Thanks to industry and publication bias, a vast amount of research data goes unpublished, leaving doctors and patients to make critical decisions in a virtual information void, says Ben Goldacre. How can we make critical information available?
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Lisa Nilsson’s unforgettable slice of life
Imagine what a cross-section of your chest might look like – rendered in the densely coiled whorls of colored paper used in the Medieval art of quilling. Lisa Nilsson’s art is mesmerizing. Below, her latest work – a male pelvis.
The Male Pelvis. Courtesy of Lisa Nilsson
Howard Shapiro: Can we make plants even more nutritious?
We’ll need to double our food production to meet global needs by 2050. How in the world will we do it? Howard Shapiro says the answer is to genetically fire up plant nutrition.
Frances Arnold on bioengineering our medical future
Natural selection has endowed species with unique gifts that we can now access and share — it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of protein DNA. Frances Arnold directs molecular evolution in a quest to devise completely new treatments for some of humanity’s most vexing problems.
Reisa Sperling: How soon can we predict Alzheimer’s?
Can advances in brain scans and other testing techniques help us predict who will come down with Alzheimer’s — decades before symptoms show? Reisa Sperling of Brigham and Women’s Hospital reports on the latest research in battling a disease whose symptoms show up far too late to cure.
Sperling’s work in the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN) study was published July 11th in the New England Journal of Medicine. In this work, a team of researchers offered a timeline of the disease progression, with biomarkers, including changes in brain size and spinal fluid, evident as early as 25 years before the onset of symptoms. Read more about it here.
Ivan Oransky talks to Medgadget: Are we over-medicalized?
Ivan Oransky, M.D. and Executive Editor of Reuters Health, made waves with his TEDMED 2012 talk on the vast amounts of time and money spent on “pre-conditions” — pre-cancer, pre-diabetes, even pre-acne. Today, Medgadget continues the discussion with Ivan, in which he fields questions about post-talk coverage, the importance of casting a critical eye on research evidence, and whether consumer-based health monitoring devices actually work.
Watch Ivan’s talk at TEDMED 2012:
Doctors v. death in the ER: One patient’s tale
A random violent encounter left Ed Gavagan mortally wounded, but he lived to tell this gripping tale in excruciating detail thanks to the skills and training of his medical team.
Automated healthcare is the future of healing
Surgery at the press of a button: Why not? In the not-too-distant future, machines will be able to handle most medical tasks. Missy Cummings talks about embracing our computerized future to advance human medical expertise.
Do our cells have a mid-life crisis?
Healthier aging reduces our risk factors for most disease. How close are we to finding treatments and interventions to promote it? Dan Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research gives an update.
Can The Power Of Poetry Save Your Soul…And Your Cells?
Head in a new direction. Go. Wait for the right moment. Repeat. Spoken word artists Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews riff on the steps leading to creative breakthroughs.