Keep staying ahead of the news: Why you should follow Skeptical Scalpel

Last March, I blogged about some stories that national news organizations covered, but I had written about weeks or months before.

In the last few weeks, four more such episodes have occurred.

On December 10, 2013, a CBS article noted that patients who used proton pump inhibitors to control acid reflux were at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency. I wrote about the many side effects, including B12 deficiency, of these drugs back in June of 2012. Links are here: CBS/me

The New York Times ran a piece on December 12, 2013 asking if today's new surgeons were unprepared for practice. I have been writing about this for over three years. My most recent post about this topic was on April 18, 2013. Links are here: NY Times/me

On January 26, 2014, an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof discussed the ethical issues of doctors conducting body cavity searches at the request of police. My post on this same topic, which included all of the same cases, ran on Physician's Weekly on January 6 of this year. Links are here: NY Times/me

Also on 26th of January, the Washington Post published an article on high-ranking military officers who had significant behavior issues. I had written about three of these cases back in November of 2012. Links are here: WashingtonPost/me

Staying ahead of the news: Why you should follow Skeptical Scalpel

During the last three months, seven stories have appeared on major news or medical sites well after I had blogged about them. Here they are.

“Why Failing Med Students Don’t Get Failing Grades” was published in the New York Times on February 28, 2013. I blogged about this subject and why med school is like T-ball (everyone gets a trophy) on October 17, 2012. Links are here: Times/Me

 

On February 24, 2013 an article called “‘Bloodless’ Lung Transplants Offer Hint at Surgery’s Future” appeared in the New York Times. The need to reduce blood transfusions was the subject of a blog on February 4, 2013, 20 days earlier. Times/Me

The Wall Street Journal ran “Study Raises Doubts Over Robotic Surgery” on February 19, 2013 and on February 21, 2013, The Atlantic's version was “Robots taking a record number of human uteri.” They both discussed a paper appearing in JAMA that week on the failure of robotic hysterectomy to show improved outcomes for benign disease. I had published 15 blogs about the shortcomings of robotic surgery prior to that date. WSJ/Atlantic/My blog (Search “robot”)

“Intensive care MDs: More white coats, fewer piercings preferred” was in the Los Angeles Times on February 19, 2013. I explained why I wear a white coat way back in July of 2012. Times/Me

New York Times wrote about declining law school admissions and fewer jobs for lawyers on January 30, 2013. I addressed these issues on January 7, 2013. Times/Me

In the January 23/30, 2013 issue of JAMA, an editorial the problems associated with using 30-day readmissions as a quality indicator. I dealt with this in early October of 2012. JAMA/Me

This one was at least close. Bill Keller's January 27, 2013 opinion piece in the New York Times on why pay-for-performance for doctors won't work was only three days behind my blog on the subject. Times/Me

Signs that the apocalypse is near. Part 2

I reviewed a few signs of the impending apocalypse in a previous blog. It looks like it will take many blogs to cover all the signs that keep appearing. Here we go.

Tech company Citrix released the results of a national survey which showed that 51% of Americans think that the weather can affect cloud computing.

A Swissair flight from Zurich to Beijing had to turn back when two passengers began to fight over a reclining seat. The men fought in the aisle, rolled around and cursed at each other. Why can’t we all just get along?

If you’re a man, it’s OK to walk around naked in San Francisco. However, what you cannot do is wear a ring (ahem) … down there, but only if someone complains about it. I haven’t been to San Francisco in quite a while and the photo (SFW) accompanying the article does not make me miss being there at all.

The Chief Diversity Officer at the State Department has issued an advisory which says that the use of phrases like “hold down the fort," “going Dutch” and “rule of thumb” are racially or culturally insensitive and should not be used.

In cooperation with the Discovery Channel, Harvard University, which made my first list because of its cheating scandal, is presenting a “media training boot camp for doctors.” The advertisement says, “This amazing 3-day event is only $1997 to attend.” I’ll pass.

A cheating scandal has rocked the world of competitive Scrabble. A contestant was caught with extra blank tiles. I’m not sure how he planned to use them since the game has only two and it would have been pretty obvious is he played a third one. I suppose the next thing will be doping in chess.

Professional image consultants charge $300 per hour to coach young women on what to wear and how to speak during college sorority rush week. The business is called “Rushbiddies.” The ABC news story has a happy ending as the woman featured in the story was accepted into Alpha Phi, which was her first choice.

A 2011 test of US eighth and twelfth graders reveals that only about 27% had proficient writing skills even if they had access to spell check. The problem is those who didn’t do well had poor organizational and grammar skills. According to the story, “In 2007, 33 percent of eighth grade students scored at the proficient level, which represents solid writing skills, as did 24 percent at grade 12.” The most recent test was done on computers while the 2007 students used things called pencils and paper.

