The Saatchi bill won’t find a cure for cancer, but it will encourage charlatans
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Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is an advertising man who, with his brother, Charles Saatchi ("‘why tell the truth when a good lie will do?), became very rich by advertising cigarettes and the Conservative party. After his second wife died of cancer he introduced a private members bill in the House of Lords in 2012. The Medical Innovation Bill came back to the Lords for its second reading on 24 October 2014.
The debate was deeply depressing: very pompous and mostly totally uninformed. You would never have guessed that the vast majority of those who understand the problem are a...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 24, 2014 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: business CAM cancer Cancer act Saatchi Bill alternative medicine antiscience badscience Source Type: blogs
The Saatchi bill won’t find a cure for cancer, but it will encourage charlatans
Jump to follow-up
Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is an advertising man who, with his brother, Charles Saatchi ("‘why tell the truth when a good lie will do?), became very rich by advertising cigarettes and the Conservative party. After his second wife died of cancer he introduced a private members bill in the House of Lords in 2012. The Medical Innovation Bill came back to the Lords for its second reading on 24 October 2014.
The debate was deeply depressing: very pompous and mostly totally uninformed. You would never have guessed that the vast majority of those who understand the problem are a...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 24, 2014 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: business CAM cancer Cancer act Saatchi Bill alternative medicine antiscience badscience Source Type: blogs
Top medicine articles for October 2014
A collection of some interesting medical articles published recently:Hand-grip strength is an amazingly good predictor of future rates of mortality and morbidity, or sickness http://buff.ly/1BK759H -- Hand grip strength should be considered as a vital sign useful for screening middle-aged and older adults http://buff.ly/1DglFaI -- Measuring hand-grip strength is very simple and cheap. Every primary care doctor should have a dynamometer in their office. At every visit, the doctor could check grip strength for older patients. If someone was in the 45th percentile for their age and the measurements were stable, great. But if ...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 24, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Health News of the Day Source Type: blogs
How to Pick the Right Bedtime - select a wake up time, count back 7 hours and add 10 minutes to fall asleep
Given the importance of a good night's sleep, how do you pick the best possible bedtime? WSJ's Heidi Mitchell and Stanford University's Dr. Rafael Pelayo discuss with Tanya Rivero.Related:What Makes A Great Bedtime? | Craig Canapari, MD http://bit.ly/1vstZzJ
Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook. (Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog)
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 20, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Sleep Source Type: blogs
65-yo patient received a standard-dose flu shot already this season. Should she get the high-dose shot too? Or get a second regular flu shot?
A 65-yo female patient received a standard-dose flu shot already this season. Should he get the high-dose shot too? Or try to get a second regular flu shot?The simple answer is no. The patients should consider herself immunized. Studies show that getting a delayed second dose doesn't necessarily increase antibody response, and there's some concern that it might actually have a negative effect on the immunity. If you've already had the regular seasonal dose, wait until next year for another dose.Image of the H1N1 Influenza Virus, CDC.From CDC's Immunize.org website:Sometimes patients age 65 years and older who have received...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 15, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Infectious Diseases Vaccines Source Type: blogs
How to get your research published: The BMJ's tips (video)
In this video, the BMJ's research team discuss what they look for in a paper submitted for publication.They discuss some of the pitfalls authors fall into when writing up their research, and how to present some of the information that all journals will require.More BMJ-specific info here: http://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors
Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook. (Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog)
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 14, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: BMJ Research Source Type: blogs
RNA Interference. Again.
Five years ago, I extolled the virtues of teaching a little bit about RNA interference (RNAi) in undergraduate A&P courses. But for a while it looked like the promise of RNAi in basic and clinical research might be sputtering. However, a recent article by Eric Bender called The Second Coming of RNAi shows that RNAi "the gene-silencing technique [now] begins to fulfill some of its promises."I recommend reading the entire article at my-ap.us/1BbxvB9 Before you read it, allow me to reprise my reasons of five years ago supporting my proposal to include RNAi in your course.What can we use from this in...
Source: The A and P Professor - October 13, 2014 Category: Physiology Authors: Kevin Patton Source Type: blogs
Nobel Prize 2014: Super-resolved fluorescence microscopy
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2014 toEric BetzigJanelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA,Stefan W. HellMax Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, and German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, GermanyandWilliam E. MoernerStanford University, Stanford, CA, USA“for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”Surpassing the limitations of the light microscopeFor a long time optical microscopy was held back by a presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution than half the ...
