Keeping up to date with evolving standards of care, conducting thorough patient counseling that explains all reasonable evaluation and treatment options, and ensuring careful follow-up are important risk-management strategies for helping dermatologists avoid the mayhem accompanying a malpractice suit for a missed or delayed diagnosis of malignant melanoma.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its long-awaited updated guidelines for sunscreens earlier this summer, and as hoped, more definitive standards were set delineating which sunscreens can designate themselves as having "broad-spectrum" protection from both UVA and UVB rays. On Call asked dermatologists around the country what they think of the new guidelines and whether they go far enough.
Any type of skin rash, especially new-onset rashes, could be the result of an adverse drug reaction. Many patients suffer with chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis or eczema, and diagnosis is usually straightforward, says David R. Adams, M.D., Pharm.D., associate professor of dermatology, Penn State University Medical Center. "But when someone develops a new breakout - of nearly any morphology - on the skin, always consider drugs as a possible cause," he says.
This is a true story, but the names and a few minor details have been changed in deference to HIPAA. I first met Bobby in 2002, when he was 8. His quality of life had been marred by severe eczema since infancy, but things got worse when he was diagnosed with asthma at age 6 and insulin-dependent diabetes a year later.
There is a great need for new melanoma treatments, and there has been some progress in the last five years that has come about as a result of greater molecular understanding of melanoma, according to the director and chairman of the department of dermatology, Skin Cancer Center, University Hospital Essen, Germany.
Being an employee at a hospital can be a great fit for many doctors. But, for (supposedly) high-income specialists, this decision could come at an unnecessarily high financial cost.
Judging from my email, it’s not difficult these days to find savers and investors who are questioning the conventional wisdom when it comes to investing their money.
If you’ve been following conventional advice on diversification over the past decade, you have a portion of your portfolio invested in bonds of various types. And that’s good. When the equities market tanked in mid-2008, many investors were spared the worst of it by strong returns from their fixed-income investments.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed its first regulations for health-related smartphone and wireless tablet applications, or apps, The Washington Post reports.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the Ortho Dermatologics division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals for $345 million, thestar.com reports.
Patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency, HealthDay News reports.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Xeomin (incobotulinumtoxinA, Merz Aesthetics) for temporary improvement of moderate to severe glabellar lines, Medscape Today reports.
Vitamin D deficiency may be unusually high among American football players, with black players and those with muscle injuries showing significantly lower levels, Medscape Today reports.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has named a former drug company executive to the new position of deputy commissioner for medical products and tobacco, the online Wall Street Journal reports.
U.S. hospitalizations related to the USA300 strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) more than tripled between 2004 and 2008, Medscape Today reports.
Pressure ulcers are more prevalent in black high-risk nursing home residents than in white residents, according to a recent study, Medscape Today reports.
Researchers at King&rdsquo;s College say they have identified the exact molecule that causes the stinging pain of sunburn - a finding, Time.com reports, that could lead to improved treatments for more serious conditions, such as arthritis.
A Danish study suggests that signs of atopy may be present long before symptoms begin, even in month-old babies, Medical News Today reports.
Scientists in Western Australia say they’ve found that survival rates for people with merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) are far worse than rates for those with melanoma, widely regarded as the most lethal skin cancer, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Lotus Tissue Repair, a start-up company created to develop a treatment for the rare genetic disease dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), has secured $26 million in financing, Xconomy.com reports.
New research suggests that heart transplant patients are four to 30 times as likely to develop skin cancer as healthy people, depending on their geographic location and other factors, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Higher plasma levels of vitamin D are associated with reduced risk of incident diabetes among people at high risk for the disease, Medscape Medical News reports.
The Inga Ellzey Practice Group (IEPG), the leading expert on dermatology coding, documentation and reimbursement and a Dermatology Times contributor, has spun off a new company, Ellzey Coding Solutions (ECS).
Health Canada has approved the use of the injectable aesthetic filler Bellafill, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Shedding New Light : Derms support FDA’s final sunscreen rules, but some still worry about consumer ‘confusion’ 'Huge Step' : Novel agents boost survival in metastatic melanoma patients Special Report : Fillers & toxins
Novel immunomodulatory antibodies such as ipilimumab (Bristol-Myers Squibb) and other experimental treatment options such as melanoma vaccines, chemotherapy agents (Abraxane, Celgene) and targeted drug therapies (BRAF inhibitors) are proving effective in the treatment of patients with late-stage melanoma, offering increased hope in the continuing battle against this deadly skin cancer.
In my last editorial, I expressed mystification about what exactly was being "reformed" by the passage of the 2,700-page "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." Finally, a limited number of details about the provisions of this act are finally coming to light. The latest is the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which represents one of the first proposals to provide initiatives to reform healthcare delivery.
The fact that Medicare reform is being debated on Capitol Hill and a near 30 percent Medicare physician pay cut looms in January appears to be moving some influential lawmakers to get serious about reforming the system used to pay Medicare doctors. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has said a solution is "on the short list of things getting done this summer," and two hearings were held in May as part of that process.
The occurrence of several cases of pseudomelanoma after ablative fractional CO2 laser resurfacing underscore the importance of careful pre- and postoperative evaluation to avoid misdiagnosing a benign lesion as malignant melanoma, says Deborah Sarnoff, M.D.
A groundbreaking topically applied neurotoxin now in phase 2 trials would provide a painless, injection-free wrinkle-relaxing alternative if it is eventually approved by regulators, investigators say. "The product is being developed by Revance and would offer an additional choice for the clinician and the patient," says Michael A.C. Kane, M.D., of Kane Plastic Surgery, New York, and an investigator with the trial. "Many people are needle-phobic and would probably prefer a topical over an injection."