Medico-Legal News

October 23, 2010

Grapevine Gynecology Doctor Speaks Out And Defends Foreign Mirena IUDs

As a Dallas Medical License and Doctor Defense attorney, I am providing an update to the story I blogged about yesterday.

In an interview with News 8, Dr. Angela Cope, the clinic stated that they stand by their decision to insert a product they still believe is safe — despite warnings of counterfeits by the FDA and the manufacturer, Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

“There is not any medical difference in a Mirena imported from Canada versus a Mirena that’s imported from America,” Dr. Cope said.

But now, many women want to know how they can be sure their Mirena IUD is the FDA-approved version.

Read the full story here.

October 22, 2010

Grapevine Texas Gynecology Clinic Charged With Offering Unauthorized Mirena IUD

by Dr. Shezad Malik

As a Fort Worth Medical Licensing and Doctor license defense attorney, I read this story with alarm. The Texas Attorney General (OAG) filed lawsuit against a Grapevine Texas women’s health clinic for selling Mirena intrauterine devices (IUDs) that were not approved for sale in the United States.

The lawsuit names Women’s Integrated Healthcare, P.A. and six of its physicians as defendants: Angela L. Cope, M.D.; Barbara Coulter-Smith, D.O.; Katrina E. Allen, M.D.; Courtney Walters, M.D.; Monica E. Lopez, M.D.; and Wendy A. Kendrick, D.O.

Read the lawsuit here.

Read the Office of Attorney General full story here.

In December 2009, the defendants voluntarily stopped selling and administering the unapproved IUDs. The Office of the Attorney General is seeking a court order requiring that the defendants only purchase and sell FDA-approved IUDs, and will impose hefty civil penalties for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (TDTPA) and the Texas Health and Safety Code.

You can also bet that the Texas Medical Board will weigh in with penalties, license complaints and sanctions.

April 27, 2010

U.S. hospitals Are Not Reporting Disciplinary Action to National Databank

by Dr. Shezad Malik

For almost 20 years, federal law has required hospitals and medical boards to report doctors they discipline — for medical incompetence, unprofessional conduct, and substandard care to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

It was designed to protect the public from bad doctors, particularly those who move to another hospital or another state to try to hide their mistakes.

The Data Bank allows hospitals and other medical organizations to see a doctor’s disciplinary record before hiring him or her — with a single, simple check instead of having to contact medical boards in every state.

Read the full story here.

April 2, 2010

Michael Jackson Doctor Fights to Keep Medical License

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Michael Jackson’s doctor is “hanging on by a thread” and must be allowed to continue practicing medicine in order to pay for his defense on a manslaughter charge in the pop star’s death, the physician’s lawyers said in court papers.

Responding to a bid by the California attorney general to suspend Dr. Conrad Murray’s medical license pending trial, attorneys Ed Chernoff and Joseph Low said that the effect would be devastating to the doctor who already faces a slew of financial problems.

Read full story here.

February 22, 2010

Third hand Smoke Forms Cancer-Causing Residue Indoors

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Tobacco smoke contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces, dubbed thirdhand smoke, may react with indoor air chemicals to form potential cancer-causing substances, a study found.

After exposing a piece of paper to smoke, researchers found the sheet had levels of newly formed carcinogens that were 10 times higher after three hours in the presence of an indoor air chemical called nitrous acid commonly emitted by household appliances or cigarette smoke. That means people may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that’s never been recognized before, said one of the study’s authors, Lara Gundel.

Read the full Bloomberg article here.

February 15, 2010

Los Angeles Lap-Band Ads

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Los Angeles is awash in billboards and other outdoor signs advertising the weight loss treatment.

One feature of life in Southern California that’s become hard to avoid is the relentless advertising for a weight-loss procedure known as lap-band surgery.

The billboards feature a willowy blond in a red tank top and the phone number 1-800-GET-THIN in huge red letters. “LOSE WEIGHT WITH THE LAP-BAND!” they say.

Read the full story here in the Los Angeles Times

February 10, 2010

Texas Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting Doctor Malpractice

by Dr. Shezad Malik

It occurred to Anne Mitchell as she was writing the letter that she might lose her job, which is why she chose not to sign it. But it was beyond her conception that she would be indicted and threatened with 10 years in prison for doing what she knew a nurse must: inform state regulators that a doctor at her rural hospital was practicing bad medicine.

Read the full story at the New York Times

February 1, 2010

F.D.A. Aims at Doctors’ Drug Pitches

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In the world of fashion magazines, beauty editors have often relied on prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons to keep them current on advances in cosmetic medicine. This relationship has benefited magazines eager for beauty scoops and doctors seeking visibility — and patients.

But now the Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on one of the most widely quoted cosmetic doctors, sending shudders through the ranks of opinion leaders in fashion publishing and vanity medicine. Read the FDA Warning Letter here. Download file

Read the full story here.

October 29, 2009

Federal Agencies to Assess Potential Lasik Problems

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Three federal agencies — the Food and Drug Administration, the Defense Department and the National Eye Institute — announced last week that they are launching a three-year effort to gauge how many, and which, patients suffer troubling symptoms after undergoing the vision correction procedure called Lasik.

At the same time, the FDA issued letters reminding 17 walk-in surgical centers performing Lasik surgery of their obligation to report poor outcomes and patients’ surgery-related medical complaints. The letters were issued after the FDA conducted a spate of inspections of Lasik facilities and found many had no system for collecting and transmitting to the FDA data on patients’ reports of post-surgical “adverse events.” More inspections are to come, the FDA said.

August 6, 2009

Parkinson Disease and Heart Disease linked to Agent Orange

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An expert panel reported that two more diseases may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War.

People exposed to the chemical appear, at least tentatively, to be more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, according to the report. The report was written by a 14-member committee charged by the Institute of Medicine with determining whether certain medical conditions were caused by exposure to herbicides used to clear stretches of jungle.

The results, though not conclusive, are an important first step for veterans groups working to get the government to help pay for treatment of illnesses they believe have roots on the battlefield. Some other conditions linked to Agent Orange already qualify.