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4 weeks ago | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Kasey M. Johnson |Arthur Lazarus |Michele Luckenbaugh
In past decades, physicians practiced medicine. The majority were dedicated to patient well-being. They were paternalistic and decided what was in their patients’ best interests, and patients generally trusted their judgments. In the 1970s, ethicists concluded that patients and clinicians should make treatment decisions jointly. This position has been championed since then, despite multiple surveys demonstrating that more than 50 percent of patients prefer their physicians to be the decision-makers.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Jacob Riegler |Oscar Chen |Sera Choi
Last September, NBC News aired a one-sided report on the arrangement between a county coroner and a medical school apropos the transfer of unclaimed corpses with reportedly inadequate effort to find family. In addition to a grieving family, an academic bioethicist was interviewed who expressed horror at the transfer procedure. The report did a disservice both to bioethics and to necessary medical training and research.
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Dec 21, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner
Recently, consumer articles heralded that blood tests for detecting Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) and many cancers were close to clinical availability. Given the narrow window in which AD must be diagnosed for present treatments to be effective, and questions regarding the utility of early cancer detection, will these tests provide any patient advantage? Presently, there are two medications to treat AD. Neither is curative, but they slow disease progress by about five months.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
bmj.com | M. Bennet Broner
Dear EditorHow does one reconcile this frequent consumption of dark chocolate as protective re. DM II, with admonitions from other respectable sources that advocate severely limiting their ingestion because of heavy metal content? I find it especially frustrating when talking or writing about nutrition and health, that for every positive statement about a food, there is an equally negative one, and it is difficult to balance these with the general public. M. Bennet Broner, PhD, MS
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Aaron Morgenstein |Amy Bissada |Jen Barna
According to the National Institutes of Health, the majority of individuals experience several traumatic events in their lifetimes, but do they all develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? If you question the general populace or the media, they would indicate that PTSD is extremely common. Although it varies by sub-population, for the general populace, 13 and above, the rate of diagnosed PTSD is 4 percent to 8 percent.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Janice Phillips |Katie Boston-Leary |Yoo Jung Kim
Eight female nurses at a United Kingdom hospital are suing their employer for not assuring their psychological and physical safety. The nurses work in specialized areas that require their changing uniforms once daily. There is a trans-female nurse, similarly specialized, who changes with them. He wanders about the locker room in briefs or nude, the women report, ogling them as they exchange clothing.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Paul Pender |George Mathew |Nina Cloven
I attended a workshop on developing equitable health information materials, emphasizing that people are more responsive to data when individuals of similar complexion and/or features are represented. This concept originated in education, where research indicated that youth learned better from teachers with similar characteristics, and it was subsequently extended to health care.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Martha Rosenberg |Susan Levenstein |Sean Jordan
Another recent correlational study on the relationship between talcum powder (TP) and female reproductive tract cancers was published. This research originated in the 1970s when gynecologists at one hospital noted that an unusually high number of women were experiencing these cancers. They reviewed medical records and, in looking at possible causative agents, noted that many of the affected women used TP.
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May 11, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Kristan Langdon |Timothy Lee |Leslie Gregory
There are frequent accusations against physicians and other health care professionals regarding their behavior and/or education: they cannot communicate, are misogynist, racist, and ageist, and are poorly educated, despite American physicians training longer than those in other developed countries. But are these complainants aiming at the most obvious, though not most significant, target?
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Mar 23, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | M. Bennet Broner |Hans Duvefelt |Nicholas S. Tito |L. Joseph Parker
A recent TV advertisement attempted to recruit clients for a class action suit against a pharmaceutical manufacturer (PM) for a medication side effect (SE). The “cause of action” was unstated: was it the side effect’s existence or that the company failed to emphasize its severity? The SE was acknowledged not only by the company but also the FDA, which nonetheless approved the medication (RX), determining that its benefits outweighed the side effect for a certain class of individuals.
