Policy-based evidence. Department of Health and Prince’s Foundation censor accurate information about magic medicines
This report is really quite contentious and we may well be subject to quite a lot of challenge from the Homeopathic community if published.
What on earth? The DH seems to think that that its job is not to present the evidence, but to avoid challenges from the homeopathic community! And true enough, this piece is missing from the final version.
A bit later, the NHS Choices draft was censored again
“A 2010 Science and Technology Committee report said that scientific tests had shown that homeopathic treatments don’t work”
But again this doesn’t appear in the final version. The comment, apparently fr...
Source: DC's goodscience - February 13, 2013 Category: Professors and Educators Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: CAM CNHC College of Medicine Department of Health George Lewith homeopathy Michael Dixon National Health Service Prince of Wales Prince's Foundation Academia alternative medicine badscience David Mattin Sunjai Gupta Source Type: blogs
Experiencing the revolving door of physicians in the hospital
Complications from my cancer sent me to the hospital again recently. The news that I was in trouble came unexpectedly from my oncologist’s office Thanksgiving eve, following a routine blood test. “Your liver numbers are out of whack.” My response was “Really?” as if I’d been notified that my driver’s license had expired.I was diagnosed with a blocked bile duct and I missed the turkey and cranberry sauce. My oncologist called in a gastroenterologist, who scheduled a procedure to open the blocked duct. But my tissues were too distorted to complete the procedure, so the next day an interventional radiologist ins...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 4, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Patient Cancer Hospital Hospitalist Source Type: blogs
A New Unmet Medical Need: Excess Adipose Tissue Syndrome
As reported by FierceBiotech (here), "Bayer Healthcare touted upbeat data from a pair of late-stage studies of an investigational drug [ATX-101, a synthetic version of a human bile component] targeting chin fat, setting the stage for the giant to step into growing aesthetic treatment market. And the results provide a victory from Kythera, which licensed the injected drug to Bayer for markets outside the U.S. and Canada".“An injectable solution for reduction of submental fat is an unmet need in aesthetic medicine," said Patricia S. Walker, M.D., Ph.D., KYTHERA’s Chief Medical Officer."Based on evidence-based experi...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - February 3, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Bayer Allergan Reminder Ads Botox Disease awareness Obesity drugs Source Type: blogs
Suicide Docs
From the Economist in October 2012 was an article on physician assisted suicide. In the United States, terminally ill patients can apply for permission to end their lives with the guidance of a doctor in Oregon and Washington state. Several safeguards are in place to prevent this from becoming the default death pathway (only 0.2% of total Oregonian deaths). Also, I had no idea that Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium allow assisted suicide even in non-terminally ill citizens. So you can be suffering from, say, severe acne vulgaris, in the Netherlands and be within your ri...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 3, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs
Survivor: Hospital Edition
You knew it was coming. Reality TV has come to health care.
WDEY network began filming a new reality show last month; it’s called Medicine Unlocked (1). It follows real patients navigating the health care system in search of treatment for their ailments. Each two-hour episode focuses on four patients who share a specific preliminary diagnosis; one week it’s back pain, another it may be gall bladder problems or men with suggested prostate cancer. Each patient-contestant receives a pre-loaded health savings account and debit card and earns “keys” that allow passage through a series of decision “gates.” Gate 1 is ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 23, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Consumer Health Care Cost Patients Quality safety Source Type: blogs
Fatally Ill, and Making Herself the Lesson - NYTimes.com
It was early November when Martha Keochareon called the nursing school at Holyoke Community College, her alma mater. She had a proposal, which she laid out in a voice mail message."I have cancer," she said after introducing herself, "and I'm wondering if you'll need somebody to do a case study on, a hospice patient."Perhaps some nursing students "just want to feel what a tumor feels like," she went on. Or they could learn something about hospice care, which aims to help terminally ill people die comfortably at home."Maybe you'll have some ambitious student that wants to do a project," Ms. Keochareon (pronounced CATCH-...
