The need for more diversity in the physician population has prompted some concern from faculty at Stanford medical school about difficulties recruiting residents from underrepresented …
Month: October 2011
Image of the Week: Salt crystals
Continuing my (inadvertent) nutrition theme for our weekly images, behold this striking macro shot of salt crystals. Although these crystals look good (and probably taste …
Grand Roundup: Top posts for the week of Oct. 16
The five most-read posts on Scope this week were: Exercise, healthy diet and Twitter help Senator reach weight loss goal: When Sen. Claire McCaskill decided …
Five days instead of five weeks: A less-invasive breast cancer therapy
Just like every other woman, I've read the statistics about breast cancer. I'm now in that age group where I could be the one in 28 …
From physicist to cancer researcher
What's a particle physicist doing in a medical school lab? It's a good question, and one answered by a Symmetry Magazine profile on Stanford researcher/PhD …
Radiation traveling in microspheres hits liver cancer where surgery can't
Michelle Phillips came to Stanford Hospital with all other options exhausted. In 2002, the Sunnyvale mother of two had been diagnosed with a very rare, and …
A call for understandable information on food labels
The individual-sized bag of Fritos sitting on my desk has 320 milligrams of sodium, no cholesterol, 3 grams of protein and 180 calories of fat. …
Innovative Stanford clinic to support chronic care patients
In a New Yorker article called "The Hot Spotters," Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande, MD, describes a 560-pound man in Camden, New Jersey, who suffers from …
Sports world buzzing over possible "life-saving trade"
If you're not a sports fan like I am, you may not have heard today's news about an NFL running back who has been diagnosed …
Exploring "how hard it is for doctors to listen"
For those interested in physician-patient communication (and the need for improvement), Remapping Debate has a must-read discussion, "How hard is it for doctors to listen and to …
Research shows benefit of treating TB and HIV at the same time
A new study out of UCSF is showing that treating tuberculosis and HIV infections at the same time appears to be a life-saving strategy. As Erin Allday at the …
Improving treatment for infant respiratory distress in developing countries
Pneumonia is the leading cause of death for children under the age of five worldwide. And in the developing world, ineffective treatment for infant respiratory …
Survey shows more than a quarter of American adults are mobile health users
Previous reports have found more and more adults in the United States are turning to the Internet for health information. Now survey results released today …
To screen or not to screen? When it comes to prostate and breast cancers, that's still the question
Mixed signals abound surrounding screenings for prostate and breast cancers. Should we only screen patients in high-risk populations? At what age should screenings begin, and …
An in-depth look at pharmaceutical shortages
Jessica Wapner at Work in Progress, which is part of the PLoS Blogs network, has just posted a fascinating look at some very disturbing drug …
CDC wants you to prepare for a zombie pandemic
Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted a blog entry outlining how you can prepare for a zombie apocalypse. The …