Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Patient Safety Concerns Grow As Doctors Age
Knowable Magazine: U.S. Doctors Are Aging, Raising Concerns About Patient Safety
Richard David Heekin’s long career as an orthopedic surgeon ended catastrophically. Heekin stepped down at 65 after patients accused him of continuing to operate while impaired by a progressive neurological condition that affected his balance and speech. Within three years of his 2020 retirement, at least 522 lawsuits had been filed against him and Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Plaintiffs charged that the hospital knew of the surgeon’s declining condition but allowed him to keep operating. (Ellison, 10/12)
KFF Health News: The Sometimes-Awkward Art Of Asking For A Second Opinion
When Carol Daniel, a veteran broadcast journalist who lives near St. Louis, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2022, her husband encouraged her to seek a second opinion. She was worried that consulting another doctor might seem like a betrayal. Daniel said she wondered: “Am I cheating on him? Am I going behind his back? Am I acting like I don’t trust him by seeking a second opinion?” (Anthony and Farmer, 10/13)
HealthDay: Pharma Payments Influence Doctors' Prescriptions, Study Finds
Pharma companies are influencing doctors to prescribe pricey drugs by wooing them with money and gifts, a new evidence review has concluded. Payments and gifts from the pharmaceutical industry also increase the quantity of drugs doctors prescribe, the Cochrane Library review found. (Thompson, 10/13)
Chicago Tribune: Plastic Surgeon Ayoub Sayeg Fights Illinois License Suspension
An embattled plastic surgeon whose license has been suspended in three states in recent months is seeking a court injunction in Illinois that would allow him to continue treating patients at his Chicago clinic. (Gutowski and Pratt, 10/11)
Pharma and tech developments —
Stat: Concerns Grow On Safety Of Neurocrine Biosciences Rare Disease Drug
Two months after the release of an open letter on potential safety issues tied to a rare disease drug sold by Neurocrine Biosciences, patient advocates and some experts are expressing growing alarm over the perceived risks of the therapy. (Feuerstein, 10/13)
NPR: Ongoing Lawsuits Allege GLP-1s Can Cause Serious Harm. But We Don't Know How Often
Scant data about serious adverse effects makes it harder to answer scientific and legal questions about how often the drugs might cause serious harm like blindness or pancreatitis. (Noguchi, 10/10)
MedPage Today: Joint Pain Supplement Tied To Patient's Weight Gain, Stretch Marks
A supplement marketed for joint pain and arthritis was the likely culprit in one man's iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome, researchers reported. A man in his 40s presented with features of Cushing's syndrome, including rapid weight gain and stretch marks on his abdomen, Hima Darapu, MD, of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, and Sagarika Gokul, MD, of Prisma Health in Greenville, both in South Carolina, wrote in BMJ Case Reports. (Jeffrey, 10/12)
Modern Healthcare: Stryker Invests $400M In CMR Surgical, Eyes Possible Acquisition
Stryker agreed to invest approximately $400 million in robotic surgery company CMR Surgical, with the option to eventually acquire the rest of the company. The investment will support future innovation and global commercialization of CMR Surgical’s Versius surgical robotics portfolio, according to a Monday news release. Stryker will be the sole company responsible for selling the portfolio in the U.S. (Dubinsky, 10/12)
Bloomberg: Court Denies Investor Request To Probe Philips Over 2021 Recall
An Amsterdam court rejected requests from investors for an investigation into Royal Philips NV’s handling of a 2021 recall of its sleep apnea devices. The Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal found no basis to justify a probe into the course of events surrounding the recall, which sparked a sharp decline in the medical device maker’s share price, according to a ruling on Saturday. (Afanasieva, 10/10)
Bloomberg: Google Debuts $180 Fitbit Edge Tracker, Replacing The Fitbit Charge 6
Google introduced an updated premium fitness band with a screen, a device that’s a cross between smartwatches and more discreet health gadgets that offer continuous tracking. The $180 Fitbit Edge, announced Monday, has an oval, 1.34-inch display that makes it look like a smartwatch, even though it’s a purpose-built fitness gadget. The device has a replaceable battery — a first for Fitbit — that’s rated to last a week at a time and can recharge to a day’s worth of power in five minutes. Other additions include automatic workout detection, an altimeter and wellness features such as proactive health monitoring and the ability to track changes in insulin resistance. (Kelly, 10/12)
