Well: The Drawn Out Process of the Medical Lawsuit

She was one of the most highly sought radiologists in her hospital, a doctor with the uncanny ability to divine the source of maladies from the shadows of black and white X-ray films.

But one afternoon my colleague revealed that she had been named in a lawsuit, accused of overlooking an irregularity on a scan several years earlier. The patient suing believed she had missed the first sign of a now rampant cancer.

While other radiologists tried to assure her that the “irregularity” was well within what might be considered normal, my colleague became consumed by the what-if’s. What if she had lingered longer on the fateful film? What if she had doubled-checked her reading before signing off on the report?

She began staying late at the hospital to review, and re-review, her work. And she worried about her professional reputation, asking herself if colleagues were avoiding her and wondering if she would have trouble renewing her license or hospital privileges. At home she felt distracted, and her husband complained that she had become easy to anger.

After almost a year of worry, my colleague went to court and was cleared of the charges. But it was, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. “I lost year of my life,” she told me. “That lawsuit completely consumed me.”

She was not the first colleague to recount such an experience. And far from overstating the issue, doctors may in fact be underestimating the extent to which malpractice not only consumes their time but also undermines their ability to care for patients, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

For more than 150 years, the medical malpractice system has loomed over health care, and doctors, the vast majority of whom will face a lawsuit sometime in their professional lives, remain ever vocal in their criticism of the system. But with few malpractice claims resulting in payments and liability premiums holding steady or even declining, doctors have started to shift their focus from the financial aspects of malpractice to the untold hours spent focused on lawsuits instead of patient care.

Now researchers are putting numbers to those doctors’ assertions. For the current study, they combed through the malpractice claims records of more than 40,000 doctors covered by a national liability insurer. They took note of the length of each claim, as well as any payments made, the severity of the injury and the specialty practiced by the physician being sued.

Most claims required almost two years from initiation of the lawsuit, and almost four years from the time of the event in question, to reach a resolution. Cases that resulted in payment or that involved more severe patient injuries almost always took longer.

The researchers then looked at the proportion of a doctor’s career spent on an open claim. They discovered that on average, doctors spent more than four years of their career — more time than they spent in medical school — working through one or more lawsuits. Certain specialists were more vulnerable than others. Neurosurgeons, for example, averaged well over 10 years, or over a quarter of their professional life, embroiled in lawsuits.

“These findings help to show why doctors care so intensely about malpractice and what they might face over the course of a lifetime,” said Seth A. Seabury, lead author and a senior economist at the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, Calif.

The results also underscore what plaintiffs must endure. Previous studies have shown that when medical errors occur, patients prefer to have physicians acknowledge the mistake quickly and apologize as soon as possible. Though less than 5 percent of all errors ever lead to a malpractice claim, lengthy claims drag out the process and, in certain cases, hold up what may be appropriate compensation.

Patients not directly involved can be affected as well. A legitimate malpractice lawsuit sometimes results in doctors or even entire institutions changing how they practice in order to prevent similar events from happening again. Lengthy legal wrangling can slow down these potentially important improvements.

While these findings are only an indirect measure of the extent to which malpractice claims can affect doctors’ and patients’ lives, the study makes clear the importance of considering time, as well as cost, when looking at malpractice reform.

“If we could get these cases resolved faster, we might be able to improve the efficiency of the system, lower costs and even improve quality of care for patients,” Dr. Seabury said.

“Having these things drag on is a problem for doctors and patients.”

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Well: The Drawn Out Process of the Medical Lawsuit

She was one of the most highly sought radiologists in her hospital, a doctor with the uncanny ability to divine the source of maladies from the shadows of black and white X-ray films.

But one afternoon my colleague revealed that she had been named in a lawsuit, accused of overlooking an irregularity on a scan several years earlier. The patient suing believed she had missed the first sign of a now rampant cancer.

While other radiologists tried to assure her that the “irregularity” was well within what might be considered normal, my colleague became consumed by the what-if’s. What if she had lingered longer on the fateful film? What if she had doubled-checked her reading before signing off on the report?

She began staying late at the hospital to review, and re-review, her work. And she worried about her professional reputation, asking herself if colleagues were avoiding her and wondering if she would have trouble renewing her license or hospital privileges. At home she felt distracted, and her husband complained that she had become easy to anger.

After almost a year of worry, my colleague went to court and was cleared of the charges. But it was, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. “I lost year of my life,” she told me. “That lawsuit completely consumed me.”