Source: The A and P Professor - October 8, 2014 Category: Physiology Authors: Kevin Patton Source Type: blogs
What Causes Bad Breath (Halitosis)?
Halitosis is a generic term used to describe unpleasant odor emanating from the mouth air and breath, independent of the source where the odor substances originate. It affects between 50 and 65% of the population, but despite its frequency, this problem is often unaccepted and declared as taboo. 90% of patients suffering from halitosis have oral causes. A small, but important percentage, of oral malodor cases have an extra-oral etiology, very often falling into the category of "blood-borne halitosis". Several systemic diseases have been found to provoke malodor or to be a cofactor; bad breath may be an early sign of a seri...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 6, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Dentistry Oral Medicine WSJ Source Type: blogs
Nobel Prize 2014: The Brain's Positioning System
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to awardThe 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinewith one half toJohn O´Keefeand the other half jointly toMay-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moserfor their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.How do we know where we are? How can we find the way from one place to another? And how can we store this information in such a way that we can immediately find the way the next time we trace the same path? This year´s Nobel Laureates have discovered a positioning system, an “inner GPS” in the brain that makes it possible to ori...
Source: The A and P Professor - October 6, 2014 Category: Physiology Authors: Kevin Patton Source Type: blogs
How to diagnose Ebola? Lab tests are similar for most viral diseases - ELISA and PCR
Diagnosing Ebola in an person who has been infected for only a few days is difficult, because the early symptoms, such as fever, are nonspecific to Ebola infection and are seen often in patients with more commonly occurring diseases.However, if a person has the early symptoms of Ebola and has had contact with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola, contact with objects that have been contaminated with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola, or contact with infected animals, or suggestive travel history, they should be isolated and public health professionals notified. Samples from the patient ca...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 3, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: CDC Infectious Diseases Source Type: blogs
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - DW video
Professor Hubert Mönnikes talks about why people with IBS are often mislabeled as hypochondriacs, and how to best treat the symptoms.Are Dietary FODMAPs a Cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome? (Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Monosaccharides, And Polyols). IBS symptoms improved with a diet low in short-chain carbohydrates (FODMAPs - fructose, lactose, polyol sweeteners) http://buff.ly/1fdzBWJ
Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook. (Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog)
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Gastroenterology Source Type: blogs
No Red Pens!
All teachers use red pens to grade student work, right? Not this teacher. I haven't used a red pen in over a decade. I have strong reasons for that.Many years ago, I happened to be scanning some information about research on the psychological effects of colors. I was planning a major overhaul of my writing studio and wanted to find a paint color that would not interfere with my focus and productivity—or perhaps even enhance my productivity. That's when I ran across something that pointed out some unintended adverse effects of using a red pen for grading student work.As we all know, red is an...
Source: The A and P Professor - September 29, 2014 Category: Physiology Authors: Kevin Patton Source Type: blogs
Best of Medical Blogs - monthly review
The “Best of Medical Blogs - monthly review” is a monthly summary of the best posts from medical blogs. Please email your suggestions for inclusion to clinicalcases AT gmail DOT com. Best of Medical Blogs (BMB) is meant to continue the tradition of the Grand Rounds carnival (discontinued in 2008).The Last Reprogramming No one writes quite like @doctorwes - it's a must read... http://buff.ly/1qzv6I95 lessons learned by a successful physician bloggerFamily comes first - the online community is virtual - it is not real. The cost of free is immense. Learn to say NO. Multi-tasking is a myth. Value your time – no...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - September 26, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Best of Medical Blogs Source Type: blogs
Healthcare social media #HCSM - top articles
Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles related to healthcare social media (#HCSM) in the past 2-4 weeks:5 lessons learned by a successful physician blogger: Family comes first - the online community is virtual - it is not real. The cost of free is immense. Learn to say NO. Multi-tasking is a myth. Value your time – not in monetary terms – but in terms of self-preservation. Learn who to trust. Accept assistance - You are not a one man show http://buff.ly/1pGpEsDWikipedia contains errors in 9 out of 10 of its health entries - Wikipedia is the main source for many med students. Scientists compared disease in...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - September 24, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: #HCSM Source Type: blogs
