The Boston Globe reports that: Reports of complications from robot-assisted surgery are rising, according to Massachusetts health officials who sent hospitals an “advisory” letter last week alerting them about their safety concerns. In some cases, it appears that doctors have used the aggressively marketed robots to perform hysterectomies and colorectal operations that were too complex [...]
The Association of Health Care Journalists launched a new website – hospitalinspections.org – that has something to offer not only journalists but the general public as well. AHCJ says the site: “…aims to make federal hospital inspection reports easier to access, search and analyze. This site includes details about deficiencies cited during complaint inspections at [...]
Three authors from the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science authored an analysis in the BMJ, “Stop the silent misdiagnosis: patients’ preferences matter.” I’ll only provide the bookends of what they wrote. The beginning: In recent decades, rapid advances in the biosciences have delivered an explosion of treatment options. This is good news for [...]
Pacific Standard reports, “Why Patients Leave Hospitals With a Bad Taste In Their Mouths.” It’s a reminder of the work of Lucian Leape of the Harvard School of Public Health. Excerpts: he believes “that disrespectful behavior—our ability to tolerate it, and not do anything about it—is the root cause of the dysfunctional culture we have [...]
The following is a guest post by Harold DeMonaco, one of our expert editors for HealthNewsReview.org and director of the Innovation Support Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. ———————————————————— A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine is turning a few heads in the health policy arena. The cost of satisfaction: A national [...]
That’s what one author writes in a series of papers published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes this month addressing issues involving the integrity of research data. Yale’s Harlan Krumholz writes: “Patients facing a decision deserve information that is based on all of the evidence.” Further excerpt: Every day, patients and their caregivers are faced [...]
Journalist Laura Newman, on her Patient POV blog, posts, “MR Imaging, Electronic Test Ordering Creates Waste.” She writes: Waste is what you get with rampant, uncritical use of MRI and health information technology, according to two papers out this week. The authors of a companion editorial to one of the papers even go so far [...]
The following is a guest post by Harold DeMonaco, MS, a member of our editorial team, and Director of the Innovation Support Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences he holds a bachelors degree in pharmacy and a masters degree in therapeutics. He has [...]
A sleigh led by a dog. Hey, the red-nosed reindeer had nothing on this mutt. Like Rudolph’s maiden voyage with the fat man, this is the Watchdog’s first time hosting the Wonk Review. So buckle up for a wild ride. Man, there’s a lot in Santa’s bag: unbundling the bundle in the jungle, [...]
This is a guest post from one of our medical editors, Harold DeMonaco, director of the Innovation Support Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. —————————————————————————————- There are approximately 800,000 practicing physicians in the United States and not all of them can be the best. Finding the best doctor is a hit or miss process and [...]
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
While this story adequately addressed 7 of our 10 criteria, the 3 on which it missed were significant omissions, yet could have been easily addressed.
Solid medical conference reporting, with many expert interviews and good context provided. Goes far beyond the conference presentation itself.
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