Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

A recently published government report has sparked additional concerns regarding the risk of overexposure to radiation from unnecessary radiology scans. The results of the national report on medical imaging practices shows that Illinois hospitals provide double chest CT scans almost twice as often as other hospitals nationwide. A double chest CT scan is when a study is ordered both with and without contrast, which requires it to be done twice thereby exposing the patient to twice as much radiation.

One of the main hospitals cited in the report as potentially giving "patients a double scan when a single scan is all they need" is Edward Hospital, located in Naperville, Illinois. Edward Hospital officials were reportedly surprised to learn that their CT scans exceeded the national average and have since launched an investigation into its radiology department policies and procedures.

The new government reports on Edward Hospital and other medical institutions nationwide can be found at the government-run website Hospital Compare. This informative website allows patients to search different hospitals by region and compare the quality of care provided by each. Medical information websites like Hospital Compare allow patients to be their own medical advocate and make informed decisions about their care and treatment.

Continue reading "Illinois Hospitals' Double CT Scans Exceed National Average for Rate of Usage - Raises Concerns for Overexposure to Radiation" »

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer for American women, coming in just second behind lung cancer. According to www.breastcancer.org, one in every eight women in the U.S. develops some form of breast cancer. Like any form of cancer, a delay in diagnosis or a misdiagnosis of cancer can have a negative effect on a patient's outcome.

Once breast cancer is diagnosed, the typical treatment for breast cancer involves surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. However, a new study unveiled at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) could change the standard for breast cancer treatment. TARGIT-A study is an international study of breast cancer clinical trials involving over 2,000 breast cancer patients. The participants were women 45 years-old and up who had been diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer and were undergoing breast-conserving surgery.

Traditionally patients who elect for breast-conserving surgery undergo whole breast external radiation therapy for up to 6 1/2 weeks following surgery. However, the TARGIT-A clinical trials studied the effects of targeted radiation administered during the surgery. The radiation is administered in a single dose and targets only the area of the breast with cancer instead of the whole breast. Half of the studies participants underwent the traditional post-op radiation while the other half received the targeted radiation therapy during surgery. The TARGIT-A study found that the targeted therapy group did somewhat better overall than the traditional radiation group.

Continue reading "Breast Cancer One-Dose Radiation Treatment Option Revealed at Chicago Oncology Meeting" »

In an effort to find new ways to stop tumors from growing, scientists are researching ways to develop drugs that will stop blood vessels from growing. The first step to developing these complex drugs is to identify the human genes that are essential for blood vessel growth, something that researchers at the University of Austin were able to do by using the new branch of biology known as deep homology.

The study's results, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that these scientists were able to identify five different human genes that were essential for blood vessel growth. The hope is that by developing a drug that would halt these genes from working we would have a new tool in the fight against cancer.

And while the results of the study are remarkable, what is perhaps even more amazing is the way these scientists isolated these human genes. The researchers first identified the blood vessel growing genes by discovering that the same genes work at building cell walls in yeast. The same group of scientists is responsible for finding the genes associated with deafness by studying plants and the genes associated with breast cancer by studying nematode worms.

Continue reading "Deep Homology Opens Up New Possibilities For Gene Research" »

Last Friday, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston hosted a symposium for patients diagnosed with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) and their families. The all-day event, "Living with GIST", was not only informative for GIST patients, but was also a celebration. The event marked the ten-year anniversary of finding a successful treatment for GIST.

GIST is a rare type of cancer that affects the body's digestive tract and its nearby abdominal structures. Unlike the majority of cancers, which are carcinomas, GIST tumors are sarcomas and do not respond to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. As Dr. George Demetri explained to the audience, prior to the development of effective treatments, GIST tumors were surgically removed until it was no longer clinically effective to do so. The development of molecular targeted therapy, such as Imatinib (Gleevec) and Sunitinib (Sutent), changed the prognosis for GIST patients, bringing hope where there had been none.

Dr. Demetri and his colleagues shared the joy of the early days of the Imatinib clinical trials, when they saw the previously untreatable cancer tumors shrinking and stabilizing after short trials of drug therapy. The enthusiasm of Dr. Demetri and his colleagues, combined with the stories of hard work and barriers overcome, spoke to the amazing accomplishments of these medical professionals.

Continue reading "Celebrating Ten Years of GIST Treatment: A Look at Developments in Molecular Targeted Therapy" »

H.R. 3962, also referred to as the Health Care Reform Bill, promises "To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes." However, at 2,000 pages, the Health Care Reform Bill is a very lengthy document. Over the next five to ten years the Health Care Reform Bill will change the way Americans receive healthcare so it is important for all U.S. and Illinois residents to understand this bill.

This post will summarize the key issues involved in the Health Care Reform Bill rather than how the Healthcare Reform Act impacts Illinois residents. Basically, the Health Care Reform Bill deals with the issues of community rating in health insurance markets, employer mandates to offer health insurance, imposing a tax on "Cadillac" health insurance plans, and health insurance market competition.