She was not the first colleague to recount such an experience. And far from overstating the issue, doctors may in fact be underestimating the extent to which malpractice not only consumes their time but also undermines their ability to care for patients, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

For more than 150 years, the medical malpractice system has loomed over health care, and doctors, the vast majority of whom will face a lawsuit sometime in their professional lives, remain ever vocal in their criticism of the system. But with few malpractice claims resulting in payments and liability premiums holding steady or even declining, doctors have started to shift their focus from the financial aspects of malpractice to the untold hours spent focused on lawsuits instead of patient care.

Now researchers are putting numbers to those doctors’ assertions. For the current study, they combed through the malpractice claims records of more than 40,000 doctors covered by a national liability insurer. They took note of the length of each claim, as well as any payments made, the severity of the injury and the specialty practiced by the physician being sued.

Most claims required almost two years from initiation of the lawsuit, and almost four years from the time of the event in question, to reach a resolution. Cases that resulted in payment or that involved more severe patient injuries almost always took longer.

The researchers then looked at the proportion of a doctor’s career spent on an open claim. They discovered that on average, doctors spent more than four years of their career — more time than they spent in medical school — working through one or more lawsuits. Certain specialists were more vulnerable than others. Neurosurgeons, for example, averaged well over 10 years, or over a quarter of their professional life, embroiled in lawsuits.

“These findings help to show why doctors care so intensely about malpractice and what they might face over the course of a lifetime,” said Seth A. Seabury, lead author and a senior economist at the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, Calif.

The results also underscore what plaintiffs must endure. Previous studies have shown that when medical errors occur, patients prefer to have physicians acknowledge the mistake quickly and apologize as soon as possible. Though less than 5 percent of all errors ever lead to a malpractice claim, lengthy claims drag out the process and, in certain cases, hold up what may be appropriate compensation.

Patients not directly involved can be affected as well. A legitimate malpractice lawsuit sometimes results in doctors or even entire institutions changing how they practice in order to prevent similar events from happening again. Lengthy legal wrangling can slow down these potentially important improvements.

While these findings are only an indirect measure of the extent to which malpractice claims can affect doctors’ and patients’ lives, the study makes clear the importance of considering time, as well as cost, when looking at malpractice reform.

“If we could get these cases resolved faster, we might be able to improve the efficiency of the system, lower costs and even improve quality of care for patients,” Dr. Seabury said.

“Having these things drag on is a problem for doctors and patients.”

Read More..

Nokia Shows a Profit, but Shares Drop


BERLIN — The Finnish phone maker Nokia on Thursday reported its first quarterly profit in almost two years since entering its smartphone alliance with Microsoft, but the company’s shares fell as doubts persisted about the company’s ability to accomplish a turnaround.


The company, based in Espoo, Finland, said it had a profit of €202 million, or $269 million, in the three months through December, up from a loss of €1.1 billion loss a year earlier. Sales fell 20 percent to €8 billion from €10 billion as it phased out an older line of smartphones that used the Symbian operating system.


The company’s shares fell as much as 8.4 percent in afternoon trading in Helsinki, to 3.194, as Nokia announced that it would not pay a dividend for 2012, which would save the company about €750 million. It was the first time Nokia had not paid a dividend in recent memory, according to the company.


Mats Nystrom, an analyst at SEB Enskilda Bank in Stockholm, said that Nokia had raised investor hopes earlier this month when it said it would report a quarterly profit, but that the company had not met those expectations with results that showed less-than-expected growth in the average selling prices of its flagship Lumia smartphone line and falling cellphone prices. “I still think it is far from a certainty that this turnaround will be a success,” Mr. Nystrom said.


In a conference call with journalists, the Nokia chief executive, Stephen Elop, said the company had successfully eliminated investor concerns about its future and ability to pull off a turnaround. Nokia’s net cash on hand at the end of December, bolstered by the decision to forgo a dividend payment, rose to €4.4 billion from €3.6 billion in September.


“For investors, it was a solid quarter in which we removed concerns about our cash situation,” Mr. Elop said. The former Microsoft senior executive has closed factories across Europe and eliminated 16,500 workers from Nokia’s phone business over the past year.


The quarterly net profit was the first since Nokia announced its alliance with Microsoft in February 2011, which set off a turbulent transition that led to about €5 billion in combined losses, the laying off of a third of the company’s work force and a steep decline in its market share in smartphones, the industry’s defining segment.


