Invited last week to the MuST9 philosophy conference—Evidence, Inference, and Risk, in the Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians Universität, the ninth in a series held in turn in Munich, Sydney, and Tilburg (hence the name)—I mused on the definition of mechanism, particularly in relation to physiology and pharmacology. In my general approach […]
Category: Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming biologics—biosimilars
To recap. Medicines are given International Nonproprietary Names (INNs) by an expert panel of the World Health Organization, using principles that are not uniformly adhered to. When the names are confusable medication errors can occur. Consider monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Apart from the first, muromonab, they all end in the stem -mab. Substems are formed by […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming biologics—principles and practice
Last week I discussed how drugs get their International Nonproprietary Names (INNs). The World Health Organization’s expert panel that assigns INNs has nine principles to guide its decisions, two primary and seven secondary. Here they are in abbreviated form: 1. The names should be distinctive in sound and spelling. They should not be inconveniently long […]
Jeff Aronson: When I Use a Word … Naming biologics—rINNs and pINNs
This week I went to Harrogate to take part in the Royal College of Physicians’ (RCP’s) annual conference “Medicine 2016”, to contribute to a session on biological medicines (biologics). It included talks on micro-RNAs by John Warren, interleukins and dermatology by Richard Warren, CD receptors and haematology by Anthony Goldstone, epidermal growth factor receptors and […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Value and fulfilment
Some think that the current dispute between the UK Government and the junior hospital doctors is about money. Some think it’s about patient care. Both are only partly right. What it’s really about is feeling valued and fulfilled. The doctors don’t. The Indo-European root UAL meant power or strength. The Latin derivative valere meant to […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Andrew Herxheimer and his Golden Rules of drug therapy
Andrew Herxheimer, an old friend and colleague, has died, aged 90 (picture). Andrew was primarily a clinical pharmacologist, but much more besides. His main interest was in improving patient care, particularly through better communication, and he took particular interest in adverse drug reactions and the activities of pharmaceutical companies. He founded the Drug and Therapeutics […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Imposition
As I foretold three weeks ago, the UK government’s health secretary Jeremy Hunt recently announced his intention to impose his contract on the junior hospital doctors. His cunctatorial Fabian tactics predicted it. Ramifications of the word “imposition” imply comment. Take the Indo-European root AP or APO, to reach, extend, or put. The derived Greek prefix […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Pro patria mori
Exactly a hundred years ago, on 19 February 1916, a British soldier, Captain Robert French, died in London after injuries sustained in battle. The following account is taken from his medical notes (picture). Captain French was wounded on 25 September 1915 while fighting with the 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers during the Battle of Loos. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . A penicillin anniversary
Today, 12 February, is the 75th anniversary of the first clinical use of penicillin in Oxford in 1941 (picture). Image: A plaque commemorating the first administration of purified penicillin to a patient in the Radcliffe Infirmary on 12 February 1941 by Dr Charles Fletcher; the word “systematic” is not necessarily an error; the word has occasionally, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Contemptuous
As I have previously described, delaying tactics in a conflict are known as Fabian tactics, after Quintus Fabius Maximus, who used them against Hannibal’s Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, and earned the nickname Cunctator, the Delayer. The dispute between the government and the junior hospital doctors drags on, and Jeremy Hunt/Cunctator seems to be […]