Risks ‘taken’ in illegal cord blood collections

BBC- 09 March, 2010

Author: Nick Triggle

“Parents, hospitals and private firms are being warned over risky and illegal collections of umbilical cord blood. The Human Tissue Authority said if proper guidelines were not followed samples may be contaminated and safety compromised on maternity wards.”

Read article here.

With Warning, a Hip Device Is Withdrawn

New York Times- 09 March, 2010

Author: Barry Meier

“A unit of Johnson & Johnson, just months after saying it was phasing out an artificial hip implant because of slowing sales, has warned doctors that the device appears to have a high early failure rate in some patients.”

Read article here.

Disabled girl can be sterilised: court

SMH- 08 March, 2010

Author: Paul Osborne

“Disability groups are split over a Family Court decision to approve the sterilisation of an 11-year-old girl. Family Court judge Paul Cronin found that the performance of a hysterectomy on the child, identified only as Angela, was “in the child’s best interests”.”

Read article here.

Reforming Australian health care: the first instalment

MJA, rapid online publication 9 March 2010

Author: John S Deeble

“The Australian Government’s policy statement of 3 March 2010 is the first of what will be a series of announcements on health policy and funding. It is nearly all about public hospitals and federal–state financial relationships. We will have to see if and how the later announcements interact. … Will all this reduce the blame game? Of course not. This policy document is full of it. …It is a significant bureaucratic change though, and, with the next COAG meeting scheduled for 11 April, it is a big ask to seek acceptance in a month.”

Find article here.

Prime Minister Rudd’s plan for reforming Australian public hospitals

MJA, rapid online publication 9 March 2010

Author: David G Penington

“Kevin Rudd’s election commitment in November 2007 to take over the funding of public hospitals and fix them has led to a bold and courageous plan, unveiled after a 15-month review by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) and further extensive consultations. Some pillory the delay, but with such a complex system and so much at stake, caution is admirable. The real questions are whether the solution offered on 3 March 2010 for public hospitals will work, and what problems will it solve? Further debate is urgently needed.”

Find article here.

Nattrass v. Weber, 2010 ABCA 64

Memorandum of Judgment of Justice McFadyen and Justice Slatter and Dissenting Memorandum of Judgment of Justice Sulyma, 26 February 2010

“[1] The three appellant doctors appeal the finding of medical negligence against them: Nattrass v. Weber, 2008 ABQB 259 (CanLII), 2008 ABQB 259, 444 A.R. 303. They argue that the trial judge erred in finding them negligent even though in their treatment of the respondent they followed the practices routinely followed by their profession, and that she applied the wrong legal test for causation.

“[14] The standard of care set for Dr. Weber and Dr. Harley by the trial judge was in error. Having followed the standard practice prevailing for orthopaedic surgeons in 1998, their conduct was not negligent. Their appeal is allowed, and the action dismissed as against them.

“[15] The wrong test for causation was applied to the conduct of Dr. Sevcik, and the standard of care required of him must be revisited. His appeal is allowed, and a new trial directed, as it is not possible on this record to resolve his liability.”

Find full judgment here.

Getting It Right When Things Go Wrong

JAMA. 2010;303(10):977-978.

Authors: Christian M. Pettker; Edmund F. Funai

“The landmark report To Err Is Human was a call to improve the quality of US health care. The title refers to a quote from Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (1711): “To err is human, to forgive divine.” The reference is convenient but not entirely appropriate, because forgiveness suggests the commission of sin, which is inextricably linked to fault and blame. A foundation of the patient safety movement is nonjudgmental recognition of the ubiquity of human and system error. By understanding that error—particularly human error—is inevitable but preventable, patient safety efforts focus on improving systems, creating fail-safe mechanisms that intercept error before the bedside, and implementing measures that mitigate harm when an error involves the patient.”

Find extract here.

Pay for Delay

JAMA. 2010;303(10):929.

Author: Mike Mitka

“Payments by brand-name drug companies to manufacturers of generic drugs to not produce their products cost consumers about $3.5 billion per year, said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a report released January 13 (http://www.ftc.gov/os/2010/01/100112payfordelayrpt.pdf). The report, Pay-for-Delay: How Drug Company Pay-Offs Cost Consumers Billions, calls for Congress to pass legislation to protect consumers from such anticompetitive agreements. The report found that the number of agreements with payment and delay has increased from none in 2004 to 19 in fiscal year 2009.”

Find extract here.

The Line

JAMA. 2010;303(10):921-922.

Authors: Thomas D. Kirsch; Margaret R. Moon
“The Line starts forming at about 5:30 AM, although, in fact, it never really disappears. By the time our bus pulls into the hospital compound at about 7:10, there are 75 to 100 people waiting. The “emergency triage” area has three 40×15–foot tents and is staffed by 7 doctors, about 6 nurses, and a couple of midlevel providers. We see 350 to 475 patients by 5:30 PM. The tide is unrelenting, in numbers, in illness, in injury, and in heartbreak. …What happens to our moral responsibilities as physicians when such unforgiving triage becomes part of the standard of care? What is the ethics of triage? What is the ethics of population triage?”

Find extract here.

WHO releases new malaria guidelines for treatment and procurement of medicines

WHO statement, 9 March 2010

“The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, and the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficacious anti-malarial medicines.”

Find full statement and link to guidelines here.