Medicine
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 [...]
Our Draining Willpower in the Digital Age?
Quick, say the colors of the following words out loud: BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, PURPLE, PINK, YELLOW. How many did you get right? And what does this have to do with willpower? Psychologists use this kind of test to measure our current level of willpower.1 The speed and accuracy of your responses reflects your level of [...]
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 [...]
Antibiotic Resistance: Combating An Important Problem
The antibiotic is a cornerstone of today’s medical treatment, but with the increasing rate of bacteria that are steadily growing impervious to these chemical treatments, should we consider the other options as valid alternatives? [1]. Starting in the 1920’s with the discovery of penicillin, a surge of antibiotic discovery enveloped the scientific world as scientists [...]
‘Bloodless’ Surgery: An Alternative to Invasive Medical Procedures?
By Nima Ahmady-Moghaddam, George Washington University The choice of words may at first glance be misleading. For several years now, an increasing number of hospitals – including University Hospital in Newark, NJ, Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA – have been implementing medical techniques and protocols that are geared [...]
Paramedics: A Danger to Patients?
By Michael West, George Washington University There’s a motto in emergency medical services (EMS) that one learns during his first days of training, “no airway, no patient.” Paramedics are trained in advanced pre-hospital medicine including advanced airway management techniques. One of the most notorious of these techniques is the endotracheal intubation (ETI), a technique in [...]
Healthy Biodiversity: Taking Care of the Environment and Our Health
Biodiversity is an important element in the natural world: it maintains ecosystem function by preserving species dominance and protects species health by ensuring genetic diversity. Biodiversity also acts as a buffer to many diseases—a genetically diverse population is much more likely to withstand outbreaks, while weak genetic diversity within wildlife can lead to an increase [...]
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 [...]
Brawn and Brains: Looking at NFL Head Injuries
NFL Head Injuries Any football fan watching a Sunday afternoon game will most likely witness at least one slow‐motion replay of a running back lowering his head as he faces off against a safety, or a defensive end’s helmet colliding with another player’s during a tackle. Fans of professional football bear witness to repeated head [...]
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 [...]
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