When was Rona Ambrose made energy minister?
The demise of the Canadian Health Care Accord. Extreme secrecy about drug reviews. Confusion surrounding the distribution and wariness among physicians about prescription of medical marijuana. An as-yet unfulfilled promise to make violence against women a health priority. A failing grade for the role of the federal government in health care at the end of 2013 by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
With those and other key domestic health matters receiving inadequate attention from the feds, why is Health Minister Rona Ambrose going to China to “underscore Canada’s priority to diversify its export markets for energy and underline Canada’s potential as a responsible and reliable provider of energy to China”? Continue reading →
Play public health crisis computer game!
If you don’t deal with enough public health crises in your day job or if you’ve wondered what it might be like to figure out what’s ailing a developing country after a massive earthquake, the University of Roehampton, London Online has posted an online simulation of decision-making that goes into identifying and containing a disease outbreak under those circumstances.
“Save Manresa” is “an interactive role-playing activity that provides an exciting window into the world of public health,” according to a news release from the university. It’s also aimed at enticing professionals to consider a career in public health — ideally after taking Roehampton’s new “100% online” Master of Public Health (MPH) programme.
Fur flies as cats found to transmit TB to humans in England
The fur has been flying in Britain with the news that two people in England have developed tuberculosis after contact with a domestic cat infected with Mycobacterium bovis.
Public Health England (PHE) and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) reported that the cases are linked to the nine case of M. bovis infection in domestic cats in Berkshire and Hampshire they investigated last year. Continue reading →
And the new Scrabble word is…
It’s hard to get too excited about this, but I started this, so I may as well complete the story:
Word Watch: Round One of the Scrabble Word Showdown
You may recall that Scrabble and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary invited nominations of words to be considered for inclusion in the next edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.
Today, they announced the 16 words they’ve chosen for a bracket-style “Scrabble Word Showdown,” with fans voting on the Facebook page until one word emerges triumphant.
The 16 words have been announced, none of which are the least bit medical. The list is below with the best definitions I could find for them: Continue reading →
‘Journalism jail’ proposed for poor immunization reporting
Dr. Paul Offit
On the weekend, Twitter was aflutter with news from the annual meeting of the Association for Health Care Journalists that vaccine researcher Dr. Paul Offit said there should be a “journalism jail” for reporters who perpetuate false controversies in medicine.
Writing for Forbes.com, Dr. David Kroll (PhD) noted that Dr. Offit’s comments came in the question period following his keynote speech at the conference in Denver.
Dr. Offit took issue with reporters and producers who quote celebrities who have no medical qualifications yet promote themselves as knowledgeable about health matters, and especially immunization, wrote Dr. Kroll. (Dr. Kroll is a pharmacologist and teacher of science and health writing at North Carolina State University, as well as contributor to Forbes.) Continue reading →
Lorem ipsum: ‘Placeholder’ text actually means something, sort of
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” etc. etc. is used by publishers and designers as ‘placeholder’ text while working out a layout before the actual text is ready or just to rough out what a page or book should look like. Even some word processing programs (Adobe InCopy, for example) provide a Lorem ipsum placeholder text option.
“Lorem ipsum,” which has been used since the 16th century, has been thought to be fake Latin and is so jumbled, it’s almost … Greek (as in, “It’s Greek to me.”) But Nick Richardson of the London Review of Books recently reviewed its origins and revealed that “Lorem ipsum” actually sort of means something. Continue reading →
Quotable: ‘Memory is not about the past’
Credit: peshkova
“Memory is not about the past – it’s about the future and the ability to predict. Rarely is a precise, exact memory of what happened in the past of particular use if you can’t generalize from it.”
– Dr. Robert Stickgold (PhD), associate professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, speaking at the 24th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, Toronto, March 2014
Semicolons for life
The semicolon has turned into more than a pesky piece of punctuation.
It’s now a symbol of hope for anyone who has ever attempted suicide, self-harmed or supports those who have.
The semicolon was chosen as the symbol because it used to separate major clauses in a sentence; in other words, “The semicolon is used when a sentence could have ended, but didn’t,” according to the Semicolon Movement.
Murray's Review of Medical Journalism 
In praise of Comments
An outstanding example of the value of Comments came not from medical journalism, but climate change reporting. Still, I thought it should be noted. Continue reading →
Share this: