In recent medical malpractice news, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine recently completed a 15-year study examining the rate at which physicians prescribe medication to treat certain heart conditions.

Unfortunately, the results were less than encouraging.

According to the study, heart patients receive prescriptions for medications that would otherwise treat or improve their condition in less than half of all physician visits.

To illustrate, researchers looked specifically at the treatment of congestive heart failure, a serious condition caused by the inability of the heart to pump blood throughout the body.

In general, congestive heart failure is commonly caused by either heart disease or high blood pressure. Fortunately, there are a variety of drugs to help treat this condition, including:

• ACE inhibitors and ARBs - drugs that expand blood vessels and increase blood flow
• Beta blockers - drugs that help improve the heart's blood-pumping abilities

Surprisingly, the researchers found that use of both ACE inhibitors and ARBs was only 32 percent (a decrease of 13 percent from 2002) and the use of beta blockers was only 37 percent (a decrease of 6 percent from 2006).

"There are some recommended medications for heart failure that have been proven to be effective against mortality and morbidity, to lower hospitalizations and improve death rates. We saw a plateau of those therapies, and in some cases there was a reduction in the use of those therapies later on," said Dr. Dipanjan Banerjee, a Stanford researcher.

According to the study, one of the primary reasons that these otherwise effective drugs may not be widely utilized is that older generic drugs are simply not marketed as heavily as newer drugs.

Whatever the reasoning or the circumstances, if you lost a loved one to what you believe was medical malpractice or a failure to properly treat a disease/illness, you should strongly consider contacting an experienced legal professional.

This post was for informational purposes only and not to be construed as legal advice. Stay tuned for more from our Texas wrongful death/medical malpractice blog ...

Related Resources:

• Some Heart Patients Not Getting Treatment: Study (Reuters)