While sales of Nokia’s new Lumia line, which uses Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, are accelerating, to 4.4 million units in the fourth quarter from 2.9 million in the third, the company is now a distant challenger to the industry leaders Apple and Google. The Android operating system from Google is now running nearly two-thirds of all new smartphones sold around the world.


Apple sold more than 10 times the number of iPhones during the fourth quarter, 47.8 million, and sales of Android smartphones, according to International Data Corp., reached 136 million in the third quarter. But as the largest maker of smartphones running Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 8, Nokia can build on its gains.


“This is really the time now for Nokia to put up results,” said Francisco Jeronimo, an I.D.C. analyst in London. “They are almost exclusively out there with Windows 8, and Microsoft is strongly promoting the operating system. There can be no more excuses now.”


In North America, Nokia increased its sale of phone handset sales by 40 percent in the fourth quarter to 700,000 units, up from 500,000 in the third quarter. Mr. Jeronimo said those results were weak considering the sizable marketing investment in the United States and Canada by Nokia and Microsoft on Windows 8.


Nokia’s share price has fallen by more than half during its software alliance with Microsoft. The shares have risen about 13 percent this year.


In the fourth quarter, Nokia’s profit was fueled by continued cost-cutting and the introduction of the Lumia 820 and 920 smartphones running Windows Phone 8.


The new handsets helped Nokia raise the average selling price of Lumia phones in the quarter to €186, up 33 percent from €140 in the same quarter a year earlier. But the average price of Nokia’s basic cellphones, which still make up almost two-thirds of its total phone sales, fell by 3 percent to €31 from €32.


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IHT Rendezvous: Kissinger: Political Threats to Global Economy Abound

DAVOS, Switzerland — Henry A. Kissinger has never shied from unvarnished political assessments and during an hour-long address to the World Economic Forum on Thursday, the former American secretary of state delivered a list of sober warnings about rising threats on the world stage.

Executives and policymakers here, fixated on economic gyrations and the environment for deals, sat riveted as the elder statesman, speaking in his trademark slow and sonorous tone, warned of political threats to the world order. And a nuclear Iran, Mr. Kissinger said, poses perhaps the biggest near-term threat to stability and diplomacy in the Middle East.

The United States and other Western countries have accused Iran of developing a nuclear weapons program, while Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. Mr. Kissinger urged President Barack Obama to give negotiations with Iran a chance. At the same time, he said, Iran must ask itself whether a failure to build nuclear capability is truly a challenge to the Iranian national identity.

A nuclear Iran “is approaching,” he told the gathering. So in a few years, people will have to come to a determination of how to react, or the consequences of non-reaction,” he said.

Unilateral intervention by Israel would be a “desperate last resort,” Mr. Kissinger added. But if Iran continues to use negotiations simply to buy time to advance its nuclear program, “the consequences will be extremely dangerous.” Surrounding Arab and Gulf states, which already have nuclear power programs, could make nuclear weapons their arsenal of choice.

“If a nuclear conflict arises,” Mr. Kissinger said, “that would be a turning point for human history. So negotiations must move forward.”

The tension is building as conflicts elsewhere in the region rage. The war in Syria remains a challenge for Western powers. He called on the United States and Russia to work together to resolve the crisis, but to step gingerly. If the outside world intervenes militarily, he said, “it will be in the middle of a vast ethnic conflict; and if it doesn’t intervene militarily, it will be caught in a humanitarian tragedy.”

A number of outcomes are possible in Syria, he added, including President Assad remaining in power, a victory by Sunni rebels, or the emergence of a loose coterie of ethnic groups. Whatever the outcome, “the more the outside world competes, the worse it gets,” he said referring to Russia and the West, who have often worked at cross purposes.

Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Kissinger said that while a consensus has developed on a desired outcome, “no one has been able to determine how to get there.”

Only one thing was clear, he added. Any settlement would “require significant sacrifices on the Israeli side from the position they now hold,” he said. And “there has to be some reciprocity from the Arab side other than uttering the word ‘peace.’”

As for the festering European crisis, Mr. Kissinger advocated a political solution if an economic one ultimately stumbles. “The issue that needs to be resolved is the relationship between austerity and growth. And if there is no growth, how the economic void will be
filled,” he said. In diplomacy terms, the question is the extent to which countries with money are willing to help those that are still flagging.

