Hospital efforts to cut back long hours for medical residents in order to improve patient safety has proven to have the opposite effect, according to two new studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Since a medical oversight board decreased the...
Having an empathetic doctor can actually decrease your pain awareness, according to a new study published in Patient Education and Counseling, which makes finding the right doctor all the more important. "The degree to which patients develop a positive...
When a patient goes under the knife, they are essentially putting their lives in the hands of what they believe to be a competent, qualified surgeon. But what happens when this professional makes a mistake as egregious as operating on the wrong body part? This was the...
Questions continue to arise about the future of the compounding industry after 50 people were killed starting last fall by tainted steroid injections distributed by the New England Compounding Center. Because most of the 2,700 pharmacists in the International Academy...
Out of every 1,000 newborns, two will suffer from an injury to the brachial plexus, a group of nerves in the spinal cord that controls motor functions in the elbow, shoulders and hands. Brachial plexus injuries commonly occur as a result of medical negligence and...
Almost 750 U.S. hospitals claimed to be the "best" or "top" in at least one specialty in 2011, but how many of these claims can you actually trust? With hospital evaluation ratings each using its own methodology, and often coming to very different conclusions, these...
A chemical commonly used in everyday products could potentially impact the birth weight and long-term health of newborn babies, according to a recent study. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is used in everything from food-can linings to plastic containers, and its high levels in...
More than one in five nursing homes in the United States have been found to administer antipsychotic drugs to patients whose conditions do not warrant their use, exposing them to dangerous side effects, according to recent data. Antipsychotics are commonly being...
Summer will not just bring longer days and warmer weather but also an increased chance of catching a potentially fatal drug-resistant bacteria, according to a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Methycillin-resistant staphylococcus auereus,...
Due to the large number of medical malpractice claims a year - for everything from mistakes in treatment to an uninformed patient - the topic has wide currency in medical circles. But can you really believe everything you read? One can easily find common malpractice...
