Sharon Begley in Newsweek has a mind-twistingly convoluted argument against… wait – is it rationing? or evidence-based medicine? What do you want to bet that, whatever happens to health-care reform (since the nation will continue to struggle with skyrocketing medical costs), in the current climate of rationing fears, they will be suspicious, even furious, believing [...]
Wed, September 23 2009 » Uncategorized » 5 Comments
This picture pretty much sums up why you can’t trust the BBC’s science and news coverage; it’s a grab from the Google News – Health feed a couple days ago. Compare the BBC headline -”Homeopathy ‘eases cancer therapy’” – to the CBC headline: Homeopathic remedies offer little cancer-treatment relief. For those unfamiliar with the basic [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Colonoscopies are the standard for Crohn’s diagnosis, so of course I’ve had a few. In fact, if you go by the ACS guidelines for colon cancer screening, I’m nearly 200 years old. When I was first diagnosed, my dad clipped an article about emerging colon-imaging technologies. The article was about tiny robots crawling around in [...]
Mon, November 17 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
I spent a year of college in the UK, where I was enrolled in the National Health Soviet System. NHS had its ups and downs, but that’s a different post. For now, I’m trying to solve a mystery. The gastro I saw in the UK ordered a test for me that I’ve never had done [...]
Sun, November 16 2008 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
In an article that verges on alarmist, the AP discovers that patients are being left in hallways after ER visits. [My first read of that article was a little off, so I've revised the rest of the post accordingly.] The problem is that patients are filling up ERs and not being admitted to the hospital [...]
Tue, October 28 2008 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
Several years ago I volunteered for a clinical trial at the NIH, testing a drug to treat Crohn’s disease. The doctor running that study, Peter Mannon, published the results in a NEJM article. As it happens, I’m the “Patient 2″ described in the article (on pages 2076-2077 in the PDF). That single dose of medicine [...]
Mon, October 27 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Through sophisticated genetic engineering techniques, medical scientists have now created a purple tomato. This fruitological breakthrough is touted as having advanced cancer-fighting properties, but it will take years of study and FDA approval before you’ll find them in the produce section of your local pharmacy. Of course, if you can’t wait that long and don’t [...]
Sun, October 26 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
From Maggie Mahar, in part one of a two-parter about health care costs: The culprit behind long-term health care inflation, the study reveals, is not a “who” but a what: “advancing medical technologies” combined with low productivity. She’s talking about a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. One of their conclusions is that “Technology [...]
Wed, October 22 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
This story is double trouble: a couple of academics wrote a paper critical of a major study published by the Journal of Healthcare Economics that estimates the cost of developing new drugs at $802 million. The critique pointed out conflicts of interest, methodological issues, and so on, casting doubt on the validity of that estimate. [...]
Tue, October 21 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
A novel crime against decency by Duncan Cross