“If the answer is negative” then the idea of European unity is called into question, he said. Europe may need to shift its approach to unity through an economic construction to one of “political construction,” he said.

At the end of the day, he added, “Europe should be maintained as an idea even if the ideal solution does not emerge.”

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Bits Blog: Keeping the Internet Safe From Governments

Even before the World Conference on International Telecommunications took place last month in Dubai, Internet activists anticipated trouble. So did Congress, which issued a resolution calling it “essential” that the Internet remain “stable, secure and free from governmental control.”

The worries proved prescient. The conference, which supposedly was going to modernize some ancient regulations, instead offered a treaty that in the eyes of some critics would have given repressive states permission to crack down on dissent. The United States delegate refused to sign it. Fifty-four other countries, including Canada, Peru, Japan and most of Western Europe, voted no as well.

The OpenNet Initiative estimates that about a third of Internet users live in countries that engage in “substantive” or “pervasive” blocking of Internet content. They tended to be among the 89 countries that signed the treaty, including Russia, Cambodia, Iran, China, Cuba, Egypt and Angola.

Those in favor of a free and open Internet have long had a problem with the International Telecommunication Union, the affiliate of the United Nations that ran the conference. They see the I.T.U., which dates back to 1865, as longing for the pre-Internet era, when its influence and fortunes were greater. As a result, activists think, the I.T.U. has become aligned with, and a tool of, countries that desire more governmental control over public speech.

In the wake of the Dubai meeting, there are renewed calls to scale back United States financing of the I.T.U. drastically. The logic is, why are taxpayers supporting an organization whose motives they oppose?

“Paying for both sides of a conflict is unsustainable and illogical, and should simply be corrected,” says the De-Fund the I.T.U. Web site, which has posted a petition on the White House Web site.

The De-Fund site notes that the petition is not asking the United States government to take an unprecedented first step. “Many of our free-market democratic allies, led by Germany, France, Spain and Finland, have already de-funded the I.T.U. Likewise, right-thinking American companies like I.B.M., Cingular, Microsoft, Fox, Agilent, Sprint, Harris, Loral and Xerox, and others, have already withdrawn their private-sector contributions from the I.T.U.”

The petition was the brainchild of Bill Woodcock, the Berkeley-based research director of Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit institute. “This is really about whether people should be allowed to say what they think,” Mr. Woodcock said. “The Internet enables free speech, and that makes it very dangerous to countries that try to control public discourse.”

The United States government contributes about 8 percent of the I.T.U.’s budget. The 55 countries that voted against the treaty contribute about three-quarters of it. If the White House receives 25,000 signatures by Feb. 10, it will review and quite possibly act on the petition. As of Tuesday, it had about 600 signatures with minimal publicity.

A spokesman for the I.T.U., which is based in Switzerland, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

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Well: Have a Health Question? Ask Well

The Well section of The New York Times is starting a new online featured called Ask Well. If you have a question about fitness, nutrition, illness or family health, the staff of The New York Times Health section is ready to help you find the answer.

How do you solve the problem of back pain caused by sitting in an office chair all day? Do you still need the flu shot even if you’ve had the flu? What’s the best way to heal tennis elbow? Those are some of the questions we’ve already answered in Ask Well.


Tara Parker-Pope speaks about Ask Well.


All questions submitted to Ask Well will be reviewed by the health staff. We’ll post selected questions and let readers vote on those they would most like to see answered. You can ask a question, vote for your favorites and read answered questions on the Ask Well Questions Page.

While Ask Well is not a source for personal medical advice (only your doctor can give you that), we can offer readers health information from the experts and guide you to various resources to help you make informed decisions. So let’s get started. Tell us what’s on your mind, and Ask Well will provide the answers.

Related Articles Also Tagged:

health

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Well: Have a Health Question? Ask Well

The Well section of The New York Times is starting a new online featured called Ask Well. If you have a question about fitness, nutrition, illness or family health, the staff of The New York Times Health section is ready to help you find the answer.

How do you solve the problem of back pain caused by sitting in an office chair all day? Do you still need the flu shot even if you’ve had the flu? What’s the best way to heal tennis elbow? Those are some of the questions we’ve already answered in Ask Well.


Tara Parker-Pope speaks about Ask Well.


All questions submitted to Ask Well will be reviewed by the health staff. We’ll post selected questions and let readers vote on those they would most like to see answered. You can ask a question, vote for your favorites and read answered questions on the Ask Well Questions Page.

