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In
physicians we trust: Britons
LONDON, UK —
A new survey found a whopping 92% of British citizens
trust doctors to tell the truth — by far the biggest
vote of confidence given to any occupation. However,
some may question the impartiality of the survey as
it was commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians.
The respondents chose teachers and professors as the
second and third most trusted professions respectively.
Journalism and politics were voted the most suspect
professions, with each eliciting the trust of only one
in five respondents. The survey asked 2,074 adults to
rate the trustworthiness of workers in 19 different
occupations.
NHS
ethics board's about-face
LONDON, UK —
Almost a year to the day after the first face transplant
was performed in France, a British surgeon has been
given the green light to perform the procedure. One
year ago, Isabelle Dinoire made history when she received
a new face at Amiens University Hospital, after being
mauled by her dog. Last month Ms Dinoire told the BBC
she's doing well and called the operation "a miracle."
Plastic surgeon Peter Butler, of London's Royal Free
Hospital, is "delighted" at the opportunity to perform
the controversial operation. He says his first patient
has not yet been selected, but that he and his team
have been approached by over 30 people seeking the procedure.
Babes'
locks tattle on meth mums
TORONTO —
Canadian researchers have developed a new test to determine
if a newborn's mother used methamphetamine during pregnancy,
which could harm the baby's development, by examining
the infant's hair. Researchers from Toronto's Hospital
for Sick Children published the study in the November
issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal and
Neonatal Edition. They tested hair samples from
8,000 mother-newborn pairs, revealing a frightening
trend: in 2003, they found six instances of meth transmission;
that number rose to over 300 in the span of just two
years. What's more, the authors noted these mothers
surely knew they were pregnant when they were using
meth because a fetus' hair only begins to grow in the
final trimester.
Healthcare
costs levelling off
OTTAWA —
According to a report released this month by the Canadian
Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Canada's healthcare
spending for the coming year is projected to rise 5.7%.
That is more slowly than it did last year (6.5%), and
the five years before that (an average of 7% annually).
As with most else, however, that projected spending
is not distributed evenly among the provinces: per capita,
Alberta spends the most at an average of $3,315 and
Quebec spends the least, just $2,581. Physician services
account for about one fifth of the nation's healthcare
costs.
Tax-funded
CAM studies waste $$
NEW YORK —
Evidence-based research on complementary and alternative
medicine (CAM) is an expensive exercise in futility,
argues Dr Robert Bazell, PhD, chief medicine and science
correspondent for US network NBC, in a scathing online
editorial. He argues the proof is in the overwhelmingly
poor track record of CAM therapies in studies done under
the auspices of the National Institutes of Health's
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which
has a $122 million US annual budget. Just recently the
NIH labs added the popular anti-aging supplement DHEA
to the cavalcade of discredited nostrums.
Shock
jock accuses Back to the Future star of Parkinson's
fakery
JEFFERSON CITY,
MO — The stem cell debate in the US got
ugly late last month when radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh
accused Canadian-born actor and Parkinson's sufferer
Michael J Fox of playing up his symptoms in a political
ad. In TV commercials, a trembling Mr Fox urged voters
to elect pro-stem cell research congressional Democratic
candidates so a cure for Parkinson's could be found.
"It's purely an act," said Mr Limbaugh. The staunch
Republican, who is against stem cell research, was famously
forced to publicly deal with his own health problems
a few years ago when he admitted he was addicted to
painkillers and was later convicted of doctor shopping
to get his fix.
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