It can be very overwhelming to deal with a serious illness.  As you are researching  potential treatments, you can find an endless amount of information on-line.  It can be stressful to figure out what clinical trials are are underway at facilities throughout the U.S. and the world.

Now there is a My Clinical Trial Locator – a free, easy to use site to search for information on clinical trials.  You can search:

• For information on clinical trials, clinical research and observational studies in the U.S. and world – even those that are not open to new patients – learn:
  • eligibility guidelines
  • contact information
• Search by disease, condition, or location
• Find information on many types of clinical trials, including:
  • drugs and medications
  • medical devices
  • medical procedures and interventions
  • lifestyle/behavioral studies, such as those evaluating diet and exercise

Visit www.MyClinicalTrialLocator.com for plenty of helpful information!

It is common to assume that “no news is good news” when it comes to medical test results.  Don’t count on it!

A study published March 4, 2013 in JAMA Internal Medicine found that some doctors are so overloaded with abnormal test result alerts, that they sometimes overlook important alerts.    This is clearly a major health issue.

The study was conducted at the VA Medical Center in Houston, and involved a survey of 2,590 primary care practitioners.  A summary of the findings:

• Median number of alerts was 63 per day/per doctor.
• 86.9% of the doctors felt this was an “excessive” number of alerts.
• 69.6% stated that they felt they were receiving more alerts than they could effectively manage.
• 29.8% reported that they had personally missed abnormal test result alerts that led to delays in patient care.

What can you do?

Roberta Carson, of Zaggo, Inc., has an easy solution for patients and families:

1. For any kind of test (blood, imaging, etc), ask the doctor, nurse or test technician when the test result will be ready.
2. Mark your calendar on the date the test result(s) will be available – set a recurring daily appointment (either manually or digitally) to remind yourself.
3. When the expected date has arrived, if you have not heard from the doctor’s office – call them!

Read a summary of the report on FiereceEMR here .

When you (or a loved one) are being discharged from the hospital, there is a lot to keep track of, including medications, home care needs, follow up appointments, etc.  Unfortunately, there is frequent misunderstanding regarding which medications to take and how to take them.

A recent study led by Dr. Leora Horwitz at Yale-New Haven Hospital reviewed 377 patients (age 64+) who had been admitted with heart failure, acute coronary symptoms or pneumonia, who then were discharged to home.

Findings:

• 81% experienced a medication error due to provider error, or because the patient had no understanding of at least one intended medication change.
• 24% of the medication errors were due to provider error.
• 60% did not understand at least one of their medication changes (a new or altered prescription, or a discontinuation of a medication, based on their recent hospitalization).
• Errors and misunderstandings were more common for medications that were not related to the patient’s primary ailment resulting in the hospitalization.

What can you do?

Roberta Carson, of Zaggo, suggests the following:

• Keep a detailed medication journal with the patient at all times
• Before leaving the hospital, make sure you go over the list of medications with the discharge team, making sure:
  • You write down exactly what new medications are being prescribed, including: spelling of the medication, dosage, instructions on how and when to take it, when to stop, and possible side effects
  • Write down any changes in dosage or instructions for existing medications
  • Go over the list of medications with the discharge team of all medications that were taken previous to this hospitalization, to make sure there are no possible adverse interactions
• Fill and take all medications as prescribed – if the patient has a problem with a specific medication, call the doctor immediately
• Use a medication chart to keep track and ensure that all medications are taken as prescribed (the Zaggo Daily Medication Chart can be downloaded for free and personalized)

Read the December 3, 2012 article by Lisa Chedekel of the New Haven Register.

It’s every patient’s worst nightmare – a surgeon makes a mistake, a big mistake.  The wrong operation is preformed.  Something is left inside.  The wrong body part is operated on.  Think it rarely happens?  Not so.

A recent study led by Dr. Marty Makary at Johns Hopkins (published in Surgery) estimates that these so-called “never events” occurred in U.S. hospitals over 80,000 times in 20 years (1990-2010).  They actually believe their estimates might be low.

What did they find?  The researchers found that surgeons, as a group, in the United States:

• Leave a foreign object (sponge, etc) inside a patient’s body 39 times/week
• Perform the wrong procedure 20 times/week
• Operate on the wrong body part 20 times/week

Luckily, the affects of these mistakes are generally not fatal.  However, they did find that:

• Death occurred in 6.6% of the cases
• Permanent injury occurred in 32.9% of the cases
• Temporary injury occurred in 59.2% of the cases

How can these events be avoided?

Dr. Makary states that these events are totally preventable, and there is a lot of work to be done to reduce the occurrence.  Hospitals already have programs in place to make sure these errors do not occur, including: “timeouts” in the OR to make sure the scheduled surgery is appropriate for the patient in the OR; using indelible ink to mark the intended surgical site; procedures for counting sponges and other surgical tools; checklists and barcode scanners.

What can you do?

• Before you schedule a surgery, speak with the surgeon to find out specifically what steps are taken to avoid these “never events”, including how they keep track of surgical tools and supplies, and how they ensure that the right procedure is being planned.
• Use indelible marker to note your surgical location on your body.
• Research your surgeon and hospital – find out if your surgeon has been involved in a malpractice suit.  See the ZaggoCare Resource Center for links to websites where you can evaluate doctors and hospitals.

Read the 12-19-2012 Johns Hopkins summary of this study.

More and more people are buying their medications online.  It certainly is easier that going to a store. Any sometimes it is significantly cheaper.  But is it safe?  Not always.

The FDA has launched a new website to help consumers understand the risks of buying medications from a fake pharmacy, as well as tips for identifying safe online pharmacies.

What are the risks involved with buying from fake pharmacies?  According to the FDA site,  the risks include:

• You can receive unsafe medications that are either counterfeit or substandard
• There may be slight differences in the medications that can have significant impact
• You could put your personal and financial information at risk

How can you tell if a website pharmacy is fake?  According to the FDA site, beware of pharmacies that:

• Do not require a written prescription from your doctor
• Offer steep discounts that seem too good to be true
• Are located outside of the U.S.
• Send you spam emails offering cheap medications

The site also allows you to look up an online pharmacy through the state board of pharmacy (there is a link on the site for each state).  If your pharmacy isn’t listed, don’t use it.  The FDA also advises that once you have identified a state-licensed online pharmacy, you should still make sure they require a prescription from your doctor, have a U.S. street address and phone, and have a pharmacist on staff to answer questions.

Learn more at the FDA’s BeSafeRx Website.