Talking Points
The pseudoscience of beauty products.
The beauty industry is massive, a huge cultural force in a tight, symbiotic relationship with celebrities and the celebrity-oriented media. So by its very nature, it creates massive problems for anyone seeking to get to the truth about the products it makes and promotes, writes Prof Timothy Caulfield of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, in The Atlantic.Dr Google may trigger ‘cyberchondria'
Major search engines are providing irrelevant information that could lead to incorrect self-diagnosis, self-treatment and ultimately possible harm, research has found.
Google reports that one in 20 of its 100bn searches a month was for health-related information. Some 35% of US adults go online to self-diagnose a medical condition.Münchausen by internet — how one woman fooled millions
Australian blogger Belle Gibson has been exposed for fabricating a tragic cancer story that brought her fame and riches: various publishing contracts and large donations to a ‘charity’ which she plundered. But Gibson’s strange behaviour is not that unusual – faking disease in return for online fame is now a recognised medical condition.‘White plasma’ — commercialising breast milk
Breast milk, that most ancient and fundamental of nourishments, is becoming an industrial commodity, and one of the newest frontiers of the biotechnology industry — even as concerns abound over this fast-growing business, writes The New York Times.ER doctor grieving
It’s grainy, it’s blurred. But a paramedic’s touching photograph of a Californian ER doctor doubled over, taking a moment to compose himself after losing a 19-year-old patient, has gone viral.
‘Hearing that a family member has died is such an awful and wrenching experience for the relative that it's easy to forget the emotional toll that must be taken by doctors sharing the news,’ wrote The Independent, London. Qatar Day wrote ‘It's easy to forget the incredible work doctors are doing every single day.’Changing face of healthcare industry
New entrants and established players are racing to create the next generation of medical products and services, writes Strategy+Business.
Increasing numbers of consumers are willing to abandon traditional care venues for more affordable and convenient alternatives. Many would choose at-home or retail options for more than a dozen medical conditions or procedures such as self-diagnosing ailments with kits.Lessons from CROI 2015
Dr Joel Gallant immediate past chair of the HIV Medicine Association, has spoken about five important lessons learned at the CROI 2015 conference on the prevention of HIV and the future clinical implications of some of the major studies that were presented, reports Healio.30-day mortality: The pressure of statistics
There is growing criticism of 30-day mortality as a measure of surgical success, writes The New York Times. 'That seemingly innocuous metric may actually undermine appropriate care, especially for older adult.''Lie back and think of your career' – Ozz surgeon
A senior surgeon in Australia has triggered controversy after telling junior female doctors to go along with sexual abuse at work for the sake of their careers.Official NHS calculator predicts your heart attack
Britain’s NHS has launched a controversial calculator which predicts when you will have a heart attack or stroke - and compares a person’s ‘heart age’ with their biological age. But some critics raised concerns about the accuracy of a 'blunt tool' which tells every Briton they will have a heart attack or stroke one day, when many will not, and raised fears that the tool could be used to push millions more people into taking medication.