Health News

Experts say Americans getting too many medical tests, maybe even President Obama
CHICAGO - Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggests that many Americans are being overtreated. Maybe even President Barack Obama, champion of an overhaul and cost-cutting of the health-care system. Is it doctors practising defensive medicine? Or are patients so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they insist on extensive tests and treatments?
      

Patient disappointed at reinstatement of doctor by Windsor, Ont., hospital
WINDSOR, Ont. - A patient of a doctor at the centre of a mistaken mastectomy case says she's disappointed the surgeon had her privileges reinstated by a Windsor, Ont., hospital. Janice Laporte, who now lives in Sarnia, Ont., had a breast removed only to learn later that she didn't have breast cancer.
      

Special court rejects claims that vaccines with mercury preservative caused autism
WASHINGTON - The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled Friday in a long-running battle by parents convinced there is a connection. While expressing sympathy for the parents involved in the emotionally charged cases, the court concluded they had failed to show a connection between the mercury-containing preservative and autism.
      

Study: Women who took the birth control pill starting in the late 1960s lived longer
LONDON - Women who took the birth control pill beginning in the late 1960s lived longer than those never on the pill, a new study says. British researchers observed more than 46,000 women for nearly four decades from 1968. They compared the number of deaths in women on the pill to those who never took it.
      

Inspection agency issues 2 food recalls over listeria, salmonella concerns
TORONTO - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a pair of food recalls because of concerns about Listeria monocytogenes and salmonella. The agency and Siena Foods Ltd. say a brand of Prosciutto Cotto Cooked Ham may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The product was sold to food stores in large packages for further slicing bearing "best before" dates of March 8 and March 22, 2010.
      

Studies: People with variable blood pressure could be at risk of a stroke
LONDON - People with occasional spikes in their blood pressure could be at higher risk of having a stroke than those with regularly high blood pressure, new studies said Friday. In four articles published in the medical journals Lancet and Lancet Neurology, European researchers suggest current guidelines for treating people with high blood pressure need to be revised.
      

'We have set our tiny miracle free;' Baby Isaiah taken off life support in Alta
EDMONTON - Surrounded by family, a brain-injured baby died in the arms of his loving parents in an Edmonton hospital after they had spent months trying everything in their power to keep him alive. Rebecka and Isaac May went to court in January seeking to prevent doctors from unhooking their son Isaiah from a ventilator until they could get a second independent medical opinion. When those experts told them there was no hope their boy would ever recover, they made a decision no parent should ever face.
      

Mont. governor seeks federal permission to import cheaper drugs from Canada for state programs
HELENA, Mon. - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Thursday that he is seeking U.S. government permission to import cheaper drugs from Canada for use in state insurance programs. Schweitzer said he thinks the move could chop 40 per cent off the $100 million the state spends each year on prescription drugs for Medicaid, the children's health insurance program, state employees, and inmates at the prison.
      

Toronto anesthesiologist charged with sexual assault of three patients
TORONTO - Allegations that a Toronto doctor sexually assaulted three female patients while they were under anesthetic had police making an appeal Thursday for other potential victims to come forward. Dr. George Doodnaught was charged with three counts of sexual assault after three women alleged they were assaulted while undergoing surgical procedures at North York General Hospital between August 2007 and last month.
      

Quebec moves closer to offering free in vitro fertilization treatments
MONTREAL - Quebec has moved closer to offering free in vitro fertilization for couples who are unable to conceive. Health Minister Yves Bolduc said Thursday the extent of the coverage proposed by the province would be unmatched in North America. "The steps taken by our government place Quebec at the forefront," Bolduc told a news conference in Montreal.
      

B.C. government's transfer of paramedics to health authority angers union
VICTORIA, B.C. - The B.C. government is moving to integrate ambulance service into the health-care system, something the union says is punishment for going on strike last year. Health Minister Kevin Falcon says responsibility for paramedics will be transferred to the Provincial Health Services Authority to more closely align ambulance workers with the health-care system.
      

US asks for more time to move ahead or drop case against Canadian HGH doctor’s assistant
The U.S. government is asking a New York court for more time to decide whether to pursue or drop its case against a Canadian doctor's assistant accused of smuggling human growth hormone into the United States. The September arrest of Mary Anne Catalano touched off an investigation of her boss, Dr. Anthony Galea, who has treated Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez and other high-profile athletes.
      

S.W.Ont. doctor who performed mistaken mastectomies has privileges restored
WINDSOR, Ont. - A doctor who performed mistaken mastectomies at a southwestern Ontario hospital had her privileges restored Thursday, after the hospital imposed conditions it determined would ensure patients are not put at risk. A panel had heard six hours of arguments from Dr. Barbara Heartwell's legal team Wednesday as well as arguments from the medical advisory committee at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.
      

Two more senior lab officials in N.L. resign amid testing errors
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Two more senior laboratory officials have resigned their posts with Newfoundland's largest health authority following the disclosure of drug testing errors. The CEO of Eastern Health, Vickie Kaminski, confirms the resignations of two site chiefs in laboratory medicine are in addition to the resignation Wednesday of the board's chief of laboratory medicine, Nash Denic.
      

B.C. researchers find way to predict treatment response in Hodgkin's patients
TORONTO - An international team of cancer researchers has found a way to predict which Hodgkin's lymphoma patients won't respond well to therapies, opening the door to using a less aggressive regimen on those more likely to be cured. The team, led by researchers at the B.C. Cancer Agency in Vancouver, found that high levels of a certain type of white blood cells called macrophages were predictive of poor response to treatment.
      

Union fires back on Ontario's new plan to make hospitals compete for cash
TORONTO - The conversation Premier Dalton McGuinty said he wanted to have about Ontario's health-care system seems to be turning into a shouting match. Groups representing health professionals and hospital workers are less than thrilled with the Liberals' proposed changes to hospital funding, with one union likening McGuinty to a Marxist revolutionary with a business degree.
      

U.S. govt panel finds too many women denied chance to avoid repeat C-section
WASHINGTON - Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a U.S. government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of "once a C-section, always a C-section." Fifteen years ago, nearly three in 10 women who had a first C-section were able to deliver their next baby vaginally, a trend called VBAC for "vaginal birth after cesarean."
      

Government backs away after B.C. ambulance union says it will roll over deal
VANCOUVER, B.C. - In an effort to wrap up stymied contract talks, B.C.'s ambulance paramedics have agreed to roll over their collective agreement for two more years. But now provincial Health Minister Kevin Falcon says he isn't interested in the idea and instead says he wants to fix the broken ambulance service.
      

N.L. chief of lab medicine resigns after drug testing errors discovered
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A high-ranking official with Newfoundland's largest health board has quit his position after drug testing errors were recently discovered. Eastern Health CEO Vickie Kaminski announced Wednesday that Dr. Nash Denic, chief of laboratory medicine, has tendered his resignation.
      

US philanthropist Raymond Tye, who paid for conjoined twins' separation, dies at age 87
BOSTON - A Massachusetts philanthropist who gave away millions of dollars to meet medical expenses for needy people and paid for the separation surgery of conjoined Egyptian twins has died. A. Raymond Tye was 87. Daughter Carol Rose says the former chairman of a beverage distribution firm died Wednesday at his home in Cambridge after battling cancer. Tye used money from his personal accounts and his foundation to pay for a 34-hour surgery that separated the twins in 2003.