Annie Youderian reports: A federal judge in Phoenix refused to block enforcement of an Arizona law that mandates a 24-hour waiting period before abortions can be performed or before doctors can get paid for those procedures. A group of doctors and two health clinics, the Tucson Women’s Center and Family Planning Associates, sued the Arizona…
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Canada: Privacy an erroneous excuse for withholding HIV status
As a follow-up to a situation previously described here, there was an editorial in today’s Regina Leader-Post: It qualifies as a “medical error” of sorts. No, we’re not talking about a bungled procedure, but the refusal of health-care workers to tell a Saskatoon woman her boyfriend was HIV positive. Frantic with worry after an immunodeficiency…
Data-Mining Medical Records Could Predict Domestic Violence
Frederik Joelving reports: To a busy emergency physician, a split lip or a case of poisoning is just one of those things they deal with. But to a computer mining the patient’s medical history, it could be the last diagnosis needed to decipher a pattern of domestic violence. Now, a group of researchers at Harvard…
New Arizona abortion laws halted
Casey Newton reports: A Maricopa County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against new abortion restrictions passed by the Legislature, preventing two laws from going into effect today as planned. Judge Donald Daughton ruled that plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood established “a strong likelihood of prevailing on the merits” of…
N.Y. Health Care Workers Revolt Over H1N1 Vaccine
They’re upset over an ultimatum from the health department. Workers are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs. New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning next week….
Genetic disease patients may lose privacy rights to protect families
David Rose reports: New guidance for Britain’s 150,000 practising doctors could remove the right to confidentiality from patients with inherited diseases. When a patient is found to have a genetic disease, such as certain forms of cancer, doctors will be obliged to inform relatives about potential risks to their health, the General Medical Council (GMC)…