If the TGA and AAT were not able to protect the public, “doctors and pharmacists should take matters into their own hands

TWO leading pharmacologists have called for a boycott on prescribing dextropropoxyphene after its manufacturer successfully appealed the drug’s removal from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.


Dextropropoxyphene, an opioid, was approved for mild-to-moderate pain more than 30 years ago. Since then evidence has accumulated that it is no more efficacious than paracetamol.
A “For Debate” article in the MJA said the drug also carried a significant risk of sudden death from cardiotoxicity in patients with renal impairment, drug interactions and accidental or deliberate overdose. (1)

If the TGA and AAT were not able to protect the public, “doctors and pharmacists should take matters into their own hands and stop using this dangerous and useless drug”, Professor Henry said.

Doctors urged to boycott dextro

Cate Swannell
Monday, 19 August, 2013
MJA InSight

financial interests may unduly influence professionals’ judgments

widespread relationships with industry have created significant risks that… financial interests may unduly influence professionals’ judgments.

“conflicts of interest” threaten the integrity of research, the objectivity of education, the quality of patient care, and public trust in medicine.


Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice

Released:
April 21, 2009
Type:
Consensus Report
Topics:
Biomedical and Health ResearchEducation
Activity:
Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice
Board:
Board on Health Sciences Policy


Trials of skin cancer drug DZ13 suspended pending investigation at UNSW

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-12/trials-of-skin-cancer-drug-dz13-suspended-amid-misconduct-claims/4881622

the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry will not be signing up


A GLOBAL campaign to publish all clinical trial results within a year of trial registration has been ramped up, but the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry will not be signing up — at least, not yet.

Organisations already signed up include the UK Medical Research Council, the Cochrane Collaboration and the World Association of Medical Editors.
MJA InSight Cate Swannell
Monday, 12 August, 2013

It's an unfair fight for patients in medical malpractice suits

physicians’ groups and hospitals hide errors and abuses behind the confidentiality provisions of the peer review process. This approach leaves the public guessing where the worst risks of medical treatment are hidden.
These are the reasons a viable system of medical negligence (malpractice) litigation is necessary to protect the public. The threat of being held financially responsible for diagnostic and treatment errors is the only economic incentive that causes the medical establishment to police its own ranks.
I have been an attorney in Sonoma County for 38 years and have represented both sides (physicians and patients) in medical negligence cases. Without question, California law today unfairly favors doctors and their insurance companies at the expense of patients.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediapool/sites/PressDemocrat/News/story.csp?cid=2213058&sid=555&fid=181#page=1

Endoscopic sympathectomy is not minimally invasive - doing the operation through a smaller incision is not necessarily less invasive


The term ‘‘minimally invasive surgery’’ was initially applied to coelioscopic procedures such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy and hernia repair, thoracoscopic sympathectomy, and arthroscopy, but has since been abandoned, because doing the same operation through a smaller incision is not necessarily less invasive. The term ‘‘minimally invasive parathyroidectomy’’ does not fully convey the nature of the techniques, and, as previously debated in the wider field of minimal-access surgery, carries connotations of increased safety that are not necessarily supported by the existing data [12].
Surg Clin N Am 84 (2004) 717–734
F. Fausto Palazzo, MS, FRCS(Gen),
Leigh W. Delbridge, MD, FACS*

Department of Surgery, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney 2065, NSW, Australia