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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Ayurgenomics”: The return of woo-omics

Every so often, I come across something in the world of woo that leaves my jaw dangling from its joint in utter astonishment that anyone could think such a thing was a good idea. Sometimes these things are investigations into various paranormal phenomena. Sometimes, it’s the latest anti-science denialist screed from a creationist. Other times, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Evolution Medicine Science

The return of the Medical Hypotheses anti-vaccine howler

When it rains it pours, as they say. Yes, sometimes there’s so much going on that I can’t possibly blog about it all, particularly now that I’ve cut back a bit. This week seems to be turning into one of those weeks. Yesterday, I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with the grande dame […]

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Clinical trials History Homeopathy Medicine

Echoes of Semmelweis

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve been a physician for 23 years now and a fully trained surgeon for over 15 years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in that time, it’s most doctors really, really don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t know if part of it comes from […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

Six medical “myths” that aren’t

I usually don’t do requests, at least not very often. As selfish as it might sound, I do this blog mainly to amuse myself, which means that I choose whatever topics interest me and write about them. Believe it or not, I’d probably still be doing this even if my readership were 1/100 of what […]

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Clinical trials Medicine

How not to predict the outcome of clinical trials

Yesterday, I came across a concept that I had never considered before (or even heard of before). In fact, it’s a concept that took me by surprise. Basically, it’s an application of a concept to a problem that I never considered applying the concept to before–probably with very good reason. Basically, it’s a guy named […]