Esophageal perforations: one is bad, two is worse

Commentary: when bad news is worse than it sounds.

In their study of a quarter century’s worth of English deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease (CVD), Dr Asaria and colleagues have unearthed a trend that is worse than they report it to be. What is new in Asaria et al.’s article is the reported trend in geographical inequalities in suffering and dying from this disease. However, these authors succumb to a very common error at the start of ...

Medical Errors Disclosure: Is It Good or Bad?

Background: In the treatment and health process, there are a lot of dangers to patients, and the increased number of medical errors is one of the most important circumstances of this process. Objective: The present research purposed to decrease medical errors through disclosure of them in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. M...

Market failure is bad for your health but social injustice is worse.

Smith and Petticrew succinctly outline the challenges we face in evaluating the impact of public health interventions tackling social determinants: challenges driven by multiple agencies with varying and sometimes conflicting interests, complex causal pathways and outcomes that extend beyond health. Looking ahead they call for a new evaluation approach, one that focuses on the whole before it f...

Is esophageal atresia a natural way of fasting?

Fetal nicotine or cocaine exposure: which one is worse?

Despite extensive adverse publicity, tobacco use continues in approximately 25% of all pregnancies in the United States, overshadowing illicit drugs of abuse, including cocaine. The societal cost of maternal smoking is seen most readily in underweight newborns, in high rates of perinatal morbidity, mortality and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and in persistent deficits in learning and behavior. W...