Just How Broken is the FDA?
The reexamination of a knee device and a campaign to extend the patent of a blood-thinning medication underscore the need for FDA reform.
30 Mar
2010
30 Mar
2010
Expensive, Dangerous
Evidence mounts that many of the procedures that constitute the current “standard of care” fail to promote health, are unnecessary and may put patients at greater risk. These risks increase with a standardized, one-size-fits-all form of monopoly medicine.
02 Mar
2010
FDA Memo Blasts Diabetes Medicine Avandia
Sens. Charles Grassley, I-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., have released an October 2008 memo written by FDA drug-safety reviewers Drs. David Graham and Kate Gelperin. The memo concludes that Avandia poses serious risks exceeding those of Actos, a competing drug.
02 Mar
2010
Death in a White Coat
Two fourth-year Harvard Medical School students question the slow trickledown to medical schools from the 1999 Institute of Medicine report blaming medical errors for 98,000 deaths annually.
23 Feb
2010
Saving Lives, Wasting Money
It’s paradoxical that our healthcare system, which excels at saving lives, can’t seem to cure itself of squandering money. A landmark comparative effectiveness study suggests ways to improve care and reduce waste — but appears to be ignored
16 Feb
2010
Who’s Minding the War on Bugs?
As China exports a wave of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the disjointed effort by three different government agencies to address food safety are not likely to accomplish much.
09 Feb
2010
GAO Hounds Supplement Makers
The Government Accounting Office has contacted makers of dietary supplements, announcing its review of the marketing of certain herbal supplements (chamomile, Echinacea, peppermint oil, ginger root, fennel seed). This is being done at the request of the Senate Select Committee on Aging.
09 Feb
2010
NIH’s New Radiation Policy
National Institutes of Health now requires all CT and other radiation-producing scanners used at NIH clinics to come with software able to track the dosage of radiation given to every patient and log it into an electronic medical record.
02 Feb
2010
How Hard is it to Spell ‘D’?
Each week brings new studies confirming the benefits of vitamin D, and yet there is widespread vitamin-D deficiency in industrialized nations. Why is the government standing in the way of our addressing this public-health crisis?
02 Feb
2010
Safety of Radiation Questioned
The doctor tapped by the Atomic Energy Commission to study the effects of radiation on humans has warned about the risks of medical radiation since 1990, even when administered “properly.” So why is it still business as usual?