Latest California Healthline Stories
Medical Device Failures Brought To Light Now Bolster Lawsuits And Research
A retired Oakland, Calif., physician is among the patients citing the once-hidden Food and Drug Administration data in a suit.
‘I Feel Like I’m In Jail’: Hospital Alarms Torment Patients
As alarms proliferate, hospitals in California and across the nation are working to sort through the cacophony that can overwhelm staff and cause them to overlook real signs of harm.
No Safety Switch: How Lax Oversight Of Electronic Health Records Puts Patients At Risk
Special interests and congressional inaction blocked efforts to track the safety of electronic medical records, leaving patients at risk.
Nursing Home Safety Violations Put Residents At Risk, Report Finds
A federal audit of 19 California nursing homes released today found hundreds of violations of safety and emergency standards, putting vulnerable nursing home residents at increased risk of injury or death during a wildfire or other disaster.
FDA Keeps Brand-Name Drugs On A Fast Path To Market ― Despite Manufacturing Concerns
The agency approved Gilead’s “game changer” hepatitis C cure, bypassing concerns raised by its own federal inspectors. The problems they found at the company’s main U.S. drug-testing laboratory in Foster City, Calif., were so bad, they recommended withholding approval.
‘Fear Of Falling’: How Hospitals Do Even More Harm By Keeping Patients In Bed
In what experts call an “epidemic of immobility,” older hospital patients remain stuck in bed, their movements tracked by loud and ineffective bed alarms, losing muscle mass that’s key to their health and daily functioning.
Purveyors Of Black-Market Pharmaceuticals Target Immigrants
Illegal medications, sold in immigrant communities around the United States, can cause serious harm to consumers, authorities say. Law enforcement officers are cracking down, but some think more must be done.
If You Smoke Pot, Your Anesthesiologist Needs To Know
Colorado is on the front lines in dealing with how marijuana use affects surgery. Lessons learned on operating tables and in recovery rooms have prompted calls for more research on marijuana nationwide.
Five Things We Found In The FDA’s Hidden Device Database
The Food and Drug Administration released two decades of previously hidden data containing millions of injuries or malfunctions by medical devices. Here’s what we’ve learned so far.
FDA Overlooked Red Flags In Drugmaker’s Testing of New Depression Medicine
In March, a chemical cousin of the anesthetic and club drug ketamine was approved for the treatment of patients with intractable depression. But critics say studies presented to the FDA provided at best modest evidence it worked and did not include information about the safety of the drug, Spravato, for long-term use.