Ynetnews is reporting that an bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics hes killed dozens of patients in hospital in Israel. The bacteria is called Klebsiella pneumoniae.

A deadly bacterium known as Klebsiella pneumoniae is believed to have killed some 120-200 patients in hospitals across the country.

"Between 400 to 500 people have been infected by the bug, and 30 to 40 percent of them have already died. However, it is important to note that most of them were in a serious condition, and some were suffering from prior medical conditions," said Prof. Yehuda Carmeli, the head of the epidemiology unit at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

Read the rest of this entry »

Health Care Renewal has now been nominated for a Thinking Blogger Award three times, from PharmaGossip, Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, and Seroxat Sufferers. Thanks to all for the honor!

In return, we are expected to nominate five more blogs that have not yet received the award.

I do have to note that many of our favorite blogs have already been cited. But there are more who are deserving. So I nominate, in alphabetical order:

DB's Medical RantsMedPundit

Two of the first general medical blogs, with lots of interesting commentary about the real world of medicine

GoozNews

Lots of interesting health care/ policy posts, with emphasis on conflicts of interest problems

Running a Hospital

Truly unique - a hospital CEO who tells it like it is

The Torch

FIRE's in-house multi-author blog on academic freedom, due process for students and faculty, freedom of conscience, etc

The Los Angeles Times just reported,

Blue Cross of California 'routinely' violated state law when it canceled individual health insurance coverage after policyholders got pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether they did anything to merit such "harsh" treatment, according to a state investigation of practices that appear to be industrywide.

As a result of its unprecedented investigation, the Department of Managed Health Care on Thursday said that it had fined Blue Cross $1 million - an amount immediately criticized by canceled policyholders and consumer advocates as too small to matter to an insurer whose parent company, WellPoint Inc., earned $3.1 billion in profit last year on revenue of $57 billion.

Indianapolis-based WellPoint disputed the findings, saying it acted legally and that some rescissions are necessary to combat fraud.

Read the rest of this entry »

I'll be guest-blogging at at NashvilleIsTalking, run by local ABC affiliate WKRN, this weekend. Come check it out.

Visit Women's Health News at its new home - http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com

A number of important and interesting stories have lately been perspicaciously covered by some other bloggers. I think we are starting to demonstrate that blogging can help spread the word about important cases of health care mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and malfeasance, and of cases of attempts to promote pseudoevidence by deception and intimidation, the sorts of cases which used to only get local coverage. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

On PharmaGossip, the latest pharmaceutical marketing bomb-shell, pharmaceutical representatives moon-lighting in beauty pageants. This is a useful link to look at the next time someone in pharmaceutical marketing argues that drug detailing is all about presenting physicians with the most relevant evidence in a sober and scientific manner.

On the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry Blog, how a pharmaceutical company tried to deal with a scientific presentation suggesting one of its products might be more hazardous that was previously thought. The methods contemplated included trying to stop or delay publication of the paper, possibly by exerting "influence" on the editorial board, or article reviewers. This is another nasty reminder about how marketing may trump science, and patient welfare in some health care organizations.

Read the rest of this entry »

And speaking of leaders of health care organizations who will not tolerate dissent...

The Associated Press (here via SFGate.com) reported that although Dr Andrew von Eschenbach, the new chief of the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) vowed during a congressional hearing to protect "the legal rights of every single employee within the FDA," he seemed to have a rather harsh view of any FDA employee who might speak out publicly in opposition to the party line.

However, during a June 2006 meeting, von Eschenbach told a group of 30 to 40 employees that anyone who went against the "team" could end up being "traded," according to accounts by agency whistle-blowers, including Dr. David Ross.

During Thursday's hearing, von Eschenbach apologized to Ross, who now works for the Department of Veterans Affairs, if his comments had been misunderstood. The FDA head then told lawmakers he wanted to foster an environment - 'if you will, a locker room' - where people with diverse points of view and different perspectives could debate, vigorously and aggressively, any problems or issues.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have previously posted (most recently here) about allegations of mismanagement at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Atlanta Journal Constitution just reported an unusual exchange between Dr Julie Geberding, the head of the CDC, and US Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the US Senate Finance Committee. It seems that Senator Grassley requested a briefing from the newly hired CDC ombudsmen, but Dr Geberding refused the request.

In a March 5 letter to Grassley, Geberding said the two contract employees the CDC has hired to serve as interim ombudsmen believe that briefing the senator would violate standards of practice for ombudsmen and render them unable to continue to do their jobs effectively.

Read the rest of this entry »

A bill introduced into the Tennessee State Legislature (HB1580/SB1958) and discussed this week would take away the power of the Commissioner of Health to require vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases and give that power to the General Assembly. The existing code (49-6-5001(a)) reads:

The commissioner of health is authorized, subject to the approval of the public health council, to designate diseases against which children must be immunized prior to attendance at any school, nursery school, kindergarten, preschool or child care facility of Tennessee.

The proposed legislation would amend that section to add:

Read the rest of this entry »

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released statistics on cosmetic plastic surgery, and reports that:

"Nearly 11 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2006, up 7 percent from 2005. Surgical cosmetic procedures increased 2 percent, with more than 1.8 million procedures performed. For the first time, breast augmentation (329,000) is the most popular surgical procedure since the ASPS began collecting statistics in 1992. Minimally invasive cosmetic procedures increased 8 percent, with more than 9 million performed, and hyaluronic acid injectables (778,000) make the top five for first time. Reconstructive plastic surgery decreased 3 percent."

Among the overall trends, "vaginal rejuvenation" increased 30% since 2005, with 1,030 reported. I have mixed feelings about cosmetic surgery. On one hand, you have every right to blow your money that way. On the other hand, I think there's something awry when nearly two million people in one year choose to have elective surgery because they don't think they look perfect enough. I'm also distubed by the Society's piece on what they term "Mommy Makeovers," which apparently include breast augmentation, tummy tuck and breast lift:

Read the rest of this entry »

We have written extensively about physicians' and health care leaders' financial entanglements with other health care organizations. This week, several important articles providing new insights into this problem appeared.

First, the Journal of the American Medical Association, (JAMA) published an article about pharmaceutical payments to physicians in two states. [Ross JS, Lackner JE, Lurie P et al. Pharmaceutical company payments to physicians: early experience with disclosure laws in Vermont and Minnesota. JAMA 2007; 297: 1216-1223. ] Vermont and Minnesota, as well as several other states, have laws in place requiring pharmaceutical companies to report payments made to physicians for a variety of purposes, and the information from these reports is supposed to be made public.

The main lesson from this study was that problems with the laws and how they were operationalized meant that the data they provided about financial interactions between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry was very incomplete. Ross and colleagues only were able to get access to some of the pharmaceutical companies' reports, and with considerable difficulty. It took considerable negotiation to obtain computerized information from Vermont. Minnesota's records were available, but only in the form of paper forms that the investigators had to laboriously copy. Then they found that considerable data was missing or incomplete. Some companies failed to provide any data during particular years. The Vermont data was linked to specific payment recipients in only a few instances. Finally, it turned out that Vermont allowed companies to withhold information about payments to physicians as "trade secrets."

Read the rest of this entry »