Lydia Conlay Asserts That Drug Safety Education Is Essential Lydia Conlay, Noted Anesthesiologist and Highly Regarded Medical Educator, Explains Why Drug Safety Education Needs to Play a Bigger Role in Hospital Environments COLUMBIA, MO–(Marketwired – May 8, 2013) – Lydia Conlay, the Russell D. And Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology at the University Of [...]

62 days ago
Physician liability: When an overdose brings a lawsuit

Via American Medical News Doctors often face blame after injuries and deaths by prescription drugs. But taking proactive steps can help spot risky situations and reduce liability. By ALICIA GALLEGOS amednews staff — Posted March 4, 2013 The story sounded all too familiar to medical liability defense attorney Catherine J. Flynn. A patient taking prescription drugs had [...]

A new study in Health Affairs found that state prescription drug monitoring programs designed to help law enforcement identify illegal activity have the added benefit of improving patient safety and quality of care. Forty-four states currently have some form of drug monitoring program in place. The study’s authors, who analyzed peer-reviewed published literature and government documents on [...]

Congratulations to Steve Smith! MSA Past President Steve Smith, MD, has been appointed to the Missouri Center for Patient Safety Board of Directors. To learn of the mission of this Board, go to: http://www.centerforpatientsafety.org/mission/

Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to toughen the restrictions on painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone, the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.

By: Joseph Forand, M.D.-Past President, Missouri Society of Anesthesiologists     Prescriptions for painkillers have reached completely outsized proportions in the nation and in Missouri. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “enough prescription painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month.”  As every anesthesiologist knows, these drugs [...]