Faculty Bibliography

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines recommend routine HIV screening for a large segment of the population, given that the individual understands that an HIV test will be performed unless he or she declines testing (opt-out testing). The CDC recommendation calls for the elimination of formalized requirements for written consent and pretest counseling to encourage more Americans to voluntarily accept testing. Knowledge of HIV infection can increase early access to care and treatment and reduce further transmission. A rapid non-invasive test for HIV infection (OraQuick Advance) from oral fluid has recently become available. It offers two distinct advantages: 1) results are available within twenty minutes, thereby eliminating a long waiting period; and 2) it has high sensitivity and specificity comparable to blood testing. A preliminary positive test result must be confirmed with a Western Blot by an outside laboratory or physician. Important ethical and legal issues must be resolved before the successful implementation of HIV testing in the dental setting. An educational emphasis on broader coverage of HIV testing is also needed within the dental school curriculum. The integration of HIV testing into dental practice is discussed as well. A policy of screening patients in dental offices will contribute to a major advance in public health

Caplan comments on whether there is really anything wrong with using medicine and biological engineering to modify one's brain and body to improve or enhance them

Caplan explores the ethical contradiction of a medical system that allows a Jehovah's Witness to refuse a blood transfusion even if it saves his or her life, yet insists on mandatory drug treatment for addicts. He examines the capacity of the addict for rational self-determination, and by comparing it to the mental state of a newly paralyzed patient or burn victim, and decides it can be morally supported

Caplan takes issue with a recent statement by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) indicating they intend to ban athletes from using altitude tents. The tents simulate thin mountain air, and by sleeping in them, athletes increase red blood cell production. Caplan asserts that WADA is not protecting athletes, but acting as the "morality police."

"Miracle Workers," which airs Monday nights on ABC, offers the services of so-called miracle doctors to people with horrible medical problems. The show's Web site says that the program is an example of the network's "tradition of developing reality programming that makes impossible dreams come true."

Prayer can be the most generous, open, solemn and thoughtful form of human expression. Faith that a prayer might enlist God's help to heal someone is about as universal a religious experience as there is. When medicine fails and science reaches its end, a physician would have to be pretty callous to scorn the faith of patients and their families

Harvard researchers and the John Templeton Foundation, a philanthropy devoted to bridging the gap between science and religion, recently poured nine years and $2.4 million into the most comprehensive study to date of the power of prayer for the sick. They wanted to see whether prayer by strangers, sometimes called "intercessory prayer," would increase the chances that people got better or had fewer problems as they healed