The federal government has a nice neat web page where you can find out about the safety of various medical devices, drugs, tests and so on. Recent stories feature items like angioplasty balloons that failed to deflate, clinical tests that yielded false positives and led to unnecessary medical procedures, and FDA demands for warnings about possible increased suicidal feelings with certain well-known antidepressant drugs.

Whether you’re a physician, an investigator or a consumer of medical services, this is a good site to check out before you undertake a new experiment, evaluate a new device to use in your work, or start taking a new prescription drug. It’s also the place to go if you have an issue to report. I’ve added this as a permanent link in this site’s Resources section.