No Increase in Surgical Deaths for New Med School Grads, Prescription for a Spanking, and Two Items on Pills
No increase in surgical deaths after each new class of medical school graduates begins residency programs at teaching hospitals in July. There is a 10% increase in fatal medical errors.
Mom says doctor prescribed spanking for son.
Human Swallows a Cheap Deworming Pill; Mosquito Bites Human; Then Mosquito Dies.
Why does the generic pill have a different shape and color than the brand pill?
Let’s see if I have this right. The new residents don’t kill you outright. They just kill you by giving you the wrong medication.
drug appearance: My first thought was that differences have mainly to do with marketing. You would never allow a generic manufacturer to sell the same pill (in shape and color) as the name brand.
worming: This sounds like exactly the same sort of worming (even the same drug!) that is used in cattle and horses. However, the problem remains largely the same: you have to give every animal a dose. Missing even one decreases the effectiveness of the treatment.
Spanking is sometimes very effective therapy.
It is interesting how the cheap deworming drug for pets was found to be effective at preventing a disease that disabled large numbers of people. I watched a documentary about river blindness on PBS. Becoming blind in old age was more or less accepted as a given in these clan that lived near infected rivers.
The emergency room doctor had probably seen more than his fair share of kids who badly needed a spanking because their parents never bothered to discipline them.
I think I’d be wary of a drug that made my blog poisonous. I agree with Virginia, though, about the logistical difficulty of such a solution for malaria.
The term for the shape, color, etc., of a pill is “trade dress,” and is a longstanding area of dispute between brand-name and generic drugmakers.
Although I see that there is some confusion in some patients who switch to generic versions (after patent expiration) that is not a good enough reason for the government to take away the brand-name company’s trade dress, which is effectively trademark.
Indeed, for some drugs (especially psychiatric drugs) the brand-name drug can keep significant market share after the patent expires. If patients and doctors want to keep using the brand-name version, despite its higher price, they should not be confused by a generic that looks the same.