Valleywide Legal Blog
State Legislatures Are Making Your Health Care Less Safe
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am not a big fan of state medical boards. My complaint is that there is a lot of malpractice out there and the medical boards do not do an effective job of … Read More
Our Health Care Spending Subsidizes the Rest of the World
If you follow this blog or read much about health care spending, you know that we in the United States spend twice as much per person on health care as any other nation on earth. We pay way more for … Read More
New Hope For Pancreatic Cancer Patients
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer afflicting human beings. 85% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will live less than five years following their diagnosis. Looking at it another way, although only 3% of all … Read More
Are We Headed Back to the Bad Old Days?
My granddaughter and I were looking at songs in a folk singing book the other day and one of them was “Sweet Molly Malone.” If you know the song, you know Molly was a fishmonger in old Dublin, who died … Read More
The Truth About Medical Malpractice Juries
It is an article of faith among doctors that medical malpractice juries are anti-doctor, incompetent to resolve medical questions and overly generous to patients who bring lawsuits. They have been making the same complaints for the last 50 years at … Read More
The Brave New World of Genomic Testing.
An organism’s genome controls its destiny. This is as true for the human genome as it is for the genome of the Covid-2 coronavirus. It was less than 20 years ago that scientists first sequenced the human genome. The project … Read More
Defective Surgical Staplers And The FDA.
The surgical stapler is an important tool. Rather than spend substantial time sewing body parts together during abdominal, thoracic or bowel surgeries, surgeons can use a stapler to close up wounds and attach body parts. Removable staples are also used … Read More
Coronavirus Fraud.
Dishonest people are always looking for a way to steal money from you, from your neighbor or from the government. If you have money, you are fair game. A crisis like the Covid pandemic provides these people with a fearful … Read More
Why Your Local Non-Profit Hospital Makes So Much Money.
We are all familiar with non-profit hospitals. They are pillars of the community. They may provide free or nearly free care to the needy or they may do free medical research for the public good. The one thing they don’t … Read More
Physician Conflicts of Interest
One of the very first of the ethical rules promulgated by the American Medical Association requires doctors to place the welfare of the patient ahead of the doctor’s own self-interest or obligations to others. As life grows ever more complicated, … Read More