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Many U.S. Hospitals Fail To Report Physician Disciplinary Cases To National Databank
Many U.S. hospitals do not take sufficient disciplinary action against physicians for poor conduct or medical incompetence and fail to report such cases to the National Practitioner Data Bank, according to a report released Wednesday by Public Citizen, the Contra Costa Times reports. Congress established the databank in 1990 as a central repository for information about physicians whose hospital privileges had been withdrawn or limited for more than 30 days. The bank is closed to the public (Kleffman, Contra Costa Times, 5/27).For the report, Public Citizen"s Health Research Group analyzed studies by the HHS Office of Inspector General and the Citizen Advocacy Center, as well as medical journal articles and recommendations made during an October 1996 meeting on under-reporting by hospitals (Stark/Hallihan, ABCNews.com, 5/27). According to the report, nearly half of U.S. hospitals did not submit one physician"s name in 17 years to the databank. One purpose of the databank is to provide hospitals with background information about physicians they were considering hiring at their facilities. Under the initial expectations of the databank, federal officials estimated that at least 5,000 disciplinary cases would be reported annually. However, on average, about 650 reports have been made annually since the databank was created, the report found (Contra Costa Times, 5/27). The group on Wednesday sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that included recommendations to improve the efficacy of the databank. The letter said that the reporting numbers are "unreasonably low, compared with what would be expected if hospitals pursued disciplinary actions aggressively and reported all such actions." The letter urged Sebelius to ensure that hospitals are conducting necessary peer reviews and oversight of physicians, taking proper disciplinary actions and reporting them to the databank so that physicians" track records are available to all hospital administrators. Penalties also should be established for hospitals that fail to comply with the reporting requirements, the group said.Al Levine, the author of the report, said some hospitals had found ways to avoid their physician reporting responsibilities, such as by limiting restrictions on hospital privileges to fewer than 30 days or giving physicians a "leave of absence" in place of suspending their privileges. Levine said, "Even in states with high levels of reporting," it "seems to be concentrated in a few facilities" (Contra Costa Times, 5/27).In a statement responding to the report, the American Hospital Association said, "The premise that the number of reports received by the National Practitioner Data Bank correlates to jeopardized patient care is inaccurate," adding, "Hospitals are actively involved in a wide variety of efforts to continuously improve care and talk publicly about the care we provide" (ABCNews.com, 5/27).
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Provectus Completes Patient Accrual In Phase 2 Trial Of PV-10 For Metastatic Melanoma
Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC BB: PVCT), a development-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company has completed patient accrual and initial PV-10 treatment in its Phase 2 trial of PV-10 for metastatic melanoma. The study involved treatment of 80 subjects with Stage III or Stage IV metastatic melanoma.
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Babies' Intestines Protected By Magic Ingredient In Breast Milk
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have discovered that an ingredient in human breast milk protects and repairs the delicate intestines of newborn babies.
Oncology

Prestigious French Award For Heart Research Won By Olson

Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded the Institut de France"s prestigious Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation Grand Prize for his work on gene regulation in the cardiovascular system. The prize has an international reputation as the most prestigious award in cardiovascular research. The award of about $664,000 (500,000 euros) will be presented June 10 in France by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and the president of the Institut de France. "I consider this award one of the highest honors of my career," Dr. Olson said. "It"s a wonderful recognition of the many scientists in my lab from throughout the United States and around the world who have contributed to this effort. They really deserve the credit." Much of what is known regarding cardiac gene regulation can be traced directly to Dr. Olson"s pioneering work. His research is regarded as a major step in finding genetic targets for treatment of congenital heart defects and adult heart disease, and it has illuminated the fundamental principles of organ formation. Equally important is his demonstration that many of the genes that control heart formation are called into play in the adult heart under pathological stress. "Dr. Olson"s discoveries have provided profound new insights into cardiac development and substantially advanced our understanding of altered cardiovascular function in disease," said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern. "Dr. Olson exemplifies the scientific creativity of our faculty which serves as the foundation for UT Southwestern"s international reputation as a center of research, discovery and innovation." Dr. Olson studies how the heart and blood vessels form, how they rebuild themselves after injury, and how genetic mutations and stress can cause heart disease. He and his team have discovered networks of genes that orchestrate the formation of the heart and have shown how inherited genetic mutations in these genes cause congenital heart disease, the most frequent form of birth defect. Most recently, Dr. Olson has turned his attention to distinctive forms of ribonucleic acid called microRNAs, chemical cousins of DNA, which are increasingly recognized to activate, turn off or fine-tune various functions in cells. Several novel therapeutics based on Dr. Olson"s research are currently in development. Dr. Olson is director of the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Basic Research in Cancer and the Nearburg Family Center for Basic Research in Pediatric Oncology. He holds the Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science and the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research. Dr. Olson is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves as a consultant to miRagen Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that he co-founded. His numerous honors and awards include the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research and the Pasarow Award in Cardiovascular Medicine. In addition, he received the Outstanding Investigator Award from the International Society for Heart Research and an inaugural Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association. He also was awarded the AHA"s National Research Achievement Award for work that the organization described as having "redrawn battle lines in the fight against disease." t: Aline McKenzie UT Southwestern Medical Center


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