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.”
Evidence-Based Medicine: Burden of Proof
Evidence-based medicine calls for physicians to follow consensus guidelines. But whose consensus?
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
When proteins misfold, cystic fibrosis and other ills ensue. New research aims to unwind the mistakes.
Why Joints Fail
What causes osteoarthritis? Not wear and tear, apparently, but bone lesions, misaligned joints and inflammation.
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
