A fate worse than death

Reuters (via Yahoo! News) has a story about the double whammy of a lung cancer diagnosis. (See Lung cancer patients fight stigma.)
“I’m sorry. You don’t have breast cancer,” the oncologist told Charmaine Atkenson.
The 48-year-old mother of two had something far worse — stage 4 lung cancer. It had spread to her spine, bursting the bone […]

Dr. Mintz isn’t happy with YourMisdiagnosis.com

Earlier this month I wrote about YourMisdiagnosis.com. (See Don’t believe everything you read (about Health 2.0)). My take on it was that the site was gaining much more prominence than its measly number of posts (1 then, 3 now) merited, and that journalists writing about it must not have bothered to check out the site […]

Is Grassley barking up the wrong tree at FDA?

Dr. Mark Thornton, former medical officer at the FDA’s Office of Oncology Products, takes Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) to task on the Wall Street Journal’s op-ed page. (See Grassley’s War on Cancer Patients.) Thornton is upset that Grassley is challenging the FDA’s acceptance of surrogate endpoints and accelerated approval timelines. As Thornton writes:
This kind of […]

Robots Inspired by Animals

There are some interesting robots in this video from New Scientist. It includes robots based on animals including robotic salamander, a water strider robot, mechanical cockroaches and some cool self-configuring robots. The cockroach bot actually communicates with real roaches. The self-configuring bot manages to regroup itself so it can slide under an obstacle.

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Health Wonk Review is up at InsureBlog

Hank Stern at InsureBlog has posted an excellent Health Wonk Review, playing it straight for once!

Original post by David E. Williams of the Health business blog

Are primary care physicians the lettuce pickers of the 21st century?

I was happy to see that Global HealthNet CEO Sandip Madan, a contributor to my MedTripInfo website, is now publishing in the Wall Street Journal as well. (See We Need Free Trade in Health Care). Along with Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwati, he presents the case for increased trade in health care services as an […]

Image gently reaches the House

Readers of this blog know my concerns about excessive radiation dosing from CT scans, especially for children. (See Image gently, or when the diagnosis is worse than the disease.) So I’m interested in a new resolution in the US House of Representatives that calls for a reduction of radiation dosage delivered to children. From what […]

Happy Memorial Day

Hope you are enjoying it! I’m taking the day off.

Original post by David E. Williams of the Health business blog

Local expert

I was traveling from Chicago’s Midway Airport today and had my first encounter with a new TSA system that lets passengers sort themselves into the appropriate security lane based on their experience traveling and whether they’re with their family. The coding is like on a ski slope. Green/circle lanes are for families and those needing […]

Brave New World of the Supply Chain

A May 17 article in the Economist (Quagmire to goldmine?) describes the impending entry of global pharmaceutical companies into developing world markets. Traditionally the big companies like Pfizer and GSK have avoided the third world, preferring to sell blockbuster drugs at high prices in the US, Western Europe, and Japan. Sales in poor countries have […]

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