Proto Magazine

Search Results for ""

In Focus

What Blockchain Could Do

Beneath the hype is a technology that could solve many logistical problems that plague medicine.

EVERY YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES, billions of dollars’ worth of unopened, unexpired prescription drugs are destroyed or tossed in the garbage—at a time when a quarter of the U.S. population says it can’t afford prescribed medicines and sometimes goes without. Many states have set up donation and reuse programs through pharmacies, charitable...

▾

▾

In Depth

Back From the Brink

Near-death experiences have been the domain of pseudoscience. But clinicians ignore them at their peril.

To Build a Better Vaccine

Waiting a decade or more for new vaccines may be a thing of the past, thanks to the revolution of rational vaccine design.

Something in Your Voice

New speech analysis technologies can help diagnose mental illness. But they also raise troubling questions.

Energy Crisis

Those who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome often face years of doubt from their medical providers. But now the physical hallmarks of the disease are coming into focus.

Rethinking the Perfect Organ

The critical shortage of organs isn’t going away. Revising the current guidelines about who should be a donor—and who should be a recipient—might save lives.

The Solid Tumor Barrier

New T cell therapies succeed with a narrow band of cancers. Can they be made to work for the rest of them, too?

Living Memory

How does the brain remember? As memory disorders become more common, the research race is on to determine how the process works, what can go wrong and how worn memories can be made whole again.

When Healers Get Hurt

For nurses and doctors, abuse from patients is just part of the job. But as attacks mount, hospitals are trying to defuse the tension.

The Gut Hypothesis

Could Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder, have its origin somewhere else? A controversial theory is gaining ground.

Hear This

Some people are born deaf; others lose hearing because of injury or as they age. New approaches could open their ears.

Danger in the Sheets

Health officials know how to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. So why the growing epidemic?

Lessons From a Long Sleep

Stroke researchers marvel at what hibernating animals can do. Now they’re searching for strategies that would benefit patients.

An Endgame for an Epidemic

AIDS still kills, in numbers more vast than most people realize. But the right blend of science and policy could end the scourge.

140 Million Miles From Home

Two years in deep space will subject the body to unprecedented stresses. Scientists are probing the secrets to survival.

New Heroes of the Microbe War

More and more bacteria are nearly impervious to treatment. Could new approaches pick up where antibiotics leave off?

See More

▾

▾

Dispatches

Is the "Robot Surgeon" Worth It Yet?

Despite a massive investment by hospitals, the jury is still out on how these machines affect outcomes.

Saving Stark

Can the embattled reform law adapt to a newer model of health care?

A Glove Story

The common surgical glove has an amorous past.

Seeing Past the Scale

Obesity expert Fatima Cody Stanford looks at how physician bias around weight causes harm to patients.

The Checklist

A chronic condition gives rise to a woman’s “doctor shopping” checklist.

The Secrets in Baby Teeth

A pristine record of toxic exposures and psychological trauma rests in a child’s mouth—if only it can be decoded.

Podcast: The Important, Impossible Role of the Chinese Graduate Researcher

Scientific collaborations with China are the latest front in the trade war. Foreign students are torn between two nations—and wrestling with a mental health crisis.

Settling the Score

The debate over one of the most contested exams in medical education comes to a head.

The Ambulance Arrives

The first emergency vehicles rolled down city streets 150 years ago.

A Poacher in the Gut

Bacteria in the body can soak up or block medications, offering a tantalizing explanation for why drugs sometimes don’t work.

A Secret Sense

Receptors that can smell and taste exist throughout the body. Can they be allies in learning to fight disease?

Podcast: A Battle Plan for Sepsis

Hospitals get a step closer to conquering a deadly disease that most people have never heard of.

Higher Education

Medical marijuana has swept the country, but physicians aren’t trained how to use it.

Homegrown

Kayse Shrum is launching the first U.S. medical school affiliated with a Native American tribe—part of a strategy to train doctors where they’re needed most.

How to Get Home

A man with cancer faces the logistics of dying at home.

See More

▾

▾

From Mass General

Next-Generation Vaccines

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the revolution of rational vaccine design.

A Revolution in Cancer Treatment

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the promise of CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors.

Climate Change Meets an Aging Population

The most common victims of extreme weather events are older people. New research looks into how the health system fails them, and how it can be fixed.

Singular Exceptions

Should primary care physicians be trained to spot unusual, medically important cases?

Silent No More

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the need to end workplace violence in health care.

An Extra Pair of (A)Is

Machine intelligence takes a big step into the clinic, with a technology that helps identify patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer.

Doctoring on a Screen

Telemedicine made its first broadcast 50 years ago in an airport clinic.

Ending the AIDS Epidemic

Since the early 1980s, AIDS has killed more than 35 million people worldwide. But researchers are determined to find better treatments, cures and preventions that many finally put an end to the epidemic.

For Some Clots, It Takes a Village

Treatment of pulmonary embolisms may benefit from a team approach. But that model faces obstacles inside and outside the hospital.

Shining a Light on Depression

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris highlight the need for new approaches to treating depression.

A (Small) Cause of Big Pain

Neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander investigates a cause of chronic pain that is treatable without opioids.

Investing in Our Future

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the importance of research funding.

After the Storm

Hurricane Maria shut down a factory where intravenous fluid bags were made. Why has this roiled a nation’s hospital system?

The Crisis in the Air

Slowing climate change is important for our health long term. But cleaning up polluted skies will also yield immediate health benefits.

Medicine in the Mix

The science of embedding medications in polymers opens new doors.

See More

▾

▾

Charts & Data

The New Anatomy

Parts of the body are constantly being proposed or discovered. Where do they come from?

Anatomy of a Hashtag

Public health messaging online yields beautiful—but sometimes worrying—data.

The Village Without Memory

In France, a home for people with dementia is designed from the ground up.

To Choose Death

Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act crosses the 20-year mark.

In Passing

How does a hospital keep patient details from getting lost in the shuffle?

To Catch a Protein

The world of protein imaging undergoes a chilly revolution.

The Next Zika

Vaccines are most helpful before an epidemic hits. So which diseases should researchers prepare for next?

ResearchKit

A software platform from Apple is helping medical researchers collect health data from any iPhone user

White Coats

The standard garb of the physician comes with surprising risks and benefits.

Unsound the Alarm

Hundreds of alarms compete for a clinician's attention. Can less noise mean better care?

Babel in the ICU

Machines in an ICU can't speak to one another—but what if they could?

The Changes We've Seen

Proto looks at trends in health care during the last 10 years.

Born Too Soon

Despite steady declines over the past decade, the U.S. still has one of the highest preterm birthrates in the developed world.

An Outbreak Told in Genomes

Rapid genetic sequencing maps an Ebola outbreak in fine detail.

20 Years After Apartheid

In the 1980s physician Miguel Ribeiro took stunning photographs of his South African patients. How has the nation’s health care fared in the years since?

See More

▾

▾