We seem to be gripped by a national state of shock at the news that Nadya Suleman, a single mother with no job and six children, was able to have eight embryos implanted in her uterus, all of which resulted in children.
By Alice Chen
Imagine if your doctor asked your 12-year-old son to explain to you that you had just been diagnosed with cancer. Get tips and story ideas for covering medical translation, a critical service for millions of patients who don't speak English well.
Americans' penchant for rating everything from tech gadgets to restaurants to professional services online - sometimes in novella-length missives - is extending to health care professionals, and entrepreneurs nationwide are cashing in on the trend.
Health care reporters know how rarely hospitals suspend a doctor's privileges. Those rights are granted and revoked by other doctors, and doctors are loathe to set a precedent by saying a botched surgery or missed diagnosis should bar a doctor for life.
That's why it was a big deal when the Reston Hospital Center in Virginia took away Dr. Bahram Tafreshi Moshiri's right to practice there in November 2001.
One would think that everything that could possibly be said about lead poisoning has been printed, broadcast and e-mailed around the globe countless times.
Sometimes, all a doctor with a checkered past wants is some peace and quiet.
Dr. Paul William Anderson had a little trouble with a medical malpractice lawsuit in Nebraska. The Medical Board of Nebraska wanted the radiologist to explain why he had failed to diagnose a tumor that ended up blinding one of his patients.
Update: Dr. Gupta removed himself from the list of candidates on March 5, telling CNN's Larry King, "I think for me it really came down to a sense of timing more than anything else. This job...takes us away from our children for so many years at once, and I sort of came to grips that I'd probably be away for several years of their lives."
Dr. Sanjay Gupta appears to be the first surgeon general picked not for his public service but for his public image.
When more than half of American families sampled in a recent poll say they're skimping on medical care to save money, that's a story by any measure - and one that's easy to localize. A new study from the
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $100 million grant to the International Partnership for Microbicides is big news for HIV prevention researchers frustrated by years of skimpy funding and scientific setbacks. The United Kingdom Department for International Development kicked in another $28.5 million.
By Ngoc Nguyen
Cheap doesn't necessarily mean safe when it comes to powerful cleaning products. New America Media environmental editor Ngoc Nguyen reports on efforts by environmental justice advocates to educate low-income consumers about how to stay healthy while keeping clean.
While reading New York Times health reporter Tara Parker-Pope's recent blog post about children's health care, I was struck by the comment of a doctor named Elise:
