The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare — the health care advocacy organization comprised of some of the nation’s foremost hospitals and health systems that utilizes “a systematic approach to analyze specific breakdowns in care and discover their underlying causes” — recently released a new online resource designed to combat one of the more prevalent […]
Last time, we started discussing the rather shocking levels at which misdiagnoses are made by physicians here in the U.S. and how some experts are now attributing part of this problem to the traditional clinical apprenticeship approach relied upon by the nation’s medical schools. In general, the traditional clinical apprenticeship approach calls for the physician-in-training […]
When it comes to the notion of medical errors, most people understand there is always some risk their treating physician will do something wrong. For instance, they know mistakes can be made regarding the treatment pursued, the medication prescribed and the surgery performed. What people seem to have a harder time understanding and accepting, regarding […]
For several months now, our blog has been following the infection epidemic associated with duodenoscopes, a medical device run down the throat that is used roughly 650,000 times per year here in the U.S. to treat gastrointestinal issues like tumors, gallstones and other blockages in the pancreatic and bile ducts. The infection risk posed by […]
Thanks to news stories highlighting military missions or trips to the local park, more people than ever are now familiar with drones. However, it’s important to understand that use of this technology — whether resembling a miniaturized plane or a so-called quadcopter — is not just limited to Air Force pilots, budding photographers and hobbyists. […]
Over the last decade, hospitals across the U.S. have been working hard to raise satisfaction scores, improve patient safety, lower the number of readmissions and, of course, limit their medical malpractice exposure. While these are rather lofty goals, many have actually been able to achieve them thanks to the deployment of a new patient care […]
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student in elementary school or graduate school, summer is considered sacrosanct, a time to take a much-needed break from the daily grind and explore nonacademic pursuits. Indeed, most students still have over a month before they have to head back to the classroom. Interestingly enough, there is at least […]
Last time, we started delving into a fascinating — yet highly alarming — study undertaken by a group of researchers from the University of Illinois, Rush University Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which uncovered an alarming number of complications and technical difficulties associated with robotic surgery. In today’s post, we’ll continue our […]
In last week’s posts discussing hernias and some of the potential dangers associated with laparoscopic surgery, one of the primary treatments for hernias, we briefly touched on the topic of robotic surgery. Specifically, we mentioned how use of this advanced equipment for the treatment of hernias was still relatively limited due to a variety of […]
In our previous post, we discussed how millions of Americans develop a serious medical condition known as a hernia every year. To recap, the condition — characterized by a prominent and painful bulge in the abdomen — is caused by the deterioration of the muscle in the abdominal wall, which creates a space through which […]
