Thursday, December 30, 2004
Good liability reform link
Just got a copy of American Medical News with an article about Tort Reform, Expert Witnesses, etc. A friend of mine, a lawyer, once told me in an unguarded moment that "there is no smellier swamp than the expert witness system." I found a link to tort reform/liability crisis issues that is here.
And in case I haven't posted it here yet, my father tells me that liability reform is needed in places other than medicine. The Vioxx thing is going to be a nightmare--the sharks are circling and there will be a multibillion dollar feeding frenzy.
For those of you who do not know, ALL drugs have side effects. Just look through a PDR. Would you like to ban penicillin because a small number of patients have bad allergic reactions? Would you like to ban aspirin because if you give it to a child after a cold, they might get Reye's syndrome and die of liver failure? NO drug is absolutely safe. Merck did a good job of handling Vioxx, although frankly I wish it was still on the market. It is a highly effective pain medication, which causes less stomach upset than aspirin or ibuprofen and does a good job with postsurgical pain. I understand their decision to pull it but wonder if by doing so juries will interpret that as some kind of admission of guilt and punish them. What a shame.
And in case I haven't posted it here yet, my father tells me that liability reform is needed in places other than medicine. The Vioxx thing is going to be a nightmare--the sharks are circling and there will be a multibillion dollar feeding frenzy.
For those of you who do not know, ALL drugs have side effects. Just look through a PDR. Would you like to ban penicillin because a small number of patients have bad allergic reactions? Would you like to ban aspirin because if you give it to a child after a cold, they might get Reye's syndrome and die of liver failure? NO drug is absolutely safe. Merck did a good job of handling Vioxx, although frankly I wish it was still on the market. It is a highly effective pain medication, which causes less stomach upset than aspirin or ibuprofen and does a good job with postsurgical pain. I understand their decision to pull it but wonder if by doing so juries will interpret that as some kind of admission of guilt and punish them. What a shame.
# posted by Unknown @ 2:19 PM 
