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© The Medical-Legal News, 2007

• The FDA recently ordered a “black box” warning for diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone). The drug has been shown to raise the risk of heart attack by as much as 40 percent, though doctors are not being urged to have patients stop taking it. Rosiglitazone is also found in Avandaryl and Avandamet.

— Newscom

• Regulators in California have moved to close King-Harbor hospital in L.A. Several recent egregious acts of patient neglect there have garnered media attention.

— Los Angeles Times

• Researchers have been able to “reverse-create” stem cells from mouse skin, theoretically eliminating the need for using embryos. Perfecting the procedure in humans could take as long as 20 years.

— Wire services 

• The TB bacterium has about 4,000 genes. Slight mutations in these genes mean that different strains of TB can have wildly different effects on the humans they infect. There are at least 875 strains that fall into six broad families.

— Science News

• In a California case a patient could not sue caregivers for involuntarily holding him. His mental status was so poor, and because he was thusly documented, good faith required the providers to keep him.

— Skobin v. Cunningham

• Electronic stability control systems in cars would save 9,600 lives per year if such systems were mandatory. ESC systems are optional and more often found on luxury cars.

— NHSA 

• In an Arkansas case a nursing home was sued and the plaintiff received a default judgment against it. The nursing home had lost the lawsuit papers and failed to respond in a timely manner. In short, losing paperwork is not a defense.

— Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter

• Patients lose confidentiality of their medical records when they file a lawsuit, even records earlier or later than the incident. The records even can be unfavorable to their case.

— Court of Appeals of Michigan

• The average 300-bed hospital spends $3 million per year on time lost just moving supplies and medicines around. A market is growing for hallway robots to transport such items.

— aethon.com 

• The EPA has been asked by an advisory group to consider classifying PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) as a toxin. PFOA is found in the blood of most people and comes from seep-proof coatings used to package foods. The chemical breaks down slowly and is slow to be excreted.

— Science News

• The children of an elderly woman fixed up her home to raise its value before the woman entered a nursing home. The home’s value increased, but when the children discovered that all of the home sale proceeds would have to go to the nursing home, they decided to pay themselves as contractors. The court disallowed this, noting that the children were not legitimate contractors, and that their work should be deemed a gift. 

— Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter

• Women are not the only people who might benefit from the HPV vaccine. People with oroptharyngeal throat cancer were found to carry a high concentration of HPV in their throat cells. Oral sex is thought to be the mechanism of transference. [See story, Page 16]. More than one-fourth of American women carry the HPV virus. Women age 14 to 24 have an infection rate of 34 percent.

— New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA

• Scientists believe they are close to a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease.

— Johns Hopkins University

• Lethal injection may be inhumane. The three-drug cocktail used to execute prisoners was created in 1977 and has never been evaluated for efficacy. The injection includes the sedative sodium thiopenthal, pancuronium bromide which causes paralysis, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Insufficient sodium thiopenthal may cause the condemned person to be self-aware while the other drugs take effect.

— University of Miami

• In a simulated course, surgeons who played video games frequently made 37 percent fewer mistakes than did surgeons who never played.

— JAMA

• RNs spend about 60 percent of their time on actual patient care and the rest on administrative or other functions. 

— JONA

• Pesticide poisoning among children is on the rise. In California alone, from 1996 to 2005, there were almost 600 illnesses caused by drifting agricultural pesticides.

— AP, JAMA

• The beleaguered airline industry faces a new threat: In the past 25 years airline companies have awarded more than 19 trillion frequent flyer miles. About 14 trillion of those miles are unredeemed. Because of rising ticket prices and fuel costs, some experts believe more people will be redeeming the miles and further straining the airline industry.

— Reuters

• Your personal DNA can be turned into art. DNA 11 can create a large wall photograph of your DNA in your choice of colors.

— www.dna11.com

• The majority of high-achieving men want to marry a woman who is their professional equivalent, but the majority of high-achieving women will settle for a man with less education than themselves.

— “Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women”

• A new test, called a gene expression test, can accurately predict the likelihood of the growth of breast cancer cells, lessening the need for unnecessary chemotherapy. MammaPrint and Oncotype DX are two trade names.

— Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

• Pregnant women living in areas with poor air quality give birth to babies with lower birth weights.

— Environmental Health Perspectives

• Medicare is not enough: A couple in their mid 60’s who retire in 2007 will need from $150,000 to $300,000 to cover out of pocket items, co pays, drugs, and other things not covered by Medicare.

— Bottom Line Health

• In a New York case a hospital was ordered to provide worker’s comp benefits to a nurse who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder after a needle stick that was believed to be HIV positive.

— AGN

• From 1998 to 2005, the level of nicotine rose more than 11 percent in all cigarettes, except for Basic and Winston. 

— Harvard Tobacco Control Research Program

• Wages paid in fast food restaurants are often better than wages in nursing homes or long-term care facilities.

— International Longevity Center

• Good-looking bosses are perceived to be more competent and better delegators than are less attractive ones.

— Image Architect

• Elderly women with osteoporosis who received yearly injections of zoledronic acid had 33 percent fewer fractures than did a control group.

— University of California, San Francisco