Urgent Hospital Readmissions are Avoidable in Nearly One out of Five Cases

By Miles Obradovich | Published: August 25, 2011

The Canadian Medical Association Journal has published a study of the causes of urgent hospital readmissions. The study was undertaken as urgent, unplanned hospital readmissions are increasingly being used to gauge the quality of care. The study team, comprised mainly of physicians, reviewed all urgent readmissions that occurred within 6 months of discharge from 11 [Read more]

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Medical Malpractice Risk Perception at Odds with the Reality

By Miles Obradovich | Published: August 22, 2011

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study of malpractice claims. The research was primarily funded by the RAND Institute and carried out by researchers from Harvard and USC. The researchers examined data of a large professional liability insurer over a 14 year period. The data was sufficiently broad that the researchers were [Read more]

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Teaching Medical Malpractice Advocacy at the University of Toronto

By Miles Obradovich | Published: August 12, 2011

Recently I had the privilege of speaking to the summer students in the LAWS program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, my alma mater, on advocacy and the role of a lawyer in the conduct of medical malpractice litigation. The students spent a whole week on the study of medical malpractice including the [Read more]

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Medical Device Approval Process Is Defective

By Miles Obradovich | Published: July 30, 2011

The Institute of Medicine released a study on Friday July 29 2011 concluding that the regulatory framework in the U.S. for the fast track approval and release of moderate risk medical devices into the market is itself flawed and fails to offer assurances of safety for patients.The IOM study committee made 3 important findings: 1. [Read more]

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Medical Errors Continue to Harm Patients According to a New Study

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 30, 2010

Researchers have published in the New England Journal of Medicine the results of a study taken to determine whether efforts to reduce medical errors at national, regional, and local levels have translated into significant improvements in the overall safety of patients in hospitals. In December 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that medical errors cause [Read more]

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Urological Medical Malpractice

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 21, 2010

Medical malpractice in urology is of sufficient concern that it has been the subject of academic study.  In our role of malpractice lawyers we reviewed a grouping of studies the results of which provide insight into the cause and frequency of negligence in this medical specialty. What we found was illuminating. Urology is in the [Read more]

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Lung Cancer and Medical Malpractice

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 16, 2010

Recently the Canadian government has come in for criticism on its flagging resolve to continue to up the bar on the requirements for graphic display of the effects of lung cancer on the packaging of cigarettes. Thankfully medical doctors have been traditionally been very vocal in decrying the deleterious effects of this societal affliction. This [Read more]

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Wrong Site Surgery Increases After the Introduction of the Universal Protocol

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 14, 2010

A study of more than 27,370 adverse events self-reported by Colorado physicians and published in the October Archives of Surgery found that 132 wrong-patient and wrong-site procedures were reported to the Colorado Physician Insurance Co. from 2002 to 2008. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 18,000 health care organizations [Read more]

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Practical Car Accident Tips

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 11, 2010

Introduction No one wants to be in a motor car accident but once you are you need to follow certain procedures to protect your legal position. Here we will give you the pointers necessary to guide you through the trials of what can be a disheartening experience. Please remember that these pointers are for information [Read more]

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Patients Need to Act Promptly in a Medical Mapractice Case

By Miles Obradovich | Published: November 7, 2010

The recently released decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Liu v. Silver, 2010 ONCA 731 serves as a caution to plaintiffs that they should not delay in commencing legal action in a medical malpractice case. There was a factual finding that before the plaintiff was discharged from the hospital on she knew that she had [Read more]

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