Faculty Bibliography

For better or worse, the Democrats incorporated a good deal of mainstream Republican thinking about health care reform from the past decade, including mandated coverage and health insurance exchanges, into the Affordable Care Act

The human papillomavirus virus (HPV) causes various types of deadly cancers, genital warts and cervical lesions that can cause infertility. HPV vaccines can prevent many of these problems. The vaccine has such well-documented safety data and is so effective that it is enthusiastically endorsed by the World Health Organization and countless medical organizations

The human papilloma virus (HPV) causes various types of deadly cancers, genital warts and cervical lesions that can cause infertility. HPV vaccines can prevent many of these problems. The vaccine has such well-documented safety data and is so effective that it is enthusiastically endorsed by the World Health Organization and countless medical organizations

Why are Catholic board trustees banning this vaccine and not others? Because unlike measles, mumps or rubella, this disease is sexually transmitted. [...]thousands of girls go unvaccinated every year

Promising advances have been made in recent years for a unique class of immunotherapies that use vaccination to combat substance-use disorders. Although such vaccines are potentially useful for addictions, they raise a variety of ethical and social questions.

Caplan talks about celebrity chef Paula Deen, who was accused of gross hypocrisy in taking on the nicely compensated role of shill for a diabetes drug. After not disclosing the fact that she had diabetes for three years while promoting foods that give diabetologists everywhere hives, she went on national television this past January to announce her malady. She then went on to say she had been signed on by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to be a spokeswoman for its $500-per-month diabetes drug. Deen's announcement and the criticism that it evoked tells a lot about how many Americans have a distorted, dreamy view of self-determination, personal choice, and personal responsibility

End-stage organ failure is a key challenge for the medical community because of the ageing population and the severe shortage of suitable donor organs available. Equally, injuries to or congenital absence of complex tissues such as the trachea, oesophagus, or skeletal muscle have few therapeutic options. A new approach to treatment involves the use of three-dimensional biological scaffolds made of allogeneic or xenogeneic extracellular matrix derived from non-autologous sources. These scaffolds can act as an inductive template for functional tissue and organ reconstruction after recellularisation with autologous stem cells or differentiated cells. Such an approach has been used successfully for the repair and reconstruction of several complex tissues such as trachea, oesophagus, and skeletal muscle in animal models and human beings, and, guided by appropriate scientific and ethical oversight, could serve as a platform for the engineering of whole organs and other tissues.

AIMS: To determine the success threshold at which a theoretical course of deep brain stimulation (DBS) would provide the same quality of life (QoL) and cost-effectiveness for heroin dependence as methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). DESIGN: We constructed a decision analysis model to calculate QoL after 6 months of MMT and compared it to a theoretical course of DBS. We also performed a cost-effectiveness analysis using societal costs of heroin dependence, MMT and DBS. SETTING: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (n = 1191) from 15 trials administering 6 months of MMT and patients (n = 2937) from 45 trials of DBS for movement disorders. MEASUREMENTS: Data on QoL before and after MMT, retention in MMT at 6 months, as well as complications of DBS and their impact on QoL in movement disorders. FINDINGS: We found a QoL of 0.633 (perfect health = 1) in heroin addicts initiating MMT. Sixty-six per cent of patients completed MMT, but only 47% of them had opiate-free urine samples, resulting in an average QoL of 0.7148 (0.3574 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) over 6 months). A trial of DBS is less expensive ($81,000) than untreated (or relapsed) heroin dependence ($100,000), but more expensive than MMT ($58,000). A theoretical course of DBS would need a success rate of 36.5% to match MMT, but a success rate of 49% to be cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS: The success rate, defined as the percentage of patients remaining heroin-free after 6 months of treatment, at which deep brain stimulation would be similarly cost-effective in treating opiate addiction to methadone maintenance treatment, is estimated at 49%.