Miscellaneous

• Immediate Release - FDA clears test for drug resistant staph infections

  Lauren Ellerman | January 05, 2008 10:07 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  FDA Clears First Quick Test For Drug-Resistant Staph InfectionsTest Identifies MRSA Bacterium in Two HoursThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced it has cleared for marketing the first rapid blood test for the drug-resistant staph bacterium known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which can cause potentially deadly infections.Methicillin is an antibiotic...

• ER Doctors more likely to give Whites narcotics?

  Lauren Ellerman | January 04, 2008 9:58 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  I read this article from the AP in the Washington Post - sad, but it seems that ER doctors are prescribing medication differently to White and African American Patients."Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites. The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences...

• Drug patches - not what they seem

  Lauren Ellerman | January 01, 2008 8:57 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

• Letter to Santa: Please Help Congress Improve the Consumer Product Safety Commission

  Dan Frith | December 26, 2007 12:19 PM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the American public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The commission recalled over 25 million toys and children's items this year - many made in China.The problem is that the CPSC has only 400 employees to monitor more than...

• Drug Companies do their Best to Influence Your Doctor

  Dan Frith | December 21, 2007 6:23 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  Is there anyone who has not been to their doctor's office and observed note pads and pens with some version of Big Pharma printed in big letters across the pad or pen? Ever receive a "free sample" of a medication? I bet you have and all of these are an example of a serious problem with the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. Drug companies pay doctors...

• Hooker Furniture Recalls Bed Sets

  Dan Frith | December 19, 2007 9:14 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  The Hooker Furniture Company of Martinsville, Virginia, along with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has announced a recall of 1,300 imported bunk beds sold to retailers by Hooker. The beds pose a risk of strangulation for children because of gaps between parts in the upper bunk. The gap exceeds the federal bunk bed safety standard.The beds were sold by Hooker Furniture retailers...

• Health Insurer Has Good Idea!

  Dan Frith | December 19, 2007 6:13 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  We all have heard stories, maybe even experienced the problem first hand, of hospital patients discharged from the hospital before their health and condition would warrant a discharge. Why? Because their health insurance company has arbitrarily decided that the average patient with similar conditions needs to be discharged. Don't want to run up that hospital bill! It's all about the money! ...

• Do You Have Enough Health Insurance? Maybe Not Given How Hospitals Over-Bill!

  Dan Frith | December 18, 2007 6:10 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  Americans fortunate enough to have health insurance, and there are many who do not, hope they have enough insurance coverage for that dreaded catastrophic injury or illness where the medical bills are staggering! Here is a real life story of one man who thought he had plenty of coverage.Jim Lawson, 61, was working for an oil company in northern California when he became ill from a staph...

• Mother and Daughter Die in Propane Gas Explosion

  Dan Frith | December 13, 2007 8:52 AM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA

  This is a sad story to report - a mother and daughter in Virginia who died in a gas explosion! The sad ending could have been prevented.The accident occurred when an automobile accidentally rolled into a 300 gallon propane gas tank located outside a laundermat in the small Southwest Virginia town of Fries. After the propane tank began leaking gas, a pilot light from a clothes dryer in the...

• Avandia risks confirmed

  Lauren Ellerman | December 12, 2007 2:58 PM | 0 CommentsRoanoke, VA