Category Archives: Medicine
NSAIDs and Pregnancy
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th October 2020Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used by millions of patients. They act by inhibiting the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) which facilitates the formation of prostaglandins and thromboxane. The enzyme has two forms: COX-1 and COX-2. They mediate inflammation and pain by simulating prostaglandin synthesis. All the NSAIDs available in the US save one inhibit both…
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Donald Seldin – The Maestro of Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th October 2020Raymond Greenberg’s new biography of the late Donald Seldin has a great subtitle. It could also have been Never at Rest had not Richard Westfall preopted the title for his definitive biography of Isaac Newton. Constant purposeful activity combined with a blazing intellect was the dominant characteristic of Seldin’s long and incredibly productive life. A…
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COVID-19 Immunity
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th September 2020I’ve tried to resist the urge to write more about the COVID-19 epidemic. Afterall, there are only so many ways to say that we’ve done just about everything wrong that’s possible. Turning politicians and journalists loose on the disease was certain to make a hash out of a serious, but not world ending, problem. Even…
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How Many Doctors Are Needed to Run a Hospital?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th September 2020When I was a resident physician the chief of cardiology often argued that there should only be two departments in a hospital – medicine and trauma. I’ve often thought about that view over the ensuing decades as the number of medical specialties proliferated like mushrooms after a downpour. How many specialties would be needed if…
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False Positive PCR Tests For COVID-19
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th September 2020I got tired of writing about the problem of false positive tests for the coronavirus, so I gave up. Now the New York Times has suddenly become aware of the problem. When a PCR test is run the virus is amplified in proportion to the number of cycles run. Typically 40 cycles are performed. Thus,…
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CRISPR and Human Characteristics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th September 2020On September 9th PBS series NOVA presented a two hour program devoted to the genetic technique CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). It’s a technique that allows for gene editing. You can read about by clicking the link above. The PBS program does a pretty good job of explaining how the technique works and…
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COVID-19 Six Months In
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd September 2020It’s just about half a year since we recognized that the coronavirus had taken residence in the US and just about everywhere else. We took a while to realize that the bug was going to stay longer than The Man Who Came to Dinner. Though epidemics have been a feature of human existence ever since…
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Einstein, Insanity, and Models
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th July 2020“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This quotation attributed to Einstein, was said by him (if he really said it) in the context of quantum mechanics, where doing the same experiment repeatedly does give different results. But in the macro world the same experiment properly performed does give…
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No Lives Matter
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st July 2020Unless Netflix and Amazon Prime has drowned out any exterior information, you are aware that much of life has been canceled. My thesis is that this activity which used to be confined the the Post Office (it was canceled decades ago) has not gone far enough. From my jaundiced vantage point it seems clear that…
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The False-Positive Panic over COVID-19
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th July 2020The title above is that of an article by me published today in the Mises Wire. It deals with the problem of false positive tests for COVID-19 that will be found if a large population is tested which has a low prevalence of the virus. It also deals with the issue of frequent tests of…
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About Neil Kurtzman
Neil A Kurtzman MD is the Grover E Murray Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and administration for more than 30 years.› Read the biography
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