Health & Medicine

Ensuring a good death: a public health priority

By Joachim Cohen and Luc Deliens
The quality of dying, and maintaining quality of life for those who are dying and for those caring for them, is an inherent aspect of public health. In developed and developing societies everyone is affected by death and dying (either directly or indirectly, for instance in case of a dying relative) and it affects several aspects of their health and wellbeing. Adequate health promotion can improve the circumstances in which these people need to cope with death and dying and is thus susceptible to improve several aspects of health. Sadly, though the manner in which people die and the quality of dying has blatantly been neglected as a priority of public health, partly because death and dying, in all its aspects, have rather been regarded as antonymous to health and a failure of health care.

National HIV Testing Day: Take the Test, Take Control

Today is National HIV Testing Day in the US, where nearly 1.2 million people are living with HIV and almost 1 in 5 don’t know they’re infected. Here Martin S. Hirsch, MD, FIDSA, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, discusses the importance of HIV testing. Dr. Hirsch is also professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of infectious diseases and immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Most older pedestrians are unable to cross the road in time

By Dr Laura Asher
The ability to cross the road safely is important for the health of older people. Those who cannot cross the road safely are less able to access to the shops, health services and social contacts they need to stay healthy. The feeling that they will not be able to reach the other side of the road in time can deter older adults from even going out at all. 

Five things you can do about multiple sclerosis

By Barbara S. Giesser, MD
First, the bad news. Multiple Sclerosis (MS), is a chronic, incurable, often progressive, and unpredictable neurodegenerative condition. The good news is that in the 21st century, with early diagnosis, prompt treatment, and numerous options for treating the disease and its symptoms, most people who are diagnosed nowadays can expect to lead full functional lives with MS mostly being a nuisance, rather than a source of significant permanent disability. Here are five basic strategies for not letting MS get the better of you.

Healing American Health Care

By Walter M. Bortz, II M.D.
One hundred years ago the fledgling American Medical Association (AMA) and the Carnegie Foundation joined in an effort to redress the wretched state of medicine in America. Its scientific value was meager, but more important was its status as a huckster enterprise. The AMA and Carnegie sought out Abraham Flexner, a young John Hopkins graduate educator, to lead the examination. The resulting Flexner Report is widely regarded as the single most important document in the history of current medicine.

Thoughts on the Passing of Sir Andrew Huxley, OM, FRS, Nobel Laureate

By Alan J. McComas
With the death of Sir Andrew Huxley on 30 May 30 2012, the world lost not only an intellectual giant but a man respected, admired, and loved by all who knew him. Born into a most distinguished family, Andrew was at the age of 94, likely to have been the last surviving grandchild of T. H. Huxley, the Victorian scientist and educator, and the friend and champion of Charles Darwin. Andrew’s brothers (by his father’s first marriage) included Julian Huxley, the zoologist and first Director-General of UNESCO, and Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World.

A nightmare diagnosis

By Lorna Speid
Your worst nightmare has come to pass. You are given a diagnosis that has left you in a state of shock. The specialist told you there is nothing else that they can do for you. “What was it that he said?” you ask yourself. “Did I hear him correctly?” you mutter to yourself. You are driving home, but you are on automatic pilot.

Michael Palin on anxiety

By Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman
Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. But what about those people for whom anxiety is an inevitable part of their working life, such as actors and presenters? How do they cope? We asked Michael Palin, member of the legendary Monty Python team and long established as one of the nation’s most cherished broadcasters, how he copes with nerves as a performer. As it turns out, the strategies he adopts can be useful to anyone struggling with anxiety. Here’s an extract from our interview.

How are cures invented?

By Jonathan Slack
When I arrived in the USA as a professor I was surprised to find how specialized American scientists are. Most US biomedical labs just seem to work on one molecular pathway or even one molecule.

Applications in medical education

By Charles White

We at OUP are no strangers to the changes in publishing and all the different forms a ‘book’ can take. One of our recent medical titles has been adapted as an iPad application (or ‘app’) — Cardiac Imaging Cases: Cases in Radiology for iPad — so we asked the co-author what it’s like to practice and learn medicine in this new form.

Well-being: David Cameron’s happiness index

By Siobhan Farmer and Barbara Hanratty
In case you hadn’t noticed, wellbeing is what you need. From companies promoting food supplements to lifestyle magazines, think-tanks and Government departments, wellbeing is on everyone’s agenda.  Happiness, quality of life, life satisfaction – it doesn’t seem to matter that we don’t know exactly what it is – we definitely want some. 

Smallpox: the facts

On this day in 1496, British doctor Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination to James Phipps, an eight year old boy. To mark the anniversary, we speak with  Martin S. Hirsch, MD, FIDSA. Dr. Hirsch is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of infectious diseases and immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Birth: the importance of being on time

By Hanan El Marroun
Some babies are born four weeks too early and others are born three weeks past the due date. Their timing seems random, but that is certainly not the case. Of all births, around 90% take place between 37 and 40 weeks. There are several theories about how the timing of birth is regulated, but the process is not completely understood.

Mayan Midwives and Western Medicine

By Barbara Rogoff
Doña Chona Pérez, who turns 87 this week, was born with a piece of the amniotic sac over her head like a veil, indicating a birth destiny of being a sacred midwife. This credential indicating divine selection to the profession has been recognized in the Mayan region for many years.

Why is tobacco control still a problem in Europe?

By Ann McNeill, Lorraine Craig, Marc C. Willemsen & Geoffrey T. Fong
In Europe, rates of smoking prevalence and premature death attributable to tobacco are still a cause for real concern.  Governments in the region will point to progress such as the introduction of smokefree laws, increased taxation on cigarettes, pack warnings, and the fact they have become signatories to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) — as has the European Union (EU) itself.  But signing up to the FCTC marks another step along a journey, rather than being an end in itself.  A significant gap remains between the recommended best practice and country or region-specific legislation.

SciWhys: How do cells age?

By Jonathan Crowe
We’ve all been there: the car that finally became too expensive to keep on the road as more and more parts needed to be replaced, or the computer that started to run so slowly you gave up even bothering to open your web browser. These and other everyday experiences show how there’s an increased risk of things breaking as they get older. And our own bodies aren’t immune: the hair at my temples (and on other parts of my head, I fear) is on a resolute march towards greyness, and my eyesight isn’t as sharp as it once was. In short, our cells are just as susceptible to breaking down as they age as anything else.