Insights

<p>Here's what we're reading today:</p> <p><strong>Meridia:</strong> Sales of the weight loss drug Meridia might be about to go on a diet. New England Journal of Medicine editors are calling for it <a href="http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/nejm-fuels-calls-withdraw-abbotts-mer… be pulled off the marke</a>t in the wake of a new study documenting its risks.</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading today:</p> <p><strong>Breast Cancer:</strong> Not fun, but it works: preemptively removing the ovaries or breasts of women who carry either of the two BRCA breast cancer genes can help save the women’s lives even if they’ve already been diagnosed with cancer, according to a new study. The Los Angeles Times’ Thomas H. Maugh <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/31/science/la-sci-breast-cancer-20… the story</a>.</p>

<p>If <a href="http://www.delosherosmd.com/About%20Us.nxg">Dr. Reinaldo de los Heros</a> were a cat, he would have run out of lives. But, thanks to accommodating medical boards up and down the East Coast, de los Heros has survived and thrived. Here is a short guide to his fascinating history. You ca

<p>Some months ago, the receptionist in my clinic handed me a registered letter. The name of the sender seemed familiar. "Dear Sir," the letter read. "Please be advised that this letter serves as official notice that I am considering a potential claim against you in a medical Malpractice claim in regard to my husband. . . ." I stood, stunned. My white coat, which held the daily tools of my profession — my list of patients, the Sanford antibiotic manual, a black stethoscope — felt extraordinarily heavy.</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Nutrition:</strong> <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/29/2985813/dine-out-nutrition-facts-in-yo… don’t need no stinkin’ nutrition facts</a>. Just let me eat my 845-calorie taco salad in peace, okay?</p>

<p><em>Antidote</em> wrote last week about an odd rule set by the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?gl=us&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&am…; State Board of Medical Examiners that allows a doctor accused of “inappropriate conduct” with female patients to continue seeing patients with a chaperone, unless they are 60 or older. At that age, the board considers the patients risk-free and allows the doctor to see them alone.</p>

<p>As always, you can find job, internship, awards and fellowship opportunities <a href="#jobs">at the end of this post</a>.</p>

<p>Now that you have established your target, walk up to the door and knock.</p> <p>This is the step that even some veteran investigative reporters like to avoid until the very end. How can you let a subject know that you are investigating them? Won’t they start shredding records, threatening potential whistleblowers, putting cameras in the parking lot to capture you talking to patients?</p> <p>They may do all those things. But here are three good reasons to talk to your subjects early.</p>

<p><img src="http://media.scpr.org/images/bio/2010/02/26/small.jpg&quot; alt="Julie Small/SCPR" width="100" height="128" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" /></p> <p><strong>Prison Health Care: Live Conversation with Julie Small</strong><br /><strong>Thursday, August 26</strong></p>