CAM on campus: Black History Month
I emerge from the haze of board exams and residency interviews to blog about a recent development on campus that disappointed me, involving a university celebration of Black History Month.
The Flu Vaccine and Narcolepsy
Preliminary evidence has linked the flu vaccine to narcolepsy in several Scandinavian countries. Is the link real? What could be the mechanism?
Ear Infections: To Treat or Not to Treat
Acute otitis media, also known as an ear infection, is a common problem that used to be treated routinely with antibiotics. As more evidence accumulated, it became clear that the practice needed to change. Seven years after the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians released their guidelines, what has changed?
The NCCAM Strategic Plan 2011-2015: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The NCCAM has a new strategic plan that involves funding good science on meaningful topics, which is good. But it's still talking about nonsense like reiki, which is bad, and mixing it with real, scientifically proven treatments, which is ugly.
Randi issues a challenge
James Randi has issued a challenge to retailers based on the 10:23 campaign to demonstrate homeopathy is nonsense.
Of SBM and EBM Redux. Part IV: More Cochrane and a little Bayes
NB: This is a partial posting; I was up all night ‘on-call’ and too tired to continue. I’ll post the rest of the essay later… Review This is the fourth and final part of a series-within-a-series* inspired by statistician Steve Simon. Professor Simon had challenged the view, held by several bloggers here at SBM, that Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) has been mostly inadequate...
Complementary and alternative medicine in hospice care
A number of news outlets (e.g. Bloomberg Business Week, MSN.Com, US News, etc) have recently reported that use of complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) is widespread in hospice care facilities. This is based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control, Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Hospice: The National Home and Hospice Care Survey, Untied States, 2007. According to most news...
Dr. Mehmet Oz completes his journey to the Dark Side
A couple of weeks ago, both Steve Novella and I criticized Dr. Mehmet Oz (a.k.a. “America’s doctor”) for not only hosting a man I consider to be a major supporter of quackery, but going far beyond that to defend and promote him. After that, I considered Dr. Oz to be a lost cause, with nothing to excuse him for his having embraced...
The Safety Checklist
During my recent stint covering the Neuro ICU I noticed for the first time a checklist posted above each patient bed. The checklist covered the steps to undergo whenever performing an invasive procedure on the patient. I was glad to see that the checklist phenomenon had penetrated my hospital, although the implementation of safety checklists is far from complete. A recent study...
Dr. Paul Offit appears on The Colbert Report
For a touch of the lighter side, here’s Dr. Paul Offit appearing on The Colbert Report to discuss his new book: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Paul Offit www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Looks like a win to me. I particularly like how Dr. Offit says that the question of whether...