Medicine
Shortage of Indian Medical Professionals
India is one of many countries facing severe shortages of trained medical professionals – including nurses, dentists, and administrators – but especially doctors. These shortages have wide ranging effects on both the local and the global level, and this issue has the potential to create a plethora of secondary problems for the affected nation. In [...]
Healthcare Reform: Using Medical Humanities as an Alternative Solution
“16 is too young to sell yourself. You’re old enough to feel like a child When you cry. You’re father died in 2005, you said (by way of explanation) To the undercover cop. He said your small arms raged Against his chest, he said He wasn’t fast enough: You drove a blade into your [...]
Cancer: A New Age in Treatment?
Cancer cells always seem to have a way of evading the body’s natural defenses and cell death. Thus, cancer has proved to be one of the most difficult diseases to treat. However, the prognosis for the disease is shifting its course. Recently, researchers across the world have begun to create vaccines that fight cancer cells [...]
Building New Foundations: Recent Advances in Tissue Engineering
Since the development of in-depth stem cell research and particularly the ability to induce pluripotency – the ability to differentiate cells into many or all cell-types – the promise of generating replacement tissues and organs for patients has been a virtual “holy grail” for the field of regenerative medicine. Many advances have been made in [...]
Gene Patents: Sequencing Scientific Controversy
Do you have the rights to your own DNA? A question Genae Girard never considered until she was denied that right. How can someone else own your DNA? Current models estimate that as much as 20% of all human genetic material has been patented [1]. Recently this practice has entered the national spotlight with the landmark [...]
Your Genes Belong to Us: Gene Patenting and its Discontents
Genae Girard, a 39-year-old woman living in the US, had to pay a staggering $3200 for a single genetic test for the BRCA gene associated with breast and ovarian cancer, only to find that she was unable to request a second opinion upon receiving the positive test result. After consulting with doctors, Ms Girard was [...]
Staphylococcus Aureus: Horizontal Gene Transfer Scaring Antibiotics
Effective policy implementation is a challenging task, especially when taking into account a particular country’s large size and vast bureaucracy, such as those of the United States. One of the many fields that require constant attention is healthcare policy. Factors like age, social backgrounds, and community settings interact together to create a complex dynamic wave [...]
The Doctor-Patient Relationship in the Internet Age
Introduction The advent of the “information technology age” has led to a rapid change in the doctor‐patient dynamic. Before the Internet became host to a plethora of medical information and advice, the doctor‐patient relationship was confined primarily to office consultations. In that setting, doctors advised patients on the best course of medical action, and the [...]
Outsourcing Medicine: The Expanding Field of Medical Tourism
Medical Tourism In a country where 62% of all bankruptcies are the result of skyrocketing healthcare bills, it’s clear that the U.S. has a healthcare expenses problem [1]. Combine that with some of the worst mortality rates in the developed world, and you start to understand how Americans are in a lose-lose situation when it [...]
Obesity Epidemic: Will Money Talk?
In October 2010, obesity passed smoking as the most preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States [1]. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68% of adult Americans were overweight or obese in 2008 [2]. A recent projection by Wang et al. estimates that of the 86% of American adults who [...]
Methylation: The Cause of Brain Tumor?
When one thinks of the word “cancer” breast cancer, lung cancer, and skin cancer are among the various types that first come to mind. One type of cancer that is often neglected is Brain Tumor. According to the National Tumor Society, more than 500 people per day are diagnosed with primary or metastatic brain tumor [...]
Dying Without Sleep: Insomnia and its Implications
Ideally, humans sleep for at least eight hours every day, meaning that we spend about a third of our lives “unconscious.” Scientists have yet to agree on why this unconsciousness is vital, but we know that without sleep, all mammals and birds would die [1]. Because sleep has only become the subject of research in [...]
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