Scope is an award-winning medical blog produced by a team of writers at Stanford University School of Medicine.
New legislation introduced last week to could reduce foreign aid by $10 billion. Some of these cuts would affect global health organizations that fight HIV infection and malaria and provide family planning and contraceptive services. Stanford health policy researcher Eran Bendavid, MD, has spoken out against proposed cuts. Saving lives and improving health in other parts …Read More
I’m not going to lie. I’m not a big amusement park fan. But I’m fascinated by this picture of this amazing artsy walkable roller coaster (called, mysteriously, Tiger and Turtle — Magic Mountain) in Duisburg, Germany. It’s a great illustration of a concept in gene expression called chromosomal looping. The idea is that DNA looping, …Read More
Formerly conjoined twins Eva and Erika Sandoval are thriving at home and discovering their own separate personalities. The sisters, who were born joined from the rib cage down, were separated in a 17-hour surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford last December. After returning home to Antelope, California, in the spring, they’ve adapted to being two …Read More
Tracie White on
Three years ago, I wrote a story on research showing that most physicians would choose a do-not-resuscitate or “no code” status for themselves if they were terminally ill, yet they tend to pursue aggressive, life-prolonging treatment for patients facing the same prognosis. It was a stunning disconnect and one that, along with about six years of additional …Read More
Understanding why certain populations remain persistently poor has presented a challenge for social and natural scientists alike. Now, Harvard researcher Matt Bonds, PhD, and colleagues present a first-of-its-kind theoretical method that could help break the cycle of poverty traps. I first met Bonds when he arrived at Stanford in 2015 where he spent the last …Read More
Becky Bach on
Physicians have to walk a tough line when encouraging healthy behavior. Take Dr. J. She bikes to work, swims over lunch, jogs on the weekend and eats primarily veggies grown in her garden, supplemented by fish and poultry purchased at the local farmer’s market. Will she relate well with Ms. E, who favors fast food …Read More
Men and women are equal, but they and their brains aren’t the same, according to a growing pile of scientific evidence. So why is most research still performed on only male animals and men? A panel of researchers explored this question and its implications on a recent episode of KALW’s City Visions radio show. “It’s …Read More
Some opioid users become addicted when using prescription medications for pain relief. Reformulating those drugs to make them harder to abuse would seem like an obvious countermeasure. But it isn’t that easy, addiction expert Keith Humphreys, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford said. “Abuse-deterrent opioids have a mixed track record,” Humphreys told …Read More
When cancer is spotted early, it’s much easier to thwart. So researchers, including Stanford’s Jennifer Dionne, PhD, are working to detect cancer more effectively. Dionne, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, is developing a nanomaterial-based probe that may be able to detect a single cancer cell. She described her work in a recent episode …Read More
A few years back, a team of researchers (including Stanford’s Scott Rozelle, PhD, and Brian Sharbono) conducted a study in some of the poorest counties in Shaanxi Province, China where anemia was a chronic problem. The researchers gave daily iron supplements to children in 24 elementary schools, and after just five months, not only were the students’ …Read More
