Find: A SEA OF BROKEN HEARTS below
The number of Americans dying each year from medical errors is enormous. Estimates published in medical literature place the total iatrogenic deaths for hospital patients at 250,000 [1], for outpatient use of therapeutic drugs at 199,000 [2], and for heart failure patients not given beta blockers at 100,000 [3]. These estimates place the annual death rate from the medical care system as the third leading cause of death behind heart disease (685,000) and cancer (557,000), and well ahead of cerebral-vascular disease (158,000). http://www.mercola.com/2000/jul/30/doctors_death.htm. Refs: 1-Starfield, B, JAMA (2000); 2-Weingart et al., BMJ (2000); 3-Gheorghiade et al., Rev Cardiovasc Med (2002).
It takes 15 years for a new medical discovery to be used by half the clinicians. Balas and Boren (2000) studied the average rate of increase in use of 9 clinical procedures based on landmark studies and found that the average rate of increase in use was 3.2% per year, thus 15.6 years were required on average for 50% implementation.
Cardiologists Hide Medical Errors: A recent article surveying the professionalism of doctors by specialty found that almost 2/3rds of cardiologists admitted that they had recently refused to report a serious medical error that they had direct personal knowledge of to any authority (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2007).
Medical specialists are not required by any law to study or demonstrate competency in their specialty after their initial medical training. In Texas the law requires 20 hours per year of continuing medical education, but there is no requirement that physicians take that in their specialty. The Texas Medical Board does random checks on 1% of physicians in Texas each year to determine if they have done any CME. Find your state's CME Requirements: https://education.cmellc.com/interface/state/stateReq.asp#N
The American Board of Internal Medicine gave lifetime board certification in cardiovascular disease until 1990. Cardiologists board certified before that year have been grandfathered, which means they do not have to do anything to maintain board certification. In 2005 more than half of all cardiologists enjoyed this status as board-certified for life.
