American Medical Association (AMA) To Shut Down Newsmagazine

I was upset today when I heard that the American Medical Association (AMA) is shutting down it’s newsmagazine. Crain’s Chicago Business has an article discussing this over at http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130812/NEWS03/130819977/ama-to-close-news-magazine titled  “AMA to close news magazine,” written by Andrew L. Wang on August 12, 2013. Now not only is the AMA shutting down the print circulation, but it is also shutting down AmedNews.com which is the website for the publication. In recent years, I have enjoyed reading amednews.com and keeping up to date on the many informative articles published. I have always thought the domain name choice was a bit poor, but the current Alexa traffic rankings shows a 167,229 in the World and 46,097 in the United States which is quite good. The article by Chicago Business discusses that the print circulation has been going strong for 55 years and … Read more

Industry Bias in Biomedical Science

An interesting article written by Christopher T. Robertson titled “The Money Blind: How to Stop Industry Bias in Biomedical Science, Without Violating the First Amendment,” appears in the American Journal of Law and Medicine (vol. 37, pages 358-387, 2011). The article discuses how the medical industry spends billions of dollars to create innovative products but also spends nearly as much to change the behavior patterns of those interested to make sure the products are purchased. The author states “As a veteran of the industry writes, ‘ in the pharmaeeutieal industry, there are two ways to market an approved drug for a new use: the ‘indication’ route—performing studies necessary for regulatory approval—or the ‘publication’ strategy, whieh stimulates off-label prescribing by using research ‘to disseminate the information as widely as possible through the world’s medical literature.’ “ A mention is made of a candid document by Pfizer which states … Read more

Second Opinion Advertisements for Dentists

An article in The Journal of the American Dental Association titled “Are Advertisements That Offer ‘Free Second Opinions’ Ethical by Rod B. Wentworth (October 1, 2011, vol. 142, no. 10, pages 1199-1200) talks about the ethics involved with dentists advertising “free second opinions.” In the article it says “So simply offering free second opinions is not in and of itself unethical. It is perfectly acceptable for a patient to seek a second opinion. In fact, dentists should consider suggesting that their patients obtain second opinions, especially when they have questions or concerns about the appropriateness of the recommended treatment.” One issue raised in the article is that in a second opinion, if a patient has any x-rays they should be sent along with the patient for the second opinion to avoid unnecessary radiation. The other issue raised is giving second … Read more

Rethink Breast Cancer: Your Man Reminder

A very interesting video was posted to YoutTube last week to help raise awareness for breast cancer. Several shirtless young men appear to show how to check for lumps in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness for younger women. This is a Canadian campaign by a charity called Rethink Breast Cancer. http://rethinkbreastcancer.com/ Source: The Sydney Morning Herald. Sacha Molitorisz. Steamy spin sells health message. October 14, 2011. http://www.smh.com.au/business/marketing/steamy-spin-sells-health-message-20111013-1ln0z.html

Facebook Ads

Recently, thanks to Visa, I have been advertising on Facebook this site. I was able to receive $100 free worth of advertising on Facebook. This is a pretty large number; however, a lot of people have been having problems achieving results with Facebook Ads. If you found myself through Facebook, thanks for coming! I created a quick ad in facebook and launched a new campaign. I already had an account, so all I had to do to get the $100 free was to ad the Visa Business Application, check my email, and enter the code under the funding sources in billing. Since I did not know where to bid I decided to start my biding at a modest $0.26. Immediately I was greeted with a typical message from Facebook Ads. “The bid on your ad may be too low to … Read more