The Broward County, Fla., coroner's report says Anna Nicole Smith was killed by an "accidental overdose of a
powerful sedative that became lethal when mixed with nine other prescription
drugs." The coroner's report (
Click
here to read it.) says the combination of the sleeping medication, chloral
hydrate, and the other drugs (including anti-anxiety Valium, Klonopin, and
Ativan) resulted in Smith's death.
Drug interaction is a big danger in America. In fact, adverse drug reactions (called "ADRs" in the health
industry) are one of the leading causes of death in health care. The
Food and Drug Administration estimates 100,000 people die each year from adverse drug reactions.
Emergency Medicine magazine
reported:
A recent report by the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences [indicates] that an estimated 44,000 to 98,000
deaths caused by medical errors occur annually in hospitals in the United
States. In fact, drug interaction errors and severe adverse effects of
medication are the most common causes of iatrogenic illness. Drug-related
morbidity and mortality have recently been estimated to cost more than $130
billion annually in the United States.
Earlier
this year, The Washington Post
reported:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that
deaths from accidental drug interactions rose 68 percent between 1999 and 2004,
continuing a steady climb since the early 1990s. Unintentional drug poisonings
accounted for nearly 20,000 deaths in 2004, said the CDC, making the problem
now the second-leading cause of accidental death in the United
States, after automobile accidents. "Prescription drugs, especially prescription painkillers, are driving the
prolonged increase," the report stated.
Experts advise patients to consult
their doctors and pharmacists before adding new medications -- prescription or
over-the-counter -- or herbal remedies to their regimens. "Many of the
products you can buy OTC today were still prescription [medications] just a few
years ago," so don't underestimate their strength, said Catherine M.
Polley, senior vice president and chief policy officer at the American Pharmacists
Association.
The Internet provides a growing
repository of information about drug interactions. But the depth and quality of
such information vary greatly by site.
Online
"drug interaction checkers" -- available on the Web sites of such
major medical centers, retailers and pharmacies as Caremark, the University of
Maryland Medical Center, Drugs.com, Eckerd, Discovery Health, Drugstore.com and
Express Scripts -- allow patients to plug in the names of their medications and
produce a report that typically lists their possible interactions with certain
foods, alcohol and other drugs.
Overused Angioplasty
A
landmark study says angioplasty is being overused and does not save lives
of heart patients who are in non-emergency situations.
Fatter Passengers, Less Comfortable Seats
It is not your imagination. Airline seats are, in fact,
getting less comfortable as we passengers are getting larger. USA
Today cites this:
"If
your economy seat also seems thinner and harder, that might be because it
is." That's according to a Los
Angeles Times story picked by The
Vancouver Sun over the weekend.
The story adds that "airlines have been installing less-padded, lighter
seats while complying with a Federal Aviation Administration regulation requiring that all aircraft built
after October 2009 have seats designed to withstand 16 times the force of
gravity (rather than the current nine).
For
most passengers, legroom -- lack of it -- is a big issue, but it isn't the only
one. Headrests can be fixed in 'ouch' positions. And take those 'ears' -- the
projections at each side of the headrest designed to prevent head tilt when a
passenger is asleep. They are positioned to be at, or below, the shoulders of
tall passengers."
That's
troubling for many frequent travelers, who have found airline seats getting
[to be a] tighter fit as they "become taller and fatter," according to the Sun. Americans are now an average
1 inch taller and 25 pounds heavier than they were in the 1960s, according to a
CDC report cited in the article. And airlines aren't likely to jump at the
chance to make their seats bigger. So for now, at least, the seat sizes likely
will not expand along with the passengers who sit in them. The end result, the Sun says, may be "that (airline
seat) comfort is now defined as an absence of injury."
Al's Morning Multimedia: EyeTrack07 Results Coming Wednesday
At 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Poynter Online will release the first slug of findings from our new
EyeTrack07 study of newspaper and online readers. The Poynter Online release will
occur at exactly the same time the study findings are released at the ASNE
convention in Washington, D.C.
Learn more about how we
did the study and what we might learn from it by clicking on this video that I
produced.
I
also did a Q&A with my Poynter colleague Sara Quinn, who co-directed
EyeTrack07.
Al Tompkins: Knowing
that you will release the details of the study Wednesday, what kinds of things
that you learned will surprise us the most?
Sara Quinn: We learned a lot
about the amount of story text which was read in each format: broadsheet,
tabloid and online. There were marked differences. We also observed different
styles of reading and how much they affect the quantity read.
Al: You studied
400 newspapers readers and 200 online readers in four cities. Why did you
travel around, and why did you study so many people?
Sara: We wanted to include
two broadsheet, two tabloid and two online news sites to make a clear
comparison between formats. The large number of subjects was statistically
necessary to give us a baseline assessment of news-reading behavior in the
overall -- with enough subjects to provide the participating organizations with
data of their own. Finally, we wanted to include a range of circulation size and
geography -- that led us to Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg, Fla.
Al: You studied tabloids and broadsheet papers?
Did you find that people read them differently?
Sara: Yes, we were able to
track more than 350 different elements and story forms in each format. Photo
play was different, ads had different placement and we did see differences in
the way that people navigated through the various formats. The tabs we looked at were
both "standard-sized" tabs. Of the two broadsheet papers we studied,
one had a reduced Web width of about 12.5 inches, and the other was just under
14 inches wide.
Al: What kinds of things will we learn about
online readership?
Sara: The study tracked the
volume of reading, use of navigational elements and of interactive elements.
We're able to make a clear comparison between print and online reading in a
number of key areas.
Al: It is called EYETRACK. Are you really tracking
eyes?
Sara: Yes. Two small
cameras are mounted on lightweight glasses worn by the subject. One camera
records the position of the eye, and the other records what the subject is looking
at. The two images are married together to create a digital video that
superimposes a cross hair that follows his or her gaze.
Al: What do you
predict the trade magazines' headline will be after you release the details of
EyeTrack07?
Sara: Sorry, Al. I guess we'll have to wait until
Wednesday morning to find out.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
