Doctors, who prescribe drugs, are at the top of the health hierarchy, whereas nutritionists are near the bottom. At medical school students learn a huge amount about drugs, but little […]
US healthcare
Georgios Lyratzopoulos reports from the diagnostic error in medicine conference
Amidst justified concerns about the potential for overdiagnosis it is easy to forget the great challenges associated with establishing a timely and accurate diagnosis in the first place. Many thousands […]
Tiago Villanueva: The obesity epidemic in Mexico
I recently learned that about 38% of the calories consumed by pregnant women in Mexico comes from the consumption of sugary drinks, like sodas. Mexico also has the highest consumption […]
Suchita Shah: HIV and health in the Navajo Nation: why historical trauma matters
The dry New Mexico wind whips up a dust cloud in the distance. Alone on a highway that stretches for miles through expanses of arid desert soil, I am travelling […]
Edward Davies: Health and politics: time to end the filibuster
The machinations behind the current attempt to defund Obamacare are politically complicated and have a prelude several years long. The evolving story on the federal budget and the rights and […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Life without health insurance in the US
If you are a UK citizen, you probably think we are barbarians. Go ahead and say it, “How can you be a wealthy nation spending so much on healthcare and […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—23 September 2013
NEJM 19 Sep 2013 Vol 369 1106 I’m starting with the second paper about colonic cancer screening in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, because it takes us to […]
Jen Gunter: The challenge of taking the stairs
New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, wants people to take the stairs. He is quoted as saying, “Buildings are often designed in ways that minimize physical activity,” and as inactivity is […]
Georgios Lyratzopoulos: Overdiagnosis—is informed decision making by patients the way forward?
I enrolled for the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference assuming that the focus would be on cancer screening, but I was thankful that the conference covered every clinical specialty, including paediatrics, psychiatry, […]
William Cayley: Does uncertainty and fear of the unknown drive overdiagnosis?
Edward Davies hits the nail on the head: “The fear of both patient and doctor can sometimes override the best knowledge, research, and information known to man.” I do not […]