Category: Health

Nonprofit hospitals will have to file a new report next year with the Internal Revenue Service â?? for the first time accounting for the free health care and other benefits they provide to justify their tax breaks. References UW Hospital and Clinics.

References UW Hospital and Clinics.

The conclusions were clear: Women who took hormone therapy drugs were at increased risk for breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and blood clots.

The findings were so strong that researchers stopped a clinical trial in 2002, five years early, because it would have been unethical to continue giving the drugs to women.

But that same year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health began a medical education program for doctors that promoted hormone therapy, touted its benefits and downplayed its risks.

Madison – Lawmakers asked the University of Wisconsin Hospital to drop a plan to provide second-trimester abortions at a private clinic. Twenty-eight Republicans and one independent signed a letter to the hospital CEO, calling the procedure “barbaric.” Doctors at UW and Meriter hospitals have proposed performing the abortions for women between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant.

Nearly one-quarter of Wisconsin lawmakers asked the University of Wisconsin Hospital on Thursday to back off a plan to provide late-term abortions at a private clinic.

In a letter to Hospital CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky, 28 Republican senators and representatives and the Legislature’s one independent called second-trimester abortion a barbaric procedure that kills viable babies.

The pilot in a fatal helicopter crash near La Crosse couldnâ??t use instruments to navigate through the fog because his company hadnâ??t certified him to do so, records show.

University of Wisconsin Hospital Med Flight pilot Steve Lipperer was using visual flight rules when the helicopter crashed into hilly terrain in May, killing Lipperer, a doctor and a nurse.

Thomas Zdeblick, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, raised eyebrows three years ago when it was learned that he had been receiving $400,000 yearly from the medical device company Medtronic.

But a document obtained Friday indicates the actual yearly payments averaged about 10 times that figure.

Zdeblick, a professor and chairman of the department of orthopedics at UW, received more than $19â??million in payments from Medtronic from 2003 through 2007, according to a letter that Sen. Charles Grassley R-Iowa sent Monday to UW System President Kevin Reilly.

Foggy conditions may have contributed to the fatal crash of a University of Wisconsin Med Flight helicopter last year, according to documents released Thursday.

Two medical helicopter crews in the area told federal safety investigators they declined requests for flights May 10 because of the danger brought on by deteriorating weather. One of them, a pilot for a La Crosse hospital’s program, said he noticed “fog and scud forming” on the bluffs near the Mississippi River during an earlier flight.

A new report says the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not found a cause for a University of Wisconsin medical helicopter crash near La Crosse last year.

The helicopter was sent to La Crosse May 10 from the UW Hospital in Madison to take a patient from Prairie du Chien to Gundersen Lutheran.

A prominent spine surgeon and researcher at the University of Wisconsin received $19 million in payment over five years from Medtronic Inc., one of the country’s largest makers of spinal devices, according to a senator who is investigating potential conflicts of interest in medicine.

The surgeon, Thomas Zdeblick, received the payments while helping Medtronic develop and promote a number of spinal products. Medtronic’s $19 million in payments to Dr. Zdeblick from 2003 to 2007 went “greatly” beyond what was evident in disclosures he made to the university, Sen. Charles Grassley said in a Jan. 12 letter to Kevin P. Reilly. (Subscription required.)

A surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received millions of dollars from a medical device company, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, says.

Grassley claimed in a letter to university President Kevin Reilly that Dr. Thomas Zdeblick received more than $19 million from Medtronic between 2003 and 2007, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Zdeblick, who heads the orthopedics department at the medical school, acknowledged three years ago that Medtronic was paying him $400,000 a year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal safety investigators said Thursday that flying at night in poor weather conditions contributed to three medical helicopter crashes that killed 12 people.

….The board released the probable cause of the four crashes and information on five others. All total, 35 people were killed in nine EMS helicopter crashes since December 2007.

Three years ago, the board recommended all EMS helicopters be equipped with Terrain Awareness Warning Systems. The technology, which is used aboard commercial jetliners, warns pilots who can’t see where they’re heading when the aircraft is on course to fly into the ground.

Since then, more than three dozen people have been killed in EMS helicopter accidents and installation of the equipment still is not required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Other safety recommendations included more formal procedures for evaluating the risks of making an emergency medical flight, particularly at night and in poor weather, and for obtaining up-to-date weather information. Those recommendations have not been fully implemented either.

Have long heard criticisms that the tax-supported University of Wisconsin is too liberal, and the staff generally promotes viewpoints contrary to the thinking of the vast majority of Wisconsin taxpayers. But we keep paying them.

There have been soul-wrenching discussions in recent years on the morality of some university personnel using tissues from unborn babies for medical research.

Critics say that when university doctors give speeches for drug companies, they can step over the line that separates research and education from marketing, especially when they do unaccredited talks at restaurants and other locations.

Amid the evening din of customers ordering martinis and carving up steaks, a few doctors seated themselves at a table in the private dining room at Johnny Delmonico’s restaurant.

Wine, steak and a white tablecloth helped set the atmosphere for the guest speaker, Melissa Meredith, a physician and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Moonlighting for the drug company Amylin, Meredith was there to give a promotional talk about the diabetes drug Byetta.

Meredith was one of more than 40 UW physicians in 2007 who were paid to work as speakers or authors by drug or medical device companies, records show.

More than two years ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison doctor James Gern approached the pharmaceutical giant Merck with a proposal for an unusual human experiment.

The university would find people in the Madison area with asthma, deliberately infect them with cold viruses and give them the Merck asthma drug montelukast to see if it lessened their symptoms.

From 2003 through 2007, Gern, a professor of pediatrics and an allergy and asthma specialist, has been a regular speaker and consultant for Merck, putting in 28 days of work and making between $35,000 and $70,000.

