I'm a few days late to this one, but pediatrician Rahul Parikh, MD, has written an engaging article on Salon analyzing the media's role in perpetuating the twelve-year-long myth that the MMR vaccine was causing an autism epidemic. He writes:
The anti-vaccine hysteria, after all, began like so many other big stories: with a press conference. That's where Andrew Wakefield first staked his claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism, according to Paul Offit's book, "Autism's False Prophets." Wakefield wasn't flanked by doctors or hospital officials but by P.R. folks he had hired himself. "One case of [autism] is too many," he said. "It's a moral issue for me, and I can't support the continued use of [the MMR vaccine] until this issue has been resolved."
The problem, of course, is that a news conference loads a gun that the media usually pulls the trigger on: Headlines like "Ban Three-in-One Jab, Doctors Urge" started rolling off the presses. While measles made a tragic resurgence, few reporters attempted to scrutinize Wakefield or his audacious claim.
When I heard news of a study on colors and mood today, I couldn't help but think of the opening words in Dr. Seuss' "My Many Colored Days:"
Some days are yellow, some are blue/On different days I'm different too/You'd be surprised how many ways/I change on different colored days
Perhaps inspired by the classic book, which goes on to attach colors with different emotions, researchers from the University Hospital of South Manchester in England wanted to see whether mood affected color preference. The team created a wheel of colors and asked study participants - 309 healthy ones and 218 considered depressed or anxious - a series of questions. From WebMD:
People in the groups differed sharply... when asked to pick a hue that reflected their mood. Healthy participants selected a shade of yellow, but depressed ones, for the most part, chose gray.
According to the researchers, the color gray implies "a dark state of mind, a colorless and monotonous life, gloom, misery or a disinterest in life." Yellow, on the other hand, is linked to "happiness, cheerfulness and a positive emotional state."
The researchers say the color wheel could be useful "in a variety of clinical situations" in diagnosing and treating people who suffer from depression. It also may prove useful, they write, in situations in which verbal communication might be difficult, such as with children.
My daughters are only three years and seven months - years away from becoming part of the tween set - but I was still excited to hear about PBS' launch of a science program for pre-teen girls. In my book, anything aimed at making science seem cool - especially to girls - is a good thing, and I'm hopeful the show will be around when my girls are old enough to watch. Strollerderby has more today:
Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Program for Gender Equity, SciGirls is focused on increasing girls’ interest in scientific endeavors - from biology to engineering. A mix of animation and live action, it’s powered by a cartoon tween named Izzie, who enters an online community for girls - the SciGirls - to find answers to the problems of every day life.
What she finds there are videos shot around the country featuring average American girls (no actresses in sight) pursuing their own scientific goals, from creating a turtle habitat in the wetlands near their school to building giant parade-worthy puppets with eyes that really open and close.
It doesn't look like there's an official premier date yet - SciGirls.com just says February 2010 - but if you've got young girls at home, you might want to keep your eye on the Web site for more details. But a quick warning: the (semi-rap) theme song is very, very catchy; I fear I'm going to have "S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S, we need you!" in my head all day.
With First Lady Michelle Obama launching a nationwide campaign tackling childhood obesity, we've been hearing a lot about the issue in the news lately. This morning, CNN.com covered the story and asked how parents can best talk with their children about potential weight problems. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital pediatrician Thomas Robinson, MD, shared his thoughts:
It's better to address a weight problem with children directly rather than pretending it doesn't exist, said Dr. Tom Robinson, the director of the Center for Healthy Weight at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
"In our experience, obese children know that they are heavy. They may compare themselves with their peers or kids they see in the media and, not infrequently, they may have been teased about their weight," he said.
Parents should have an open dialogue with their children and assure them they are loved regardless of weight, he said.
Robinson and other experts went on to provide more specific advice for parents, including the need to focus on health, not weight; treat children equally; be a partner in health - not a policeman; and create an open environment for discussion.
Year: 1990
Setting: Hut in We, Lifou
Position: Private general practitioner in New Caledonia
A small familial delegation comes to my office one morning asking me to pay a house call to a relative who is unable to come and see me. He has been diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer at the Gaston Bourret Hospital in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. He was sent back to Lifou, the biggest and most populated of the Loyalty Islands (99 percent of the islanders are Melanesians) with painkillers and recommendations that included a complete ban on alcohol, stating, “It has caused the disease that is killing you.” So much for psychology and the patient’s emotional state!
