interview
john nance

Q: How do we minimize human error?

A: By training physicians to be leaders, not commanders. Sometimes a hospital’s board of directors has to say, “There is a line here. If you cross it, you are not practicing here anymore. Take your $10 million a year in thoracic surgery revenue and go down the road to Our Lady of Pretty Good Outcomes.”

“What makes this experience different is the total absence of bureaucracy.”
proto, a prefix of progress, connotes first, novel, experimental. Alone, it conjures an entire world of the new: discoveries, directions, ideas. In taking proto as its name, this magazine stakes its ground on medicine’s leading edge—exploring breakthroughs, dissecting controversies and opening a forum for informed debate.
evidence-based medicine

Evidence-Based Medicine: Burden of Proof

Evidence-based medicine calls for physicians to follow consensus guidelines. But whose consensus?

longevity

Is Aging a Disease?

If illnesses that strike late in life have a common root, similar therapies might help us avoid many of them.

origami medicine

Origami Medicine

When proteins misfold, cystic fibrosis and other ills ensue. New research aims to unwind the mistakes.

handwriting

Symptoms in Script

Not just pop science, handwriting analysis can be a telling diagnostic tool.

osteoarthritis

Why Joints Fail

What causes osteoarthritis? Not wear and tear, apparently, but bone lesions, misaligned joints and inflammation.

using baby's blood

Using Baby's Blood

Storing newborns' blood for research creates a valuable resource—but some parents are trying to put a stop to the practice.

haiti earthquake relief

Helping Haiti

The aftermath of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti had these medical bloggers pondering everything from the quiet courage of patients to wider issues in health care.

in the lab

Maria Troulis, an oral-maxillofacial surgeon and director of the Skeletal Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, is one of several MGH physicians featured in Boston Med, an eight-part documentary starting June 24 on ABC, that goes behind the scenes at some of nation’s best hospitals. Proto featured Troulis in this article about distraction osteogenesis, discussing a surgery that changed one child’s life.

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Proto magazine on Reach MD
Tune in to Proto: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Medicine on ReachMD. Host Dr. Bruce Bloom interviews Mass General experts about evidence-based medicine, hormone therapy and more.
defined

ghostbusting [gōst 'bə-stiŋ] n: a term adopted in January 2009 by editors at the journal Blood for a movement to ban journal articles ghostwritten by uncredited contributors financed by drug companies.