Category Archives: Medicine
Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Vaccination Among Older Adults
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd March 2024Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccination Among US Older Adults is a study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It examined the risk of stroke in a time period immediately after administration of either brand of a COVID-19 bivalent vaccine compared with a later time period among adults aged 65 years…
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A Shortage of Physician-Scientists
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th February 2024Most people have no idea what a physician-scientist is or the job description for such a person. Many think that by definition medicine is a science and therefore an MD must be a scientist. Physicians get training in the rudiments of science during the first two years of medical school and may get a bit…
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Cancer Statistics 2024
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd January 2024Every year the American Society publishes the latest cancer data. Its two reports are linked below. The abstract summarising the data is below. I have not corrected the few stylistic and grammatical errors contained in it. Below the abstract are some of the report’s key findings. Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the numbers…
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Health as a Human Right: A Position Paper From the ACP
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th November 2023The American College of Physicians, the country’s premiere organization devoted to Internal Medicine, has issued a position paper describing its commitment to health as a “human right”. It’s appended below so you can read it independent of my comments about its worth and coherence. The ACP and the authors of the paper are serious both…
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Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th October 2023Transthyretin amyloidosis, also called ATTR amyloidosis, is a progressive and fatal disease that affects multiple organs. It comes in two versions – genetic and wild (spontaneous and not hereditary). ATTR Amyloidosis is caused by the accumulation of a genetically variant form or even the normal form of the protein, transthyretin, into amyloid fibrils. Transthyretin is…
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Wagner’s Operas and Medical Education
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd September 2023Are Richard Wagner’s operas a potential tool to teach medical students and young doctors humanities? is the title of a paper published by Gunter Wolf a member of the Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Jena. He is also an expert on the operas of Wagner. The abstract of the paper is below. At…
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Novak Djokovic For CDC Director
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th September 2023As anyone semi-sentient knows the great Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has won more Grand Slam tennis tournaments than any male player in history. He might have won two more had he not been denied entry to Australia and the US last year because he refused to take the COVID vaccine and thus was unable…
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SenatorMcConnell’s Medical Condition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd September 2023A diplomat has been described as a person sent abroad by his government to lie for his country; the mission of a political doctor is very closely related. By political doctor I mean a physician charged with the care of a government official or a group of them. Dr Brian Monahan is the capital physician….
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The Castrati and Women’s Athletics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th August 2023The castrati of the title refers to male singers who had been castrated as boys – typically between 8 to 10 years of age. This was done in 17th and 18th century Italy in an effort produce singers of extraordinary abilities. That the practice was illegal in addition to being a moral outrage did not…
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COVID-19 Misinformation From Doctors
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th August 2023Communication of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media by Physicians in the US is a study published by the JAMA Open Network. The authors looked at the social media posts of 52 physicians practicing in 28 different specialties. The small sample size is enough to stop reading. They defined COVID-19 misinformation as assertions unsupported by or…
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