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Healthcare Partisanship: Where Do We Draw the Line?
In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the landmark legislation known as EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) which mandated that hospitals who accepted payments from the federal government (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) had to provide emergency medical treatment until their condition is stabilized. This widely popular mandate is often cited as a guarantee that every patient…
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Everyone’s a Doctor
BY LINDSEY WANBERG I emerged from the bathroom, a distant look in my eyes, dangling my phone melodramatically from the tips of my fingers. The phone display was pulled up to Google results of my search inquiry: “Why have I urinated four times in the last half-hour?” (This was a very real concern at the…
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Ayurveda in the Modern World: Traditionally Effective, or Effectively Traditional?
BY SERENA LEKAWA For many, the word “Ayurveda” might bring to mind things like acupuncture, yoga (pants) and the smell of burning incense. Some might imagine hippie-healers sitting cross-legged on the floor, feeling each other’s energies and holding each others’ hands. Others still may imagine someone with a Staten Island accent sneezing through the word…
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When is Brain Death Not Death
BY MIRIAM THORNE Israel, a first-world and technologically advanced country, has surprisingly low rates of organ donation. In 2007, only about 8% of Israelis were registered donors, compared to the 30-40% in most Western countries. Lawmakers and religious leaders have been working to increase the rate of organ donation, but efforts are particularly complicated in…
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Supporting the Smoker
BY GRACE PORTALANCE Defending cigarette smoking in today’s world yields little sympathy. Given that tobacco is an admittedly unhealthy and addictive substance, finding pro-tobacco advocates is relatively rare—and for good reason. Smoking has been linked to many terrible diseases, and people generally do not support habits that are detrimental to health. Despite this, I have…
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Patently Human
BY DANIEL KNUDSEN Realistically, middle school biology students may end up remembering one key concept: that their genetic code consists of a huge number of genes (25,000) forming a string of molecules that exists in each and every cell of their body—a code that makes them completely unique, and impossible to replicate. And thus, many…
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Big Pharma, Bigger Costs
BY XIAOCHANG SONG An accurate depiction of pharmaceutical Research and Development (R&D) costs is the most important piece of data in the debate over the best way to stimulate pharmaceutical innovation—a long-standing concern at the forefront of fundamental public and global health issues. R&D costs are often useful in analyzing and improving drug development and…
