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With tears in my eyes and my head bowed in deep respect, I share with you the account of Kevin Leitch's vasectomy via Twitter: http://twitter.com/kevleitch Kev is an autism and manic depression advocate in West Midlands, UK, who blogs at LeftBrainRightBrain and was one of my earliest followers on Twitter. (P.S. you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/abelpharmboy) All Twittering in response, which includes Kev's own tweets, can be found using the hashtag, #kevsnip. I first learned of his plans via Twitter but he also posted his scheme here. I am largely credited with the first…
Just another quick note reflecting further on my 8-minute gut reaction yesterday to word that Sanjay Gupta might be nominated as Surgeon General in the Obama administration. I still contend he's a great communicator but realize that the "both sides of the story" aspect of journalism has made some uneasy about where he'd actually stand on issues as a government leader of public health. In my post yesterday, I also neglected to consider some of the more controversial moments in Gupta's past stories as elegantly and comprehensively pointed out by my colleague and surgeon, Orac. I was also…
PharmGirl just sent me this tip after I got out of a meeting but I see that some bloggers have already weighed in about Obama's apparent selection of Dr Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General. PalMD was briefly positive but PZ is concerned that Gupta is merely a talking head or placeholder and an apologist for the US health care system. However, I see two main advantages. 1. He knows firsthand the limitations of the US health care system, especially in poor rural and urban areas where access to care is a challenge even under normal circumstances. Gupta has also been on-site for several of the…
If you haven't already heard it elsewhere, one of your favorite blogging physicians, Dr Val Jones, has recently hung out her own e-shingle at Getting Better with Dr Val. Many of you know Dr Val from her previous blog at Revolution Health, Dr Val and the Voice of Reason. Dr Val served there as Senior Medical Director and oversaw the growth of the consumer health portal as it grew to 120 million pageviews per month (!). Here's how Dr Val describes her new digs: Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health: "Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason." The…
"Prescribing 'placebo treatments': results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologists," is the title of a newly-published article in the 23 October issue of BMJ (British Medical Journal). The full text article and PDF are available for free at the time of this posting. In this study of 679 US physicians, Tilburt et al. reveal that 46-58% of those responding report regularly using some sort of placebo in their practice. The reason for the range is that questions were asked in a manner that did not use the word, "placebo," but instead took into account: "Placebo treatment" is an…
Nobel Prize month also means that Denver's 5280 magazine has announced the annual results of their top 270 medical professionals in 79 specialties. While the picture here is the cover of last year's issue featuring my dear colleague, Dr John J (Jay) Reusch, the good doctor was again named among the top six physicians in Cardiovascular Medicine. Our other compatriot, Dr Daniel (Dan) Bessesen was named for the sixth year among the top specialists in Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism. Even my former pulmonologist, Dr James (Jim) Good, made the list - for his 14th year! The Pulmonary…
. . .is not the name of my new punk rock band. It is, however, the key text of lab results that came back this week in following up on the most highly-read post of my blogging career. That is all.
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been split between the discoverers of two viruses of major pathophysiological importance. Half of the prize goes to German Dr prof Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of human papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer while the other half went to the French team that discovered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Françoise Barr´-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier. Just a few early thoughts: Notably absent from the award is American Robert Gallo, whose role in the HIV discovery has been long disputed. That this Nobel can only be awarded to a…
I'm even later to the game on this story than my blogging colleague, Orac: ERV, Pharyngula, and denialism blog have each given their takes on the Minnesota's plan to authorize NDs, doctors of naturopathy, to use the title of "Doctor." For two views on what naturopathy is, here is one from the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and another from Quackwatch. We link - you decide. As I read the story, it sounds as though the new legislation allows naturopaths to practice without being prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. No word yet on whether they can be sued…
Apologies for being such a homer with the last few posts (and a couple upcoming) but there have been interesting local happenings of broad interest, especially while I was away earlier this week. Turns out that the good Senator Edward Kennedy took a foray to the Town-That-Tobacco-Built to have his glioblastoma excised by Dr Dr Allan Friedman. The local fishwrapper covered this while I was away and noted that while Duke is big on tooting their own horns, they kept an unusually low profile with their high-profile patient. But I actually didn't learn this news until I received an e-mail from a…
