The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) not only defines words. It gives variant spellings, etymologies, and instances of their uses in quotations from printed texts. And it does so, as the […]
Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical anniversaries in 2020
As last year, my list of medical anniversaries in 2020 is restricted to multiples of 50 years (i.e. years ending in 20 and 70). Thus, I have not included, for […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical sentinels
On 13 March 2006, six healthy volunteers were given a medication that had only a code name, TGN1412, (now TAB08) in a first-in-human study; two others received placebo. TGN1412 was […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the process of letting blood, originally by incising a blood vessel and nowadays by puncturing it. Early papers on phlebotomy refer to the curious habit of hepatic phlebotomy, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Problems with expiry dates of medicines
Last week I discussed expiry dates of medicines, how they are determined and some major concerns about exceeding them—loss of drug activity during storage (through loss of compound or interconversion […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Expiry dates of medicines
Go to your medicines cabinet and pick out a packet of medicines. If your medicines are a bit old, the chances are that you’ll have difficulty finding the expiry date, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Interesting integers
I assert that there is no such thing as an uninteresting integer. But what is an integer? The IndoEuropean root TAG meant to touch or handle. The Latin verb tangere, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Drug shortages: an operational definition
As I discussed last week, defining a drug shortage is problematic. First, there is the problem of ambiguity—distinguishing poor supply from shortage. Supply problems can occur even when there are […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Defining drug shortages
Over the last four weeks I have been discussing drug shortages, their history, causes, harms and errors that can result, and proposed solutions. But defining a drug shortage is not […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Drug shortages—solutions
Over the last three weeks I have reported my analysis of over 800 published reports of drug shortages. I have reviewed the history of drug shortages, elucidated their causes, and […]