Who Pays The Price for Giving Women Deadly Bad Advice?

I don't wish to beat this subject to death, but thousands of women every year between the ages of 40 and 49 discover they have breast cancer.  They find out after undergoing a mammogram.  Or after they examine themselves for lumps that may signal the presence of a malignancy.

Women who would go without both of these routine screenings under new proposed guidelines by an independent task force that was, allegedly, assigned the task of determining the value of screenings and self-examinations, could find out too late to get life-saving treatment.

Thousands of women whose lives would probably have been over had they not either had a mammogram, or had not not paid attention to their bodies and learned how to check for warning signs.  They would not have learned in their 40s, or younger, that I were afflicted with breast cancer.

And every day that passed without treatment would have brought them much closer to death.   Who pays the price for this wrong-headed finding when the first woman dies needlessly because she went without proper, and timely, tests?  How many lawsuits would have to be filed before women were once again advised by their doctors to protect their health with early screenings and self-exams?

New Guidelines Rebuffed By Both Women and Doctors

Many news media outlets reported today that patients have been calling the breast center at New York Hospital Queens. They're confused and mad about controversial new guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force.  It was widely reported this week that the USPSTF recommends  50 as the starting age for mammograms. But this makes no sense to many patients, even and doctors who risk staring down the barrel of a personal injury claim for no, or late, diagnosis of breast cancer. 

While many insurance companies have said they won't immediately change their coverage of mammograms, concerned women can see the writing on the wall.  Despite assurances from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the government's policies are "unchanged," my take on this is that it will only be a matter of time before insurance companies stop covering tests for women under 50.

Doctors all over the city are telling patients to ignore the new guidelines issued by a panel appointed by federal officials and to make sure that any woman 40 or older gets an annual mammogram.  The New York City Health Department is also playing it safe by sticking by its standing recommendation that mammograms begin at age 40.

While few, if any women, will acknowledge the vital role they play, New York medical malpractice lawyers are a big reason why any entity with a financial stake in the business of breast cancer detection and treatment will think twice before they begin enforcing this new findings and put a woman's life at risk.

New Guidlelines Look Like a Law Suit Waiting to Happen

The recent recommendation by a government panel that women under 50 should not get mammograms to detect breast cancer is being challenged by many in the medical community - as well as some breast cancer survivors.  In fact, I doubt that any women who has ever been a victim of late diagnosis, regardless of her age, would ever argue against the benefits of early detection and medical intervention.

The new guidelines, announced this week by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), contradict the long-held advice of organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which recommend that women begin getting annual mammograms at 40.

Major medical centers like the Mayo Clinic have chosen to ignore the new USPSTF guidelines in favor of the ones established by the American Cancer Society.  No surprise there given the number of doctors who have been sued for missing a critical breast cancer diagnosis that ended up costing the patient her health, even her life. 

The USPSTF, a panel of individual medical experts convened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also recommended that women between the ages of 50 and 74 get screened every other year, rather than an annual exam. The panel is also against teaching women to give themselves examinations, arguing that they are ineffective.

Among the panel's reasons for the change are the increased anxiety and the unnecessary testing and treatment some patients may undergo. But some cancer survivors say the new guidelines will prevent sick women from getting the life-saving treatment they need if their cancer goes undetected for years.