Piling On…
A driver injured a boy riding a scooter. The boy suffered significant head injury. The boy sued the driver. While the driver believed that some of the injuries were caused by medical negligence – after the accident – the court precluded the driver from presenting … Read more
Can You Patent a Medical Procedure? Well, Yes and No.
In the mid-1990s, Dr. Samuel Pallin patented a type of stitch-less cataract surgery procedure. He attempted to license the patent to other ophthalmologists. One such surgeon was Dr. Jack Singer. Singer not only refused the demand for royalties, but started a broad political movement against medical procedure patents. Singer argued he actually devised the procedure before Pallin’s patent was … Read more
Jail Time for Using the Wrong Pronoun
Most physicians defer to patients’ wishes as to how they want to be called. It’s a sign of deferential respect. If there’s a 40-year age discrepancy between a young treating physician and an elderly Medicare patient, the senior likely doesn’t want to be called Pops. … Read more
Medical School for Free
NYU Medical School recently announced it will waive tuition for all medical students, now and going forward. NYU has raised $450M of the needed $600M to fund this gift in perpetuity. Kenneth Langone (one of the Home Depot founders) and his wife donated $100M. One reason NYU … Read more
Why Doctors Don’t Like to Retire
Guest Blog Post by David Mokotoff, MD The past decade has seen an enormous upheaval in the practice of medicine. The private independent medical practice is in danger of extinction. Management overhead and red tape has skyrocketed due to government regulations and private insurance and … Read more
Crap, It’s Always Something
Sometimes the little things matter just as much as the big ones. They can create downstream problems that were never anticipated. We recently heard from a surgeon in Ohio. He was performing an office-based procedure. An employee was looking for the doctor. She quickly opened … Read more
FDA Warns Companies Against Marketing Benefits of Vaginal Rejuvenation
Medical practices often add new techniques and procedures to increase revenue. I’m not suggesting the only reason is revenue. Presumably it’s to serve the patient and make a living BY serving the patient. And, I’m not opposed to physicians expanding what they do from treating … Read more
Man Bites Dog. Doctor Sues Attorney and Wins $8M in Jury Verdict for Malicious Prosecution.
One Arizona doctor had a good ending to a horrible odyssey. The urologist, Dr. Trabucco, was sued by an attorney for medical malpractice. Actually, this attorney did not really argue run-of-the-mill professional negligence. He argued the doctor “committed willful and malicious actions upon [the Plaintiff], … Read more
Physicians Interrupt Patients After 11 Seconds
A recent article evaluated 112 recorded clinical encounters. The rationale was testing of “shared decision-making tools.” I was confused by the findings and conclusions. In 27 of the 40 (67%) encounters in which clinicians elicited patient concerns, the clinician interrupted the patient after a median of 11 seconds (interquartile … Read more
Some Attorneys Behave Like Jerks
Yes, I know. The sun rises in the east. Sets in the west. And 2+2=4. Most of the time, when an attorney requests a copy of medical records for something like a personal injury case, auto accident, worker’s comp, they are professional, courteous, and offer … Read more
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