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The FDA Warns of Health Risks Posed by E-Cigarettes. Also known as “e-cigarettes,” electronic cigarettes are battery-operated devices designed to look like and to be used in the same manner as conventional cigarettes. Sold online and in many shopping malls, the devices generally contain cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor, and other chemicals. [...]

The Los Angeles Times reports that a daguerreotype depicting Phineas Gage has been discovered. In the next issue of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, an article establishing the identity of the man holding an iron rod (see photo to right) is that of Mr. Gage. This is the only known photograph of [...]

I would have thought this to be an April’s Fool prank, except I came across the dataset while browsing the NCBI Short Read Archive. It did have me laughing out loud.
Metagenomic Analysis with Galaxy: Windshield Genomics and BeyondAnd in case one thought the title was jargon or a brand name
…we asked the followingquestions: “When [...]

A pet peeve of mine is how the inventory of office supplies continues to grow in an organization. I have seen this everywhere I have worked and in many places I have visited. I’m talking basic stuff — paper clips, alligator clips, three-ring binders, pads of paper, pens, and pencils.
And, even though there [...]

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I’m pleased to say that after having a mouthful of these things, I’m now down to just one amalgam. OK, so the rest of my teeth are crowns, oh well. This FDA News Release, FDA Issues Final Regulation on Dental Amalgam, reports:

The regulation classifies dental amalgam into Class II (moderate risk). By [...]

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Several papers in a row tripped over one of my pet peeves. Why does anyone who cares about their data use a perspective pie chart?
Pie charts in general get little respect in the visualization community (Tufte hates them), but while I don’t love them I don’t hate them either. The scheme is intuitive [...]

Neuropathologists continue to show up in the national news media! After reporting recently about Dr. John E. Donahue’s appearance in The New York Post discussing the disposition of Michael Jackson’s brain, I was informed that Dr. Peter Cummings (pictured), neuropathologist for the Massachusetts Medical Examiner’s office, was featured in a People Magazine article in [...]

Speaking of videos, click here to watch an update of the construction project at BID~Needham hospital. This video shows you the outside of the new emergency department and walks you through the new inpatient unit. The grand opening is planned for this fall.

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The growth of medical knowledge is difficult to visualize. One classic representation is the Index Medicus — a comprehensive index of medical journal articles — whose bound copies filled the shelves of medical libraries for 125 years. In 2004, however, the National Library of Medicine decided to stop publishing the [...]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Health News Digest article, Is That Medical Device Safe And Effective? Who Knows?
It’s a great overview of:

medical device classification
premarket approval (PMA)
premarket notification (510(k))
substantially equivalent
anecdotes that highlight controversies in the items above. This is the best part of the article.

For me, I get the sense that it’s generally about business, and [...]