May 2013
3 posts
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My medical choice →
In an op-ed for the New York Times, actress Angelina Jolie writes about having preventive double mastectomy after finding out she had the BRCA1 gene mutation.
In women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, the lifetime risk of breast cancer is increased about 55-85% and the lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is increased about 55% for BRCA1 and 30% for BRCA2. Testing is recommended for those with a...
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“We don’t live in the information age. That would be an insult to information,...”
– Jonathan Nolan
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“I was very embarrassed when my canvases began to fetch high prices. I saw myself...”
– Henri Matisse
April 2013
2 posts
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WatchJames D. Watson’s 85th birthday celebration #AACR. As someone responsible for one of the most important discoveries of mankind, he is refreshingly frank and unfiltered.
March 2013
7 posts
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“A reputation is easily come by, especially in these days when the cult of...”
– Novelist and playwright John Banville on being unimpressed with reputations. The astute observer follows the same logic.
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The Crystal Palace and American ingenuity
A marvel in its own right, the Crystal Palace was a magnificent structure of iron and glass which served as the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London to showcase the greatest products from around the world. It was during this exhibition that the US gave the world a first glimpse of American technological ingenuity.
While doing research this weekend for a presentation, I came across the...
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January 2013
3 posts
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“Under duress, we do not rise to our expectations; we fall to the level of our...”
– Bruce Lee.
December 2012
5 posts
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The impact of the end of the world on medical...
A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal examines the effects of the impending apocalypse known as Mayan Doomsday (MaD) on the outcome of clinical trials. MaD is believed to occur on December 21, 2012.
The analysis begins by a quote from Louis Pasteur: Where observation is concerned, fortune favors only the prepared mind.
The researchers note that certain groups such as...
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November 2012
1 post
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October 2012
5 posts
2 tags
Running out of doctors?
Via Good
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MRI of foods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of foods by Andy Ellison
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September 2012
2 posts
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August 2012
4 posts
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“The intensity of the conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing on...”
– Sir Peter Medawar.
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“To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to...”
– Oliver Sacks, the New Yorker.
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July 2012
1 post
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“If it were not for the great variability among individuals, medicine might have...”
– Sir William Osler (1849-1919)
June 2012
8 posts
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A man in "pseudo-coma" tweets with his eyes
Tony Nicklinson, a man who has locked-in syndrome because of a stroke, is now tweeting with his eyes by using a computer that tracks his eye movements. Patients with locked-in syndrome (also called pseudo-coma) are awake and fully aware of their environment but cannot speak or move any part of their bodies except their eyes. They even lack facial expression. The condition is a very isolating...
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Reviving the art of observation →
According to a study conducted in 2008, average attention span has halved in a decade, from 12 to five minutes (it may be much worse now). A WSJ article reminds us that as we check our emails on our smartphones every 10 minutes and text as we walk, “we miss almost everything” and that what makes a person stand out now is paying attention: “the ability to look and keep...
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May 2012
8 posts
3 tags
Can exercise be bad for some people?
You may have already heard this: a study published yesterday and led by Claude Bouchard, professor of genetics and nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, suggests that regular exercise may worsen some cardiovascular disease risk factors in a small group of people.
This is a provocative finding and it seems like it’s sparked a lot of concern and interest. I’ve...
“If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at...”
– Benjamin Franklin
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Read wisely
“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” - Mark Twain
If alive today, he would likely say health blogs.
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Insights from genomics: from the cradle to the...
“With the cost of whole-genome sequencing plummeting, the DNA in a blood sample obtained at a single time point (e.g., at birth) could be sequenced and deposited in a database accessible to the individual and designated clinicians. This whole-genome sequencing data could be used prognostically, while the individual is asymptomatic, to calculate the lifetime risk of that person developing...
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The authority to cure by means of bodily invasion
A great article by Atul Gawande in the New England Journal of Medicine chronicles 200 years of surgery, from the days of performing leg amputations without anesthesia for compound fractures, to the advent of minimally invasive and painless procedures. The opening paragraph captures the bold essence of the profession:
Surgery is a profession defined by its authority to cure by means of bodily...
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Five key skills of innovators
Questioning allows innovators to challenge the status quo and consider new possibilities
Observing helps innovators detect small details
Networking permits innovators to gain radically different perspectives from individuals with diverse backgrounds
Experimenting prompts innovators to relentlessly try out new experiences, take things apart and test new ideas
Associational thinking — drawing...
