Word Watch: digital dementia
Canadian WordSpy Paul McFedries has noted “digital dementia” as another medically-related term that has established itself in the lexicon.
He defines it as “impaired memory and cognitive functioning due to the extended use of digital devices.”
McFedries cites two uses of it this week — on in the Seattle Times and another in the Edinburgh Evening News — and gives the earliest usage to the Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo in 2005. Continue reading →
Word Watch: conversation • Journalists should reclaim the word “interview”
I’m not sure when it started, but the “conversation” bug seems to have infected everyone at CBC Radio, at least in Toronto.
It may have spread more widely, but I’m a dedicated CBC Radio listener, and the aural assault is the more noticeable than if it appears in print or is used on TV with the distraction of visuals.
The principal offenders here are Matt Galloway of CBC’s “Metro Morning” and Gill Deacon of “Here and Now” (the afternoon programme). They use the word to mean “public discourse” as well as “interview.” But never (or almost never) to mean the kind of informal talk the word connotes if not denotes. Continue reading →
Word Watch: deprescribing (and frailty)
The success of modern medicine has meant that the longer people live, the more managed conditions they will have.
In some circles, that’s known as “co-morbidities”; in the editorial in this month’s (March 2014) issue of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB, a BMJ journal), it’s “multimorbidity.” (Editor’s note: Toe-MAY-toe, toe-MAH-toe.)
The editorial notes that multimorbidity has led to polypharmacy which can result in drug interactions.
One way to prevent drug interactions is to avoid “problematic polypharmacy” and practice “appropriate polypharmacy,” including “medicines optimization” which must include the notion of stopping some medications, or “deprescribing.” Continue reading →
Make up a word — it could wind up in the dictionary
Hasbro, the company that markets Scrabble, has invited players (actually, all and sundry) to nominate a word to be included in the next edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.
“To keep relevant for today’s fans, Scrabble and Merriam-Webster … have reserved a spot in the dictionary for a word nominated and chosen by Scrabble fans during the Scrabble Word Showdown,” a news release from the company said.
Hasbro seems to have in mind words like “selfie” and “hashtag,” pointing to “changes in technology, trends and pop culture events [that] have introduced many new words” since the last edition of the Scrabble dictionary was published in 2005.
But surely we can do better than that. Continue reading →
Coverage of ‘Alzheimer’s test’: Holy Grail, or holy fail?
Paul Raeburn
I’m not going to try to match this: Paul Raeburn, chief media critic at the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, has evaluated recent news coverage of a purported Alzheimer’s test. He found virtually all the coverage wanting, awarding the title of “worst” to CNN.
In Raeburn’s opinion, most stories were merely “awful.”
Stephen Lewis accuses UNAIDS of trivializing women
Stephen Lewis, a man familiar with both the United Nations and its agencies and with HIV/AIDS, blasted UNAIDS for trivializing women in its International Women’s Day message.
In fact, Lewis suggested that UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé’s statement bordered on misogyny. Continue reading →
New database of journalism research in Canada
Ivor Shapiro
A new public database of journalism research being done in Canada has been announced.
At the moment, the database includes 252 research projects being undertaken almost exclusively by academics in journalism and media studies.
While only two projects deal with medical or science journalism per se, other topics of study are related (e.g., body-checking in minor hockey) or have implications for medical journalism (e.g., the effect of public relations on journalism). Continue reading →
Word Watch: bikini medicine
Canada’s “word spy” Paul McFedries has been busy this week, posting yet another medically-related new phrase: “bikini medicine.”
McFedries defines this as “medical practice, research, and funding that focuses solely on the female breasts and reproductive system.” Continue reading →
Word Watch: sitting disease
This week, Canadian word-watcher (actually, “word spy”) Paul McFedries flagged “sitting disease” as a new phrase that has entered the lexicon.
“Well, of course,” you may say, “the news has been full of ‘sitting disease’ in the last few weeks.”
However, McFedries found the earliest use of the phrase in a USA Today article from January 2009.~TM
Word Watch: OED seeking origins of WWI medical terms
Editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have issued an appeal for references to terms that were coined during the First World War.
To mark the start of the Great War, the OED is revising war-era coinages. “Part of the revision process involves searching for earlier or additional evidence, ” the editors wrote. “Our first quotations are often from newspapers and magazines, and we know that there may well be earlier evidence in less-easily-accessible sources such as letters, diaries, and government records, many of which are now being made available in digital form for the first time.”
Two medical terms are among those for which the OED is hoping to find earlier references: shellshock and trench foot/mouth. Continue reading →
Murray's Review of Medical Journalism 