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New York City Reports Long Delays for Mammograms

A recent audit of nine NYC’s Health and Hospitals Corporation found City Comptroller Liu described as dangerous delays in women’s health care. It takes too long for women to get screening and diagnostic mammograms. The 2009 audit found women at Elmhurst Hospital had the longest waits – 50 working days (that would be 10 weeks, […]

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Noting Depression in Susan Glaspell’s 1917 Story: A Jury of Her Peers

Recently I read the short story, A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, with a group of women in my community. The author, with whom I wasn’t previously familiar, first reported on the real 1901 trial of Margaret Hossack, as a journalist writing for the Des Moines Daily News. Later she adapted the story […]

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Getting the Blood Tests Right at the Phlebotomy Center

Last week I had some blood tests taken before a doctor’s appointment. I went to a commercial lab facility, one of several dozen centers for collecting specimens have opened up in otherwise-unrented Manhattan office spaces lately. I have to say I really like getting my blood work done at this place, if and when I […]

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New Study, Presented at a Meeting of Breast Surgeons, Supports that Mammograms Save Lives of Women in Their 40s

The American Society of Breast Surgeons held its 2011 annual meeting in D.C. from April 27 – May 1. Among the papers presented was Abstract #1754: “Mammography in 40 Year Old Women: The Potential Impact of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) Mammography Guidelines.” You can find the press release, followed by the abstract, […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer screening, Oncology (cancer), Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments on New Study, Presented at a Meeting of Breast Surgeons, Supports that Mammograms Save Lives of Women in Their 40s

The Trouble With Ginger

A short post for Friday: The Times published a short piece on ginger this Tuesday, on whether or not it relieves morning sickness. The conclusion is that it’s less effective for nausea in pregnancy than in seasickness and chemotherapy treatment. When I was getting chemo, I received a gift of ginger tea. It didn’t help […]

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Some Articles I Authored A While Ago

This post, on my research in cancer immunology, is strangely personal. At one level, what follows is nothing more than a list, a narrative if you will, a sketch of a formative chunk of my career and personal history. I’ve wanted to put this out there (here) for quite a while, but couldn’t: It’s been […]

Posted in Academic Medicine, from the author, Life, Life as a DoctorTagged , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments on Some Articles I Authored A While Ago

New Findings on Leprosy and Armadillos

A surprise lesson arrived in my snail mailbox today: the April 28 issue of NEJM includes a fascinating research paper on a probable cause of leprosy in the southern U.S. New, detailed genetic studies show that armadillos, long-known to harbor the disease, carry the same strain as occurs in some patients; they’re a likely culprit […]

Posted in Dermatology, Diagnosis, Genetics, Infectious Disease, Medical Education, Medical NewsTagged , , , , , , , 4 Comments on New Findings on Leprosy and Armadillos

Who Was Nurse Mary Jane Seacole?

(and, on bias in education) On the bus last week I was reading the latest New Yorker and came upon a short, front-end piece by Ian Frazier on Mary Jane Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who tended wounded soldiers in the Crimean War. As best as I can recall, I’d never heard before of Florence Nightingale’s […]

Posted in Medical Education, Medical HistoryTagged , , , , , , , 4 Comments on Who Was Nurse Mary Jane Seacole?

Blogging Addiction Disorder

The author has been concerned for a while that she might be addicted to blogging. Symptoms include wanting to post instead of working on a book proposal and other, likely more important projects. She was thinking of crowd-sourcing how best to describe this disposition, but it turns out the Internet already provides a diagnostic term: […]

Posted in Diagnosis, Psychiatry, Social MediaTagged , , , , , 4 Comments on Blogging Addiction Disorder

Dr. Greenfield is Human

A few days ago I read that Dr. Lazar Greenfield, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, resigned as the president-elect of the American College of Surgeons over flak for authoring a Valentine’s Day-pegged, tacky, tasteless and sexist piece in Surgery News. The February issue is mysteriously absent in the pdf-ied archives. According to the […]

Posted in Hematology (blood), Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Medical NewsTagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Dr. Greenfield is Human
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