August 1st, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Internet Content Reviewer, Internet Moderitis, Legal Content, Mental Health, Online Communication, Online Health, Psychology, Social Disease, Social Networking Sites, The New York Times, Web-Based Illness
No Comments »
There’s a new profession in the Internet era, the so-called “Internet Content Reviewer.” These people check all of the submissions and uploads on huge social networking sites, review tens of thousands of pictures, and make sure only legal content is being uploaded to these communities.
It seems a new mental health, “social” disease is starting to spread: Internet Moderitis. An excerpt from a New York Times piece on the topic:
Ricky Bess spends eight hours a day in front of a computer near Orlando, Fla., viewing some of the worst depravities harbored on the Internet. He has seen photographs of graphic gang killings, animal abuse and twisted forms of pornography. One recent sighting was a photo of two teenage boys gleefully pointing guns at another boy, who is crying.
YouTube, a division of Google, is an exception. If a user indicates a video is inappropriate, software scans the image looking for warning signs of clips that are breaking the site’s rules or the law. Flagged videos are then sent for manual review by YouTube-employed content moderators who, because of the nature of the work, are given only yearlong contracts and access to counseling services, according to Victoria Grand, a YouTube spokeswoman.
Photo credit: Stephen Mally for The New York Times
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
August 1st, 2010 by AndrewSchorr in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Andrew Schorr, Cancer Survivors, Empowered Patients, Former Cancer Patients, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Insurance Changes, Life Insurance Companies, Life Insurance Industry, Life Insurance Revisions, Medical History, No Appeal Process, Northwestern Mutual, Oncology, Patient Empowerment, Patient Power, Request Denied, The War Against Cancer
3 Comments »
I have always heard that Northwestern Mutual Life (“The Quiet Company”) was a grade-A company. And for years I have been happy to have a disability insurance policy and a term life one with them. I got those policies back in the early 1990s, and it was a good thing I did.
In 1996 my health changed. I was diagnosed with leukemia. I knew I was very lucky to have insurance in place because, as many told me: “You’ll never get insurance now.”
Now fast-forward 14 years, and 10 years after receiving treatment in a phase II clinical trial. I have no evidence of disease and have not had any evidence for nine years. The drug therapy I received in a trial has now been approved by the FDA and in Europe as the standard of care. People are living well with this leukemia and it is extending life — some people may even be cured.
So I asked the insurance company to consider giving me the ability to change my policy, to take advantage of lower rates and optimize my coverage for a longer life. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*
August 1st, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: A Doctor's Feelings, Abnormal Kids, Autism, Autistic Children, Caring For Disabled Patients, Disabilities, Disabled Kids, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Normal Children, Pediatrics, Pity, Primary Care, Treating Autistic Kids
No Comments »
I’ve been practicing for sixteen years now, doing both internal medicine and pediatrics. One of the joys of that is watching kids under my care grow up and not having to give up their care just because they get older. The spectrum is wide, with some kids growing up in “normal” families with “normal lives,” others in “abnormal” families, and yet others with inherently “abnormal” lives due to illness or disability.
But the kids aren’t the only thing that has changed over the past sixteen years. Their doctor has changed as well. My comfort zones have widened, not getting rattled by “abnormal” as I once did. I used to feel uncomfortable with the mentally and emotionally disabled, now I am not. I used to feel sorry for parents with “abnormal” children. I used to feel bad for kids who were “abnormal.” I still do now, but not nearly as much. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
August 1st, 2010 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Alcohol, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Appetite Control, Calorie Density, Calorie-Dense Foods, Cessation of Smoking, Consumption of Meat, Diet and Exercise, Diet and Nutrition, Diet and Weight, Eating Meat, Eating More Vegetables, Eating Out of Home and Obesity, EPIC-PANACEA Project, Epidemiology, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Physical Activity, Food and Nutrition, Gaining Weight, Less Physical Activity, Macronutrients, Meat Eaters, Nutrition, Portion Control, Regular Exercise, Self-Reported Weight, Total Caloric Intake, Total Weight, Types of Diets, Weight Control, Weight Gain, Weight Management
No Comments »
A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is reporting an association with eating meat and weight gain. This is a fairly robust epidemiological study, but at the same time is a good example of how such information is poorly reported in the media, leading to public confusion.
The data is taken from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition–Physical Activity, Nutrition, Alcohol, Cessation of Smoking, Eating Out of Home and Obesity (EPIC-PANACEA) project. This is a long-term epidemiological study involving hundreds of thousands of individuals, and is therefore a great source of data. We are likely to see many publications from from it. This one looked at the association of meat eating –- poultry, red meat, and processed meat -– with total weight. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
July 31st, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Biomedical Engineering, Cervical Ring, CervoCheck, Early Detection, Early Labor Detector, Electrical Signals, External Tocodynamometer, Johns Hopkins University, Medical Device, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pre-Term Labor, Pregnant Women, Premature Birth, Preventive Medicine, Uterine Contractions
No Comments »
A team of biomedical engineering masters students at Johns Hopkins have developed a device that they hope will be able to spot oncoming pre-term labor in pregnant women earlier than by using an external tocodynamometer.
The CervoCheck device is meant to be inserted into the vaginal canal/cervical opening where it then can measure electrical signals characteristic of contractions. Prototypes of the device are currently being tested in animals. We sympathize with those who have to insert them into pigs(?). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
