In the old days, medical students used to walk around with pockets bursting at the seams. Why? Because they were carrying around hand-written notes, cards, and mini textbooks to help them remember all the information they were trying to learn. Many people have described the medical school experience as “drinking out of a fire hydrant.” The volume of information is so great that our limited brains quickly get saturated with information and we’re unable to retain any more data. Read more →

A week’s worth of New York Times newspapers contains more information and knowledge than the average person in medieval times saw in their entire life. In our current golden age of technology, we as human beings have come to embrace the notion of computers, and the idea that information is a commodity that must be available immediately. Products on the market in the technology sector are increasingly complex in scope and connectivity, and give us unprecedented access to an enormous yet speedily growing body of information. Nowhere is this trend more glaringly apparent than the recent developments in mobile phone technology. Read more →

Nobody questions the fact that healthcare is a confusing profession. Doctors and nurses seem to speak in foreign tongues; medicines have names and ingredients that are not even pronounceable; more and more news comes out every day about diseases and conditions that seem to contradict each other. If doctors must devote 12 years of higher education just to get a basic understanding of how the body works, how does a patient hope to know what’s wrong with them? Read more →

Right now, I have hundreds of songs on my mp3 player. I listen to everything from heavy metal when I run, to classical when I need to relax, to jazz when I am cooking. I listen to Broadway show tunes, movie soundtracks, and classic rock, depending on my mood. I also have tracks of nursery rhymes and Sesame Street favorites for my kids. So what does this say about me?

According to research being released by Professor Adrian North of Heriot Watt University, my musical tastes say a lot about my personality. Read more →

I’ve been looking into violent deaths lately. And now I understand a few things.  Mostly, I understand what we don’t know about violent death in the United States. For instance, consider one of the most horrific kinds of violent death — mass shootings in public places like malls and offices and schools.

How often does this happen somewhere in the United States?

Nobody knows. Read more →

The compilation and selling of physician prescribing habits has been a common practice since the 1990’s. Many physicians were unaware that the issue was occurring.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that the mining of prescribing data has beneficial uses, such as providing information about drug interactions and long-term effects, and prevention of drug errors. Pharmaceutical companies have also stated that without the use of this information, they would be less able to target educational information. Doctors would see an increase in sales calls and a decrease in needed drug samples. Read more →