Medical Malpractice and the Rise of Gastric Bypass Surgical Errors

The rise in popularity of gastric bypass and other surgical weight loss procedures is directly linked to the rising obesity rates in the Unites States. Gastric bypass is a bariatric surgery technique which treats morbid obesity by dividing the stomach into a small pouch and re-routing the small intestine. This procedure reduces the volume of…

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Can a Blood Test Detect Traumatic Brain Injury?

A new blood test being developed may be able to detect traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to an article published in the Journal of Neurotrauma. TBIs affect about 1.7 million people each year, and it is one of the leading causes of death and disability, according to the CDC. Until this point, doctors relied…

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FDA Approves Praluent a Pricey New Cholesterol-lowering Drug

On July 24, 2015, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Praluent (alirocumab) the first in a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors (protein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9). This new class of medications hold the promise of reducing heart attacks and strokes, which kill approximately 610,000 Americans every year. The PCSK9…

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New Report Links Robotic Surgery to 144 Deaths Since 2000

A team of researchers from MIT, Rush University Medical Center, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have published a paper on Adverse Events in Robotic Surgery, which takes a look at the causes and patient impacts of surgical adverse events in an effort to improve operational systems and practices in the future. After reviewing more…

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How Do Doctors Deal with Medical Mistakes?

Preventable medical errors are frightfully frequent in modern medicine. Research in the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that upwards of 440,000 people die each year and thousands more are injured in the United States from medical errors. This makes medical/hospital mistakes the third leading cause of death for Americans. Doctors (as we and they may…

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