While Ask Well is not a source for personal medical advice (only your doctor can give you that), we can offer readers health information from the experts and guide you to various resources to help you make informed decisions. So let’s get started. Tell us what’s on your mind, and Ask Well will provide the answers.

Related Articles Also Tagged:

health

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DealBook: Microsoft May Back Dell Buyout

The effort to take Dell private has gained a prominent, if unusual, backer: Microsoft.

The software giant is in talks to help finance a takeover bid for Dell that would exceed $20 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. Microsoft is expected to contribute up to several billion dollars.

An investment by Microsoft — if it comes to pass — could be enough to push a leveraged buyout of the struggling computer maker over the goal line. Silver Lake, the private equity firm spearheading the takeover talks, has been seeking a deep-pocketed investor to join the effort. And Microsoft, which has not yet made a commitment, has more than $66 billion in cash on hand.

Microsoft and Silver Lake, a prominent investor in technology companies, are no strangers. The private equity firm was part of a consortium that sold Skype, the online video-chatting pioneer, to Microsoft for $8.5 billion nearly two years ago. And the two companies had discussed teaming up to make an investment in Yahoo in late 2011, before Yahoo decided against selling a minority stake in itself.

A vibrant Dell is an important part of Microsoft’s plans to make Windows more relevant for the tablet era, when more and more devices come with touch screens. Dell has been one of the most visible supporters of Windows 8 in its products.

That has been crucial at a time when Microsoft’s relationships with many PC makers have grown strained because of the company’s move into making computer hardware with its Surface family of tablets.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.

If completed, a buyout of Dell would be the largest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis, reaching levels unseen since the takeovers of Hilton Hotels and the Texas energy giant TXU. Such a deal is taking advantage of Dell’s still-low stock price and the abundance of investors willing to buy up the debt issued as part of a transaction to take the company private. And Silver Lake has been working with Dell’s founder, Michael S. Dell, who is expected to contribute his nearly 16 percent stake in the company to a takeover bid.

Yet while many aspects of the potential deal have fallen into place, including a potential price of up to around $14 a share, talks between Dell and its potential buyers may still fall apart.

Shares of Dell closed up 2.2 percent on Tuesday, at $13.12. They began rising after CNBC reported Microsoft’s potential involvement in a leveraged buyout. Microsoft shares slipped 0.4 percent, to $27.15.

Microsoft’s lending a hand to Dell could make sense at a time when the PC industry is facing some of the biggest challenges in its history. Dell is one of Microsoft’s most significant, longest-lasting partners in the PC business and among the most committed to creating machines that run Windows, the operating system that is the foundation of much of Microsoft’s profits.

But PC sales were in a slump for most of last year, as consumers diverted their spending to other types of devices like tablets and smartphones. Dell, the third-biggest maker of PCs in the world, recorded a 21 percent decline in shipments of PCs during the fourth quarter of last year from the same period in 2011, according to IDC.

In a joint interview in November, Mr. Dell and Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, exchanged friendly banter, as one would expect of two men who have been in business together for decades.

Mr. Dell said Mr. Ballmer had gone out of his way to reassure him that Microsoft’s Surface computers would not hurt Dell sales.

“We’ve never sold all the PCs in the world,” said Mr. Dell, sitting in a New York hotel room brimming with new Windows 8 computers made by his company. “As I’ve understood Steve’s plans here, if Surface helps Windows 8 succeed, that’s going to be good for Windows, good for Dell and good for our customers. We’re just fine with all that.”

Microsoft has been willing to open its purse strings in the past to help close partners. Last April, Microsoft committed to invest more than $600 million in Barnes & Noble’s electronic books subsidiary, in a deal that ensures a source of electronic books for Windows devices. Microsoft also agreed in 2011 to provide the Finnish cellphone maker Nokia billions of dollars’ worth of various forms of support, including marketing and research and development assistance, in exchange for Nokia’s adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/23/2013, on page B1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Microsoft May Back Dell Buyout.
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The Lede Blog: Clinton Testifies on Benghazi Attacks

The Lede followed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s testimony Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the American Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Mrs. Clinton will appear before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at 2 p.m. Eastern.

At a House Committee hearing last October investigating the attack, as reported on The Lede, State Department officials and security experts who served on the ground offered conflicting assessments about what resources were requested and made available to deal with growing security concerns in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Mrs. Clinton had been scheduled to testify before Congress last month, but an illness, a concussion and a blood clot near her brain forced her to postpone her appearance.

