Stories about HIV and AIDS fascinate me. They speak of our common humanity and our tragically all-too-common inhumanity towards each other. In fear, so many in power sought to sweep this disease and its victims under the rug, yet it pervaded to impact human life in almost every sphere. When AZT first showed promise and HAART later showed effectiveness, many breathed sighs of collective relief. Today, we live in an era of PEPFAR, where the…
Recent research has made it clear that mentorship plays an incredibly strong role in launching careers in STEMM. However, much of education remains organized around traditional missional axes of teaching, research, and service. Mentorship plays a determining factor in all three aspects. It accelerates and perpetuates careers. The National Academies, filled with the most outstanding scholars in America, supplied this consensus statement about the research around this topic. Based on evidence, they summarize findings and…
Artificial Intelligence is changing the way information is handled worldwide. The advances pose particular opportunities for medicine, where descriptive texts are the norm, research expands knowledge exponentially, and paperwork is a main product. Of course, new dangers uncover themselves, too. Will AI merely exacerbate existing health inequities, or will it provide better quality care for anyone with a smartphone worldwide? These subjects need to be thought through in order to secure positive outcomes. These authors,…
Along with the brain, sleep remains as one of the frontiers of biomedical science. Over a century ago, Sigmund Freud attempted to explore the nature of dreams, but his first attempts seem generally off mark to modern science. Current work has much more evidence to inform it, but few have the time to learn about it. Fortunately, Matthew Walker, a research scientist (notably not a physician), presents a summary of contemporary scientific insights about sleep.…
In the 1980s, a young Hmong child – whose people fought for the Americans during the Vietnam War – had epilepsy after her parents were relocated to California as refugees. Tragically, her parents never adapted to the American medical system, and equally tragically, the American medical system never adapted to them either. The child Lia Lee’s case resulted in a negative outcome, and the Lee family’s difficulty appears utterly humane upon further investigation. In this…
Much of academic literature and advancement revolve around biomedical publications. Researchers focus on peer-reviewed publications, but other forms of writing abound: grant proposals, books for healthcare workers, books for the reading public, and journals for healthcare workers. The issues posed by medical writing are relatively common across the entire enterprise. Here, Robert Taylor attempts to distill insights from his writing career into one succinct book. The resulting education can inspire readers, anticipate potential issues, and…
The life-or-death fate of children has changed dramatically over the past 200 years due to research, medicine, and public health. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln famously grieved the loss of their child in the White House years ago, but they were hardly alone. Rather in that era, losing a child, often due to illness or mishaps, was pretty much normal though still tragic. Today, such an experience is the exception, and we are all better…
Healthcare researchers will mine stories about the COVID pandemic for decades to come. It stretched both American and global society to their limits to a degree not seen since the flu pandemic of 1918. Many expected federal coordination of the response, but they swiftly became disappointed. Both the White House and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) left the pandemic looking really bad, and I suspect history’s judgment upon each will only worsen with time.…
To the casual observer, a quick look at the American healthcare system brings out more questions than insights. Most of the developed world has some form of socialized medicine, whether nationalized health insurance or a national health system. By comparison, the American system appears disorderly and inefficient, yet resisting any changes, some swear by its effectiveness. Why? The answer lies not in a simple social, political, or economic force but in the scope of history.…
In the past century, clinical research has grown dramatically as the number of questions about healthcare has increased. The current paradigm of evidence-based medicine describes the practice of prescribing medicines based on their tested strength instead of an individual’s limited experience. Of course, to make such judgments, a rich bed of research evidence needs to exist, and this book succinctly describes how such questions are investigated for eventual dissemination. This book’s language is succinct and…