Medical Malpractice

Insys Therapeutics, the makers of Subsys fentanyl spray, has agreed to pay $225 million “to end criminal and civil investigations into allegations that it used a system of bribes to get doctors to illegally prescribe its highly addictive product,” the Washington Post reports. The company will also plead guilty to 5 counts of mail fraud.…

Thanks to a new law that went into effect on January 1, 2019, hospitals are now required to publish the prices of their procedures. The hospital’s price list must be made public, published online and updated each year, according to a story in Newsweek. The new law also applies to rehabilitation facilities, psychiatric hospitals and…

More than 3,000 patients of an ambulatory surgical center in New Jersey received letters, warning that they may have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens if they had a procedure at the HealthPlus Surgery Center between January and September of 2018. Upon investigation, the NJ Department of Health found that staff at the facility were not…

Once women turn 21, most of them start getting an annual pap smear as part of their regular health care. However, new research shows that the human papillomavirus (HPV) test may actually be a more accurate way of detecting cervical cancer. Replacing the pap smear with the HPV test may allow women go longer between…

A new study indicates that “man’s best friend”– dogs – may be the originator of the next deadly flu outbreak to affect humans. Major disease threats up until recently have focused on birds and pigs as the major carriers of influenzas that can affect humans. Traditionally, dogs only tend to carry particular flu strains that…

Medical devices help millions of people. However, many of the devices that are created to help individuals achieve a better quality of life are plagued with poor design issues and manufacturer defects. One of the major problems is manufacturing companies failing to perform or allow the proper testing necessary, to ensure their devices and drugs…

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) indicate that 1.5 million cases of sepsis occur each year in the U.S. Among these, about 250,000 Americans die annually as a result of this inflammatory response of the body to infection. Diagnosing sepsis in its early stages is critical to the successful recovery of…

Dry needling is a therapeutic option for pain relief that some physical therapists, chiropractors, and sports medicine doctors use to treat pain and increase range of motion in injured patients. However, when this therapy is performed improperly or in an unsterile manner, there are potential risks and side effects that can be serious and cause…

Dry needling is a physical therapy treatment that uses acupuncture needles to treat pain. This is not a generally accepted standard medical practice in the United States. There are many people who have suffered severe injury after dry needling. A Canadian health organization reported on a study of 7,629 dry needling treatments performed by physiotherapists…