As our colleagues Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt reported, four State Department officials were removed from their posts on last month after an independent panel criticized the “grossly inadequate” security at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

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Sharp Drop in DuPont Earnings


DOVER, Del. (AP) — Soft demand for a key industrial pigment and solar energy products, coupled with increased spending on growth initiatives, led to a sharp drop in the DuPont Co.'s fourth-quarter income.


But the results reported Tuesday still beat the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts of 7 cents per share on revenue of $7.2 billion, according to FactSet. And the company forecast higher operating earnings for 2013.


DuPont's shares rose 78 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $47.77 in midday trading. They are still down almost 12 percent from their high for the past year of $53.98 set last May.


DuPont chairwoman and CEO Ellen Kullman said the company is stronger than it was a year ago, having recorded nearly 2,300 new product introductions in 2012, an increase of 30 percent.


"However, weakness in markets served by performance chemicals and electronics and communications provided significant challenges in 2012," she said. "We've adjusted our plans to meet the changing market environment and grow our businesses in a slow-growth world economy."


The Wilmington, Del.-based chemical and biosciences company reported Tuesday that its net income fell to $111 million, or 12 cents per share, for the last three months of 2012. That is down 70 percent from $373 million, or 40 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2011.


Revenue for the quarter was flat at $7.3 billion, with currency effects and portfolio changes offsetting a 3 percent increase in global volumes. Sales in Latin America grew 10 percent, with an 8 percent volume gain and a 7 percent increase in local prices. A 6 percent increase in volume in the Asia-Pacific region, was offset by negative currency and pricing effects.


For the full year, DuPont earned almost $2.8 billion, or $2.95 per share, on revenue of $34.8 billion. That's down from last year's net income of almost $3.5 billion, or $3.68 per share, on revenue of $33.7 billion. Sales volumes fell 2 percent.


DuPont said it expects operating earnings excluding significant items will range from $3.85 to $4.05 per share in 2013, up from $3.77 per share last year.


One-time items affecting fourth-quarter results included $135 million to resolve legal claims stemming from the use of DuPont's Imprelis weedkiller, bringing the total amount spent on Imprelis claims to $750 million.


DuPont chief financial officer Nick Fanandakis said the company was working to validate and resolve claims regarding damage to trees, particularly evergreens such as Norway spruce and white pine, linked to the weed killer.


"We want to bring closure to this as soon as possible," he said.


DuPont also recorded asset impairment and restructuring charges totaling $99 million, and a pretax gain of $117 million associated with the sale of a business within its agricultural unit.


The company's fourth-quarter performance was led by the agricultural unit, which saw sales increase 18 percent to $1.5 billion on 11 percent higher volumes and 7 percent higher prices. Full-year sales for the agricultural unit were up 14 percent to $10.4 billion on 8 percent higher volume and 6 percent higher prices. DuPont said sales of its Pioneer seeds benefited from higher global volume and pricing gains in corn and soybeans, while strong demand for insecticides and herbicides resulted in increased sales of crop protection products.


Agriculture remains a key focus in DuPont's growth initiatives. Fanandakis noted that of the 12-cent per share impact from fixed costs in the quarter, more than half was related to growth projects, specifically agricultural research and development and selling expenses.


Matt Arnold, an analyst with Edward Jones, said agricultural product characteristics such as drought-resistance and pest resistance require intensive research and development, even if it takes years to see the payback.


"We think it's probably one of the best places to be active in terms of R & D," he said.


Meanwhile, cyclical pressure in the market for titanium dioxide, a whitening pigment with a broad range of industrial applications, contributed to a 15 percent drop in sales for DuPont's performance chemicals unit, which saw pretax operating income plunge 54 percent.


While acknowledging the cyclical nature of the TiO2 market, DuPont officials said they expect demand will rebound later this year with improvements in the U.S. housing market and China's economy.


"This is a very strong business," Kullman noted. "It's a very strong cash generator."


DuPont said weak demand for photovoltaic products used in solar panels partly offset increased demand for materials used in smart phones and tablet computers in the most recent quarter. For the year, the company's electronics and communications segment saw pretax operating income, excluding one-time items, drop 52 percent, to $172 million.


DuPont officials said the photovoltaics market has shown signs of stabilizing but remains volatile because of overcapacity.


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