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1. SERMs Still Have Value for Breast Ca Prevention. Treatment with selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) led to long-term protection against breast cancer.
2. C. Diff Infection Eludes European Hospitals. Infection with Clostridium difficile – a dangerous and potentially deadly condition – appears to be substantially under-diagnosed in European hospitals.
3. Medicare Panel to Mull ...
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Where did the medical community get the idea that Vioxx, Trovan and Baycol were safe and the benefits of Prempro, Neurontin and bisphosphonates outweighed their risks? From research published in medical journals written by drug companies or drug-company funded authors.
Scratch the surface of many blockbuster drugs that went on to be discredited, or even withdrawn as risks emerged, and an elaborate "publication plan" emerges, developed by ...
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At some point, this gets to be ridiculous. Online, I can buy any item from anywhere at any price, pay any bill, watch any movie, listen to any song, order dinner, schedule car repair or read about any subject on Wikipedia. I can determine the weather in Rio, sport scores of Barcelona, Parisian traffic or by GPS the location of my kids, just down the block.
However, I absolutely cannot learn ...
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There's this weird feeling I get when I hear bad news, or even not that bad news, or even the possibility of bad news: a tingling that spreads across my forehead, down my face, into my jaw, and then to my chest, where it settles like a...no, not a lump...a void. I get the feeling every time I go for my annual mammogram or any other medical test, I wonder ...
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As an intellectual female surgeon, I have always resented being pinned down by my gender. Throughout medical school, I refused to join “Women’s Societies”. I felt that these were excuses for disillusioned women to get together and complain that the reason they were not succeeding was their gender. I, on the other hand, did not feel limited by my gender nor did I hide it. Instead, I relished it. I ...
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Yesterday I had office hours: 26 patients at 15-minute intervals, followed by 3 new patients for one-hour visits, interspersed with 4 emergencies and 33 phone calls. An active normal day. However, the 1:30, 1:45, 2:00 patients all arrived at 2:15 and suddenly I was looking at an afternoon that would run deeply into eve. I really hate it when patients are late.
Now, I have to admit this is a unique ...
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When I was young and foolish and just starting out in my career, I found it very hard to take “no” for an answer. If a patient needed radiation therapy, and he or she didn’t want to have it, I did my very best to talk that patient into it. I have always been a very persuasive person—if I didn’t get the go ahead on the first formal consultation, there ...
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“Great,” I thought, as I stood at my desk, looking at my patient list early in the morning. She was coming in today. “She” was a patient of mine in her forties, with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer, without nodal involvement. Our first meeting had been several months ago, and it had not been a good one.
I had asked about her ...
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When my daughter was born, I hired a nanny. Her name was Kelly. She was great, a savior. She collaborated with me in running the household, enforcing the rules of the home. She even had a set of her own rules. I learned from her and her rules because she had more experience tending children than me. She wasn’t a dictator, ...
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I was watching a macho shoot-em-up movie the other day; the type where everyone shoots everyone and in the final scene, the dirty blood-stained hero rides homeward on a helicopter or maybe a horse, into a red sunrise or sunset. He stares blankly, focused on nothing, focused on everything, his look reflecting the turmoil of what he has seen, done and lost. The hero’s grease-smeared face shows the understanding that ...
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-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
Matthew Moeller, MD | PhysicianA gun owner responds to Sandy Hook
Edwin Leap, MD | PhysicianIs Chris Christie too obese to run for president?
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Kevin Pho, MD | Kevin's TakeIndependent nurse practitioners are not the primary care solution
Reid Blackwelder, MD | Physician