December 27, 2008

Texas Medical Board Update

The Texas Medical Board (TMB) is charged with licensing physicians and enforcing the Texas Medical Practices Act. During the 2007 session and interim, TMB has been under intense legislative scrutiny for administrative, enforcement, and licensure issues. Last session, lawmakers increased the agency’s appropriation by $3.4 million — to $18.4 million for the biennium — so it can better manage the backlog of license applications. In exchange, the board was directed to cut the average processing time for a new license to 51 days. TMB reports it has met this goal and initiated an online application process to further speed up licensure.

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December 26, 2008

Texas Medical Board Falling Behind On Complaints

Medical malpractice reform enacted five years ago succeeded in cutting the number of lawsuits against doctors and increasing the number of physicians working in Texas.

But state medical board investigators say it also left them with an unbearable workload.

While the Texas Medical Board's staffing increased 28 percent from 112 employees in fiscal 2002 to 143 in fiscal 2008, physician and patient settlements through the board have increased 202 percent, according to the board's statistics.

In next year's legislative session, the TMB will be asking for 11 additional full-time workers to help with investigating and resolving complaints against doctors.

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December 22, 2008

Texas Medical Board Implements New Rules

Rule Changes Adopted
The board adopted the following rule changes that were published in the Texas Register:

Chapter 163, Licensure, amendments to §163.5, Licensure Documentation.

Chapter 165, Medical Records, amendments to §165.1, Medical Records; §165.5, Transfer and Disposal of Medical Records.

Chapter 166, Physician Registration, amendments to§166.2, Continuing Medical Education; and §166.6, Exemption from Registration Fee for Retired Physician Providing Voluntary Charity Care.

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December 21, 2008

Texas Medical Board Disciplines 59 Doctors and Issues 479 Physician Licenses

Since its last board meeting, the Texas Medical Board took disciplinary action against 59 licensed physicians. The actions included 13 violations based on quality of care; two actions based on unprofessional conduct; three actions based on violations of probation or prior orders; three actions based on other states’ actions; six actions based on inadequate medical records; four actions based on impairment due to alcohol or drugs or mental/physical condition; two actions based on nontherapeutic prescribing; two actions based on failure to properly supervise or delegate; one action based on a criminal conviction; three voluntary surrenders; two violations of failure to obtain required continuing medical education; two administrative agreed orders; and 12 licensees agreed to enter into administrative orders with the board for minimal statutory violations.

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December 11, 2008

Texas Medical Board Temporarily Restricts Doctor's License

A panel of the Texas Medical Board temporarily restricted the license of a doctor based in Conroe, after determining that the doctor’s unrestricted practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The action was based on the panel’s findings that the doctor was responsible for violations in the standard of care, nontherapeutic prescribing, prescribing to persons who were known or should have been known to be engaged in substance abuse or diversion, and his failing to adequately supervise the activities of persons operating under his supervision. These findings were made as the result of a criminal investigation involving patients who had obtained narcotics prescriptions from clinics under the doctor's medical direction.

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November 19, 2008

Texas Medical Board Suspends License of a Houston Doctor

A panel of the Texas Medical Board has temporarily suspended the license of Eli T. Anderson, M.D., license #E6214, of Houston , after determining that Dr. Anderson's continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The action was based on evidence the board received that Dr. Anderson tested positive for a cocaine metabolite in June, 2008, while undergoing drug testing required as a condition of his placement on five years deferred adjudication probation for possession of cocaine, a third degree felony, in Clay County, Texas, in June, 2005. In 2007, Dr. Anderson was again arrested in Lubbock for possession of drug paraphernalia. In addition, at the Board's temporary suspension hearing, Dr. Anderson admitted on the judicial record that he had used cocaine since 2002, and that he had used cocaine as recently as November, 2008.

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November 9, 2008

Boston Plans Tougher Regulations on Tobacco

Boston Public Health Commission is proposing some of the nation’s strictest smoking regulations; banning the sale of cigarettes at drugstores and on college campuses, and shutting down the city’s 10 cigar and hookah bars by 2013.

The commission said, the goal is to discourage young people from buying tobacco products, to keep a harmful product out of stores that promote health, and to protect employees who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

The Board of Health will vote on the regulations on Nov. 13. If approved they will take effect within 60 days.

