This month, nine major medical specialty groups published a list of 45 tests and procedures that often have no clear benefit for patients and can cause harm — CT scans for simple headaches, for example, and X-rays for routine lower back pain. You don’t often hear calls from doctors for fewer tests and procedures.


A Sharp Rise in Retractions Prompts Calls for Reform


By CARL ZIMMER


In the fall of 2010, Dr. Ferric C. Fang made an unsettling discovery. Dr. Fang, who is editor in chief of the journal Infection and Immunity, found that one of his authors had doctored several papers.
It was a new experience for him. “Prior to that time,” he said in an interview, “Infection and Immunity had only retracted nine articles over a 40-year period.”
The journal wound up retracting six of the papers from the author, Naoki Mori of the University of the Ryukyus in Japan. And it soon became clear that Infection and Immunity was hardly the only victim of Dr. Mori’s misconduct. Since then, other scientific journals have retracted two dozen of his papers, according to the watchdog blog Retraction Watch.
“Nobody had noticed the whole thing was rotten,” said Dr. Fang, who is a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Dr. Fang became curious how far the rot extended. To find out, he teamed up with a fellow editor at the journal, Dr. Arturo Casadevall of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. And before long they reached a troubling conclusion: not only that retractions were rising at an alarming rate, but that retractions were just a manifestation of a much more profound problem — “a symptom of a dysfunctional scientific climate,” as Dr. Fang put it.

Mass. hospitals promise openness, apologies

Settlements part of Mass. coalition’s bid to curb lawsuits

By Liz Kowalczyk

 |  GLOBE STAFF   
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/04/18/mass-hospitals-promise-openness-apologies/z7HH8c8J1aPUf2d4lYggvM/story.html

  APRIL 18, 2012

PROFESSION

First for-profit med school nears approval

Medical educators debate whether the school will sacrifice education for profits.

By MYRLE CROASDALE, amednews staff. Oct. 1, 2007.


Bill Clinton: universal health coverage saves money


By Bill Berkrot
Wed, Jun 8 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said the United States could save more than $1 trillion a year by adopting any other advanced nation's healthcare system.
He also said there are important advances included in President Obama's healthcare reforms and urged that it be improved upon rather than repealed.
"Our healthcare system has gotten all out of whack," Clinton said in a speech on Tuesday at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference, stressing the need to bring inflation in healthcare costs back in line with economic inflation.
Clinton said Canada and the European countries that have universal health coverage for their citizens spend a smaller percentage of their gross domestic product on healthcare than the United States does.