Category Archives: Medicine
Corona Uncertainty
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st March 2020The country has slowed to the pace of a toddler’s crawl because of the coronavirus epidemic. We have decided to follow the advice of the federal government’s top medical experts. This decision has imposed an economic burden on the country that may cause more damage than the virus itself. Our handling of a very complex…
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Understanding the Implication of a Positive Test For COVID-19
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th March 2020The public and the press have little understanding of what a positive test for any disease means. Iceland has decided to test its entire population for COVID-19, which as can be seen from the data below is an act of well meaning folly. I’ll make this explanation as simple as I can. Any medical test…
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Back to Work by March 30: A Coronavirus Imperative
Written by Robert Luddy | 24th March 2020America has no choice if it is to avoid total disaster. China and Russia are open for business and working at close to capacity, as America shutters most all business and industry in states such as Pennsylvania, New York, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In many cases only select manufacturing companies are allowed to operate,…
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Government Is No Match for the Coronavirus
Written by Robert Luddy | 21st March 2020The coronavirus is reminding everyone that you cannot rely on government and that ultimately it is the private sector that will provide the solutions. Many nonmedical government officials and members of the media are predicting massive cases of COVID-19 and death, when in fact no one can predict the outcome. What we do know is…
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The Question Nobody is Asking: How Many US Deaths From Flu This Season?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th March 2020While we are obsessing about Covid-19, no one I know of is asking the obvious related question. How many Americans have died from the flu this season? The information is readily available on the CDC’s website. According to the Center (as of February 29): Nationally, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses are now the most commonly reported influenza…
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Another Reason to Return to Smoke Signals
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th March 2020The world has gone madder than a pit viper caught in a wheat thresher. The cause? The coronavirus epidemic. The disease is still in the early stage of definition. Our understanding of its severity and dissemination is evolving. What’s not evolving is a responsible response to this new pathogen. Instead of ready, aim, fire we…
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The Effect of Influenza Vaccination on the Elderly
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th March 2020The Annals of Internal Medicine recently published online a study of the effectiveness of influenza vaccination on the likelihood of subjects 65 and older being hospitalized or dying. The study’s objective was: “To determine the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in reducing hospitalizations and mortality among elderly persons by using an observational research design that…
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Teaching Medicine in 2020
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st March 2020Dr Ezekiel Emanuel whose job at the University of Pennsylvania is to think deep thoughts has a short piece just published online in the JAMA. In it he observes, rightly I believe, that the internet has changed the first two years of medical such that most teachers are no longer needed. The first two years…
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The Corona Virus Epidemic
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd February 2020The coronavirus epidemic has understandably caused much anxiety throughout the world. Uncertainty about what the new disease portends has wreaked havoc on the cruise ship industry and the airlines. The stock market which is always twitchy is still uncertain as to whether it should take a swan dive which is appropriate as COVID-19, as the…
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Prevention of Contrast Associated Acute Kidney Injury
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th February 2020Clinicians have been worrying about contrast induced nephropathy for decades. I’m referring to acute kidney injury caused by the infusion of iodinated agents used as part of imaging studies such CT scans. Over time it became standard practice to infuse fluid such as saline or sodium bicarbonate solution as a preventative agent. Patients thought to…
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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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