at hospitals

Joint Commission does little to monitor and enforce safety at American hospitals, as revealed by a recent study

Yet Another Medical Malpractice Myth

Insurance rates for New York Doctors to only rise 5%

What will you do if your hospital closes?

Hospital closures may lead to increased malpractice suits, and a difficulty in obtaining an already decided settlement. Don't let hospital closures affect you.