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The Quantified Self: Tools For Knowing Your Own Mind And Body

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I’ve been a fan of the Quantified Self project for a long time, and now a TED Talk describing their mission just became available:

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Ever Google Your Doctor’s Name?

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Andrew takes you behind the scenes of what health information people are searching for online, and how we know:

Popular Health Search: Your Doctor’s Name from Patient Power® on Vimeo.

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

American Cancer Society Debunks Prostate Cancer Screening Myths

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Dr. Otis Brawley has taken the gloves off on prostate cancer screening.

Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS), makes some powerful statements about controversies in prostate cancer screening in a new YouTube video that is billed as the first of a series that the ACS will post on discussions with its officials.

Key nuggets from this video — not surprising to anyone who has followed this debate or Brawley’s past comments — include these quotes:

I’m very concerned. There’s a lot of publicity out there – some of it by people who want to make money by recruiting patients – that oversimplifies this – that says that ‘prostate cancer screening clearly saves lives.’ That is a lie. We don’t know that for sure…

…We’re very concerned about a number of clinics that are offering mass screening where informed decision making – where a man gets told the truth about screening and is allowed without pressure to make a decision – that’s not happening. Many of these free screening things, by the way, are designed more to get patients for hospitals and clinics and doctors than they are to benefit the patients. That’s a huge ethical issue that needs to be addressed.

We’re not against prostate cancer screening. We’re against a man being duped and deceived into getting prostate cancer screening.” 

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

Video Interview: Roche’s Social Media Code Of Conduct

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Last month I reported about the Social Media Code of Conduct released by Roche and I also shared my opinion on the issue. Now Sabine Kostevc, Head of Corporate Internet and Social Media at F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, gave an interview to Silja Chouquet:

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Panelist Video Interviews From The “Fact Or Fiction: ADHD In America” Capitol Hill Forum

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On September 16, 2010, I attended Fact or Fiction: ADHD in America, a Capitol Hill Forum, along with Dr. Val Jones of Better Health and Dr. Rob Lamberts of Musings of a Distractible Mind.

The event, coinciding with ADD/ADHD Awareness Week, was a panel discussion about the impact ADHD has on our society. It was sponsored by Shire, in partnership with the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC) and the Lab School of Washington [Disclosure: I received a stipend for covering the event.]

Below are interviews Rob and I did with some of the panelists.

Kevin Pho interview with Michele Novotni, Ph.D., ADHD Expert and Former Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) President:

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*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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