mementomori
Posts by this author
September 20, 2007
Just when you thought the highly evolved hominids occupying this planet have reached the nadir of lunacy, often described as a point so low no living being could go any further without drawing comparisons to a Monty Python sketch, comes this report:
A Venezuelan man who had been declared dead woke…
September 18, 2007
Things Overheard in a Hospital Cafeteria:
1. "I don't know what he was talking about - it wasn't that cold in the hall."
2. "Say, what does 'S.O.S.' mean on the menu?"
3. "The doc says whitening her teeth may not be enough to get her a modeling job."
4. "I wonder why he asked you to bring him a…
September 17, 2007
My fellow SciBling Orac has commented once again on the case of Starchild Abraham Cherrix, the 17 year old man with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma who rejected potentially curative therapy (called "stem cell transplantation") in favor of alternative/unproven therapy and localized radiation therapy.…
September 13, 2007
Men become accustomed to poison by degrees.
-Victor Hugo
"Cephalon says improper use of pain medication caused deaths in cancer patients"
FENTORA (fentanyl buccal tablet) is a potent opioid analgesic, intended for buccal mucosal administration. FENTORA is formulated as a flat-faced, round, beveled-…
September 10, 2007
The US Senate is looking at a bill that would force pharmaceutical companies to disclose any payments or gifts they make to doctors.
Apparently a few Senators are upset that physicians might prescribe medications for patients not just because they are effective, but also because the docs want to…
September 9, 2007
You can't leave, 'cause your heart is there
But you can't stay, 'cause you been somewhere else!
You can't cry, 'cause you'll look broke down
But you're cryin' anyway 'cause you're all broke down!
-Sly & the Family Stone
(From the Department of Common Sense:)
"Testing patients' families could…
September 6, 2007
"Doctors who score poorly on communication more likely to generate complaints"
Doctors who score poorly in the communication portion of a skills examination they take before becoming licensed are more likely to be the subjects of complaints to regulatory authorities later when they're practising…
September 4, 2007
Sometimes oncologists spend the day performing strictly as oncologists - asking questions, listening, poking, inspecting, talking on the phone, giving orders, looking at x-rays or arcane columns of numbers. The casual observer might characterize this routine as akin to watching a cat in the middle…
August 31, 2007
Two consulting groups hired by Ohio State have issued reports stating that a major expansion of the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center (called "The James") may be delayed by "infighting" between leaders of the cancer hospital and the main medical center.
Uncertainty over the project's direction --…
August 30, 2007
"Second-hand smoke to kill 2 million Chinese"
The more I hear about what is going on in China, the more I wonder if the goons running that country have any clue about the health catastrophe lurking at the palace doors.
Dr. Peymane Adab and K.K. Cheng of Britain's University of Birmingham, with…
August 28, 2007
Wee-Dram-Upon-the-Rocks, Scotland, 1768 - Dr. Fergus McGregor, a well-known general practitioner from Edinburgh, has moved to this charming village in the Highlands in order to escape the overwrought lifestyle of the city. He announced his decision to his wife on that fateful day by stating "As…
August 26, 2007
200 scientists attended an international conference in Chicago this last week in order to sniff out the latest research on a ubiquitous health disorder.
"We want to advance the science in this field," said Christine Wu, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who helped organize the…
August 23, 2007
Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.
-Hamlet, Act IV, scene iii
Desperation, one of the fiercest of emotions associated with life-threatening illness, sometimes ignites inside of patients and sometimes just slowly kindles to flame. No matter with what speed…
August 20, 2007
In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.
Bravo! It's about time the government…
August 19, 2007
"Better to hunt in fields for health unbought than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise for cure on exercise depend."
-John Dryden
I have never been on a deer hunt but I care for a lot of patients who are avid hunters. Missouri, as you may or may not know, is blessed with a plentiful…
August 17, 2007
Things you don't want to hear while interviewing a new patient:
1. "Oh, I must have forgotten to write that down."
2. "My neighbor swears by it so I started last year."
3. "My father? Uh, he died young."
4. "I like it when you return my calls promptly."
5. "I know - no one ever believes me.…
August 14, 2007
Ever wonder what goes through the mind of someone smoking their first cigarette? I've often wondered what first-time smokers think of as they light up:
"I'm so excited."
"This tastes weird."
"I hope I'm doing it right."
"Finally I fit in."
"Better not mess with me anymore."
"This is relaxing me…
August 13, 2007
"West Nile Virus Season Starts In New York City"
This message is published not just as a service to the fine residents of New York, not just because your narrator made it out of LaGuardia today without making any involuntary blood donations to Culex pipiens, not just as a reminder to all the…
August 9, 2007
[Editor's note: The C. O. is jetting off to New York for the weekend (just one week before the big ScienceBloggers get-together - so much for timely planning). To kill time he asked us to reprint this little reflection, written on July 24, 2005 while he was vacationing Up North. So while he…
August 8, 2007
patience (definition no. 1): the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
Some are just born with it.
Some never are able to acquire it, reminding observers of a copperhead immediately after…
F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century, by Mark Levine
August 7, 2007
More thrilling late summer reading awaits those who pick up a copy of this story of twin twisters, separated by only thirty minutes and following nearly the same path, that ripped through Limestone County, Alabama on the date of tornadic infamy in America - April 3, 1974. On that day 148 tornadoes…
August 5, 2007
I had the unique occasion this weekend (which is a euphemism for "I was stuck on-call") to review a summary outlining the details of a guest appearance made by a patient to the hospital's emergency room. The individual in question, prior to being admitted with the diagnosis of some type of…
August 3, 2007
[Editor's note: now that The C.O. is back to work he is swamped by the duties of his day job, so he asked us if he could start a new post called "Footnotes," where he writes a quick comment about something on his mind. Of course we told him no - what does he think we're running here, a 6th grade…
August 2, 2007
My annual trek Up North to the land of clear blue water is over and I shall resume the usual malarky cometh the dawn. Due to the full moon I found the constellations somewhat difficult to frame out, but unless the goddess Selene puts the brakes on her team, in a short while anyone with access to…
July 31, 2007
On any given day millions of Americans inch forward in a brutally tedious queue, staring at the big board over a Starbucks counter with the same keen look seen in a church pew around thirty minutes into the sermon. Typically they make only one major decision during this visit, viz. whether to…
July 29, 2007
Looking for something to read that's a little more thought-provoking than the usual beach book detritus pushed on the unwary consumer this summer?
Fly, don't waddle, to the nearest bookstore and take a gander at The World Without Us, a fascinating "thought experiment," as one reviewer called it,…
July 27, 2007
The American Cancer Society has released its summary of a telephone survey of 1000 Americans in which they were asked whether twelve statements about cancer were true or false; the paper will be published in the September 1st edition of Cancer. The top five responses given as "true" are listed…
July 26, 2007
As part of the full service philosophy of this blog your narrator has volunteered for several experiments in order to report the health benefits of such things as eating dark chocolate, or watercress drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Did I mention the salutary effects of a tumbler or two of…
July 24, 2007
A new study from a team of Stanford University School of Medicine researchers led by David Spiegel, MD, shows that participating in support groups doesn't extend the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. The results differ from oft-cited previous findings by Spiegel that showed group…
July 23, 2007
For the next two weeks your narrator will be blogging from a lake way up north, where ospreys and seagulls compete with loons and bald eagles for the title of "Master of the Airways," while members of the Homo sapiens species spend much of their time vying for the right to wear the crown entitled "…