Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Good news for complainers.
We reported a few months ago about the brouhaha that erupted when a JAMA reader went public about his concerns with a study author's potential conflict of interest and attracted the journal's wrath in response. At the time, journal officials said that they would require anyone with a beef to keep their complaints confidential.
According to the Wall St. Journal, they've now changed their minds. Now, the editors suggest that the complaint investigation process would be "enhanced" by keeping your mouth shut. In case you were wondering, you can feel free to go to the media with your complaints about the ACP Internist blog. We'd appreciate the publicity.
Labels: conflict-of-interest, research
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
3:54 PM
0 Comments
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Press release puffery
Time points out that press release on a recent biological discovery created a media flurry that outpaced the actual event. And outpacing this discovery is tough, since it involved a 47-million-year-old fossil that provides a missing link in primate evolution.
Time chided the press releases, calling them a "master class in ballyhoo." Internists had recently chimed in with the same challenge to academic medical centers, whose press releases influence how the mainstream press reports medical research.
In Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers reviewed press releases from 20 academic medical centers, whose press departments had issued an average of a nearly a release each week.
Among press releases analyzed in detail, 87 (44%) promoted animal or laboratory research. Of the 87, 64 (74%) explicitly claimed relevance to human health, even though two-thirds of animal studies fail to translate into successful human treatments. Furthermore, releases omitted study size, failed to quantify results, reported on uncontrolled interventions or samples less than 30 participants, used surrogate primary outcomes or unpublished data, or lacked relevant cautions that tempered the findings. Few promoted randomized trials or meta-analyses.
Annals researchers suggested academic medical centers issue fewer releases about preliminary research, especially unpublished scientific meeting presentations, to avoid the confusion being passed along to the mainstream media. We took note of this at ACP Internist, and are asking our readers to tell us what they think. Tell us in our current poll, "Your Thoughts Exactly: Media reporting of medical research."
Labels: Medical news, research
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
9:53 AM
0 Comments
Monday, April 6, 2009
Cancer study bullish on broccoli
New research shows that if you want to prevent stomach cancer it really helps to like broccoli. While scientists have known for a while about the green vegetable's potential cancer-protective effects, there isn't much hard evidence on whether it prevents bacterial infections in humans. But a small study in the April issue of Cancer Prevention Research reports that eating 70 grams of fresh broccoli stems a day for eight weeks significantly lowered Helicobacter pylori levels in 48 infected Japanese men and women.
Researchers assessed the severity of H. pylori in participants at enrollment and again at four and eight weeks using standard breath, serum and stool tests, according to an American Association for Cancer Research news release. Reducing H. pylori levels presumably will lead to a lower risk of developing stomach cancer, said researchers, noting the well-established link between the two.
It's food for thought, and many may deem broccoli the lesser of two evils considering the alternative: alfalfa sprouts. The study randomly assigned participants to an equivalent daily amount of the sprouts, which had no effect.
Labels: cancer, Nutrition, research
posted by Janet Colwell at
8:00 AM
0 Comments
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
For the record, 'mind your own business'
As a journalist, it's nice to imagine that sources feel at least a little bit concerned about how their quotes will be used in a story. That doesn't always happen when you work for a niche publication like ACP Internist, but I'd be pretty confident of that concern if I worked for a major, national newspaper with considerable influence over public opinion. So, it's mystifying as to why the editor of JAMA, presumably no stranger to the press, lashed out at questions from a Wall Street Journal reporter over criticisms of a published study.
The call was prompted by a critique by Jonathan Leo, a professor at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., who claims that a JAMA study involving the anti-depressant Lexapro in stroke patients omitted important information and failed to disclose a financial relationship between the drug maker, Forest Labs, and the lead author.
Contacted by the WSJ, JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine DeAngelis called Dr. Leo a "nobody and a nothing," then went on to inform the reporter that the matter was "none of your business," according to the WSJ blog. Telling a reporter to mind his own business when you know you're on the record? She might as well have held a news conference.
Labels: research
posted by Janet Colwell at
9:31 AM
0 Comments
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sleep it off--avoiding the common cold
A study from researchers in Pittsburgh caught my attention for two reasons. First, the conclusion of the study: more and better sleep reduces the odds of getting a cold.
Researchers interviewed 153 healthy volunteers for 14 days about how many hours they slept and their sleep efficiency (the percentage of time in laying bed compared to the time actually asleep). Then volunteers then took nasal drops containing a rhinovirus and were followed for colds.
Volunteers averaging less than 7 hours of sleep a night were 2.94 times more likely to catch a cold than those with 8 hours or more. Those with 92% efficiency were 5.50 times more likely to get a cold than those with 98% or more efficiency.
That's astounding by itself. Less relevant but still prevalent in my mind is that 153 people volunteered to catch a cold. They got $800 for their time and trouble. I just got over a nasty cold and would pay that much to not get another one.
Labels: infectious disease, research, sleep
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
11:45 AM
0 Comments
Monday, November 24, 2008
Are ants the key to the human aging process?
An NYU School of Medicine researcher is hoping to understand human longevity by using ants as his subjects. The hope is that gene regulation in ants will provide a model for human aging.
According to the researcher, ants can assume either reproductive or non-reproductive roles, and queens live up to 10 times longer than workers. The researcher will completely sequence the genomes of three ant species. Then, he'll assess whether changes in the brain and behavior occur from the environment and what changes in gene expression drive the adaptations.
"I truly believe that this project will open the door for my next 20 years of science," the researcher said. How long is that in ant years?
Labels: aging, genetics, longevity, research
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
4:30 PM
0 Comments
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Medical news of the not-so-obvious
Need another reason to push flu shots on your patients? Turns out, the shot might lower one's risk of blood clots (in addition to lowering the chances of feeling like a punching bag from the flu.) Overall, the risk of VTE was 26% lower for those who got the shot compared to those who didn't, a study presented at the AHA conference found. For people under age 52, the risk was 48% lower. (researcher: Joseph Emmerich, MD)
And it seems headphones for MP3 players might interfere with pacemakers and ICDs. Researchers tested eight MP3 headphone models by putting them directly over 60 patients' chests, to see whether the magnets in the headphones would interact with the devices. Fourteen of the patients (23%) had interference-- with the ICD patients more likely to have a problem.
The problems were scary: the pacemakers started beating without regard to the patient's own heart rhythm, while the defibrillators were temporarily deactivated. So does this mean no more music for your patients? Not really, the researchers said: Patients just need to keep their headphones at least 1.2 inches from their pacemaker or ICD. (researcher: William H. Maisel, MD)
Labels: AHA Sessions, research
posted by Jessica Berthold at
5:00 PM
0 Comments
Friday, October 10, 2008
Is honey the new red wine?
We've already heard (and re-heard) that red wine, olive oil, omega 3-rich fish and dark chocolate have healthful properties. Now it looks like honey is primed to have its place in the sun.
Cochrane Researchers have found that honey reduced the healing time of patients suffering from mild to moderate burn wounds. They reviewed 19 studies and found honey worked better on the burns than some gauze and film dressings. It also kills the bacteria that cause chronic sinusitis, another new study found.
Last year, a study found that a single dose of buckwheat honey resolved symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections in kids, while honey-flavored cough medicine didn't.
Of course, unlike the other foods, researchers here are focusing on honey's healing properties, rather than its potential preventive benefits. Either way, looks like we might want to start paying attention to that declining bee population...
posted by Jessica Berthold at
11:55 AM
0 Comments
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
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- QD: News Every Day--waiting for the weekend
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Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
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Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
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EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
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Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
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A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
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Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
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The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
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The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
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