Patient Safety News

• In Yemen, Medical Shortages Compound Suffering of Cancer Patients Ali Jabri cradles his sobbing son Ayoub ahead of chemotherapy treatment at Yemen's largest cancer hospital in the capital Sanaa where an eight-year war has led to shortages in life-saving medicine and equipment.
  Reuters Health Information, January 17, 2023
• Merck Set to Remove Cancer-Causing Chemical From Top Diabetes Drugs Merck has discovered how its blockbuster diabetes drugs have become contaminated with a potential carcinogen and believes it can resolve the problem by the end of the year.
  Reuters Health Information, January 17, 2023
• Brain Implant Helps Patients With ALS Paralysis Use Computers Using only their thoughts, four patients with severe paralysis were able to compose emails and shop and bank online courtesy of a brain-computer interface that uses eye tracking.
  Medscape Medical News, January 18, 2023
• Evolocumab's LDL Lowering Surpassed Inclisiran's in ORION-3 Results from a crossover subgroup of 92 patients in ORION-3 documented evolocumab's greater LDL-lowering efficacy compared with inclisiran.
  MDedge News, January 18, 2023
• Blood Test 24 Hours After Starting Chemo Predicts AML Survival Protein changes in peripheral blood samples in the first 24 hours after starting chemotherapy could predict which patients with acute myeloid leukemia respond.
  Medscape Medical News, January 18, 2023
• Adverse Events Reported in One Quarter of Inpatient Admissions An update to the 1991 Harvard Medical Practice Study states that 7% of inpatient adverse events are preventable.
  Medscape Medical News, January 18, 2023
• Belimumab for Pregnant Women With Lupus: B-Cell Concerns Remain The largest combined analysis of birth outcome data found no apparent increase in birth defects or pregnancy loss with belimumab.
  MDedge News, January 17, 2023
• Simulation-Based Training Effective for Transesophageal Echo Cardiology fellows who learned transesophageal echocardiography using simulations scored higher on both theoretical and practical tests than those who received traditional training in a randomized trial.
  Medscape Medical News, January 17, 2023
• New Standard of Care for Early dMMR/MSI-H Colorectal Cancer? Another study shows good results with neoadjuvant immunotherapy in patients with locally advanced dMMR/MSI-H colorectal cancer, leading the authors to suggest it as a new standard of care.
  Medscape Medical News, January 17, 2023
• EMA Seeks to Issue Guidance on Liver Damage From Gene Therapy The European Medicines Agency said it plans to issue advice for physicians using Novartis AG's Zolgensma, calling on them to monitor patients for any liver injury after treatment.
  Reuters Health Information, January 13, 2023
• AstraZeneca Withdraws Drug for Hairy Cell Leukemia From US Market The company is planning to remove its leukemia drug moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk (Lumoxiti) from the US market, saying there has been 'very low clinical uptake' of the product.
  Medscape Medical News, January 13, 2023
• German 'Island' Aids Children and Adolescents With Addiction At "Teen Spirit Island," children and adolescents receive help in ending their addictions and addressing their comorbidities.
  Medscape Medical News, January 13, 2023
• Scant Evidence for Proton Pump Inhibitor Role in Gastric Cancer Previous studies may not have accounted for the confounding role of the diseases for which the medications are prescribed.
  Medscape Medical News, January 12, 2023
• What FTC Proposed Ban on Noncompetes Could Mean for Docs Restrictive noncompete agreements are already banned in some states but are often included in physician work contracts, so this broad move by the Federal Trade Commission could set a national standard.
  Medscape Medical News, January 12, 2023
• FDA Warns Japan's Olympus Units Over Testing Violations The US Food and Drug Administration said it has issued warning letters to manufacturers of medical scopes used in surgical procedures, citing violations found during inspections of facilities in Japan.
  Reuters Health Information, January 10, 2023
• Health Risks Low for Children Exposed in Utero to Cancer, Chemo Children exposed in utero to cancer and its treatment do not appear to have any long-term health consequences as a result of this exposure, a Danish study suggests.
  Medscape Medical News, January 11, 2023
• What to Do When Patients Don't Listen You do all you can for your patients, so when they're nonadherent, it can be frustrating. What can you do when patients don't listen?
  Medscape Medical News, January 11, 2023
• Some BP Meds Tied to Significantly Lower Risk for Dementia Antihypertensive medications that stimulate type 2 and 4 angiotensin II receptors may reduce the rate of dementia compared with those that inhibit these receptors, new research suggests.
  Medscape Medical News, January 10, 2023
• US Appeals Court Won't Revive Zofran Cases Against GSK A federal appeals court declined to revive hundreds of lawsuits by women who claim that GlaxoSmithKline failed to warn them that taking the anti-nausea drug Zofran during pregnancy could cause birth defects.
  Reuters Health Information, January 10, 2023
• FDA: Evusheld May Not Protect Against Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 The Food and Drug Administration said it does not expect AstraZeneca's COVID-19 antibody cocktail Evusheld to provide protection against the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.
  Reuters Health Information, January 06, 2023