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Recent blog posts
- More exercise could reduce risk of cancer
- Hope for skin cancer patients
- Testicular cancer breakthrough
- Tissue therapies on the high street
- Bursting bubbles to aid cancer treatment
- Tentative hopes for autism breakthrough
- Cancer detection breakthrough where blood tests can detect cancer before a tumour develops
- New computer system aids healthcare
- NICE rejects cancer drug
- NHS inquiry in Bristol
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Legal News
New superbug threatens patients in UK hospitals Read More
Gynaecologist receives reprimand Read More
Boy wins £3 million compensation for brain injury Read More
Health Service is complacent about the needs of the mentally ill. Read More
40,000 medication and prescription blunders every year Read More
David Goodman's blog
Cancer detection breakthrough where blood tests can detect cancer before a tumour develops
This potentially exciting development in the field of cancer research is the first that is able to accurately read the signals in a person’s immune system as a cancer germinates. It is thought that these signals are present up to five years before the cancer can be seen so giving surgeons the opportunity to intervene at an early stage before the cancer develops. For years there have been complaints that medical advances had not developed better cancer detection practices, now those concerns may be answered.
Britain currently has a poor record of early diagnosis and disease survival with detection particularly difficult in lung, pancreas and gullet cancers. The new breakthrough follows 15 years of research by scientists in Nottingham and the USA. It will be introduced in the United States next month, initially to aid smokers at the greatest risk of lung cancer.
Professor John Robertson, who led the research, said that work was underway on a breast cancer blood test and added that the new technology should significantly improve the detection of 90% of solid cancers.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article7141460.ece
New computer system aids healthcare
The initiative comes from consultants at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust who worked together to develop the artificial intelligence system which is able to analyse a patient’s vital signs and recommend the drug types and infusion rates to the experts caring for a patient. A spokesman for the NHS Trust said that it was able to achieve good control and the computer was able to monitor patients “considerably more rapidly than experts currently manage”.
The consultants who devised the system won first prize at this year’s Medipex NHS Innovations Awards ceremony; which showcases new technology developed by the NHS. Dr Jonathan Ross, one of those who designed the system said: “This is the first study in the world to demonstrate in a clinical trial the ability for a computer, knowing nothing about the specific patient except what data is shown on the routine monitoring, to suggest to an expert the drugs and infusion rates required for precise control of the cardiovascular system”.
He added that the advance in technology would lead to more individual care, tailored to an individual patient’s needs and could free up healthcare staff to deal with other aspects of care.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/39Smart39-computer-for-heart-patients.6300502.jp
NICE rejects cancer drug
The latest blog post sees the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) once again in the headlines. The organisation has rejected the drug Avastin, saying that it is not cost effective despite evidence that it can increase the life expectancy of bowel cancer sufferers by up to two years. Although the final decision is due next month, NICE has said that the cost breaches its threshold for NHS use.
Ten times as many patients get Avastin paid for by private health insurers than on the NHS. It is estimated that as many as 5,000 sufferers of advanced bowel cancer could benefit from the drug which can also be used to treat breast cancer. It is also revealed that NICE is looking into the use of Avastin for patients threatened with blindness.
The move by NICE is controversial as the drug is standard care in most other westernised countries. Almost all EU countries, as well as Australia, the United States, Canada and Scandinavia meet the cost of using Avastin to treat bowel cancer.
If there is a change of government following the general election the Conservative Party would face an early test on its pledge to fund all cancer drugs. The party’s health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: “We will ensure through our new cancer drugs fund that patients will be able to get the drugs that their doctors say they need.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1273196/Horror-story-thousands-cancer-patients-denied-miracle-drug-NHS.html
NHS inquiry in Bristol
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7575095/Inquiry-into-fears-of-botched-cancer-diagnoses.html
An investigation has revealed that four doctors from different hospitals in the city spoke of their concerns at the blunders being made. One of the cases involved a senior NHS manager who died three years after an NHS biopsy failed to detect breast cancer. It was also established that other serious errors had led to the death of a child, while others received treatment for the wrong disease, received a diagnosis very late or were given needless toxic treatment.
The blunders related principally to four main areas of pathology, serving lung, gynaecology, breast and dermatology patients as well as the diagnoses of children. The inquiry is due to report later this year.
The report quotes Dr Richard Spicer, a paediatric cardiac surgeon who retired from University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHB). He said that too many tests to detect diseases in children were being carried out by pathologists who did not have the necessary paediatric expertise and experience and that as a result children were being diagnosed with the wrong grade of cancer which led to complications with their treatment.
New hope for breakthrough in kidney disease
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8611312.stm
The international team of researchers, including some from the University of Edinburgh, studied the genes which control some of the functions of the kidney including filtering waste from the blood.
They found 13 new genes that influenced renal function and another seven which were involved in the production and secretion of creatinine – a chemical waste molecule generated from muscle metabolism and which is filtered through the kidneys.
The researchers describe the findings as a ‘great breakthrough’ in terms of the potential help for future treatments of chronic kidney disease which affects one in 10 adults and often leaves the patient needing dialysis or even an organ transplant.
With so many affected by kidney disease, this breakthrough undoubtedly offers genuine hope for the future. Views welcome, especially from anybody working in this field.
Concern over NHS trust death rates
Professor Jarman is emeritus professor at the Imperial College School of Medicine in London. He said that he had identified a number of NHS trusts with a higher than expected Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) and that, combined with other factors, it could indicate problems with patient care. Throughout the trusts he said that there were 4,600 unexpected deaths in total.
He has asked the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to investigate the 25 trusts and has sent the information to the Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
The BBC programme Panorama has already looked at the discrepancy between hospitals’ own assessment of their performance and the conclusions of the inspectors who carried out the investigations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8584600.stm
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