Is There a Claudicating Elephant in the Room?

The cost of cancer care: there is more than one elephant in the room.

In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Dr. Eagle reflects on the cost of cancer care, initially focusing on the magnitude of the problem, followed by a discussion of its causes. Recognizing that the cost of oncology drugs is not the only elephant in the room when addressing the costs of cancer care, Dr. Eagle appropriately points out that “provision of more aggressive care by physicians, the prolongation o...

Elephant in the Room

The ‘Elephant in the Room’

More than two decades ago, during one of the annual AUA conferences, I was engaged in an interesting conversation with the eminent and visionary Professor Mohamed Ghoneim. During our discussion, I asked him very pointedly why a prominent institution such as the Urological Institution of Mansoura – which at that time was the only institute offering several urological subspecialties as an integra...

The elephant in the room

W ith few exceptions, the amount of money that countries invest into research has stagnated or declined in real value measured against inflation or has even been slashed in absolute terms. The result is that success rates for grant applications have decreased to 10% or below in some countries, which means that scientists need to submit an average of ten proposals to have one funded. This forces...

The elephant in the room.

oximetry 85% for 30 s or longer) in 67 children with a higher incidence by a factor of 2 in those whose anesthesiologist did not have the oximeter data available. These studies suggested that the oximeter allowed early recognition and intervention, thus preventing a minor desaturation event from progressing to a major desaturation event. We also found a higher incidence of these major desaturat...