Here's one of those Friday afternoon press releases, hoping no one will notice. I'm having a little trouble parsing out whether this effort promotes CAM or is truly meant to inform physicians in a manner so as to protect their patients from unscupulous providers: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) For Immediate Release: Friday, June 6, 2008 CONTACT: NCCAM Press Office, 301-496-7790, TIME TO TALK ABOUT CAM: Health Care Providers and Patients Need To Ask and Tell The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National…
Sorry to get to this so late but I wanted to weigh on an excellent post from my cancer blogging colleague, Orac, the other day on the investigation of CAM therapies in cancer. The post covers a lot of ground, as expected from any of Orac's exhaustive missives, but I wanted to focus on the comparison and contracts between NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine within the National Cancer Institute (NCI-OCCAM). I am on record as a strong critic of NCCAM but a supporter of NCI's OCCAM in that the…
Okay, some people are smoking some bad dope. Whilst helping the PharmKid get down to the car for school this morning, I came upon PharmGirl, MD, in a rage while sitting in front of her laptop. The object of her vitriol was a 17 April article in BusinessWeek entitled, "Are There Too Many Women Doctors?: As an MD shortage looms, female physicians and their flexible hours are taking some of the blame." The article derives from a point/counterpoint pair of essays in the 5 April issue of BMJ (British Medical Journal) entitled, "Are there too many female medical graduates?" ("Yes" position, "No"…
Doctor Anonymous has a killer web radio show scheduled for tonight at 9 pm EDT with Kevin, M.D., and Dr Val Jones of Dr Val and The Voice of Reason blog at Revolution Health. (Got your name right this time, Val.) Here's how to listen and participate in the accompanying chat. According to the Good Doctor Pho: We will be talking about yesterday's USA Today op-ed and how doctors can engage the media to better express relevant health issues from a physician's viewpoint. Doc Anon really does a terrific job and I don't watch/listen/participate as much as I should - I even missed Sid Schwab and Doug…
So says Dr Val Jones at Dr Val's Revolution Health Blog, host of this week's Grand Rounds medical blog carnival. The good doctor classified the posts as follows: [:-)] = A post that demonstrates literary excellence [{] = Early bird - an author who got his/her submission in early, which is really convenient for the host(ess) [:-/] = Naughty - an author who forgot to submit an entry to Grand Rounds but who was included nonetheless Hence, Val classifies me as naughty because she was kind enough to include my post, "Must people die before DSHEA is repealed?," even though I was so inconsiderate…
". . .you got marijuana in my lead." Two great tastes that do not go great together (with apologies). [Welcome Fark.com readers on 12 Oct 2008 - I comment on the recent story here and you can read our other posts on drugs of abuse here. Thanks for stopping by - APB] A concise but fascinating medical detective story appears in the letters of this week's (10 Apr 2008) issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (free full text at the time of this posting.). An astute group of physicians at Leipzig Hospital in Germany noted a local surge of young people presenting with classic symptoms of…
Last week we spent some time discussing the shortcomings of the generic vs. brand name drug debate, focusing on an example of non-bioequivalence between the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL and its generic competitors. Three days later, I then received an e-mail from one John Procter about a movement to get Washington to move forward on the approval of lower-priced generic biotechnology drugs now that original branded products are facing patent expiration. One source indicates that a $20 billion market value of biological products will be coming off patent by 2015. The US FDA has been reluctant…
Your Humble Blogger has suddenly become the go-to guy in the blogosphere for all things vasectomy. I don't know why. So I've embraced becoming an ambassador for the double-snip and bring you a clever radio marketing campaign from the Oregon Urology Institute in Springfield: Guys, what would you endure for a weekend in paradise? To not only be able to watch a potential of 48 first- and second- round games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament on TV, but to do so with free pizza and total sympathy from your spouse? Together with Justin Myers of the ESPN Radio "Sports Idol" radio show, the…
[Note: Mr. Tweedy's first post, Shaking It Off, went up on 5 March 2008] Yesterday, London-based blogger Mo at Neurophilosophy alerted us to a new blog at the New York Times website entitled, Migraine: Perspectives on a Headache. A notable cadre of prominent migraine sufferers have started blogging about their experiences and answering reader questions. Bloggers include author Siri Hustvedt, author-journalist Paula Kamen, German neurologist and psychiatrist Dr Klaus Podoll, and noted Columbia professor and author Dr Oliver Sacks. The blog description is as follows: More than 28 million…
I was remiss in noting that Hungarian medical student and Medical Web 2.0 guru Berci Meskó has hosted the current and rather large Grand Rounds medical blog carnival at his excellent blog, Science Roll. Fresh off his US tour that included a presentation at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference and a talk at Yale University, Doctor-to-be Meskó returns in stride with the week's wide spectrum of medical blogging. For those new readers, blog carnivals are periodic compilations of posts organized around general topical areas. For example, Grand Rounds is a general medicine carnival begun…