Pain is one of the most distressing symptoms children living with cancer experience. It can be caused by the disease, procedures and side effects of medication. Pain can be pervasive and impact every part of a child with cancer’s life. Managing this pain has been shown to have a profound impact on a child’s health […]
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Using the power of pathology
Back in the mists of pre-clinical training, I used to believe that disease states arose through disordered bodies. That illness was a disturbance of anatomy and physiology, and that by understanding the basics of normal, we could derive the pathological, and so predict the disorder and define the therapy. Then I learned of the influence […]
Incongruous
I’ve struggled with spelling for most of my life and in still occasionally do pronouncing terribly wrong. (For about 4 books, I pronounced Hermione “Hermy-one” in my head, instead of “Her-my-oh-knee”, for example.) So every time I see the word ‘incongruous’ I tend to get slight shivers of spelling-test related fear. It is, however, a […]
You can’t unknow it …
A pal of yours is told at a conference by a slightly drunk principal investigator about a drug trial, that’s been first-pass data cleaned and a basic analysis undertaken. The results are clear … even given the possibility of the effect shrinking with more complex adjustments … giving Drug A (the experimental use of an otherwise […]
Added value – a missing link
Do you recall ever ringing / speaking to a more senior colleague, after finding a worrying blood test result, pointing at it and having the response “Hmm… But have you looked at the patient?” (If you haven’t – you either need to work more or have reached clinical nirvana.) It’s the sort of statement that […]