A dance school in British Columbia is offering pole dancing classes to grade school children. If that's not bad enough, note that parents have enrolled children at $70 for an hour session. “The kids just love it,” said [the] president of the Canadian Pole Fitness Association, which is said to be holding championships in what it association president says is becoming a “sport.”

Some signs of the impending apocalypse

Here are some examples of why I believe the apocalypse is near.

The eighth annual "Pregnant Bikini Contest" was recently held in Houston. Before you click the link, I must warn you that what has been seen cannot be unseen. Notice of the first seven contests somehow escaped my attention.

A dispute at a bar in Calgary, Canada erupted in violence resulting in the death of a man. The disagreement was about the pitching staff of baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays.

Harvard University is investigating 125 students who may have plagiarized their test answers for a course ironically entitled "Introduction to Congress." After looking at some examples of the course material, I wonder why it would be necessary to cheat. An article in Salon magazines states, "The student source said Professor Platt was a fun lecturer who presented with accessible slides. In just one lecture he used ‘Sesame Street,’ ‘The Simpsons’ and the singer Bobby Brown to explain the origins of modern Congressional careers and committees." The same article quotes a student as saying Harvard is “out for blood” for daring to look into the matter. At least the students will be well-prepared for futures as politicians.

Also in Boston, a federal judge ruled that the state of Massachusetts must pay for a sex change operation for a prisoner serving a life sentence for murdering his wife. The Wall Street Journal reports that this prisoner has been receiving female hormones since his diagnosis of gender identity disorder in 2003. The judge noted that the murderer may receive better care for his problem than many law-abiding Americans.

A judge in England has let a burglar off without jail time while praising him. According to the BBC, the judge said, "It takes a huge amount of courage, as far as I can see, for somebody to burgle somebody's house. I wouldn't have the nerve." Prime Minister David Cameron had a dim view of the judge’s remarks.

As a charity fundraiser, donors in Japan were offered the opportunity to squeeze the naked breasts of young women, described as "adult video actresses." For an unspecified amount of money, one was allowed two squeezes per hand.

Overused Words

While reading the iconic New York Times the other day, I happened to notice that the word “iconic” was used in a few different articles.

The world-wide resources of the Skeptical Scalpel Institute for Evidence-Based Outcomes and Advanced Research were mobilized. Fact checkers swarmed over the Times and discovered that in the last 30 days, the word iconic has appeared 87 times in the paper for an average of 2.9 times per day.

The range of occurrences was 0 (on July 20, July 30 and August 6) to 8 (on August 1, a truly iconic day). The mode, or most frequent number of occurrences per day, was 1, which happened on 10 separate days.

By comparison, the previously unchallenged overused word of the century “artisanal” has only appeared 52 times in the Times during the last 30 days or about 1.7 times per day.

Now I am a mere blogger and am admitted somewhat (artis)anal retentive, but it seems to me that iconic just may have achieved cliché status.

May I suggest that the Times consider removing Iconic from its style book? In my opinion, doing so would increase its iconicity and help to maintain the artisanality of its writers.

Sticks and stones ...

The New York City Department of Education wants to ban some 50 words from appearing on standardized tests because the words might upset some students. The story apparently first came to light via the New York Post, but Google “New York banned words” and you’ll see lots of coverage and comment.

You can see the complete list here. To give you an idea, I’ve selected a few of the more interesting entries for comment.

Alcohol, tobacco, or drugs—I suppose they get enough about those topics after school anyway.
Birthday celebrations and birthdays—On the list because some religious groups do not celebrate birthdays. Being of a certain age, I don’t like these words either.
Celebrities—Is just the word “celebrities” to be banned or is it about mentioning the names of specific celebrities? Either way, I’m all for it.
Dinosaurs—We wouldn’t want them to learn about that subject or be tested on it now, would we?
Disease—Said to be banned because it might upset students who have family members who are sick.
Evolution—See Dinosaurs
Halloween—A dangerous topic for young minds.
Junk food—Interesting in light of all the talk about an epidemic of obesity.
In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge—How would one ask about this on a standardized test anyway?
Sex—Take care of that on your own time.
War and bloodshed—So students can’t be asked about war on a test? That’s going to shorten history class a lot. And how are the kids going to learn about stuff like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)—See sex

It looks like New York City has taken the “Nanny State” concept to new heights. What do you think?

This post appeared on Sermo yesterday.

Slate Says Mauritius Is the Greatest Country on Earth. Huh?

