Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The story of the 17-year-old with melanoma being forced to undergo chemotherapy: Urban legend?

My recent update of my ongoing discussion of the Abraham Cherrix case reminded me that there’s a bit of alarming e-mail being sent out and forwarded far and wide. If you read it, at first glance, you will think it sounds utterly horrifying, the Abraham Cherrix and Katie Wernecke cases all rolled up into one […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Abraham Cherrix’s lymphoma in “remission”?

It would appear that there’s finally some good news in the strange and sad case of Starchild Abraham Cherrix. The AP reports that he and his doctor are reporting that his lymphoma is in remission again: FLOYD, Va. — A 17-year-old who won a court battle against state officials who tried to force him to […]

Categories
Medicine Science Surgery

The precarious position of physician-scientists in academic medicine today

Jake over at Pure Pedantry pointed the way to an article in Science that I hadn’t seen yet because of my absence. Just like yesterday’s topic, this one too is right up my alley. Specifically, it’s about something near and dear to my heart, namely the trials and tribulations of being a physician-scientist. The article […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Surgery

How “evidence-based” is evidence-based medicine?

Sadly (with regards to vacation) and not-so-sadly (with regards to the events of last week), it’s time to dive headlong back into the “real world” at work, starting with clinic today. It also means it’s time to get back to my favorite hobby (blogging) in a much more regular way, although I will say that […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Link me up, Q-man!

I debated about whether to do Your Friday Dose of Woo this week. I really wasn’t sure if I was up to it. As regular readers know, I was on vacation in London during the last week in August. Unfortunately, I returned to the news of a death in the family on my wife’s side, […]