Obesity surgery deaths drop

Excerpts from the Globe's blog on the Boston-area medical community.

The death rate for patients undergoing weight-loss surgery in Massachusetts has dropped as the number of the operations has increased, according to a new state report. In 2006 there were 3,447 procedures in Massachusetts to reduce stomach size and reroute the digestive tract, up from 200 in 1998 and 14 percent more than in 2004.

Gastric bypass is still the gold standard, used in 93 percent of weight-loss operations. The state-sponsored panel, made up of about 100 specialists across the state, also said 99 percent of patients eligible for weight-loss surgery aren't getting it.

"We have an older, heavier population and a rapidly evolving surgical specialty," Dr. George Blackburn, chair of the panel and a surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said in statement released with the report. "With up to 1 in 10 US adults a potential candidate for weight-loss surgery, the need to protect the safety and well-being of patients who undergo these procedures is more critical than ever."

ELIZABETH COONEY

John McDonough, the exuberant leader of the advocacy group Health Care for All, announced plans to step down on Aug. 1.

After five years at the helm, McDonough said he believes it is time for a change for the organization and for himself. McDonough, a former state legislator, said in an interview that he has no immediate plans.

McDonough said he is proudest of the organization's role as a leader in Massachusetts' efforts to bring health insurance to everyone in the state. McDonough has overseen a staff of 35 people who have also launched efforts to improve access to dentists for low-income people, address racial and economic disparities in healthcare, and improve children's mental healthcare.

ALICE DEMBNER

The group has created a series of videos on YouTube, showing the impact medical errors had on the lives of three "real, ordinary consumers."

"In these videos, three courageous individuals share how systemic healthcare quality problems forever changed their lives and the lives of their parents, children, and families," McDonough said. "They make a powerful call for reform."

ELIZABETH COONEY

People who live in small towns or rural areas are 8 to 15 percent less likely to be placed onto transplant waiting lists and receiving organs than people living in urban areas, Dartmouth-led researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Poor people, people from racial minorities, and women have a harder time getting into transplantation programs, previous studies have shown. Those rural patients who got on a waiting list received organs at the same rates as urban patients.

ELIZABETH COONEY

Adolescent girls who placed themselves low on the ladder of popularity were more likely to gain weight later in their teen years than girls who saw themselves as having higher social standing, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found.

Their study, which appears in the current Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, is the first to ask questions about social status before weight change, making a stronger case for linking the two than previous work.

ELIZABETH COONEY