Source: Psychology of Pain - January 12, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
The many roads it took to get here
One day long ago I dreamed of being a travel nurse. We were just wed, two nurses, we had adoption paperwork in process and we dreamed of apartments in far away cities; burn and trauma units, children laying in beds under those city lights waiting for our hands, our hearts.I was up in a deer stand in Minnesota when I felt the Spirit's nudge. I prayed for our first child, whoever he or she was, prayed a long list of dreams and hopes and fears. Six weeks later, I stared down at a miraculously positive pregnancy test. It was the second I'd seen this in 3 months, me with the undeveloped eggs and the atrophied Fallopian tubes an...
Source: Turquoise Gates - January 5, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: dreams difficulty emotions motherhood calling heartsong God's calling disconnect Source Type: blogs
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients As laboratory physicians, our contribution to patient care is knowledge: this is the starting point from which all informed therapeutic intervention proceeds. How that knowledge is obtained and communicated is the art and science of our profession. These minimal diagnostic guidelines are designed to be used as an aid, not a constraint, in that process. The guidelines are presented in a specific format out of necessity, but any format that effectively communicates the necessary information in a given patho...
Source: Oncopathology - September 5, 2011 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
Breast Carcinoma vs. Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma
Some authors have estimated that 4-9% of patients with breast carcinoma will eventually develop second pulmonary carcinomas. As a result, many pathologists have been faced with the problem of trying to determine whether a particular lung carcinoma represents metastatic breast carcinoma or a new primary pulmonary adenocarcinoma. This month, we will briefly review antibodies that may be useful in addressing this differential diagnostic problem.GCDFP-15(gross cystic disease fluid protein-15): This marker has good specificity for breast carcinoma, although its sensitivity is not high, as only about 50% of breast carcinomas exp...
Source: Oncopathology - December 30, 2010 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Breast Carcinoma vs. Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma Source Type: blogs
Why Did the Jackson Family Ask for a Second Autopsy?
On Friday morning, before the first autopsy on Michael Jackson had been completed, I wrote an article in these pages to explain just what an autopsy is, why it’s done, and what we could expect from it (I’m a former medical examiner and a board-certified forensic pathologist). As I predicted, the initial examination of his body with the naked eye, which is called the “gross” examination, was inconclusive, in part because further tests, which take days to complete under any circumstances, were required. These tests include the microscopic examination of small samples of each of the organs as well as...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 30, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living autopsy blog celebrity death chemicals community conspiracy theories conspiracy theorists David Carradine Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report drugs Ed Zimney examination family forensic pathology foul play governme Source Type: blogs
Michael Jackson: What Will an Autopsy Look For?
When any person dies suddenly or unexpectedly it becomes the responsibility of the medical examiner to determine the cause of death. Such is the case in the tragic death of Michael Jackson at the all too young age of 50. When I worked as a medical examiner in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, our policy was to automatically do a full autopsy investigation on anyone 50 or under regardless of their medical history. Over 50 and we might waive the autopsy if there were a clear medical history of illness or disease and there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances, as investigated by the homicide unit of the D.C. police...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 26, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living 50 accidental age alcohol autopsy blog cause of death celebrity community died Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report drugs Ed Zimney Everyday Health exam forensic gross Heart homicide injuries investigation Source Type: blogs
Work up of Carcinoma of Unknown Primary (CUP)
It is often important to determine the site of origin of a metastatic carcinoma of unknown primary site, particularly because this may affect the choice of the treatment. Determination of the primary site may take several steps.Clinical features, such as age, sex, and site of metastases may give a first indication.A detailed pathologic examination of the most accessible biopsied tissue specimen is mandatory in CUP cases. Pathologic evaluation typically consists of hematoxylin-and-eosin stains and immunohistochemical tests.Electron microscopy is rarely used currently, although it may beselectively useful when making treatme...
Source: Oncopathology - May 4, 2009 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Work up of Carcinoma of Unknown Primary (CUP) Source Type: blogs
