Perspectives in biology and medicine
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Perspect. Biol. Med. · Jan 2007
Ghost marketing: pharmaceutical companies and ghostwritten journal articles.
The use of ghostwriters by industry is subject to increasing public attention and scrutiny. This article addresses the practice and ethics of scientific ghostwriting. ⋯ We argue that this practice is harmful both to the public and to the institutions of science and that it is not justified by an analogy to accepted scientific authorship practices. Finally, we consider ways to discourage the practice.
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Perspect. Biol. Med. · Jan 2007
What many transgender activists don't want you to know: and why you should know it anyway.
Currently the predominant cultural understanding of male-to-female transsexualism is that all male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals are, essentially, women trapped in men's bodies. This understanding has little scientific basis, however, and is inconsistent with clinical observations. ⋯ The other subtype, autogynephilic transsexuals, are motivated by the erotic desire to become women. The persistence of the predominant cultural understanding, while explicable, is damaging to science and to many transsexuals.
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Iraqi detainees subjected to torture and mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison may continue to suffer from significant physical and psychological consequences of their abuse. This article reports two cases of Iraqi individuals allegedly tortured at Abu Ghraib. ⋯ Furthermore, these cases support assertions that abuse of prisoners was not limited to being perpetrated by guards, but also occurred systematically in the context of interrogations. These cases also raise concerns about inadequate medical care for Iraqi detainees.
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Physician power has been attacked, and tabooed, in legitimate efforts to strengthen patients' rights. Yet the structural and symbolic power wielded by doctors is what makes good and right healing actions possible. Avoiding the power issue contributes to a confusing state, where patient trust is faltering and physicians are uncertain about how to fulfill the doctor's role with the intellectual tools of mere science and technology. ⋯ The article proposes clinical leadership as a concept offering practical and ethical direction to clinicians, education, research, and health policy. Leadership presupposes reflective awareness of physicians' structural and symbolic power, and is displayed as discerning, empowering improvisations in critical situations, based on empathy and willingness to learn from patients. The notion of clinical leadership highlights patient vulnerability, medicine's ethical core, and the importance of character development in medical education.
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Perspect. Biol. Med. · Jan 2006
Historical ArticleDietary treatment of diabetes mellitus in the pre-insulin era (1914-1922).
Before the discovery of insulin, one of the most common dietary treatments of diabetes mellitus was a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. A review of Frederick M. Allen's case histories shows that a 70% fat, 8% carbohydrate diet could eliminate glycosuria among hospitalized patients. A reconsideration of the role of the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet for the treatment of diabetes mellitus is in order.