The Center for Medical Consumers, a non profit 501(c) 3 advocacy organization, was founded in 1976 with ambitious goals. One was to provide access to accurate, science-based information so that consumers could participate more meaningfully in medical decisions that often have profound effects upon their health. Another was to hold medicine more accountable by revealing that much of the treatment advice proffered by doctors and other health professionals is based on little or no evidence of safety and effectiveness.
As a first step, the Center opened a free medical library for consumers in 1976 which provided access to medical journals, medical and scientific texts and prescription drug reference books in the belief that informed consumers could better judge the quality of the medical advice they were given. The library continued in operation for 25 years, closing in 2001.
Also in 1976, the Center began publication of HealthFacts, a monthly newsletter that provides critical evaluations of medical and surgical treatments, screening and diagnostic testing and prescription drugs. The newsletter is evidence-based, using the medical literature and expert opinion to provide readers with a better understanding of the strength and weakness of current medical and public health practices. HealthFacts also explores the possibility of less expensive or safer alternatives.
The newsletter is accessed by thousands of readers through large electronic databases (Lexis-Nexis, EBSCO, Thompson-Gale, and Findarticles.com) which are available on the Internet and in public and private libraries. About 1,200 individual and libraries subscribers continue to read the newsletter in hard copy. HealthFacts is now in its 31st year of continuous publication.
Funding:
Since its’ founding, , the Center’s office space has been provided at no cost by Judson Memorial Church, a New York City institution with a much respected history of civil rights and reproductive rights activism, as well as innovative art, theater, and dance. The Church’s generous support enabled our library to be open free to the public for 26 years. Additional funding comes from newsletter subscriptions, royalties from electronic databases, and private donations. We do not accept any financial support from the drug and medical device industries. Our current annual operating budget is $105,000.
Our Advocacy:
We are committed to broadening public awareness about the safety and quality problems that pervade America’s health care system. And we are active in both statewide and national efforts to reduce medical errors, improve the quality of medical care and to public access to information about the comparative performance of doctors and hospitals. Toward these goals, we
- participate in a number of New York State and national task forces and workgroups charged with improving the safety and quality of healthcare;
- work with legislators to strengthen the process by which physicians and other health professionals are licensed and disciplined;
-post on our Web site the per-hospital and per-surgeon volume statistics for over forty surgical and diagnostic procedures performed in all the hospitals in New York State;
- represent the public interest at hearings and meetings sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health;
- critique and petition against misleading prescription drug advertising;
- and push for a greater consumer voice in policy-making that affects the quality of care and the public’s health.
Working With Other Organizations:
The Center for Medical Consumers played a major role in securing passage of a 2005 law that requires all acute care hospitals to report to the State certain types of hospital-acquired infections. Surgical wound infections, those associated with catheters inserted into veins known as central blood lines and other types of infections are thought to cause at least 100,000 preventable deaths each year across the country. In time, each hospital’s rate of infection will become publicly available. Arthur A. Levin had a key role in both writing the legislation and brokering support from a diverse group of organizations, most importantly, the state's two major hospital trade associations, the Health Care Association of New York State and the Greater New York Hospital Association.
With the New York Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Medical Consumers has for several years provided a consumer response to organized medicine’s claim of a so-called malpractice crisis in New York State. These joint reports have found that state and national medical lobbies continue to vastly overstate the existence of such a crisis. In New York State, for example, there has been no “doctor flight” because of high malpractice costs contrary to claims by the state’s medical society and malpractice insurance premiums have remained stabile when adjusted for inflation.
After reviewing federal malpractice information and New York State court data, the latest report found no evidence of either a significant increase in the number of medical malpractice lawsuits or the amount of money paid out in recent years. NYPIRG and the Center have repeatedly called on organized medicine and government to concentrate their energies on reducing preventable patient injuries due to medical errors rather than trying to scare the public about bogus doctor shortages and making false claims about a “crisis” when none exists.
Staff:
Arthur A. Levin, MPH, Director, serves as the consumer representative on the FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee; is the only consumer member of the NY State Deaprtment of Health workgroup, which has completely overhauled the system of reporting and tracking adverse events in New York State hospitals; has long been a member of the FDA Nominating Group that is responsible for nominating consumer representatives to FDA advisory committees; is a member of the Patients and Consumers Coalition of advocates who oppose efforts to weaken the FDA through deregulation; and was the only consumer member to serve on the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America, which issued the landmark report To Err is Human that garnered international attention for its depiction of medical errors as a leading cause of preventable death and injury in the U.S.
Maryann Napoli, Associate Director, writes most of the Center’s articles for its newsletter and Web site; serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Nursing and Cancer Spectrum, the online version of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute; is an active member of the consumer network of the Cochrane Collaboration and the Prevention First, a Coalition of independent advocacy organization united to combat misleading drug ads; and serves on a advisory committee of the Office of Medical Applications, which sponsors the State-of-the-Science conferences for the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
