ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The chief of Newfoundland's largest health board says a better way needs to be found to learn more about published medical articles that could affect its policies.
Eastern Health CEO Vicki Kaminski is responding today to revelations that an article published in 2005 identified problems related to the testing of patients' blood.
Kaminski says the German article was "highly technical" and now Eastern Health is examining how reasonable it is to know every medical article that gets published.
On Thursday, Eastern Health announced that 13 of the 234 patients found to have received faulty cyclosporine tests have died.
But the authority says it hasn't established any direct link between the testing problems and the deaths.
A machine installed at Eastern Health last June to monitor levels of cyclosporine was incorrectly calibrated and showed artificially low levels of the drug, which can result in patients being given too much of it.
Cyclosporine is a drug used on patients whose immune systems are threatened by disease or as a result of organ transplant.
?? The Canadian Press, 2010