Way Beyond Kickbacks: More Serious Misconduct Alleged Against Medical Testing...
The problems go way beyond kickbacks. As previously reported (here and in the Wall Street Journal) the US government is conducting an investigation into Health Diagnostic Laboratory, a medical...
View ArticleA ‘Disappeared’ Article, Finally Published, Finds A Desultory Response To...
Back in January an article in the European Heart Journal raising the disturbing possibility that guidelines based on fraudulent research may have been responsible for as many as 800,000 deaths was...
View ArticleNew England Journal Of Medicine Declines To Retract Papers From Disgraced...
Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the two New England Journal of Medicine papers by disgraced Dutch researcher Don Poldermans will never stand straight. But like the famous Tower they are also unlikely...
View ArticleWhy Bad Doctors Are Like Bad Writers: The Curse Of Knowledge
Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist and best-selling author, has a wonderful essay in the Wall Street Journal about why smart people are so often bad writers. Although the essay doesn’t touch on...
View ArticleDoctor: You’re Going To Have A Heart Attack! Patient: Your Tests Results Are...
Last month I wrote a series of articles (starting here) about HDL, a laboratory company under investigation by the DOJ for giving kickbacks to physicians who use their tests. I reported additional...
View ArticleThree Reasons Why You Don’t Need To Feel Sorry For Doctors
I’m not a doctor and I don’t have strong opinions about how doctors should be certified or, more to the point right now, what they should have to do to maintain their certification over the course of...
View ArticleWhy Doctors, Like Airline Pilots, Should Not Be Completely Trusted.
I would never get on an airplane if I didn’t feel highly confident that the pilot was fully competent. In order to fly a commercial airplane a pilot has to undergo rigorous and continuous training and...
View ArticleSalt, Science, And The American Heart Association’s Double Standard
Once again the American Heart Association is sticking by its recommendation that pretty much everyone should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium each day. This is dramatically lower than...
View ArticleNo, Too Much Jogging Probably Won’t Kill You
One again lazy health journalists have fallen down on the job and performed a disservice to the public. The new outrage: a multitude of media reports about a small study on the effect of jogging on...
View ArticleNo, Drinking Coffee Won’t Save Your Life Or Prevent Heart Attacks
Once again the media has swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker. Following the publication of a a new study in the journal Heart last night, hundreds of news reports have now appeared extolling the...
View ArticleOrexigen Released Interim Data Without Approval Of Trial Leaders
Earlier today Orexigen Therapeutics disclosed positive results from a clinical trial of Contrave, its weight loss pill (a combination of naltrexone and bupropion) that it markets with Takeda. (You can...
View ArticleMark Cuban Should Take The Cigar Out Of His Mouth And Stop Giving Health Advice
Last night the celebrity billionaire Mark Cuban ignited a firestorm on Twitter with the following recommendation to his 2.7 million followers: 1)If you can afford to have your blood tested for...
View ArticleNo, You Probably Won’t Drop Dead While Exercising
Dropping dead while exercising is a common fear, especially among middle-aged men. Unfortunately there have been limited data on the precise rate of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in middle-aged people...
View ArticleTwo Dirty Little Secrets About Electronic Health Records
Here are two dirty little secrets about electronic health records (EHR). Just about everyone in the field already knows these secrets, and many are quietly horrified, but few want to discuss them since...
View ArticleInside The Scandal: Profit And Greed At An Embattled Laboratory Company
How does a clinical laboratory company grow in a few short years from nothing to more than $400 million in revenue and over $100 million in profit? Since the same company just settled with the DOJ for...
View ArticleNo, Pharmascolds Are Not Worse Than The Pervasive Conflicts Of Interest They...
Let’s start with a quick poll: Which is worse? A. The pervasive influence of industry on medicine, which has undermined the independence and altruism of physicians. B. The critics of industry...
View Article$300 Millions Dollars Of Cardiology Sunshine
$300 million dollars. That’s how much industry paid to cardiologists and other related healthcare professionals between August 2013 and December 2014… … Click here to read my entire story on MedPage...
View ArticleThe Amarin Decision: Free Speech Or Truthiness?
Amarin, which makes the prescription fish oil product Vascepa, won a big victory last Friday in its ongoing battle against the FDA. The bottom line: a federal judge ruled that the FDA can’t restrict...
View ArticleAll The Woo That’s Fit To Print: An Open Letter To The New York Times Public...
Dear Public Editor, Why does the New York Times continue to allow fashion and style reporters to write stories that contain preposterous scientific and medical statements without providing any outside...
View ArticleIMPROVE-IT Substudy: Ezetimibe Benefit Restricted To Diabetics
The beneficial effects of ezetimibe are found almost exclusively in patients with diabetes, according to an update of the influential IMPROVE-IT trial presented on Sunday at the European Society of...
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