The purpose of establishing community rating in health insurance markets is so that people with pre-existing conditions can gain access to affordable health insurance. Currently these people, who some would argue are the ones who need health insurance the most, are subject to higher rates and premiums on health insurance. These increased premiums were imposed by health insurance companies based on the logic that people with pre-existing conditions are more likely to see doctors than those without. Under a community rating plan, insurance companies would not be prohibited from charging higher health insurance premiums for people with pre-existing conditions and would be required to provide insurance to anyone who desires it.

Continue reading "Health Care Reform 101: Breakdown of Main Concepts of the New Health Care Reform Bill" »

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the house bill overhauling the United States' healthcare system. Illinois’ Director of the State’s Department of Insurance will be at the center of overseeing changes that will affect Illinois citizens through the new bill, most of which involve insurance premium rates and eligibility.

One of the first changes that will affect Illinois residents is that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now has the ability to review and challenge any unreasonable health insurance rate increase. For example, the insurance hikes like those proposed by Anthem BlueCross in California this past February of rate increase of up to 39% would definitely raise a red flag under the new Healthcare Reform Act.

While Illinois did require insurance companies to report any increases to premiums within the local market, the Illinois Department of Insurance did not have the authority to approve or deny rate changes. Likewise, in small-employer markets the Department of Insurance did not have any authority to authorize rate changes, nor was it automatically given any information about rate increases or premiums charged to individual companies. But now, with the new healthcare laws, Illinois' Department of Insurance will receive reports on rate increases and promises to examine and challenge any unreasonable insurance rate increase.

Continue reading "How Does the Healthcare Reform Act Impact Illinois Residents?" »

Medicine is an area where new advances are being made on a regular basis that lead to better care and treatment for patients. However, this means that in some cases, patients who received older forms of treatment develop unforeseen complications, particularly in the area of Illinois defective medical devices. Consider the case of patients receiving metal-on-metal hip replacements. Once considered the norm, these types of hip replacements are now leading to an increase in problems for patients.

A recent editorial in The Journal of Arthroplasty, a medical journal for orthopedic surgeons, urge doctors to use metal-on-metal devices only with “great caution, if at all.” This comes on the heels of reports that metal-on-metal hip replacement procedures create tiny particles of debris that can damage soft tissue and bone.

Recent studies that estimated that anywhere from one to three percent of hip implant recipients could be affected by the problem, however, given the large number of people who have received metal devices the number could actually be dealing with thousands of patients in the United States who have been affected by defective medical devices.

Continue reading "Chicago Hospital Study Finds New Hip Replacement Procedures Required For Metal-On-Metal Devices" »

The Archives of Internal Medicine released a new report revealing that roughly 48,000 people a year in the U.S., including patients in the state of Illinois, are killed as a result of pneumonia and sepsis caused by hospital-acquired infections. Not only did this take an obvious toll on the survival rate of patients nationwide, but it also increased U.S. healthcare costs by $8.1 billion within a single year. Some of these Illinois cases could have been the result of Illinois medical malpractice or Illinois nursing negligence.

Both pneumonia and sepsis are caused by potentially deadly microbes, which includes the well-known Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Sepsis is a potentially lethal, systemic response to infection wherein the body's bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria, that can eventually lead to massive organ failure. Pneumonia is an infection limited to the lungs and respiratory tract that can also be fatal. The study reports that it analyzed 69 million discharge records from hospitals in 40 different states.

The increase in hospital costs is mostly due to the fact that patients who acquire pneumonia or sepsis in the hospital typically require longer stays and more care than those who don't. For example, the study found that patients that developed sepsis after surgery were hospitalized 11 additional days than those patients who did not develop sepsis, which increased the hospital costs by $33,000 per patient. And for those patients who acquired pneumonia after surgery, their hospital stay was lengthened an additional 14 days, leading to additional costs of $46,000 per patient.

Continue reading "Hospital-Acquired Infections Killed 48,000 People According to New Study" »

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it is working with other entities to launch The Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure from Medical Imaging. The purpose of the initiative is to promote safer use of all relevant medical imaging devices, to support and increase the degree of clinical decision making, and to further patient awareness.

This initiative is part of a growing movement to increase the safety of life-saving diagnostic and therapeutic radiation and prevent Illinois radiology errors from occurring. The FDA has promised to take steps towards increasing its regulatory supervision of some of the more powerful forms of medical radiation, including fluoroscopy, CT scans, and nuclear medicine.

Some of these forms of radiology can deliver enough radiation in one exposure to equal almost 400 chest x-rays. Obviously with scans this powerful it is important that the medical community is making informative decisions as to the appropriateness of their use and practicing safe administration of these tests.

Continue reading "Medical Radiation From Radiology Scans to be More Stringently Regulated Per New FDA Requirements" »