Diet and Nutrition. Natural Health, and Healthy Living

(more...)

Jill Fisher (Women & Gender Studies - Arizona State ) has authored a fascinating, provocative new article in the latest Social Science & Medicine entitled Practicing research ethics: Private-sector physicians & pharmaceutical clinical trials.

Here is the Abstract:

This paper focuses on constructions of research ethics by primary care physicians in the USA as they engage in contract research for the pharmaceutical industry. Drawing first on historical studies of physicians as investigators and then on 12 months of qualitative fieldwork in the Southwestern US, this paper analyzes the shifting, contextualized ethics that shape physicians' relationships with patients/subjects and pharmaceutical companies. Just as physicians followed professional codes of ethics prior to the codification of acceptable research conduct in the 1980s, physicians today continue to develop tacit systems of research ethics. This paper argues that private-sector physicians primarily conceptualize their ethical conduct in relation to the pharmaceutical companies hiring them, not to human subjects they enroll in clinical trials. This is not to say that these physicians do not follow the formal U.S. regulation to protect human subjects, but rather that their financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry have a greater influence on their identities as researchers and on their constructions of their ethical responsibilities.

(more...)

President Signs Prescription Drug Safety Bill - CALPIRG

.priority {
height: 285px;
}

function getWebguiProperty (propName) {
var props = new Array();
props["extrasURL"] = "/extras/";
props["pageURL"] = "/newsroom/health-care/health-care-news/president-signs-prescription-drug-safety-bill";
return props[propName];
}

(more...)

Fourth "S"The Philadelphia City Paper has an in-depth article on medical tourism by Ted Hesson, which chronicles the experiences of medical tourists, contains quotes and gems of wisdom from experts and has a nice and precise 'The Dos and don'ts of medical tourism'.

The title of the piece, the fourth 'S', comes from a (more...)

I have given a writer the opportunity to practise her craft by writing an article. So please share your thoughts on medical marijuana vending machines:

Although it sounds like something out of a satirical cartoon (I can definitely see Homer Simpson using it), marijuana vending machines are now a reality. The first one appeared at the Herbal Nutrition Center (HNC) in Los Angeles. The HNC is a popular medical cannabis dispensary that strives to bring a positive service to the Los Angeles community.

(more...)

Should marijuana be used to treat people with depression?

Or should marijuana be used in the short and or long term fight against depression.

Alternatively you may feel that marijuana should not be prescribed for depression, people think marijuana can make you feel depressed.

(more...)

The reliability of mammography results varies significantly between medical facilities, according to new research published in a recent edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).  Even more importantly, certain organizational characteristics tend to predict which facilities will return a more accurate reading.

While numerous previous studies have indicated that interpretive accuracy varies greatly among radiologists, this study actually demonstrates that accuracy varies among mammography facilities.

(more...)

Kaiser Permanente signed on this morning for a pretty extensive pilot with Microsoft, allowing its 159,000 employees to copy their online health records into HealthVault. This is a big coup for Microsoft and a fairly ambitious move for KP which to this point hasn't said much publicly about the data transferability it was going to provide for its members. This is a clear signal.

(more...)

“False Hopes, Unwarranted Fears: The Trouble with Medical News Stories.” If you find the headline alarming, you should read the editorial, published just last week in PLoS Medicine. There, the journal’s editors summarize what the Health News Review has discovered over the past two years while evaluating medical stories about new products and procedures throughout the mainstream media.

“It’s not a pretty picture,” says Gary Schwitzer, the University of Minnesota School of Journalism professor who publishes the online project.

(more...)