Monthly Archives: July 2010

Does Who Pays For Your Surgery Determine If You Survive?

Over the past week or so, National Review‘s Avik Roy has kicked off a bit of a blogospheric firestorm with his posts on a journal article published in the latest edition of the Annals of Surgery entitled “Primary Payer Status Affects Mortality for Major Surgical Operations.” The article analyzes the surgical outcomes of 839, 658 [...]

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Posted in Medical Malpractice, Tort Reformers

A Thank You To My Legal Blogging Brethren

Due to a vacation that I took and assorted demands of my practice, I haven’t blogged much this month. Bereft of ideas after being out-of-contact with the blogosphere over my vacation, I decided to cast about my favorite legal blogs for inspiration. You can imagine my surprise when, upon clicking on my first bookmark – [...]

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Posted in Tort Reformers

Amazing Video of SawStop Technology

In March, I blogged about this $1.5 million jury verdict against saw manufacturer Ryobi for failing to equip its table saws with some form of flesh detection technology, such as that offered in SawStop-brand saws. This video illustrates the SawStop technology that’s been wowing contractors and other tradesmen over the last decade or so: For [...]

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Posted in Medical Malpractice, Power Saws, Products Liability, SawStop, Table Saws

Another Doctor Who Believes That Reducing Medical Malpractice Depends On Learning From The Aviation Industry: But What Are The Lessons We Should Be Learning?

It’s probably this blog’s favorite topic: the way – or at least one important way – of reducing medical malpractice is for doctors to implement the same kind of systems we see in aviation. Dr. Gawande has written a book on the subject – The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right. The central thesis [...]

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Posted in Medical Malpractice

Will Self-Correcting Cars Reduce The Number Of Car Accidents? A Study In The Peltzman Effect

About ten 2010 car models come equipped with “lane departure correction” – a feature that automatically corrects the steering of drivers who veer outside their lane. It seems like the next safety breakthrough, the next invention that, like the seat belt or the airbag, will prevent a million car accident deaths. But will it? Economist [...]

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Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash

Independence Day Weekend Roundup

Before leaving for the weekend, here are some topics that I wish I had time to blog about the past week or two: Should Medicare and Medicaid reimburse doctors when they commit medical errors classified as “never events“? Is the categorization of “never events” fair? Would having your doctor warn you about the dangers of [...]

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Posted in Car Accident, Liquor Liability, Medical Malpractice, Products Liability