San Francisco’s streets were slightly more dangerous last year, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) says. The city saw 3,111 nonfatal injury traffic accidents in 2011, 30 more than the prior year. The number of fatal traffic collisions also increased from 23 in 2010 to 28 in 2011. A variety of factors can contribute…
Medtronic recently sent an urgent letter to physicians warning that two of its SynchroMed drug infusion pumps have product defects that may cause the pumps to stop working. As of last summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had received more than 550 complaints regarding SynchroMed pump failures. The FDA has decided to classify…
Drugmaker Amgen recently agreed to a $762 million settlement of criminal penalties and whistleblower lawsuits related to its illegal marketing of Aranesp, an anemia drug. Federal prosecutors say that the drugmaker marketed its pharmaceuticals for uses that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explicitly ruled out. “Promoting drugs for unapproved purposes is beyond wrong;…
When most people think about medical malpractice, they think of surgical errors or patient neglect. A recent article in USA Today reports that a more fundamental error occurs in up to 5 percent of American hospitals and clinics: the use of dirty syringes. Experts say that approximately 150,000 patients are treated with dirty syringes annually….
The cost of pharmaceuticals is a growing problem in the United States and many doctors and patients seek to cut costs by buying online. One internet pharmaceutical company called CanadaDrugs has grown exponentially in the past few years by allowing American physicians and consumers to buy drugs from price-controlled countries such as the U.K. and…
Medical experts in the U.S. and around the world are beginning to review the safety of newer forms of oral contraceptive pills. The safety of these potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals has been debated due to the risk of blood clots and strokes they pose. Some studies have shown that newer, third- and fourth-generation birth control pills…
Drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim has started to inform physicians that its drug Pradaxa (dabigatran) is not safe for patients with mechanical heart valves. The German pharmaceutical giant says that its oral anticoagulant should not be given to patients with mechanical heart valves because it increases their risk of strokes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…
Drugmaker Biogen Idec recently announced that one of its new pharmaceuticals has proven to be ineffective on patients who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The drugmaker’s Phase 3 EMPOWER trial found that the drug dexpramipexole failed to show efficacy in function and patient survival. This means that the pharmaceutical is defective and that the…
Most of San Francisco’s traffic accidents happen at intersections. Intersection car accidents continue to be an issue despite the city’s large investment in red light cameras and other safety measures. The majority of San Francisco’s most dangerous intersections appear to have a problem with signal timing and biker-vehicle crashes. Here are the top five most…
San Francisco is known as a national cycling leader. The city ranks third in the country for bicycle commuters, coming just behind Portland and Seattle. The number of bicycle riders has doubled in some parts of the city since 2002 and 3.5 percent of all trips in San Francisco are on a bike. The growing…
Lawyers Who Know
How
to Win Your Case