“Should tobacco be treated as any other consumer good? No,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Board of Health. “We do not sell guns everywhere, we do not sell alcohol everywhere and we do not need to be selling tobacco everywhere. They are all dangerous products, and they all require regulation.”
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October 29, 2008

Texas Medical Board Suspends License of a Dallas Doctor

A panel of the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Harold Clay Henderson, M.D., of Dallas, license number G3937, after determining that Dr. Henderson’s continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The temporary suspension hearing took place Monday, October 27, under the Board’s authority, granted by S.B. 104 of the 78th Legislature, to suspend or restrict a physician’s license without notice when it determines the physician’s continuation in practice would constitute a continuing threat to the public welfare. The suspension is effective immediately.

The action was based on the panel’s finding of Dr. Henderson’s inability to safely practice medicine due to intemperate use of drugs or alcohol, or mental or physical disability. The panel also found that Dr. Henderson had aided and abetted the unlicensed practice of medicine by employing a physician in his office whose licensed was suspended.

The length of a temporary suspension is indefinite and it remains in effect until the board takes further action.

Also on Monday, a panel of the board temporarily restricted the license of Donald Delmer Pope, M.D., license #F4386, of Brownwood.

The action was based Dr. Pope’s guilty plea to a felony charge of aggravated sexual assault of a female under 14, and his receiving eight years of deferred adjudication as a sex offender. The restriction requires that Dr. Pope have no contact with any female patient under 17 and that he have an independent medical evaluation, follow the evaluating psychiatrist’s recommendations and submit the treating psychiatrist’s reports to the board.

The temporary restriction is effective immediately and remains in effect until the board takes further action.

If you have been subjected to a TMB Inquiry Letter or TMB Disciplinary Process, then please contact the Doctor Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik of Southlake, Texas. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.

October 27, 2008

Study Shows Problems with Medronic's Heart Stent

A new medical study out recently shows that Medtronic's new drug-coated stent was associated with more heart attacks and blood clots than a rival stent made by Johnson & Johnson.

Results from the cardiology study named Sort Out III, which included more than 2,000 patients, showed that heart patients who received the Medtronic device, called Endeavor, had more heart attacks and blood clots and needed repeat procedures more often than those treated with the J&J stent, known as Cypher.
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October 25, 2008

Ovarian Cancer Update

Ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to diagnose, making it one of the most deadly. The ovaries are not accessible for examination, and the symptoms that are associated with ovarian cancer are vague and can be confused with other less life-threatening conditions.

Because of its hidden nature, ovarian cancer often is not caught in time to save the patient. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, three of every four ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, after the malignancy has spread beyond the ovary.
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October 23, 2008

20 Drugs on FDA Watch List

The FDA is "evaluating" new adverse-event reports for 20 drugs, the agency announced in September. A 2007 federal law requires the FDA to disclose all its investigations into reports of possibly drug-related adverse events.

The reports on the list come from the FDA's early-warning system for drugs already on the market. This Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) collects reports from patients, hospitals, doctors, and drug companies about suspicious problems that might be related to a medication.
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October 22, 2008

Changes at the Texas Medical Board

The Texas Medical Board has named Alan T. Moore, M.D., as interim medical director of the agency.

Dr. Moore graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and received his medical degree from the U.T. Southwestern Medical School, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed his anatomic and clinical pathology residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where he served as chief resident during his fourth year. He also completed a hematopathology fellowship at Parkland.

Dr. Moore is board certified in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology and hematopathology. He has practiced in Austin for more than 20 years and has served as president of Clinical Pathology Associates as well as on the board of Clinical Pathology Laboratories; medical director of Seton Medical Center Laboratory; chief of Staff at Seton Medical Center; and president of the Texas Society of Pathologists. He has also served as the transplant pathologist for the Seton Medical Center Cardiac Transplant Program.

The board also named Mari Robinson, J.D., interim Executive Director of the agency following the retirement of former executive director Donald W. Patrick, M.D., J.D. Robinson began her career at TMB as a litigation attorney in 2001 and has served as Director of Enforcement since 2006.

State law requires that, if the agency executive is a non-physician, a medical director be hired.

