What's the most important thing for people responsible for carrying out health reform in the country? As Stanford economist Alan Garber, MD, PhD, told New …
Month: April 2010
Brisk walking reduces stroke risk among women
There's more evidence today on the benefit of exercise for women: In a large study done by Harvard researchers, women who walked briskly (defined as …
Spine expert comments on dramatic increase in complex back surgeries
A new study showing a dramatic increase in complex back surgeries among older adults is being widely reported on this afternoon. The research, published in …
An iPad rounds in the emergency department
Larry Nathanson, MD, has just written a generally positive first impression of the iPad in clinical use at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's emergency department. …
Curative medicine and public health
Year: 1993 Setting: Chevron hospital in Papua New Guinea Position: Chief medical officer I have been working in Papua New Guinea for one month and …
Psychiatric trained dogs help in the battle of PTSD
In an entry on The Huffington Post, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society, discusses how dogs are helping veterans from Iraq and …
New rules on flexible spending accounts ban the purchase of OTC drugs (without a doctor's note)
Raise your hand if you've ever made a late-December run to Walgreen's to purchase jumbo-sized bottles of Tylenol or Tums in an effort to use …
Newspaper series examines rural health-care challenges
David Wahlberg, the excellent health and medical reporter from the Wisconsin State Journal (my hometown newspaper), is doing a series on the challenges of providing …
Pregnancy loss puts parents' relationship at risk
University of Michigan researchers have shed light on a possible consequence of miscarriage or stillborn: the end of the parents' relationship. In a study involving …
Medical misinformation can spread quickly on social networks, study shows
Recently, Conan O'Brien jokingly updated his Twitter feed with a photo of a spot on his arm and asked a dermatologist to get back to …
Study shows exercise can boost new moms’ well-being
Research from the University of Melbourne is showing that participating in a specialized exercise program can help new moms prevent postpartum depression. As reported by …
Nutrition expert praises First Lady's anti-obesity campaign
In today's San Francisco Chronicle, nutrition and public policy expert Marion Nestle, PhD, a New York University professor, gives kudos to First Lady Michelle Obama …
Image of the Week: HeLa cells
This week's image is of treated and stained HeLa cells, which I selected because I'm currently engrossed in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Like …
Grand Roundup: Top posts for the week of March 28
The five most-read posts on Scope this week were: Two different types of MS, one big step toward personalized medicine: Results from a Stanford study …
Disrupting moral thought with magnetic fields
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that has been getting quite a bit of coverage, researchers at …
Nanoscale probe could improve understanding of how cells communicate, respond to medication
Stanford engineers have developed a nanometer-scale probe that can be implanted in a cell wall without damaging the wall, allowing researchers to monitor cell communication …