Posts in: medicine

After seeing a friend and collaborator yet again plant foot firmly in mouth, I begin to see a pattern. A course on ergodicity should be a requirement for a public health degree, since the masters of public health keep getting it wrong (see also: the screening colonoscopy debate).

Back to school

It will be 13 years this June since I have left a job teaching histology at the University of Belgrade to start internal medicine residency in Baltimore. And lo and behold, I am back teaching, sort of.

UMBC — University of Maryland Baltimore County to friends — is starting a graduate course on clinical trials. I will be helping out Wilson Bryan, the recently retired Director of FDA’s OTAT (aka “head of cell and gene therapy”), to design and run it. Maybe even do a lecture or two. The two of us talked briefly about the new course on a UMBC podcast, [Note: This is also where I learned what my title would be. Graduate instructor, apparently. The amount of paperwork required was not commensurate with the title. Oh my, all that docusigning… ] which is out today.

The course will be an in-person/on-line hybrid, so even those not in the area — and it will be held at UMBC’s Shady Grove campus — may join this coming September. From what I understand, giving people who are not physicians the opportunity to learn about designing, running, and interpreting clinical trials is a rarity, so it will be interesting to see who shows up and where the discussion leads us.

So, 13 years… Different university, different subject matter, but how much could things have changed since then anyway?

As two of our three offspring lay in bed with fevers, a thought comes to mind: could covid have caused this never-ending chain of infections which began last fall, during which a week rarely goes by in which no one misses at least one day of school because of illness? Has it destroyed our immune systems, made us more susceptible to other infectious diseases? There is, after all, no end to articles in press both professional and lay which warn of long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on various lymphocyte subsets.

Well, no. Or at least highly unlikely. A 5-person household with three school-aged children will have one respiratory virus or another circulate a full two thirds of the year. With our youngest starting PK3 last fall, we have become that household, and 65% sounds about right.

Woe to us and anyone who visits our little Petri dish.

And in some positive news — can you imagine those still exist? — the US Food and Drug Agency has issued their draft guidance on decentralized trials (PDF download). America is playing catch-up with the UK in this regard, but better late than never!

May lectures of note

  • Speakers: Sam Mbulaiteye, MBChB, M.Phil., M.Med.; Swee Lay Thein, B.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Path., D.Sc., FMedSci
  • Wednesday, May 10 2023, 12pm EDT
  • Watch here

Diabetes Mellitus: Great Progress; Diabetes: The Marathon of Life

  • Speakers: Douglas Melton, PhD; Courtney Duckworth, MD
  • Tuesday, May 16 2023, 4pm EDT
  • Watch here

Is Cerebrovascular Disease Ever Really Silent? Stroke, Small Vessel Disease, and Cognition

  • Speaker: Rebecca F. Gottesman, MD PhD
  • Wednesday, May 31, 2023 12pm EDT
  • Watch here

April lectures of note

The first good one is tomorrow!

Demystifying Medicine - How is the Brain Organized and How Does it Work?

  • Speakers: Nelson Spruston, PhD, Janelia HHMI and Marcus Raichle, MD, Washington University
  • Tuesday, April 4, 2023, 4:00:00 PM EDT
  • Watch here

Ethics Grand Rounds: Is it Ethical to Appeal to Research Participants’ Altruism?

  • Presenter: Beth Kozel MD, PhD Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, NHLBI Discussant: Alex Voorhoeve PhD Head, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics
  • Wednesday, April 5, 2023, 12:00:00 PM EDT
  • Watch here

Clinical Center Grand Rounds: From Bench to Bedside: A Translational Approach to Innovation in Research and Treatment of Perinatal Depression

  • Speaker: Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Wednesday, April 12, 2023, 12:00:00 PM EDT
  • Watch here

Demystifying Medicine - Fat: Biology and Staying Thin

  • Speakers: Aaron Cypess, MD, PhD, NIDDK, NIH and Kevin Hall, PhD, NIDDK, NIH
  • Tuesday, April 18, 2023, 4:00:00 PM EDT
  • Watch here

The Popperian Podcast:

Interviewing academics, professionals and other experts, The Popperian Podcast is a monthly podcast where Jed Lea-Henry looks into the philosophy and life of Karl Popper.

The latest episode, about medical discovery, pairs nicely with Against Method.

For your weekend reading enjoyment, FT’s Janan Ganesh on (un)healthy eating:

  • It is easier to fast than to eat healthily.
  • You must be willing to upset people.
  • Beware pasta.
  • Don’t expect to “burn it off”.
  • Know thy weight.

Sound advice. I may have also posted a few excerpts.

BS bonanza

Doximity is beta testing ChatGPT for doctors:

Physicians can use the free DocsGPT to prepare referrals, certificates of medical necessity and prior authorization requests or to write a letter about a medical condition. A growing menu of prompts offers many options, and users can type in a custom request.

Next up: medical insurance companies using their own AI to process the AI-generated BS they receive from healthcare workers into something more easily understandable.

At least the economists must be happy!

March lectures of note

Available to general public!

ChatGPT and Potential Healthcare Implications of Large Language Models

Tests for Early Cancer: Facts vs. Opinions Can We Detect Early Cancer?

It’s a Bacterial World