"Health & Medical News"

The Florida Supreme Court ignored decades of peer review protections when it ruled March 6 to allow patients to examine records on past adverse medical incidents, physicians and hospital organizations say.

The 4-3 high court decision says a state constitutional amendment giving patients access to records related to adverse medical incidents applies retroactively and opens up related peer review documents created before the amendment passed via ballot measure in November 2004.

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An anti-psychotic drug already approved in the U.S. to treat adults and adolescents with schizophrenia may soon be available for youngsters age 10 to 17 years of age suffering from bipolar disorder.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given priority review status to the drug Abilify which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceutical.

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About one in three hit songs include references to alcohol or other drugs, and most are favorable, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Reuters reported Nov. 7 that a study of the top 279 songs on the Billboard charts in 2005 found that 33 percent included alcohol and other drug references, including 80 percent of rap songs, 37 percent of country songs, 20 percent of R&B/hip-hop songs, 14 percent of rock songs, and 9 percent of pop songs.

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Physicians say a Colorado Supreme Court ruling recognizes the importance of protecting ongoing peer review from the threat of lawsuits. But they say the decision likely will make it difficult for doctors to get relief from the courts when they believe abuses are taking place during the proceedings.

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Lawmakers have touted restrictions on sales of cold medicines containing ephedrine as a necessary price for preventing homegrown methamphetamine labs, but Texas officials say police aren’t following through on monitoring sales of medications that could be used to make meth.

The Austin American-Statesman reported Nov. 4 that Texas and federal law requires that buyers of drugs containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine — which can be used to make meth — must sign a log detailing their purchase. The log is intended to prevent multiple purchases of the drug, but many police and sheriffs agencies now say they don’t have time to review the records, blaming the absence of a centralized database of the information.

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While physicians in some states will see a break in their medical liability premiums next year, Maryland insurance officials are questioning a proposal by the state’s largest medical liability insurance carrier to issue a credit to its physician policyholders on Jan. 1, 2008.

In a Sept. 13 order, Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler halted Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland’s plans to pay a portion of a $68.6 million dividend to policyholders as a premium discount. The company allotted some of the money to reimburse the state because it subsidizes Medical Mutual’s premiums under a program set up in 2005 to ensure that doctors have access to medical liability insurance.

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