March 3, 2025
(The Conversation) – Scientists have long suspected that gut bacteria may influence a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis. But studies so far have had inconsistent findings. To address these inconsistencies, my colleagues and I used what researchers call a … Read More
February 24, 2025
(New York Times) – The writing teachers I know struggle to persuade their students not to use these tools. They are everywhere now, impossible to swat away. Who could blame a young writer for wondering how using these “assistants” is … Read More
February 18, 2025
(JAMA) – In this issue of JAMA, 2 articles characterize the impact of recent state abortion restrictions. Applying observational causal inference methods, the authors estimate a 1.7% increase in birth rates from abortion restrictions in affected states (corresponding to about 22 000 excess … Read More
February 13, 2025
(Comment) – Medical students enter the anatomy lab dreaming about “the art of medicine” but graduate residency bewildered because they can’t make sense of themselves as technicians in a profession that once claimed to be a kind of art. As … Read More
February 11, 2025
(New York Times) – The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a multibillion-dollar global health initiative started under President George W. Bush, has brought hope to H.I.V.-positive mothers across Africa, and put the end of AIDS within reach. Through H.I.V./AIDS … Read More
February 4, 2025
(The Conversation) – Bioethics, a modern academic field that helps resolve such fraught dilemmas, evolved in its early decades through debates over several landmark cases in the 1970s to the 1990s. The early cases helped establish the right of patients … Read More
February 3, 2025
(NPR) – Wildman also wrote about the expert medical care Orli received — and the unwillingness of some doctors and nurses to speak openly and realistically about what she was facing. Wildman believes the medical establishment tends to view the … Read More
February 3, 2025
(New York Times) – Scientists were slow to recognize that Covid spreads through the air. Some are now trying to get ahead of the bird flu. “No one would listen,” Dr. Morawska said. It took more than two years for … Read More
February 3, 2025
(New York Times) – The rapid rise in artificial intelligence has created intense discussions in many industries over what kind of role these tools can and should play — and health care has been no exception. The medical community largely … Read More
February 3, 2025
(The Times) – A palliative care doctor is called to A&E to attend to an elderly man who has arrived in severe pain with metastasised prostate cancer. “I just want to die,” he tells her. Yet when she sits with … Read More
January 31, 2025
(The Hedgehog Review) – Surgical patients hate pain, but sometimes they need to feel it. They wake up too slowly from general anesthesia and forget to breathe. Shouting fails to rouse them. Putting an alcohol swab under their noses is … Read More
January 29, 2025
(The Telegraph) – DeepSeek’s Sputnik moment has debunked overblown projections of a data centre boom One of the abiding truths about technological innovation is that what starts off as clunky and barely worth the time and effort required to use … Read More
January 24, 2025
(New York Times) – Yet despite decades of research, no treatment has been created that arrests Alzheimer’s cognitive deterioration, let alone reverses it. That dismal lack of progress is partly because of the infinite complexity of the human brain, which … Read More
January 20, 2025
(New York Times) – The allure of extreme longevity has beckoned for centuries. Research careers and marketing campaigns have been built on the idea that we can live longer, healthier lives by emulating long-lived people. It is a comforting thought, … Read More
January 13, 2025
(New York Times) – A provocative large study published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that at least one-fourth of people who appear unresponsive actually are conscious enough to understand language. As a doctor who sometimes … Read More
January 13, 2025
(The Conversation) – The advent of evidence-based medicine meant clinicians identified the most effective treatment options for their patients based on quality evaluations of the latest research. Now, precision medicine is enabling providers to use a patient’s individual genetic, environmental … Read More
January 10, 2025
(Plough) – Learning that one’s job might soon be eliminated by the emergence of an overhyped new technology puts one in good company. Say, for example, you’re a college English teacher, and a significant portion of the nation’s venture capitalists … Read More
January 8, 2025
(New York Times) – Imagine a pro quarterback stepping onto the field without his coach running pregame drills or a pop star taking the stage without vocal warm-ups. In sports and music, such last-minute preparation is generally nonnegotiable. Coaches review … Read More
January 7, 2025
(Vox) – We’re painfully aware that we are vulnerable, fallible creatures. Our shame about that is reflected in Western religious traditions: The Bible tells us that upon first creating the world, God “saw that it was good,” but then became … Read More
January 7, 2025
(The Conversation) – The use of neurotechnology in the workplace has global implications and high stakes. Advocates say neurotechnology can encourage economic growth and the betterment of society. Those against neurotechnology caution that it could fuel inequity and undermine democracy, … Read More
January 3, 2025
(Slate) – It was supposed to make my pregnancy journey easier. Instead, it became an emotional and medical battleground. One in five American women experiences infertility. As many as 52 percent of them suffer from depression because of it. Not only … Read More
January 3, 2025
(New York Times) – The takeaway from these and similar parables is clear, Dr. Sharfstein says: Crisis can be a powerful catalyst for shaping policy and improving society. But just like any such tool, it can be misused as easily … Read More
January 2, 2025
(World) – In 1996, pain was declared the “fifth vital sign,” ranking alongside blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, and body temperature when assessing a patient’s state of health. But this “fifth vital sign” was not declared by the surgeon general … Read More
December 26, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Medical authorities are reclassifying life-saving procedures to make a political statement. The intent when managing PPROM is to balance the needs of mother and baby, and the best-case scenario is to preserve both their lives. The … Read More
December 24, 2024
(STAT News) – In the wake of the tragic murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, all of us who serve in health care must take time to pause and reflect on how we move forward. As a religious sister and … Read More