Slate, the on-line magazine, posted an article on March 7, 2011 claiming that Mauritius is the “Greatest Country on Earth.” The article’s subtitle reads, “What the United States can learn from the tiny island nation of Mauritius.” According to the author of the piece, Joseph Stiglitz, Mauritius, an island nation of 1.3 million people, provides “free education through university for all of its citizens, transportation for school children, and free health care—including heart surgery—for all” despite the fact that it is not rich and has no budget problems. And 87% of its people own their own homes, a figure not nearly matched by the United States. Stiglitz thinks we should emulate Mauritius and provide similar amenities for our citizens. Over 1200 comments have been logged with a high percentage of them expressing skepticism.

I sent the link to the article to a friend who recently lived in Mauritius for six months. He had plenty to say. He asked to remain anonymous as he still does business there.

He started with this, “While I think Mauritius is a beautiful country and has some very nice people, the standard to which they have attained some of the ‘achievements’ is based on a pretty low bar, and I would question many of the author's statistics.”

On medical care he wrote, “while medical care may be freely available, our experience with the local medical community left me feeling that I would not want to have any medical procedures done there, unless the alternative was death.”

On transportation, we have, “Roads are a nightmare, with only one main road through the whole island, going from the airport in the south east to the nice beach area in the NW. It goes right through the main city of Port Louis, and is a continuous traffic jam from 7 AM to 9 PM.”

Home ownership, “The home ownership statistic intrigued me and I cannot figure how they arrived at it, unless they include the large number of squatters who live in houses made of corrugated tin with stolen billboards for roofs (my company lost a billboard in the middle of the night that way). For those that do own their own homes, most are small, made of cinderblock and only partially finished…” And this: “…the 87% stat has to be fiction. Interestingly, a large percentage of houses remain unfinished (usually unpainted on the outside or with only a framework for a second floor) because you don't have to pay property taxes until it is completed. So it never is.”

It’s not all negative, in fact he said: “Mauritius has accomplished a great deal since independence, and should be very proud of what they have done. I actually think Mauritius is a lovely country with great people in charge who, for a population of 1.3 million, have done a fabulous job of developing the local economy and raising the standard of living in what I hope will be a sustainable fashion. The education system is solid, which is critical for the future and has been a very wise investment. Their approach is very tied to the local culture, where people's goals, expectations and standards are not the same as the US. So projecting it as a solution for…the US and Europe is a bit of a stretch.”

Stiglitz said that he recently visited Mauritius. One wonders just what he saw or perhaps was shown. Maybe he wrote the article just to see what kind of reaction he could stir up. If that was the goal, it worked although one could argue that 1200 comments from a nation of 325 million people is not really a massive response. Read the article and see for yourself.

Don't Scan Me, Bro'

The huge uproar about full body scans and harassment of air travelers misses an important point. Yes, there is concern about invasion of privacy, perceived near sexual assault and radiation exposure. Even mild-mannered Captain Sullenberger commented on the absurd practice of x-raying and searching pilots. For God’s sake, if a pilot wanted to make mischief, she wouldn’t need to put C4 in her bra. She could fly the damn thing into a building herself.

My problem with all of this is that the government seems to have an endless reservoir of bad ideas, starting with the thankfully now obsolete question, “Did anyone else pack your bags?” Did they really expect someone to say, “Well, a man named Ahmed knocked on my door this morning and offered to help me pack, so I let him.” And we always seem to be reactive rather than proactive. A guy hides explosives in his shoe in 2001 and to this day, we all have to take off our shoes at the airport. Unless this shoe removal is taking place everywhere else in the world, it seems to me that asking grandma to put her flip-flops on the scanner is unlikely to stop a terrorist. Last year another guy hides explosives in his underwear, and now we need to scan everyone’s underwear and frisk 3-year-olds. Are these procedures really thought to be effective or are they simply window dressing to reassure the public that stern measures are being taken?

Memo to the TSA: they’re going to try something other than a bomb in a shoe or Jockey shorts next time. Good intelligence such as the discovery of the plot to send explosives via cargo planes last month will do far more than all of the airport screening measures.

The public is fighting back. Just Google “TSA boycott” and see that a number of people are calling for a boycott of air travel altogether. Over 5000 people “Like” a Facebook page suggesting that all passengers opt out of the full body scan on 11/24 (the day before Thanksgiving), although I am not sure just how that will hurt the TSA. And there are courageous individuals like John Tyner ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.") refusing to play the game at all. But of course, he did not get to take his trip either.

For me, the terrorists have already won. If their goal was to disrupt air travel and cause the American people to lose confidence in their government, they have succeeded.

[TSA logo by Ogel Volk via The Consumerist]