Intuitive Surgical Inc. is about to receive the first indication of how it will likely fare against a host of lawsuits.

Jury deliberations are slated to begin today in the first of at least 26 lawsuits against Intuitive alleging injuries connected to its da Vinci robotic system, Bloomberg.com reported. Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof handed the case to the jury Tuesday after a trial that lasted five weeks. The family of Fred Taylor seeks $8.45 million in damages against Intuitive based on claims that the company is responsible for the injuries suffered during and after a 2008 robot-assisted removal of his prostate gland. The family claims that Taylor suffered injuries as a result of Intuitive’s inadequate training, which was rushed and compromised by the company’s push to sell robots, Bloomberg.com reported.

More First Intuitive da Vinci Surgical Robot Trial Goes to Jury for Deliberation

New research suggests that the increase in medical malpractice payouts has not resulted in higher health costs.

Researchers reviewed malpractice payouts over $1 million and found that those payments added up to roughly $1.4 billion a year. That total makes up far less than 1 percent of national medical expenditures in the U.S., InsuranceJournal.com said.

Study leader Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of surgery and health policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the notion that frivolous claims are routinely resulting in $100 million payouts is simply not correct.

More Malpractice Fear Drives up Healthcare Costs More than Malpractice Payouts do

Diagnostic errors rank as the most common and most dangerous of all medical malpractice claims paid out over the past 25 years, researchers found.

Of about 350,706 medical malpractice payments reported to a national database over that time frame, researchers found that 28.6% were the result of diagnosis errors, and 27.2% were from treatment errors, MedpageToday.com said. Surgery-related errors were a close third, at 24.2%. In total, diagnostic errors resulted in 40,000 to 80,000 deaths and led to $38 billion in malpractice lawsuit payouts, MedpageToday.com said.

More Diagnostic Errors Rank as Most Dangerous Malpractice Claim

Around 60 former patients of a Tulsa, Okla., dentist accused of using dirty needles and instruments have tested positive for hepatitis and HIV. While the exact source of the infections remains unclear, the embattled dentist is slowly beginning to drown in lawsuits.

According to ABC News, more than 7,000 patients who used to visit W. Scott Harrington’s clinics were sent letters in late March warning them of the risk of infection as the result of poor sterilization practices; they were also informed about how to obtain free blood testing. To date, 3,122 patients have been tested by county health departments. Fifty-seven have tested positive for hepatitis C, three tested positive for hepatitis B, and one tested positive for HIV.

More At Tulsa-Based Dentist’s Office, 60 ex-Patients Test Positive for Hepatitis, HIV

A new study found that U.S. doctors frequently prescribe potentially dangerous drugs to older patients. The issue is particularly acute in the South, the study suggests.

Dr. Amal Trivedi, an author of the study and an assistant professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School, and his colleagues published their findings in The Journal of General Internal Medicine. For the study, they examined a list of 110 drugs that the elderly should avoid, compiled by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the New York Times said. Many drugs on the list, such as Valium, are widely used.

More Study: U.S. Physicians Often Prescribe Potentially Dangerous Medications to Elderly

A Colorado surgeon faces 14 counts of unprofessional conduct over a series of botched surgeries that occurred from 2008 to 2010, all of which involve the da Vinci surgical robot.

According to a complaint filed by the Colorado Medical Board, Dr. Warren Kortz used a da Vinci surgical robot during operations at Porter Adventist Hospital and utilized improper procedures, resulting in a sponge left inside one patient, and torn aortas in others. In all, the complaint cites 11 separate cases of botched surgeries. “The Board generally will file between 10 and 15 notices of charges in a particular calendar year,” Marshall Smith, Colorado Medical Board Program Director, told Fox News. “So it is a very serious matter.” More Colorado Surgeon Faces 14 Counts of Unprofessional Conduct

Hospira Inc. is initiating a voluntary, nationwide user-level recall of one lot of Sodium Chloride Injection, over concerns of contamination by metal particles.

The recall affects 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection USP, 1000 mL, Flexible Container, NDC 0409-7983-09. It was initiated because of one confirmed customer report that brass particulate had been found in the primary container in the form of several small grey/brown particles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in its recall notice.  Hospira is telling customers to discard any containers bought between January 2013 and March 2013, massdevice.com said. The company said that this was a precautionary measure and that no patients had been harmed to date.

More Hospira Issues Nationwide Recall of Saline Solution Contaminated with Brass Particulate

Unsanitary working conditions in a dentist’s office in Oklahoma have left 7,000 patients worried about the possibility that they were infected with hepatitis or HIV.

Investigators found unsanitary, as well as unprofessional, conditions at Scott Harrington’s dentist office in Owasso. One official said that conditions there created a perfect storm for infections, CNN.com said. As of Saturday, 420 of the 7,000 patients had been tested, with the results due back within two weeks.

Harrington gave up his dental license on March 20, after investigators found violations related to staffing and sterilization, among other things. The investigation was launched after one of Harrington’s patients tested positive for hepatitis C, CNN.com said.

More Tulsa Dental Patients Await Test Results for Hepatitis, HIV Exposure

Intuitive Surgical Inc. will have to face claims that it marketed its da Vinci Surgical System to doctors without providing sufficient training after a Washington state judge denied its attempt to toss out a lawsuit related to the death of a patient operated on by one of the surgical robots.

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof ruled that the family of Fred Taylor can move forward with its lawsuit. According to the complaint, Taylor’s doctor made a number of errors during surgery, including the decision to rely on the da Vinci Surgical System at all. The doctor had only performed two other surgeries with the da Vinci prior to Taylor’s, and both were supervised by doctors with more robotic surgical experience. Taylor, who underwent surgery to remove his prostate, suffered severe injuries before he died some years later, according to Bloomberg News. More Judge Denies Intuitive Surgical’s Bid to Throw Out Lawsuit Regarding its da Vinci Surgical System

In a Chicago courtroom yesterday, a surgeon and expert witness testified concerning a lawsuit filed against the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary DePuy over its ASR XL hip implant device.

Orthopedic surgeon Tony Nargol confirmed that materials he prepared for his assistant’s use at conferences in 2007 indicated that, based on Nargol’s surgical experience, the ASR was safe and fit for continued use. Nargol is a former DePuy consultant who received funding from the company for his research. Nargol testified concerning the devices’ revision rates when implanted at an angle other than the suggested 45 degrees, according to Law360.com. More Surgeon and Expert Witness Called to Testify in Johnson & Johnson Lawsuit