This raises an important question: When the FDA and similar agencies make decisions on public health issues that are intertwined with science, do the larger scientific and medical communities wield any influence?
Research
The field of medicine is littered with eponyms that celebrate physicians who first described syndromes, signs, surgical procedures and anatomic structures. Though we use these eponyms every day, we rarely take the time to consider the lives of the people behind the names. Recently, while evaluating a five-year-old named Ben, I was forced to stop Read more
Editors’ Note: The following blog post first appeared on Forbes.com. In his seventh and last State of the Union address on January 12th, President Barack Obama announced a “moonshot” with the goal of making “America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” The “moonshot” program is to be led by Vice President Joe Read more
Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease that has afflicted humans since the dawn of civilization and remains very much with us even now. In fact, more people will probably die from TB in 2016 than from any other single infectious disease, with HIV a close second. This grim fact is well documented by annual reports Read more
Editors’ Note: February 29 marks the ninth annual Rare Disease Day, a worldwide event devoted to raising awareness of more than 6,500 rare diseases, of which less than 5 percent have any available treatment. We spoke with Dr. Steven Walkley, director of the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center and professor in Read more
One of my favorite shows to watch as a kid was Bill Nye the Science Guy. I fondly recall being glued to the television as Bill enthusiastically explained the mysterious wonders of the universe with all of his props, gizmos and gadgets. Unlike science teachers at school, whose seemingly endless lectures bored me, Bill Nye’s Read more
