http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com Musings on pediatrics, infectious diseases, and quality improvement in health care Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:25:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A mother who wanted to make her sick child happier thought a placebo might fool the child into feeling better. When she found nothing on the market intended for that purpose, she decided to manufacture it herself. The NY Times reports on this new product and interviews several bioethicists about ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/05/28/pushing-placebos/ Doctors are very often managers of at least small teams or groups of people. It starts in residency--a 2nd year resident manages interns and medical students, a 3rd year resident manages 2nd years, interns and students, and so on. Doctors in practice may manage a team including nurses, medical ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/04/23/leading-and-managing-people-what-i-didn%e2%80%99t-learn-in-medical-school-second-in-a-series/ for including my blog on their list of the top 100 academic medical blogs. Aside from the flattering inclusion of this blog, it's a interesting list. I can't say I've looked at all of them, but there are several blogs I'm already familiar with and like, and ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/04/07/thanks-to-the-online-nursing-degree-directory/ Executive function (EF) refers to a set of cognitive tasks or skills including planning and implementing strategies, performance monitoring, vigilant attention. It's not a well-characterized concept, or one with a widely accepted definition. There is debate whether executive function is truly a single function or is a conceptual ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/30/executive-function-and-adhd/ Evidence has been accumulating in bits and pieces for some time that vitamin D might reduce the risk of type 1 diabetes. The incidence of diabetes is higher further away from the equator; since vitamin D requires activation by a photochemical process, sun exposure increases the availability of ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/29/vitamin-d-in-infancy-and-reduced-risk-of-diabetes/ A study recently published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (J Infect Dis. 2008; 197(2):279-82) looked at the incidence of genital HPV infection in women during their exclusive relationship with their first sexual partner. By the end of one year with that one partner, 28% of these young ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/20/hpv-acquired-often-with-first-sexual-partner/ Everyone looks for information online--that's a given. So you might not be surprised to discover that patients who think they have a sexually transmitted infection might go looking for a treatment online, avoiding the stigma of telling a clinician what they think they have. A recent study from ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/19/more-hazards-of-the-internet-self-treatment-of-sexually-transmitted-infections/ Previously, autism data from California were published, demonstrating an increase in incidence roughly coinciding with an increase in the number of thimerosal-containing vaccines given to infants. This was interpreted as supporting the notion that thimerosal in vaccines was a cause of autism. Researchers from the California Department of ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/17/autism-continues-to-increase-in-california-more-evidence-that-thimerosal-is-not-the-cause/ Kathy Kater, a psychotherapist from Minnesota, has a very interesting letter in the BMJ, in response to a point - counterpoint on whether the obesity epidemic is exaggerated. She makes the point that probably only a small portion of how our bodies maintain weight homeostasis consists of the modifiable factors diet ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/03/12/whats-the-goal-healthy-habits-vs-weight-loss/ As methicillin-resistant Staph. aureus (MRSA) becomes more and more prevalent, we are wondering when to worry about it, and when not to (i.e. when it's more likely a colonizer like sensitive Staph. aureus). A recent study (Andrews WW, Schelonka R, Waites K, Stamm A, Cliver SP, ... http://DrBensBlog.kruskal.com/2008/02/28/mrsa-vaginal-colonization-is-vertical-transmission-to-neonates-a-concern/