To my way of thinking, the physician's recommendation made complete scientific sense, but didn’t consider the patient as a whole. Alcoholism is a major public health issue for the Melanesian population in New Caledonia. The situation is similar to that of the Aborigines in Australia. I knew that the patient’s physical condition was so poor that he had only a few days to live. Because of that, banning alcohol would have no impact on the patient’s prognosis whatsoever.
The patient is lying at the center of the hut and I have to wait a few seconds while my eyes adjust to the faint light coming through the door, which is the only opening in the whole structure. I listen to the patient’s medical history and give him a morphine shot. He knows that his condition is terminal and that he has only a few days left to live. When he feels more comfortable, we talk about his life. Then he asks me, “Could I have a beer?” People around him look at me with some guilt on their faces and say, “Please ignore what he said. We know it is not good for him.” But to their great disbelief and the patient’s utmost delight, I tell them that it OK as long as he does not get drunk. I want to show compassion to a this man who knew he was at the very end of his life and who wanted one last bit of pleasure.
As I walk on my way to the car, his wife asks me one more time, “Are you sure he can drink his beer?” When I remind her of her husband’s prognosis, reality sinks in and she becomes suddenly grateful. “I love this man in spite of everything. He is the father of my children and I want him to be happy at the end of life.”
Lesson for the doctor: Sometimes in medical practice, compassion is needed more than science. It is an art to know when.
Yann Meunier, MD, is the health promotion manager for the Stanford Prevention Research Center. He formerly practiced medicine in developed and developing countries throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Each week, he will share some of his experiences with patients in remote corners of the world.
This fall, Stanford's Continuing Studies program launched a new offering: Stanford Mini Med School, featuring distinguished faculty, scientists and physicians from the university's School of Medicine.
Lectures from the mini med school are now available online here.
Titled The Dynamics of Human Health, the series began with a close look at DNA, stem cells and microbes and moved from those building blocks of the human body to a more global view of human health, pandemics and the delivery of health care.
In the above video, Jill Helms, PhD, explains terminology used in stem cell research, highlights some of the recent advancements in the field of regenerative medicine and discusses how stem cells can be used for medical treatments.
Regardless of whether or not you watched the Super Bowl yesterday, you've probably at least heard of some of the ads. Some were panned, some were ignored and some inspired laughs or sappy smiles (Google, anyone?). But they were all expensive.
Research!America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making medical and health research a higher national priority, put it into perspective on Twitter this morning by pointing out that the price tag for a Super Bowl commercial yesterday averaged $2.5 million. That's enough to fund about six RO1 grants from the National Institutes of Health.
A multiyear RO1 grant is the major funding source for many investigators at Stanford and around the country. Although President Obama recently proposed a modest increase in the NIH's 2011 budget, the institute is expected to fund nearly 200 fewer RO1 grants in 2011 than in 2010 due to disease- and program-specific allocation of funds.
So, let's see. How many ads are we talking here? Maybe 20? 30? So, 30 times six RO1 grants...You do the math. Clearly it's naive to suggest that we forgo advertising in favor of research. But I think it's an interesting thing to ponder.
For more comparisons pitting research against popular culture, visit Research!America's Research Takes Cents Web page.
To learn more about federal funding and changing research priorities, read my article "In the Crosshairs" in Stanford Medicine magazine. Or you could just sit around and eat Doritos while watching your Flo TV and planning how to sneak some Dove Men+Care into your shopping cart during your next outing. Whatever.
The blog Inside Facebook has a lengthy post up today looking at the marketing efforts of pharmaceutical companies on the social network. Sara Ines Calderon writes:
Pharmaceutical companies have begun creating a presence on Facebook characterized by control and caution. Why? Despite unclear regulations in the U.S. governing their presence online, they may still be penalized for marketing materials on the Internet. The result is, in terms of their Facebook marketing content, a mixed bag of sometimes disingenuous Pages and Groups, fluffy applications and tightly-controlled discussions.
As previously reported, a team of Stanford physicians and nurses, including Paul Auerbach, MD, recently spent two weeks providing medical care to survivors of the Haiti earthquake. This morning, Auerbach was a guest on KQED's Forum, where he discussed his experiences and the situation in the country. Audio from the live call-in show can be found here.
Much as the body sneezes to remove foreign substances from the nasal cavity, this radio allegedly sneezes to cleanse its microprocessors of dust. The details:
. . .the radio is forced to sneeze every six months in order to protect the microprocessors from dust. Users can manually override the bi-annual sneeze, with a SNZ button being added for those days when you really don't have time to give the feather duster a work-out.
