The waterfall is dead..

The brain is not dead when the cortex is dead.

To the Editor: In a recent issue of Critical Care Medicine, with interest we read the article by Dhanani et al (1), concerning vital signs after circulatory arrest following withdrawal of lifesustaining therapy. The article has timely given the persistent controversy regarding criteria of death in circulatory death organ donors. How many minutes after circulatory arrest can we consider the pati...

Is the EMR dead?

Converting to an electronic medical record (EMR) has been the health care system's collective goal for decades. Hundreds of EMRs have been developed during the last 30 years, but the likelihood of a patient having a largely electronic medical record in the near future remains slim. Adoption has been slow, and the physician time required to enter data is still daunting. And related technologies,...

The Autopsy Is Dead

In 1965, Abbiss asked the question if the autopsy was dead. (1) 45 years later, we again find ourselves challenged by the very same notion. The autopsy was previously the focus of modern medicine, playing a crucial role in the discovery, characterization and understanding of the pathological processes of diseases. The autopsy was at the heart of medical research, education and professional deve...

The TPP Is Dead, Long Live the TPP? A Response to Recent Commentaries

The Postmortem Is Not Dead

I am very conscious, ladies and gentlemen, of the honour and responsibility you have conferred on me by asking me to be your president and I shall try to discharge my duties to the best of my ability. I suspect that every president since 1874 has found that his most difficult task is his first one that of addressing you at the annual general meeting. He has, of course, known for a year that he ...