How journals like Nature, Cell and Science are damaging science The incentives offered by top journals distort science, just as big bonuses distort banking These journals create a skewed incentive scheme to support flashy scientists and bogus science. This is the right business model for popular celebrity magazines, but those magazines don’t have the same consequence for medicine, policy and …
Treat sickest, most expensive patients? Is that ethical?
We are always interested in debates regarding the allocation of healthcare, and here’s a recent story that discusses one doc’s approach. Give it a listen. In 2004, Master founded Commonwealth Care Alliance. It’s an unusual group that focuses on Massachusetts residents who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In other words, the neediest, most medically complicated, and most expensive …
The Rich Hiring Ambulance-Taxis: Is this ethical?
In Bangladesh those who can afford it hire ambulances to get around during political protests that can turn violent unexpectedly. Given the political situation, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Who would attack an ambulance after all? Hiring an ambulance only costs the equivalent of $3.00 to get across town. Since last month over 20 people have died in …
Launch of the report “Dementia: a public health priority”
The World Health Organization reminds us that Neurological complaints are a global health priority and cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Yes, we are right on that. Launch of the report “Dementia: a public health priority” The report “Dementia: a public health priority” has been jointly developed by WHO and Alzheimer’s Disease International. The purpose of this report is to …
Our brain can think without language – how is that possible?
A study at University of Pennsylvania suggests that the organization of a neural system is capable of representing meaning without language. This means that verbal representations are not essential to represent abstract semantics – and that there is a lot more about the brain that we do not know! We are looking forward to more work by Dr. Chatterjee and …
Genetic memory through multiple generations – Fact! (maybe)
This finding is so insane, that it upends an entire field. This paper reads like science fiction. The authors fear condition a mouse to neutral scent by pairing the scent with electrical shocks. They find that the mouse’s offspring (both for male and female mice) exhibit freezing to the scent GENERATIONS LATER! ~ the learning finds some way to transfer to …
Brain Cells ‘Geotag’ Memories To Cache What Happened — And Where
[box style=”2″] Think back to an important event in your life: a graduation, a birth, a special Thanksgiving dinner. Chances are you’re remembering not only what happened, but also where it happened. And now scientists think they know why. As we form so-called episodic memories, the brain appears to be using special cells in the hippocampus to “geotag” each event, researchers …
Diabetes and Stroke: Towards a Model of Primary Prevention in Neurology
troke is a significant public health concern: it is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and is a leading cause of permanent disability. A population that has a particularly high risk for stroke is diabetics: in fact, one in eight diabetics will eventually suffer from a stroke, and having diabetes doubles one’s risk for stroke. Diabetes is highly prevalent …
Print our Diabetes Comics
The Dica De Diabetes project published one of these comics weekly for a year in O’Jornal, a free Portuguese newspaper in Fall River, MA. You can now print out the entire year of comics to use as daily reminders. [soliloquy id=”2094″]