What does it mean to be fit? Fitness is not just a life long journey of improvement; nor is it something we build upon for life. We now have an increasing body of evidence that changes in fitness are dynamic. Even in the elderly it doesn’t have to decline with increasing age. It can get […]
Health & Medicine
A neoteric’s view
Page 7 of 11
Is it time we let computers drive our medical care? According to the World Health Organization, there was a global shortage of 7.2 million health providers in 2013, and this figure will to increase to 12.9 million by 2035. Establishing new medical schools, which every country has adopted, isn’t a long term solution. Increasing the […]
Pet is a term of endearment. It suggests that the bond humans have with their companion animals is loving and supportive. Recently, pets have become more than just part of the family. Now having a pet has become medicalised. Zooeyia is the technical name for human health benefits of companion animals. Zooeyia has been linked […]
The number of people going online to seek out health information has doubled in the last decade, from over 30% to over 60%. The patient community is dichotomising rapidly into health technologists, who use online resources frequently and health traditionalists, who seldom use the Internet. Today, three out of every four North Americans use commercially […]
Medicine is not just a science. It is a living practice. Translating emerging science into practice is one of the key skills of doctors. Before scientific knowledge became viral, translation was merely a matter of communication. Now, as the science of medicine reaches epidemic proportions, it is becoming more and more difficult to perform this […]
Medicine is a multinational industry no longer defined by country boundaries. Its main product is a workforce. It is time to disrupt our rigid health care so that it can bend For example, doctors now can work autonomously and remotely from their traditional locations for at least some of their work-time. Radiologists, for example, now […]
Risks are ephemeral. Once identified they are no longer risks but problems to be solved. Risks that cannot or should not be problematized need to be abandoned. In the most positive light, identifying risks should only be a first step in a long pathway of improvement. First, the risk must be linked to a behaviour […]
Recycling old drugs is not new. Clinicians quite often prescribe treatments with drugs that are “off label”, that is, proven for other conditions. Up to one-fifth of all available drugs are prescribed off-label. Almost 90% of drugs that are approved for one condition have other conditions that they can treat. Fortunately, most off-label uses are […]
The fitness industry is blooming across both sides of the Atlantic. In the United Kingdom, for example, there are more than 30,000 registered fitness/exercise professionals, that is one for every 2000 people. In the US there are 267,000 instructors, that is one for every 1200 people. That’s almost half the number of practising physicians. Clients […]
Despite the best research into cancer, it still remains a generic term describing out-of-control cells, which all look different, from site to site. The diversity of cancer, still perplexes researchers and there are many unanswered questions about how cancer invades bodies, which drugs work and why cures remain elusive. The researchers who are studying A […]
Under the surface, health care leadership is a stagnant pond filled with ever deepening chasms between the two rival schools – clinicians and managers. Clinical leadership is no longer about advocating for individual patients, especially about expensive interventions and hospital stays where there is little likelihood of these clinical decisions ever being substantiated by research. […]
Seasonal change often generates a flurry of diagnosing. It should be okay to be sad about the shortening days, rather than suffering from ‘seasonal affective disorder’. In women, a runny nose and a sore throat transforms into ‘flu’ and in men it becomes ‘manflu’. Once a diagnosis is made it is indelible. Escalation of symptoms […]
Studying our genes is becoming a big business in health care. New gene discoveries make great news. Every week we hear about another gene that can identify our susceptibility to a particular disease or be modified to produce a cure. With over 3.0 billion human genes that is no mean feat. Unfortunately, cure is not […]
The end of the summer holidays always signals a spate of new television and internet dramas. Medical dramas, in particular, are very cost effective for the television and streaming industries. Sets are simple. There are stock storylines that can be regularly recycled, such as cancer, rape, accidental injury, and paralysis. Usually there is only one […]
Receiving a diagnosis that we have a progressively debilitating disease such as cancer or multiple sclerosis is a lifetime sentence. Initial diagnostic tests can accurately stage the disease. New imaging tools such as PET scans, MRIs, and genetic testing can detect the extent of the disease long spread before it becomes evident to clinicians and […]
These days it’s pretty hard to believe anything we read about what we should eat and drink. Nutritional facts are tossed about like raw ingredients. Sometimes they are mixed and baked and turned into something sweet and palatable. Other times they are burnt and bitter. The relationship between coffee and cancer is a good example. […]
Our health care systems are dying under their own weight. They are morbidly obese. They keep on eating up our resources with a voracious appetite. Like clinical obesity, it is not a single problem, but a complex growth that arises from the interaction between our genetic make up, our bodies, our communities and the environment […]
Body organs are a valuable commodity. Nearly every part of the human body has been transplanted – except of course the brain. As the Western world struggles to maintain a charitable stance on organ transplantation which results in long waiting lists, a thriving market in live transplantation exists in many less industrialized countries. Expendable organs, […]
Violence is endemic in our hospitals. In the US, over half of all emergency room staff are threatened by people bearing weapons at least once in their working lives. It is widely reported in the nursing literature, however mentioned much less in the medical literature. Violent thoughts and actions should be expected – they are […]
Governments change. Heads of state change, but what really happens behind the frenzied ADHD of electioneering? The effect on hospitals is very difficult to assess. Paper money and promises abound, but we can never really tell whether decision makers have enough power and status in their hospitals to affect any change during their time on […]
The Thinker 