The New York Times came out with a status report on the e-cigarette industry, which is currently in a watershed period as the FDA and CDC are about to release health warning statements on the products. In pharmacology, we learned that e-cigarettes are a a relatively healthier alternative to real cigarettes because they don't contain a lot of the toxic chemicals that are added to cigarettes. E-cigs are essentially vaporized nicotine, which has minimal harmful effects on the body relative to the other ingredients in cigarettes.
This article brings up a good point in mentioning that switching to e-cigarettes from real cigarettes may not be beneficial in smoking cessation as the nicotine rush is less potent than smoking cigarettes. The experts say this increases the risk of relapsing during a quit attempt. While this concern is valid, smoking cessation devices work by this exact method of only delivering nicotine. Another consideration that this article brings up is the increasing prevalence of trying e-cigarettes among youth. This is something that could potentially catch on to a large-scale and become a gateway drug for tobacco use. The growth of the e-cigarette industry is rapid and the makers of the product are ambitious about eventually making real cigarettes obsolete. At this point, we don't know the harmful effects of e-cigs. It's going to be interesting to see what the FDA has to say about e-cigarettes in the coming weeks. This 16 year old girl is my hero. Impressed that she stood up to B.O. and confronted him about drone strikes. I recently joined a company called CrowdMed, which is a startup based in Silicon Valley that applies crowdsourcing to real medical mysteries. My role as a campus ambassador is to recruit MD's (at CrowdMed, MD means medical detective, which is typically a medical student or recent graduate from medical school). I will also be managing the social media, which is an extra responsibility, but something that I'm pretty pumped about doing. My sister works in social media marketing and has offered to teach me about strategy development. Looking forward to learning a lot on the job, and contributing to a company that is doing something cool and new. I first became interested in the startup scene in March 2013, when I visited my buddy Mike Mayer in New Orleans. He gave me exposure to his startup in the Big Easy and invited me to join a design thinking workshop with his colleagues at Venture for America. This was a very interesting experience. While one dude prodded our brains for ideas, we put sticky notes on the wall and shifted around in desks that felt like spaceships. We did word association exercises and gave mini-presentations to each other on a variety of topics related to social entrepreneurship. The ideas that we were coming up with were insignificant, but our process of discovering ideas was the bee's knees. The VFA fellows were implementing paradigms that originated at a company called Ideo. From my understanding, Ideo is a company that re-evaluates methods, processes and structure for every possible facet of running a business. Without being facetious, this session was essentially a brainstorming exercise about brainstorming. It had me itching to figure out how it could be applied to medicine. CrowdMed is the first thing I've heard of that has invented a paradigm for helping patients who are very, very sick and haven't had a satisfactory diagnosis after seeing dozens of doctors. I'm optimistic about the prospects of CrowdMed and it's potential impact to prolong life, alleviate suffering and improve health. The academic demands of being an MSII have gotten the best of me lately and have limited me from writing verbose reflections. But, here are some notable articles that I enjoyed reading from this past week. Shutdown coverage fails Americans Aljazeera America Dan Froomkin argues that our journalists should be shackled to political neutrality. Important perspective to keep in mind during the political snafu that is the ongoing federal government shutdown. My main takeaway from this story is that I wish that the fictional news anchor, Will McAvoy, from HBO's The Newsroom, was real. What's In it: Doritos Locos Tacos NYTimes Aaron Byrd and Michael Moss take a serious look at a not-so-serious food item and explore the marketability and the science behind this Taco Bell delicacy. From Therapy Dogs To New Patients, Federal Shutdown Hits NIH NPR Although the clinical research center at NIH is still up and running, many important services that patients rely on for treatment are not available for them. Also, new medical research in America is on hiatus across the country as Congress fails to make any progress on a resolution. Pussy Riot Member Hunger Striking Over Brutal Prison Conditions Gawker Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is fearlessly hunger-striking to call attention to inhumane conditions and cruel punishments in a Russian prison. As a trauma surgeon, Dr. Sarani is in a very good position to advocate for a reduction in gun violence. Read the story on MSCNBC. Also, a tip of the hat goes to my home state of Maryland, which is a safer place as a result of implementation of a new set of gun laws. If you care about this stuff, check out Mayors Against Illegal Guns on Facebook for stats, infographs and the latest news on Michael Bloomberg's efforts to reduce gun violence.
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NeilHealthcare. Business. People. CategoriesArchives
November 2015
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