VA's prostate treatment woes began at Penn

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

When the Philadelphia VA Medical Center decided in the late 1990s to start providing a popular prostate cancer therapy, it turned to its longtime, distinguished partner in medicine - the University of Pennsylvania.

That turned out to be a questionable move.

Penn had just published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggesting that the radiation implant treatment, called brachytherapy, wasn't as effective as other therapies. The finding was swiftly attacked by critics who said the real issue was the poor quality of Penn's program.

Penn doctors, they said, lacked the necessary skills and safeguards to perform the radioactive seed implants.

Ten years later, federal investigators cited the VA for the same shortcomings. The VA suspended its brachytherapy program 14 months agoamid revelations that patients were given incorrect and sometimes dangerous radiation doses.

Great moments in government run health care.