In the News

Eye Charity Takes Airborne Healing to World – Voice of America

Read article – Quotes Rosalind Stevens, active emeritus professor of surgery, who volunteers for the international charity Orbis which is helping the visually impaired through a flying hospital staffed by volunteer doctors and medical workers. It recently unveiled a new version of its airborne clinic, which will take the latest medical technology around the world. “When we remove the patch the next day, frequently the patient breaks into a big smile,” says Stevens.

What Are the Odds That Your Medication Will Help You Get Better? – STAT News

Read article – Quotes H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article that examines if drugs and other treatments are likely to help patients get better. “People at higher risk of an adverse outcome tend to benefit more [from an intervention], so the NNT [number needed to treat] is always lower” than in lower-risk people, says Welch.

Antibiotics, Formula Feeding Might Change Baby’s ‘Microbiome’ – U.S. News & World Report via HealthDay

Read article – Quotes Anne Hoen, assistant professor of epidemiology, biomedical data science, and microbiology and immunology, about how microbiomes evolved with humans and are mostly helpful, but that there’s still a lot of mystery about how they work. “There is a lot left to discover about how subtle variations in the makeup of these communities might be more or less optimal for health and, importantly, how we can manipulate them so they’re most beneficial to us,” says Hoen.

Doctor’s Plan for Full-Body Transplants Raises Doubts Even in Daring China – The New York Times

Read article – Quotes James Bernat, the Louis and Ruth Frank Professor of Neuroscience and professor of neurology and medicine, on orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ren Xiaoping’s plans to carry out full-body transplants in China, raising concerns among medical experts and ethicists around the world. “For most people, it’s at best premature and at worst reckless,” says Bernat.

The Racial Pay Gap Extends Even to Doctors – The Washington Post

Read article – William Weeks, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is quoted about how a new study that found there is a large salary gap between white male doctors and everyone else has a major flaw: a significant part of the data the finding depends on didn’t identify whether the doctors were primary care doctors or specialists. Weeks, a health economist and physician, roundly dismissed the study’s findings for that reason. His research has found no evidence of a racial pay gap among doctors. “This is really not good research,” says Weeks. “The key question is, do women or black or minority [doctors] have access—can they get into these higher-paid sub-specialties? … That’s a really different question and a really important one.”

Race, Gender May Affect U.S. Doctor Paychecks – Philly.com via Reuters

Read article – Quotes William Weeks, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a new study that examines the correlation between race and gender, and how much physicians are paid. “The real issue that’s driving their results is that there are many more white specialists than black specialists, and specialists make a lot more money than primary care physicians,” says Weeks.

Dennis McCullough, ‘Slow Medicine’ Proponent, Dies at 72 – Valley News

Read article – Dennis McCullough, a geriatrician and leading proponent of the “slow medicine” movement, in which a team of physicians, nurses and family partner to improve a senior’s care, died Friday morning in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was 72. During his more than 40 years in medicine, he held posts in community medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He also served as the first medical director of Kendal at Hanover, a retirement community that offers long-term care services to seniors.