The Patient Advocate Articles - The Patient Advocate

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Declares Pennsylvania’s Seven Year Limit On Medical Malpractice Cases Unconstitutional

On October 31, 2019, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Yanakos v. UPMC and declared Pennsylvania’s statute of repose unconstitutional. Before the Court, UPMC argued the statute of response complied with Article I, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Court found UPMC proved the statute of repose was related to the important government’s interest of controlling the rising costs associated with medical insurance and medical care. However, UPMC failed to produce evidence of how the statute of repose actually achieved this government interest.

November 8, 2019

Death From Cervical Cancer: Is The End Is In Sight?

A recent review of studies measuring the success of HPV immunization in reducing HPV infection, Genital Warts, and Cervical Intraepithelial shows a dramatic reduction in the instances precursors to cervical cancer in a wide range group of women from 13-29 years of age, as well as instances of genital warts among boys and young men. When a majority of population has been immunized, the virus is not able to propagate and be transmitted to the unvaccinated portion of the population.

September 13, 2019

Multiple Studies Show The Benefits of HPV Vaccination Over the Past Five Years

Human Papillomavirus, better known as HPV, is a sexually transmitted infection that affects approximately 79 million mostly young Americans. In recent years, health care providers and researchers have led a concerted effort to stop the spread of HPV and for good reason – not only is HPV the most common infection among Americans, HPV infection causes several types of cancers, including cervical cancer, anal cancer, and cancers of the throat, base of the tongue and tonsils. According to the CDC, every year in the United States, HPV causes 33,700 cases of cancer in men and women.

September 9, 2019

Neil Armstrong Died of Medical Malpractice, Family Settled for $6M

Neither celebrity or character protect patients from medical malpractice. Note that this matter was settled privately and it is only because of hard working reporters that the public now has been informed. Since most serious cases are settled under confidentiality restrictions there is an ongoing silence about many careless acts resulting in many catastrophically injured patients.

July 31, 2019

The Importance Of Our Rights To A Jury Trial

The Constitution is the bedrock of our American society. Not a day goes by without many of us benefiting from one or more of the sacred amendments to our constitution, such as the freedoms of speech or religion, or the right to bear arms. At Meyers Evans Lupetin & Unatin, we are privileged to work every day to advance an important right granted to each of us under the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 6 of the Constitution of Pennsyvlania – the right to a jury trial.

December 13, 2018

ASTM e2147 Revised For 2018

When the Congress under the Clinton administration passed the health information portability and privacy act commonly known and referenced as HIPPA there was a recognition that while healthcare would benefit from the creation of electronic medical records that such a development also posed inherent problems. Electronic records are easily modified deleted and viewed without detection. In order to assure the integrity of our electronic medical records regulations were promulgated to address these problems.

July 24, 2018

Eight Steps To Avoid Cervical Cancer (Updated)

Modern medicine offers many therapeutic treatments to women diagnosed with invasive cancer. Prevention, however, is far better than cure. The best protection a woman has against cervical cancer is to develop a trusting relationship with a gynecologist and follow the guidelines listed in this article.

May 22, 2018

Electronic Medical Records Can Provide Early Warning of Sepsis for Those at Highest Risk

The use of electronic medical records raises innumerable issues concerning access, privacy, and misuse. However, with the advancement of technology in medicine comes the ability to improve electronic medical record systems to make them more advantageous and valuable to physicians and patients. Systems such as this have the potential to serve as an “effective early warning tool” that can save lives that would otherwise be lost to sepsis.

July 19, 2016

A World Free Of Polio – Not Yet

In the February 11, 2016 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine the first perspective article was titled “A World Free of Polio – The Final Steps”. Frankly I was shocked by what I read. Beginning in the 1980’s, a series of lawsuits were filed against the Lederle drug company, which was owned by American Cyanamid at the time. These lawsuits were filed first in state and then in federal court and all were based on the proposition that an innocent person, either a vaccine recipient infant or a family member of a recipient, had acquired paralytic polio as a consequence of having been inoculated with the Sabin oral attenuated vaccine or coming in contact with infants who were vaccinated.

March 10, 2016

New Recommendations To Help Doctors Diagnose Sepsis and Septic Shock Earlier, Saving Lives

The CDC reports sepsis kills more than 258,000 Americans each year and is the ninth leading cause of disease-related death. With the understanding that early recognition and treatment of such serious illness improves outcomes, an international task force of critical and intensive care physicians has started the process of developing new definitions and more uniform criteria for the diagnosis of sepsis and septic shock.

March 4, 2016

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