If you have been subjected to a TMB Inquiry Letter or TMB Disciplinary Process, then please contact the Doctor Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik of Southlake, Texas. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.

October 20, 2008

MP3 Players Can Cause Permanent Deafness

BRUSSELS - European scientists warned that many teenagers across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss after five years if they listen to MP3 players at too high a volume for more than five hours a week.

The risk for hearing damage depends on sound level and exposure time.
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October 17, 2008

Eli Lilly To Settle Zyprexa Lawsuits

Eli Lilly & Co. has agreed to pay $62 million to some states, to settle claims it improperly marketed Zyprexa, its top-selling drug, to patients who did not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, its only approved uses.

Attorneys general from several states had accused Lilly of marketing Zyprexa for off-label uses and inadequately disclosing the drug's side effects to health-care providers. Doctors are free to prescribe drugs for uses not approved by the FDA, but drug companies cannot market them for those situations.

But Lilly has settled more than 31,000 product liability claims against the drug since 2005, paying out more than $1.1 billion. The drugmaker still faces separate litigation with 11 other states, generally involving consumer protection issues or Medicaid reimbursement.
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October 16, 2008

Texas Medical Board Disciplines 34 Doctors and Issues 276 Physician Licenses

At its October 9-10 meeting, the Texas Medical Board took disciplinary action against 34 licensed physicians.
The actions included three violations based on quality of care; two actions based on unprofessional conduct; one action based on violation of probation or prior order; one action that terminated a prior suspension; two actions based on other states’ actions; one action based on inadequate medical records violations; two actions based on impairment due to alcohol or drugs or mental/physical condition; five actions based on non-therapeutic prescribing; two actions based on failure to properly supervise or delegate; two actions based on criminal convictions; three voluntary surrenders; and 10 licensees agreed to enter into administrative orders with the Board for minimal statutory violations. In addition, the board issued two cease and desist orders against unlicensed individuals.
At its October 9-10 meeting, the Texas Medical Board issued 276 physician licenses.

If you have been subjected to a TMB Inquiry Letter or TMB Disciplinary Process, then please contact the Doctor Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik of Southlake, Texas. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.

October 10, 2008

HIV-Aids Origin

A new study claims that the most common global strain of HIV began spreading in humans around 1900 in sub-Saharan Africa.
This study, which is published in Nature, found that HIV began spreading between 1884 and 1924, around the same time urban centers in west central Africa were established.

Previous studies have shown that HIV spread from chimpanzees to humans in southeastern Cameroon.

October 7, 2008

New Technologies for Counting Sponges

Nurses count sponges and surgical instruments when a procedure begins and ends, so that they are not left inside a patient. Cases of retained foreign objects are rare -- occurring once in every 5,000 surgeries -- discrepancies in counts happen in 13% of surgeries, according to a recent surgical study.

The mistake is one of the hospital-acquired conditions that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will stop paying for as a complicating condition later this year.

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October 1, 2008

Texas Medical Board Suspends License of Houston Doctor

A panel of the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Nancy Louise Anderson, M.D., license number F7350, after determining that Dr. Anderson’s continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The action was based on the panel’s findings of violations of a 2008 Mediated Agreed Order, which required, among other provisions, that Dr. Anderson submit to random alcohol and drug screenings to ensure abstinence; participate in Alcoholics Anonymous programs and activities; obtain an independent medical evaluation within a prescribed time period; and cooperate with Board staff. The immediate suspension of Dr. Anderson’s license was based on her violations of the 2008 order by failing to submit to alcohol and drug screenings, failing to attend AA meetings, failing to obtain the medical examination, and failing to cooperate with the Board.

The action took place on Friday, September 26. The length of an automatic suspension is indefinite and it remains in effect until the board takes further action.

If you have been subjected to a TMB Inquiry Letter or TMB Disciplinary Process, then please contact the Doctor Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik of Southlake, Texas. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.

September 28, 2008

Bronchodilators May Cause Increase In Heart Problems

A new study out this week in JAMA suggests that common drugs which are recommended as first-line therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes and death.

COPD refers to two incurable lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and emphysema most commonly caused by cigarette smoking.

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September 10, 2008

Texas Medical Board Disciplines 48 Doctors and Issues 700 Physician Licenses

At its August 27-29 meeting, the