Today's Globe: wrong-site spine surgeries, mental-health parity bill, treating bipolar disorder in children, AIDS and US blacks, Alzheimer's drug, Julius Richmond, healthcare optimism

Surgeons in Massachusetts have operated in the wrong location on patients 38 times since 2006, with botched spine surgeries accounting for more of the mistakes than any other type of operation, according to a Globe review of state documents.

Massachusetts lawmakers passed a "mental health parity bill" bill yesterday that gives greater access to treatments for patients with substance abuse problems, autism, eating disorders, or post-traumatic stress disorder (scroll down to 15th paragraph).

In a letter to the editor, Dr. Janet Wozniak of Massachusetts General Hospital responds to an op-ed piece by Dr. Arnold Relman that mentions off-label use of two medications to treat bipolar disorder in children. "The FDA approvals of Risperdal and Abilify for this purpose [in children] not only suggest that at the proper dose, these atypical antipsychotic medications are safe and effective for use as indicated, but affirm that the FDA accepts the validity of pediatric bipolar disorder and the need to treat it," she writes.

If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus, the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported yesterday.

For the first time, an experimental drug shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer's disease by taking a new approach: breaking up the protein tangles that clog victims' brains.

Poverty undercuts the ability of the young to learn, Dr. Julius B. Richmond (left) realized during research nearly half a century ago, and he drew from his findings to launch Project Head Start, a federal program that has helped millions of children since its inception in 1965. Dr. Richmond, who also served as US surgeon general under President Carter, died in his Chestnut Hill home Sunday.

"There are important trends in healthcare today which bode well for a future of improved quality," Charles Kenney, author of "The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine," writes on the op-ed page. "While incremental steps do not guarantee system transformation, these trends signal a dramatic new direction - perhaps one that will lead to a transformed healthcare system."