As we say goodbye to 2013, many people make New Year’s resolutions and wish lists for the coming year – especially when it comes to health. Maybe some would like to be healthier, lose weight or change their diets. Others might want to be less dependent on prescription medications by changing their lifestyles. At Drugwatch, [...]

I’ve heard the commercial on the radio about a hundred times: “At Centra Care, it’s all about you.” Until recently, I had not had the chance to verify that claim — although I had my doubts about any medical facility making it “all about the patient.” Centra Care is a network of urgent care clinics [...]

A controversial update to the heart guidelines from the nation’s leading cardiovascular organizations could lead to doctors doubling prescriptions for cholesterol-fighting drugs, which may increase the risks of elevated blood sugar levels and developing diabetes. The new guidelines, crafted by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, recommend that statins — medications prescribed [...]

Johnson & Johnson’s lawyers proposed another settlement offer in an attempt to settle thousands of DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuits filed by people injured by the device. The company will pay approximately $2.5 billion to nearly 8,000 people who suffered serious complications resulting from the DePuy ASR and were forced to have revision surgery to [...]

Johnson & Johnson returned to an Ohio courtroom Tuesday to discuss resolution of cases involving its recalled ASR hip implants. Court records show U.S. District Judge David A. Katz, of the Northern District of Ohio, scheduled the open court conference for 4:30 p.m. in Toledo. Although Katz’s order does not include details about the hearing, [...]

In one of the country’s largest health care-related settlements, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson paid $2.2 billion to settle charges of false marketing, and paying doctors and nursing homes kickbacks for promoting drugs for unapproved uses. Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Johnson & Johnson promoted the use of Risperdal, a drug [...]

A U.K. government agency is taking a stand against one particularly controversial hip implant that has reportedly caused widespread medical complications in patients around the world. High failure rates and toxicity concerns have prompted the U.K. to ban metal-on-metal hip implants in hip replacement surgeries performed at National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. The NHS is [...]

A once-obscure tax on medical devices, that is part of the Affordable Care Act, turned into a major issue in the spending battle when the U.S. government shut down earlier this month. One of the amendments the U.S. House wanted to repeal in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, was the excise tax that [...]