A group led by a UW-Madison researcher may have discovered what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly — three genes that let the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. See http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/12/29/0806959106.abstract . Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia The California Supreme Court recently decided that a woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle was not immune from civil liability because the care she rendered was not medically-related. The divided high court signalled that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It may be the first ruling by…
Image via Wikipedia According to an article entitled “Junk Science” (National Review, Vol. 46, October 24, 1994), here’s the story: “Investigators …. were perplexed at finding no discussion in the professional public-health literature of this ubiquitous [one in a million] rule, which is the make-or-break test for new pharmaceutical products. Eventually they traced it back…
See page 57 of Ancient Egyptian Medicine by John Nunn (Seehttp://books.google.com/books?id=WHfEnVU6z8IC&pg=PT1&dq=scholar:+Ancient+Egyptian+Medicine+Nunn#PPA57,M1 ). On this page, there is a drawing of a relief in the Deir el Medina tomb of a Dynasty XX (11th or 12th century BCE) man (necropolis worker) named Ipwy. The scene shows a group of workers building a catafalque (a platform to…
In a clinical trial, there are hazards to the rights of the participants and to the safety of the participants. There are also hazards to the trial itself–to its completion and to its reliability. The risks emerging from these hazards are complex, and the framing of these risks within the constraints of the ethical principles,…
California Labor Code Section 4850 requires that police officers and firefighters must be paid 100 percent of their pre-injury wage for up to one year while temporarily disabled (most other workers are limited to two-thirds of their salaries up to a maximum limit). This benefit is tax free such that temporarily disabled public safety officers…
Someone asked, “We have a public employee who’s nearly 90 that continues to work, but is slow, occassionally incontinent, and, in management’s opinion, ready to be let go. What do I do?” I answered, “Your municipality is lucky to have a nonagenarian that is willing and able to work. An employee’s decision about when to…