Recently, the Canadian Medical Association held its 143rd annual meeting in Ontario, Canada. At the meeting, Colorado family physician Dr. John Findley reported his findings about the rising incidence of medical errors in the United States. According to Findley, medical errors have increased because of the breakdown in doctor-patient relationships and medical developments, including the emergence of more than 4,000 drugs and 6,000 diagnoses, all leading to the "mechanization" of medicine. Statistics cited by Findley indicate that almost 20 percent of the one million ...

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have received 12 reports in the past 13 years of infants between the ages of one and four months who died when they were suffocated by or became trapped in a sleep positioner. "The deaths and dangerous situations resulting from the use of infant sleep positioners are a serious concern to CPSC," said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. "We urge parents and caregivers to take our warning seriously and stop using these sleep positioners, so that children can have a safer sleep." The ...

From banking and managing finances to shopping and ordering pizza, almost everything these days is done electronically. Not every sector of society has been quick to embrace the electronic age, however. The medical community has remained behind the digital curve. For a long time, the medical community kept handwritten records for patients and used handwritten orders for prescriptions. Backed by a $19.5 billion boost from the stimulus package passed in February 2009, though, the medical community is slowly starting to implement digital record keeping, moving toward widespread ...

Motorists on Virginia's scenic roads take note: if you drive under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs (even legal prescription medications if they have a sedating effect), you will be caught, and you will face stiff penalties. Virginia's lawmakers have taken a firm stance against impaired driving in an attempt to slow the tide of DUI-related crashes, injuries and fatalities -- an alcohol-related crash occurs about every two minutes somewhere in America, and every half an hour someone dies in one. Virginia's DUI laws are no-nonsense and provide some of the most ...

With a flick of the pen, Governor David Paterson has ended New York's holdout as the only state in the union to disallow no-fault divorce. Prior to the signing of the law, which took effect October 12th, New Yorkers were able to divorce only by proving fault for abandonment, adultery, cruelty or imprisonment. There was, however, a way for couples to divorce without fault prior to the new law. This required couples to enter into a separation agreement and live apart for at least one year. The catch with this option comes in the agreement; couples had to agree on all of ...

Hippocrates insisted that "The physician must...have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm." It is with the faith that their physicians will "do good" or at least "do no harm" that patients seek out medical care. Recent studies have indicated that physicians are poorly trained in matters of patient safety and practice in an environment that often work against the wellbeing of those seeking their expertise. A recent study by the National Patient Safety Foundation noted that medical schools today focus principally on providing ...

For people in family court, staying in touch, especially via court-ordered visitation arrangements, can be a challenge. But some courts are implementing new high-tech approaches to address old family law issues. A New York judge recently ruled that as a condition of her out-of-state move away to Florida, a Long Island mother must make her two children available to talk to their father through Skype, an online video conferencing service. Although this was the first time such a condition has been ordered in New York, a number of other states have begun experimenting with ...

The Baby Boomer generation gave us the summer of love and a break from some of the traditions of the previous generations. Now it appears the Baby Boomer generation is also giving us a normalization of divorce, especially later in life. Despite an overall decline in the United States divorce rate, divorces among those married 20, 30 and even 40 years appear to be on the rise. According to Erica Manfred, a New York divorce expert, this rising number of splits between long-married couples is referred to as "gray divorce." Gray Divorce Statistics While not specifically ...

In 1994, the Registration and Community Notification Laws (RCNL), more commonly known as Megan's Law, was enacted in response to the public's demand for more information on the identity and residence of previously convicted sex offenders who are considered a possible threat to the safety of others in the community. Megan's Law created a state registry of sex offenders, a similar Internet registry and a community notification procedure to alert the public when state officials deem it necessary for public safety. The law requires continual registration from people convicted ...

On August 15, Leandra's Law -- also called the Child Passenger Protection Act -- went into effect. Leandra's Law is named for 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who died last October after she was thrown from a car driven by a drunk driver. The law requires that those convicted of drunk driving, including first time offenders, install interlock devices in their vehicles. The interlock device is a breath test that disables the ignition of the vehicle if it detects a trace of alcohol. According to statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), locations ...

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has responsibility in several important areas: investigating the causes of accidents involving trains, aircraft, and a variety of other vehicles and vessels; promoting transportation safety; and helping victims of transportation-related accidents as well as the families of fatal accident victims. One important aspect of this mission is the board's oversight of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which directly regulates commercial trucks, buses and other vehicles to prevent fatal truck accidents and catastrophic ...

It's a debate as old as the internal combustion engine and the advent of headlights: Are women better drivers than men, or vice versa? While media stereotypes once led to the acceptance of "woman driver" as an inherently critical label, the truth is that men are significantly more likely to get into crashes. This fact has long been known by the insurance company actuaries who set policy rates for individuals, but the precise differences are well described in recent statistics. On the high end, the New York Times reported in August on a city traffic study that revealed ...

In routine gall bladder surgery, the surgeon mistakenly punctures the patient's aorta, a major artery supplying oxygen-rich blood to the body. The patient is 20-year-old Airman Colton Reid. His fiance watches as Reid's feet turn blue from lack of blood flow; yet there are more than eight hours of delay before Reid is transferred from the teaching hospital at Travis Air Force Base to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where Reid can get adequate treatment. Because of the lack of blood flow from the punctured aorta, and the delay, doctors at UC Davis are ultimately forced ...

