Word Watch: scanxiety
Canada’s Word Spy Paul McFedries has identified another new term: “scanxiety” — the mental distress felt while awaiting the results of a medical test, and particularly an MRI or CT scan (scan + anxiety).
He cites two recent uses of the word — one, an article on the BoingBoing website in 2013, and the other in the Vancouver Sun in April this year.
But the earliest use McFedries found was in 2006, in a post on a lymphoma support/forum website.~TM
The crash of flight MH17 and the cure for AIDS
HIV virions | Credit: CDC/ A. Harrison; Dr. P. Feorino
It seems beyond doubt that Malaysia Airlines flight 17 (MH17) was intentionally shot down. It’s just not clear by whom.
The loss of life – including Dr. Joep Lange and several other people who were instrumental in HIV research and advocacy – is tragic, made worse by its magnitude.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, more than one person was quoted in media reports asking, “What if the cure for AIDS was on that plane?”
That question serves to heighten – and at the same time demean – the tragedy. Continue reading →
Kids in cars: Look before you lock!
I don’t get it, but it happens: On a beautful summer day, an adult forgets there’s a child in the back seat of car and leaves him there while running an errand. Or the adult remembers the child is there and leaves her there because this will take only a minute…
For the third year, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a national(U.S.) radio and internet campaign, “Where’s Baby? Look Before You Lock,” to remind parents, caregivers and grandparents that summer temperatures in a closed car can soar to heatstroke-inducing heights (and worse) in minutes. Continue reading →
Chicago doctors send greetings from 1962
Contents of Grant Hospital time capsule | Courtesy Eric Nordstrom
In 1962, doctors at Chicago’s Grant Hospital left a letter for those who followed them 50 years later, offering their predictions about what the practice of medicine would look like in 2012.
The letter, and other contents of a time capsule, were revealed recently by Eric Nordstrom,who owns and operates Urban Remains, an architectural salvage firm.
Nordstrom found the capsule when the hospital building was demolished in 2009. At that time, he returned some of the box’s contents, such as reports, to the surviving doctors who wrote them. But he has made the letter public only recently, in an article on the Urban Remains website. Continue reading →
‘Wellcome’ addition to images in the public domain
Credit: Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images
Earlier this year – but only recently reported by the Public Domain Review – over 100,000 images from the historical holdings of London’s Wellcome Library were made freely available through the Wellcome Images website.
They were released under the Creative Commons-Attribution only licence and can be downloaded directly from the website for any personal or commercial use. Continue reading →
And… we’re back!
Murray’s Revie
w has been on hiatus for the last several weeks owing to a family medical emergency. We now return to our regularly-scheduled programming…~TM
Murray's Review of Medical Journalism 