In 2007, Eric Heiligenstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychiatrist, worked as a speaker for Pfizer, giving talks to other doctors and health care professionals about the smoking-cessation drug Chantix, which has been under increased scrutiny. Chantix has been associated with depression, suicidal thoughts, blackouts and serious injuries.

Heiligenstein put in 14 days for Pfizer and was paid $10,000 to $20,000. Heiligenstein also gave paid talks for Pfizer in 2006.

Anti-abortion activists are calling on the UW Health Clinic to cancel its plan to open an abortion clinic in downtown Madison. But a spokeswoman for UW Health says opposition to the clinic is premature because there’s been no final decision to actually open it.

About sixty protesters lined the sidewalk in front of the UW Clinic yesterday holding signs saying “Abortion is Not Health Care.” The leader of the vigil, Steve Karlen, says he hopes the large turn out will convince the doctors who plan to open the clinic to reconsider.

“Weâ??re asking the university not to take this facility, which is a beautiful medical facility that should be the pride and joy of Madison and the pride and joy of Wisconsin, weâ??re asking them not to turn it in to a place of death and a killing center.” (Third item.)

Protesters came out Thursday morning to voice their opposition against the University of Wisconsin and Meriter Hospital after they announced plans this week to perform late-term abortions.

The rally, organized by Madison’s Vigil For Life, gathered protesters in front of the Madison Surgery Center. The protesters’ goal was to convince UW officials not to go through with these plans, which were made public on Tuesday.

Dozens braved bitter cold temperatures to protest the location of a potential abortion clinic jointly run by UW Health, UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital. The clinic would perform second trimester abortions. There currently are no clinics in the Madison area that offer the later term procedure, something that UW Health claims is an essential public health service. Protestor Peg Gibson, who’s had an abortion, doesn’t agree.

MADISON (WKOW) — Protesters were out this morning in Madison, demonstrating against the UW hospital’s plan to offer second trimester abortions.

The group of about 60 people protested peacefully outside the Madison Surgery Center on Park Street, where the abortions would be performed.

University of Wisconsin doctors are using new technology to help more patients who need kidney transplants get the life-saving organ they need.

The LifePort Kidney Transporter keeps the organ constantly pumped with oxygen and blood with a cold solution — even during transportation. Unlike traditional coolers, the transporter will ensure more kidneys will be available and that the organs will arrive at the recipient in better condition.

The Madison Surgery Center on Park Street could soon offer abortions.

The UW Hospital is proposing to allow a number of UW Gynecologists at the center to offer an uncommon procedure, 2nd tri-mester abortions, which are performed on women between 13 and 22 weeks of pregancy.

UW hospital officials say they’re proposing this because a Madison Planned Parenthood doctor who performed 2nd trimester abortions recently retired.

An arrangement between UW Hospitals and a Madison clinic to provide second-trimester abortions for women is raising questions.

State Senator Glenn Grothman says fetuses would be aborted five or six months after conception, according to allegations from the Alliance Defense Fund. The West Bend Republican says that’s something many hospitals won’t do.

University of Wisconsin Hospital, its doctor group and Meriter Hospital are proposing to open an abortion clinic at their jointly owned Madison Surgery Center near Meriter, which anti-abortion groups say could violate state laws.

The clinic, which could open next month, at 1 S. Park St., would primarily offer second-trimester abortions, said UW Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brunette.

Anti-abortion groups are condemning a University of Wisconsin plan to provide second-trimester abortions at a Madison clinic and questioning whether it’s illegal.

UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said its gynecologists plan to begin performing abortions for patients between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant at the Madison Surgery Center. She said the plan needs final approval from the center’s board, which could take action this month.

With no clinics in the Madison area currently administering second trimester abortions, a group of UW Health gynecologists is considering a plan to provide the procedure to patients who seek it.

“The physicians involved believe this is part of a comprehensive plan of care for reproductive health,” said UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette. “Right now there is no clinic in the area that provides that type of termination and the physicians involved believe there is a public health responsibility to provide them, so they wish to move forward.”

MADISON, Wis. — A Christian legal group is calling on University of Wisconsin health officials to reconsider a plan to perform second-trimester abortions.

More than half of teenagers mention risky behaviors such as sex and drugs on their MySpace accounts, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They said many young people who use social networking sites such as News Corp’s (NWSa.N) MySpace do not realize how public they are and may be opening themselves to risks, but the sites may also offer a new way to identify and help troubled teens.

A new study shows that more than half of teenagers mention drugs, alcohol, sex or violence on their MySpace pages. Yet getting teens to clean up their pages is easier than many might assume, researchers say.

Many teenagers cleaned up their MySpace profiles, deleting mentions of sex and booze and boosting privacy settings, if they got a single cautionary e-mail from a busybody named “Dr. Meg.” The e-mail was sent by Dr. Megan Moreno, lead researcher of a study of lower-income kids that she says shows how parents and other adults can encourage safer Internet use.

Many teenagers cleaned up their MySpace profiles, deleting mentions of sex and booze and boosting privacy settings, if they got a single cautionary e-mail from a busybody named “Dr. Meg.”

The e-mail was sent by Dr. Megan Moreno, lead researcher of a study of lower-income kids that she says shows how parents and other adults can encourage safer Internet use.

A new medical study is linking the popular social network MySpace to some risky behavior among teenagers.

Researchers hope the findings of the study lead teens and parents to talk about personal information online.

“I don’t really use MySpace anymore because in high school, most people use Facebook,” said high school freshman McKenna Meuer.

But MySpace is a well-known place to log in and make new friends. The online social network has 250 million users.

Teenagers often use social networking sites like MySpace to post intimate personal information they come to regret, as it lets future employers (or online predators) learn about sex activity and substance abuse. Enter â??Dr. Meg.â?