Hydraulic fracturing, also commonly called hydrofracking or fracking, is the process of drilling into shale and then turning the drill horizontally to tap pockets of natural gas. The Post-Standard says Ron Bishop, a chemistry professor at the State University College at Oneonta, explains that the procedure involves pumping in thick chemical slurry to keep the drill bit clear of debris. Concrete seals the well and large amounts of water -- potentially millions of gallons -- are pumped in under pressure to hydrofracture the shale and release natural gas. The polluted water ...

When it comes to the idea of overtime pay, most think that only the laborer, manufacturer or other "blue collar" worker is eligible to receive overtime, not the professional, executive, supervisor or manager. In today's workplace, however, the old blue collar/white collar doesn't' always apply. A worker can be entitled to overtime pay regardless of the color of his or her collar. Employees eligible to receive overtime pay are generally referred to as "nonexempt." Other employees, who are exempted from federal and state overtime laws in certain instances, are called "exempt ...

Last year saw a record number of prescription and over-the-counter drug recalls, 1,472 different types in all. That number is four times the number of drugs recalled in 2008. While it is difficult to attribute the increase in defective and dangerous drugs to a single reason, the overseas manufacture of medications, the increase in prescription drug use and faulty labeling all contribute to the dramatic rise in recalls. Based on the recalls of more than 130 million bottles of over-the-counter children's medications like Tylenol and Motrin, the trend has continued in 2010. A ...

Prudential has announced that, at a time when rates on conventional annuities have been falling, Prudential's innovative Income Choice Annuity is bucking the trend with starting incomes being increased by 1.5 per cent. Prudential has passed on a fall in guarantee costs for the product which offers a secure minimum income for life as well as giving customers the opportunity to benefit from potential growth. The new pricing applies to quotes issued from 11th October and to all new business where funds have been received from 11th October. Prudential was able to increase ...

Sky is giving customers the chance to share the ultimate TV experience with their friends by hosting their very own Sky+HD Party. Each host will be given one complimentary film to watch in stunning high definition from a choice of three new movie releases from Sky Box Office HD worth GBP3.91, plus a GBP10 M&S voucher to kick off the party in style. Sky+HD customers have a choice of three films to choose from - Inception, Sex and the City 2 and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - shown exclusively from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th December. To qualify for ...

Thistle Hotels has announced the appointment of Alan Whiteley as general manager of Thistle Brands Hatch hotel. Already a respected general manager within the company, Whiteley makes the move from Thistle Middlesbrough, where he was responsible for significantly raising the profile of the hotel in the region and helping it become the star performer of the group. Starting his hotel career as a kitchen porter when he left school, Whiteley has built up a wealth of experience over the 17 years he has worked in the hotel industry. Not content with being a porter for long, ...

According to Bupa, the British workplace is losing an estimated GBP1.6 billion a year due to lack of sleep.   The Bupa 'How Are You Britain?' report* reveals sleep-starved workers are taking three extra days sick leave a year compared to their well rested colleagues - costing UK businesses over GBP280 per annum for every employee.  The report reveals that over a quarter (27 per cent) of the working nation  wakes up feeling tired and unrefreshed, with Sunday being the worst night of the week for a bad night's sleep.     Bupa sleep expert, Dr Ian Mak from the ...

Prudential has conducted new research* that reveals more than half of UK adults aged 40-plus and who are not yet retired are at risk of losing all or part of their private pension income if one partner dies because they are failing to make any pension provision for each other. The study reveals 39 per cent of couples do not have arrangements in place to ensure that pension income continues to be paid after the death of one partner, and another 13 per cent do not know what will happen to their retirement income and other investments if their partner dies. Only 48 per ...

House of Fraser, the premium department store, has announced the launch of the new collection of Lipsy dresses designed by Pixie Lott. Following the success of her debut fashion range for Lipsy earlier this year, British pop princess and style icon Pixie Lott has once again teamed up with the high street fashion label for a show-stopping Autumn/Winter dresses collection. Currently available at www.houseoffraser.co.uk, the collection comprises two distinct looks - Pixie Party and Pixie Rocks - inspired by the singer's own rock chick girly style and her favourite style ...

XM Works, Inc. announces the launch of XMTrade.com, an online international sales and trade management platform. XM Trade offers subscribers direct access to over 15,000 international buyers in 100 countries via its own private virtual network. XM Trade is also a comprehensive trade management solution where sellers can display and store all product and customer information, manage opportunities, track sales and shipments and generate sales and marketing activity reports securely via the web. Subscribers also benefit from an unlimited amount of cloud storage for sharing ...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have created a technoeconomic model that should help accelerate the development of a next generation of clean, green biofuels that can compete with gasoline in economics and well as performance. This on-line, wiki-based model enables researchers to pursue the most promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations by simulating such critical factors as production costs and energy balances under different processing scenarios. "The high production cost of biofuels has been the main ...

The decision to stop life-support for incapacitated and critically ill patients is, for surrogate decision makers, often fraught with moral and ethical uncertainty, and long-term emotional consequences. But as difficult as these decisions are, more than half of surrogate decision makers prefer to have full authority over the choice than to share or cede that power to physicians, according to a recent study out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "This report suggests that many surrogates may prefer more decisional control for value-laden decisions in ...