Insights

<p>The change in U.S. mammogram screening guidelines is certainly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17cancer.html?em">big news</a>, and it's not a one-day story. The obvious conflict is the disagreement between some major medical organizations and the <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm&quot; title="Group’s Web site.">United States Preventive Services Task Force</a>, which is now recommending that women get their first mammogram at age 50, rather than 40 as previously recommended. </p>

<p>In<a href="/resources/lessons/covering-alternative-medicine"> a piece on this site,</a> journalist Jane Allen gives some useful advice about covering alternative medicine, but there are some gaps that are are hard for a non-medical professional to recognize (and frankly, for many medical professionals as well). She quite rightly urges skepticism, but when looking into ideologic and muddled topic of alternative medicine, skepticism needs to be turned up to "11".

<p>When the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20021020020858/http:/www.reproductivemedicin… of Reproductive Medicine</i></a> published a study that purported to prove that <a href="http://www.allaboutprayer.org/intercessory-prayer.htm">intercessory prayer</a> can heal people, there were many reasons to be doubtful, regardless of one's religious beliefs. </p>

<p>After a lively and wide-ranging discussion at our Health in the Blogosphere <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2009/091109CAEndowmentHealthJournalism…; Monday, some attendees have posted insightful wrap-ups on their blogs. I'll also be posting these on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23uscblogcon">#uscblogcon</a>.</p><p>Here's a sampling of their thoughts: </p>

<p>Dr. Bruce Flamm, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California at Irvine, has been waging a lonely war for nearly a decade. He took the unusual step of accusing fellow scientific researchers of fakery. In 2001, the <i>Journal of Reproductive Medicine</i> published a paper titled, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&amp;db=PubMed&amp… prayer influence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer?

<p>If you're trying to stay on top of the health reform debate and don't have time to scroll through thousands of Google News hits, here's a handy guide to some leading blogs that do it for you and offer great analysis to boot.</p>

<p>With over 60% of Americans looking to the internet for health information, the question for those of us who care about health is, "how do we increase the chances of people finding <em>good</em> information?" There are a few components to this question. First, what kind of information is available? Second, how is it found? And third, who is producing it, and for what purpose? Here are a few observations which are, unfortunately, not yet supported by data, but may serve as a starting point for future discussion.</p>

<p>Dr. Charles McKay understands the human heart better than most of us.</p> <p>He has authored or co-authored hundreds of research papers about various aspects of cardiac care. He helped write the joint American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association <a href="http://www.acc.org/qualityandscience/clinical/guidelines/valvular/dirin… for valvular heart disease treatment</a>. Some of his work has been cited more than 1,000 times by other researchers.</p>

<p>The <a href="/">California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships</a> wrapped up a thought-provoking and fruitful <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2009/091109CAEndowmentHealthJournalism… session</a> on the health blogosphere today, with an often- hilarious, back-channel Twitter conversation <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23uscblogcon">here</a&gt;.

<p>A dentist drives through the dark alleyways of New Jersey in the dead of winter, visiting morgues where he cuts out bones, slices out tendons and peels off layers of skin from corpses. With coolers packed with human flesh, he then drives to a smoking factory where the body parts are turned into things that are put into other people's bodies, without them ever knowing. </p>