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Talking Points
Fury from LGBT rights groups over facial recognition study
A facial recognition experiment that claims to be able to distinguish between gay and heterosexual people has sparked a row between its creators and...
Indian doctors hurl abuse at each other in operating theatre
Two doctors have been caught on video hurling abuse at each other inside an Indian operating theatre as they conducted an emergency C-section which...
NICE guidelines on endometriosis: Diagnosis will improve, treatment won't
The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s new guidelines on endometriosis will be transformative in enabling women to circumvent years of unnecessary suffering, writes...
SA challenged to face 'hard truths' on drug abuse prejudices – Global Commission
South Africa has taken a lead in the HIV response, but HIV won’t be overcome until the country faces some hard truths about drug...
New studies show critical impact of behaviour on dementia risk
17A wealth of new data, assembled in a Lancet Commission report, suggests that behaviour can have a significant impact on the risk of getting...
Disembowelling SA's private healthcare system
"Health tourism" by African leaders has been criticised by South Africa’s health minister. While the self-serving hypocrisy of leaders who have destroyed their countries’...
Uptake of healthcare mediation is slow, but Gauteng Health launches pilot project
Although the take up of healthcare mediation has been slow, the SA Medico-Legal Association (Samla) has announced that Gauteng Health will go ahead with a proposal...
Claims that sugar as addictive as cocaine described as 'absurd'
A review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggesting that sugar should be considered an addictive substance, and could even be on a...
Concerns that the NHI could be 'captured' by powerful vested interests
The shaping of SA's proposed National Health Insurance will be dominated by powerful groups with vested interests in health care: the corporate private sector, technocrats, and...
Pill fatigue, dating and mental health when HIV+
Professor Francois Venter, the deputy executive director, at the Wits Institute for Sexual & Reproductive Health HIV and Related Diseases writes in Spotlight on...
Gene-edited piglets opening door to animal organ transplants
In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might...
NHS ends funding of homeopathic and herbal medicines
Homeopathic and herbal remedies will no longer be funded under the British National Health Service because they are a 'misuse of scarce funds' University...
The death of Charlie Gard leaves a legacy of thorny questions
Charlie Gard, the incurably ill British infant who died recently, could not hear, see or even cry. But, reports The New York Times, his...
The ‘clean eating’ movement is 'ugly, malevolent and damaging'
At best, the "clean eating" fad is nonsense dressed up as health advice, writes a British eating disorder expert Dr Max Pemberton in an...
Controversial movement raises questions about treatment of those 'hearing voices'
A growing but controversial international movement raises fundamental questions about what it means to be mentally ill, reports StatNews. The question at the heart...
Helping doctors face the uncomfortable task of discussing death
Faced with the uncomfortable task of discussing death, the overwhelming majority of doctors avoid the topic, reports Stat News. In response, US advocates for improving...
FDA panel recommends approval for gene-altering leukaemia treatment
A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel has opened a new era in medicine, unanimously recommending that the agency approve the first-ever treatment...
Pet therapy races far ahead of scientific evidence – experts
A therapy-animal trend grips the US, reports The Washington Post.Tthe trend, which has accelerated hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is...
US dentists come under scrutiny over their power to stifle competition
The American Dental Association is a political force 'so unified, so relentless and so thoroughly woven into US communities that its clout rivals that of the...
NHI White Paper proposes 'effective nationalisation without compensation' of private healthcare
The recently released National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper ignores the fundamentals of competition and choice, writes Mike Settas, director of health insurer KaeloXelus. Among...
Trump's international health aid cuts could result in 1m deaths
At least 1m people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, The New York Times reports researchers and advocates said, if funding cuts proposed...
Depression over-diagnosis because GPs 'too reliant' on Pfizer questionnaire
Depression is being overdiagnosed because GPs are too reliant on a questionnaire designed by Pfizer, which also manufacturers psychiatric drugs, campaigners argue in The...
Medical 'voluntourism' in Tanzania: Some help does cause harm
The international medical volunteer placement industry opens the door to potentially disastrous outcomes, writes Noel Sullivan in Scientific American. Sullivan, a member of the faculty...
Facebook censors page on abortion pills
Facebook has refused to publish the page of an organisation that helps women obtain abortion pills, citing its policy against the ‘promotion or encouragement...
Is talking to yourself a sign of mental illness?
Talking out loud, when the mind is not wandering, could actually be a sign of high cognitive functioning, writes a neuro-psychologist in The Conversation. Rather...
New research is driving down unnecessary prostate biopsies
The field of prostate cancer scanning is 'on fire', says Canadian researcher Dr Laurence Klotz, as researchers worldwide compete to develop advanced imaging as a...
Social media is an ethical minefield for SA doctors
The Health Professions Council of SA should 'develop social media guidelines and train medical trainers in this specific area', writes Dr Brenda Kubheka of...
The adults who won't let go of their paediatricians
Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending that the age for ending paediatric care be no later than 21, there are adults who, for...
The CEO of HIV's lonely and controversial fight
Michael Weinstein’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation treats an enormous number of patients — and makes an enormous amount of money, writes The New York Times Magazine. It has...
Why polio research still matters
In the decades since Dr Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine, the highly infectious childhood disease is now close to global eradication. Author...
Why are so many people popping Vitamin D?
There is mostly no reason for the patients to receive vitamin D tests. Yet US patients are demanding them and many physicians are initiating...
Why I gave my kidney to a stranger — and why you should, too
Becoming part of a chain of donations can unlock literally dozens of life-saving interventions. Dylan Matthews explains in Vox why he donated his kidney...
Motsoaledi wants private healthcare forced out for the NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has been tasked with an important aspect of the 'radical economic transformation' agenda, and that is to nationalise healthcare in...
With HIV, no need to embellish achievements or to diminish challenges
A culture of chicanery, subterfuge and sycophancy now permeates all the factions in government, writes Fareed Abdullah, a medical doctor and former CEO of the South...
Should doctors breach confidentiality when a patient is unfit to drive?
Should healthcare professionals breach confidentiality when a patient is unfit to drive, asks Daniel Sokol, medical ethicist and barrister, in the British Medical Journal?
He...
Determining a perceptual threshold for artificial looking lips
Recognising the perceptual threshold for when lips appear unnatural is important to avoid an undesirable outcome in lip augmentation. A study in JAMA Plastic Surgery...
Social grants not winning the child malnutrition battle in South Africa
Social grants are a crucial component of South Africa’s fight against poverty and hunger. But they aren’t high enough, and social grants alone are...
Older men turning to health-threatening steroids to stay young
Growing numbers of middle-aged men are turning to anabolic steroids to make themselves look and feel more youthful and boost their sexual performance, The...
AIDS denialism spreads in Russia through online social networks
Aids denialism is not limited to South Africa, write Russian researchers for The Conversation. The rise of the internet and social media have given...
Serious lack of info on the impacts of Cuba-trained doctors
Reports of misbehaviour by South Africans studying medicine in Cuba have focused attention on the programme to alleviate rural doctor shortages. Chris Barron of...