Medical Errors Harm Up to 25 Percent of Patients in Outpatient Care
A white paper released in January 2020 by the Foundation for the Innovation and Development of Health Safety shows that 20-25 percent of patients are harmed by medical errors in primary and ambulatory care (outpatient) in both developed countries like the U.S. and Europe and in developing countries. Primary and ambulatory care is one of […]
Medical Errors Kill Five People Per Minute, 2.6 Million People Every Year
A new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.6 million people die annually in low-and middle-income countries from medical errors, and that most of those deaths are related to misdiagnosis and administration of pharmaceutical products. According to the WHO, “Four out of every ten patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory […]
Medical “Experts” Were Wrong About the Safety of Opioids
Story Highlights Addiction to and death from prescription painkillers is now a public health crisis in the United States. In the early 1990s, medical “experts” and “thought leaders” made claims convincing the medical community and the public that prescription painkillers were non-addictive when used in the long-term. Financial conflict of interest between opioid manufacturers and […]
Big Shortage of Doctors for Chronically Ill Americans
Story Highlights A recent survey released by Merritt Hawkins reveals that not only are American hospitals and clinics facing a shortage of primary care physicians but also a shortage of medical specialists. The survey attributes this to an aging population. However, the report also reveals that there is a shortage of pediatric subspecialties indicating a […]
U.K. Pediatricians Refuse Money from Baby Formula Companies
Story Highlights The United Kingdom’s Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has moved to stop accepting any funds from manufacturers of infant formula. The formula companies have a long history of questionable marketing ploys, particularly targeting poor and uneducated women in developing countries. The benefits of exclusively feeding babies with breast milk for […]
Medical Marketing in the U.S. Increases to $30 Billion
A recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that expenditures on medical marketing in the United States significantly increased between 1997 and 2016. The study showed that spending on medical marketing rose from $17.7 billion in 1997 to $29.9 billion in 2016.1 Health care spending in the U.S. is […]
