The vaccine “debate” is the art of not talking about what we are talking about […]
Benjamin Mazer: The dog whistle medicine of the anti-vaccine movement
Category: US healthcare
Vinay Prasad on the NCCN’s cancer treatment guidelines: The US system needs an audit
What level of evidence should we have before costly, toxic cancer drugs are given to patients? […]
Chaitanya Haldipur: Do we need to test the competency of older doctors?
We tend to revere our older colleagues for their clinical wisdom, but this should not compromise patient care […]
Tianjing Li: What’s not shared—building on the FDA’s transparency momentum
Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, announced new steps that the agency is taking to enhance transparency of clinical trial information. The FDA is launching a pilot programme whereby selected portions of clinical study reports (CSRs) for nine recently approved new drug applications will be posted on the agency’s website. […]
Ashish Jha: A year of living dangerously with the Affordable Care Act
Although efforts to repeal the ACA in 2017 did not come to fruition, it did not escape unscathed […]
Chris Simms: CDC’s word ban—the placement of politics over science is part of a larger pattern
The words we use matter and can influence what we think and how we act […]
William Cayley: Hypertension and inverse care
We need to find ways to care for all of those at risk, not just those who have the ability to seek care […]
Sofia Gruskin: We must follow California’s example and repeal archaic HIV laws
Recently, my home state of California made national headlines when it repealed an HIV criminalisation law and reduced penalties for exposing other people to the virus. It was a landmark decision grounded in science and human rights that will go into effect next month. The law that was repealed had violated people’s fundamental human rights […]
Joel Lexchin: Bringing Vioxx back to life
In movie lore, zombies are people who have come back to life to reek havoc and kill innocent people. Now there is a proposal to bring Vioxx (rofecoxib) back to life. The question is whether a resurrected Vioxx will behave like a typical zombie or can it actually help people? As a bit of background, […]
Scott O Lilienfeld: The role of psychiatrists in the age of Trump
The rise of Trump has ignited fierce debate about the Goldwater rule, but what, if anything, would a formal diagnosis of Trump tell us? […]