Headlines: April 10, 2010

by Meg Larkin

            Following a lot of bad publicity an a series of articles in the New York Times, the F.D.A. is tightening its approval process for new radiotherapy equipment.  Previously, the F.D.A. had allowed new radiotherapy equipment to use an expedited approval process, which meant that new devices could be approved by contractors outside of the F.D.A.  The F.D.A. based its action on over 1000 error reports over the past ten years.  Most of the problems stemmed from linear accelerators, which use highly focused radiation to target cancer cells.  Many of the problems could be traced to glitches in the software in the devices or to operator error. 

            In health industry news, more health care workers got flu shots this season.  According to the New York Times, fewer than half of all health care workers get vaccinated in a typical season.  However, “This season was different: by mid-January, 62 percent of health care workers had received a seasonal flu shot, though only 37 percent had been vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu.”  A study by the C.D.C. also reported that health care workers who were employed in hospitals were more likely to have received the vaccine than those who worked in outpatient clinics.

            Finally, people with diabetes face greater cancer risks than people who don’t.  Diabetics not only have a higher risk of getting cancer, but they are also more likely to succumb to the disease.  A study reported by the New York Times found that, “patients with pre-existing diabetes were 50 percent more likely than nondiabetic patients to die within a month of surgery, regardless of the type of cancer.” Hsin-Chieh Yeh, one of the lead authors of the paper, urged patients to not forget chronic disease care in the face of a cancer diagnosis.

Meg Larkin is a second year law student at Boston University.  Please feel free to email her with any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns.