The Stroke Robot Will See You Now – Mayo Clinic Video

Mayo Clinic — April 30, 2010 — Imagine this: you're eating dinner with your family and suddenly your left arm feels numb. Your speech is slurred. It could be a stroke, so you've got to get to the hospital fast. But what if your hospital doesn't have a stroke specialist or what if that doctor is out of town? The answer may be telemedicine. Doctors at Mayo Clinic are using a telemedicine robot that allows them to be face to face with patients who are miles away.

Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook.


Blood Puddle Pillows

Blood Puddle Pillow by Keetra Dean Dixon

Blood Puddle Pillow by Keetra Dean Dixon

Blood Puddle Pillow by Keetra Dean Dixon

Have you ever passed out from pure exhaustion and felt dead to the world? Well this is a perfect pillow for such occasions. Created by FromKeetra, the pillows average a size of 16″ x 16″ and are made from silk velvet and batting.

Here’s what they have to say about their creation:

The pillows are inspired by those suspenseful moments when a sleeping loved one is a little too still for a little too long. Using an irreverent combination of comfort & fear the pillows parallel sleep & death. Project goal: taking ownership of morbidly intrusive thoughts through humor & play.

[spotted by Ryan Gerdes]

Artist Zoe Beloff Returns to Observatory with "Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing, Monday, November 29th




Next Monday, November 29th, Morbid Anatomy favorite artist Zoe Beloff--she of the unforgettable hysteria theaters and last years installation at the Coney Island Musuem on the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society--will be returning to Observatory to deliver an illustrated lecture based on her newest publication Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer. Books will also be available for sale and signing.

Images from said publication above; full details below. Hope to see you there!

Albert Grass Adventures of a Dreamer: An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Zoe Beloff
Date: Monday, November 29th

Time: 8:00 PM

Admission: $5


“Adventures of a Dreamer” is a hand-drawn prototype for a comic book, that appears to have been created by Albert Grass, founder of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1930’s. It seems possible that he originally intended “The Dreamer ” to be hero in the mold of “The Spirit”, or even “Superman” with extraordinary powers but this conception quickly changed. By episode three “The Dreamer” looses his ability to fly, landing on the ground with a loud “ouch!”. He remains earthbound and the work becomes a more serious investigation into his own psychic life.

Many of Albert Grass’ anxieties speak directly to us today. He suffered the aftereffects of a brutal war. He worried about his neighbors being evicted. He felt the guilt of an artist who feels he should be more deeply engaged in a struggle for social justice. Previously unpublished, this facsimile edition makes available for the first time what appears to be an early attempt to use the language of the comic book to graphically manifest the unconscious.

Zoe Beloff is an artist who elides the roles of archivist and creator. Her work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Known for her multimedia installations incorporating film and video, Beloff aims to connect the present with the past and to call into question the assumed boundaries between historical fact and creative interpretation. In celebration of the centennial of Sigmund Freud’s visit to Coney Island in 1909, Beloff resurrected the world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder, Albert Grass. Beloff’s publications include The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle and The Somnambulists: A Compendium of Source Material.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can find out more about Zoe Beloff and her work by clicking here. You can find out more about Albert Grass The Adventures of a Dreamer--and purchase a copy!--by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Help Keep "Oddities" on the Air!


"Oddities," Morbid Anatomy's new favorite television program, is in danger! Below is a plea from Mike Zohn, co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, the antique shop which is at the center of this new and wonderful Discovery Channel reality show:

Fans of Oddities...We need your help.....First, thank you for all the kind words and all. We appreciate all of it. It seems that for some reason Discovery has not run any TV ads for our show. Our ratings have been OK, but most people don't know there are 2 episodes back to back...and many more don't even know about the show. Seems it might be hard to build an audience and a following without some TV advertising......

So, what can you do to help?

  • You can watch! Oddities airs on the Discovery Channel on Thursday nights, from 8-9 PM; At 8:00 PM, catch a screening of last week's episode; stay tuned for a new episode at 8:30.
  • Lodge a complaint to Discovery Channel asking for commercials and better promotion! You can do so (as I just did!) by clicking here.
  • Spread the word; if you like the show, tell your friends!
  • "Friend" them on Facebook! This is also a great way to keep apprised of the latest "Oddities" and shop information. You can find them on Facebook by clicking here.
  • Come to our "Oddities" screening party on December 9th at 8:00 PM! You can find out more details about that by clicking here or here.

Thanks everyone for your help in saving this new and wonderful television show!

Upcoming Observatory Double Feature "Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante" and the Music of Helen Gillet, Monday, November 22


Next Monday at Observatory, Paradiso Contapasso presents a fantastic double feature: the haunting cello music of New Orleans-based Helen Gillet followed by an illustrated lecture about Dante's trip to hell and back by medievalist Nicola Masciandaro. All for just $5.

The music begins at 7 and the lecture at 8.

Full details below; hope to see you there!

A Paradiso Contapasso Double Feature:
Beyond the Sphere: Getting Lost with Dante and the Music of Helen Gillet
An illustrated lecture with professor of medieval literature Nicola Masciandaro preceded by the a performance by Helen Gillet
Date: Monday, November 22
Time: 7:00 for music; 8:00 for lecture
Admission to both: $5

Everyone knows that Dante went to hell and back. “Non vedi tu come egli ha la barba crespa e il color bruno per lo caldo e per lo fummo che è là giù?” [Do you not see how his beard is crisped and his color browned by the heat and smoke that this there below?], a lady is reported by Boccaccio to have said upon seeing the poet in Verona.

The underworld is written all over the author’s image. In many circles, from video game consoles to college lecture halls, the Divine Comedy is virtually synonymous with Inferno. The “Paradiso Contrapasso” concept presents a liberation from this stygian fixation. A contamination of paradise with the essential principal of divine punishment? A saturation of eternal torment with celestial, empyreal bliss? Or maybe something more radical than either. The damnation and perdition of the very idea of paradise? Or a penalty that would itself comprise it?

The word paradise, from ancient Persian, signifies an enclosed or walled garden. The divine punishment of paradise might then be imagined as the annihilation of its constitutive boundary, an exposure of the garden to what is beyond it. Does paradise disappear? Or does everything become a paradise?

Tonight’s lecture will take this theme as an invitation to read Dante as a radically paradisical poet, one for whom the original and ultimate state of being is never somewhere else, before or after, but is something that must always, and precisely in its absence, always be here.

Nicola Masciandaro is Associate Professor of English at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and a specialist in medieval literature.

To find out more about the lecture, click here; to find out more about the music of Helen Gillet, click here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Reading and Book Signing: "Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children," Stanley Burns of the Burns Archive


Tonight, at the Merchant's House Museum, as part of the exhibition “Memento Mori: The Birth and Resurrection of Postmortem Photography" blogged about recently here:

Wednesday, November 17, 7 p.m.
Reading: Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children
Merchant's House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, New York, NY 10003
The Museum is located between Lafayette Street and Bowery
Free, space is limited.

Dr. Stanley Burns of The Burns Archive will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today, and sign copies of his latest book in the renowned Sleeping Beauty series. A reception to meet the author will follow.

To RSVP Call 212-777-1089

To read more about postmortem photography at The Burns Archive click here.

Stay tunes for a similar event Morbid Anatomy Presents event at Observatory sometime in the new year!

Image: ©2010 The Burns Archive, found here.

5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest, Tuesday, December 7, The Bell House, Brooklyn


This just announced: the 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest is scheduled (December 7th at the Bell House) and is seeking contestants! Eligible entries include (in the words of thepress release) "taxidermy (bought, found, or homemade), biological oddities, articulated skeletons, skulls, jarred specimens—and beyond, way beyond..."

To add to the excitement, this year, our friend Mike Zohn--Obscura Antiques and Oddities co-proprietor, new reality show celebrity, and 2007's Carnivorous Nights champion will be a judge and speaker.

Full details follow; so enter away, and hope to see you there, either on stage or in the audience!

The Secret Science Club's 5th-Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest
Date: Tuesday, December 7
Time: 8 PM
Location: The Bell House
(149 7th St., between 2nd and 3rd avenues in Gowanus, Brooklyn)

The The beasts are back!
Calling all science geeks, nature freaks, and rogue geniuses!

Your stuffed squirrel got game? Got a beaver in your brownstone? Bring your beloved beast to the Bell House and enter it to win at the 5th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest.

Eligible for prizes: Taxidermy (bought, found, or homemade), biological oddities, articulated skeletons, skulls, jarred specimens—and beyond, way beyond

Plus!
--Spectators are invited to cheer on their favorite specimens
--Groove to taxidermy-inspired tunes & video
--Imbibe ferocious specialty drinks!
--Prizes will be awarded by our panel of savage taxidermy enthusiasts!

Entrants: Contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com to pre-register. Share your taxidermy (and its tale) with the world!

Don't miss this beastly event on Tuesday, December 7, 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

More here. The image you see above is the Pope Mouse by Mouse Angel/Jeanie M. You can purchase your very own Pope Mouse--or Angel, or Punker Rocker, or Mousealope, or Hamlet (!) at The Morbid Anatomy Library; click here or email me here for details.

Image credit: The wonderful blog Crappy Taxidermy.

‘The Night of the Hunter’ New Deluxe Criterion Edition




News alert! Just in time for Christmas, Criterion--God bless them--has released a deluxe, 2-DVD edition of Charles Laughton's 1955 unparalleled masterwork--and Morbid Anatomy film favorite--The Night of the Hunter.

Director Charles Laughton memorably and accurately described The Night of the Hunter as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale," and that it is. Starring film-noir bad boy Robert Mitchum in a much imitated performance as an evil preacher with "love" and "hate" tattooed on his knuckles (see top image), a slightly depressing Shelley Winters, and a late-career star turn by silent film mega-star Lilian Gish (see bottom image), the films is by turns hallucinatory, menacing, and darkly comic, but always lyrically beautiful at the same time. It is truly its own thing entirely; I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

The new Criterion edition supplements the film itself with an archival interview with the film's cinematographer Stanley Cortez, a 2 1/2-hour making-of documentary, and interviews with a variety of critics and scholars.

To read a really wonderful article about the history of this remarkable, influential, and idiosyncratic film, click here. Click here to purchase the Criterion Edition of Night of the Hunter from Amazon.com. To purchase same in Blu-ray, click here.

Thanks so much, Megan, for letting me know about this!!

Image credits: Image one, from the LA Times article "A Second Look: 'The Night of the Hunter'"; other images from The Horror Digest.

An Autumnal Interlude: The Inimitable Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx






We in New York have been enjoying the last unseasonably warm days of a spectacular autumn. In my opinion, there is simply no better place to enjoy the autumn colors in the area than in the "400 acres of rolling lawns, spectacular trees and impressive memorials" that comprise the epic Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

You can find out more about this fantastic cemetery--founded in 1863--by clicking here. You can see more photos--all of which I took on a visit my boyfriend and I made last Sunday--by clicking here, and can see larger version by clicking on the images.

"Oddities” Marathon and Party, Observatory, December 9th, 8:00 PM


We at Morbid Anatomy are very very excited to announce an upcoming viewing party for our new favorite television series, "Oddities," which you might recall from this flurry of recent posts (1, 2, 3).

For those who have not yet heard about this somewhat surprising manifestation of a burgeoning popular interest in curiosities and the macabre: "Oddities," which premiered a few weeks ago, is a new Discovery Channel-based reality show documenting the day to day life of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Morbid Anatomy's favorite purveyor of curious artifacts in New York's East Village. The series "stars" friends, proprietors, and Observatory regulars Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn, as well as old friend Ryan Mathew, and follows their adventures and travails as they pursue artifacts for the shop, research provenance and history of objects, and interact with their collector clientèle.

The "Oddities” Marathon and Party event--which will take place on Thursday, December 9th at Observatory--will feature a three episode marathon of the program, special drinks, a DJed after party, and prizes and give-ways throughout the night. Members of the "cast" will also be available for questions and comments.

You can see some clips (recommended!) and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here.

Full details follow. Very much hope to see you there!

"Oddities” Marathon and Party
A three-episode marathon of the new television series Oddities, with give-aways, special drinks, surprise guests, and after party

Date: Thursday, December 9

Time: 8:00

Admission: $5

Presented by Morbid Anatomy

On Thursday, December 9, you are cordially invited to join Morbid Anatomy and Observatory as we celebrate the new television series based on our favorite purveyor of curious and amazing artifacts, Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York City’s East village.

The evenings festivities will include–as a special treat for those of us without cable–a screening of the first three episodes of Oddities, which will reveal, to the discerning eye, an assortment of familiar Observatory faces, including former lecturers Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn as well as a variety of members of the wider Observatory community. There will also be special drinks, a DJed after party, surprise guests, and prizes and give-ways throughout the night. Members of the cast will also be available for questions and comments.

To find out more about the show, check out http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/oddities.

Hope very much to see you there!

To find out more about the event, click here. You can see some clips and find out more about "Oddities" by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Are you an entrepreneur? A job seeker? Where are your major hurdles coming from?

A big hello to everyone. It has been a while since I have posted, but I am hoping to post more in the coming week. Remember, it is both the National Diabetes Month and the National Lung Cancer Month. More on this later. Last week, I fell behind my email and everything else, as it seems common nowadays.

A video on jobs - on or off topic?

Combing through and cleaning up, I came across an interesting video. I am not sure how accurate it is, and I am not sure if it is on-topic or off-topic. Personally, I feel that there are some lessons to be learned here, for any kind of entrepreneur, or for folks who are interested in real social change and not simply "mob by association".

First, the video

To preface, this video is very cynical and the Southern drawl appears to be accentuated to the point of entertainment, but the video provides you with examples ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, talking about how local and state governments hinder start-ups and the creation of jobs!

Watch it here:

Some thoughts for the entrepreneur

1. Let's go with my golden rule. Do not believe or trust anyone wholeheartedly. There are too many organizations out there that are extremely politicized.

2. As an entrepreneur, you can sit there and wish that all the paperwork and regulations would go away. However, you need to think in terms of what you can do in the near future and over time. In the near future, as you burn through precious, yet limited resources, you should make sure your success is not impeded by bureaucracy.

If you have a choice of location, then try to find out where you can locate your organization. If not, focus on working within your region's legal maze.

Get help, not rhetoric

Starting up? In most places, you are not alone. You can choose what you will have - rhetoric or real help. Nowadays, I see hundreds of formal and informal organizations crop up everywhere - ranging from meaningful non profits to informal online groups. Not all the advise you hear is right, relevant or good, but you can filter through the messages with enough effort. I have posted about a couple in the past and as and when I find relevant groups I will post them here. I am sure a web search will turn up more resources elsewhere as well.

3. The long term - what can you do?

Whether you succeed or fail, there is something that happens every 2 - 4 years (and if you are in other parts of the world, the message about bureaucracy still holds) - we call them elections. Make sure that you send a very clear message to your Congressperson, the state legislators, the mayors and councilors that your vote and the vote of like-minded entrepreneurs hinges on them making some real changes to "business as usual". This is so much better than empty rhetoric!

4. Who changes the world?

For every Gandhi (and yes, I have immeasurable respect for him) there are silent masses that followed them, motivated them and supplemented them to move the world forward. So it is indeed entrepreneurs and individual businesses that dictate change, not governments small or large or the parties that steal votes from them...so go out there and make those changes!

5. Read, read and read some more. This is the best way to keep yourself up to date on all that is going on around you - new law, new regulations and even stuff that people pull because they are insensitive to your difficulties. Since you are a small business owner, you don't have an army of lawyers to identify what affects you and what doesn't. So, prepare!

Reference:

http://ij.org/citystudies

The World Diabetes Day is here

November is Diabetes Awareness Month (incidentally, it is also the Lung Cancer Awareness Month) and this year, November 14th is the World Diabetes Day.

Diabetes, or originally Diabetes Mellitus derived it's name from the sweet taste of urine that was used as a diagnostic by the Romans. As a disease, it is no stranger to human civilization and has afflicted humans for a while now.

Type 1: As an autoimmune disease, Diabetes Type I, is inherently a disease where the body simply cannot produce insulin via the "islets of Langerhans" thus unable to produce enough energy needed for subsistence. This disease is more prevalent in young children and in adults. Through insulin therapies, this disease can be managed, but is debilitating nevertheless.

Type 2: Diabetes Type 2, typically has an adult onset. In this condition, the body is simply unable to produce enough insulin to convert sugar into energy, or the cells do not use the insulin as expected. Type 2 is the more prevalent form, has been diagnosed in 24 million Americans (an estimate upped form 21 million) and is expected to afflict more people, who are probably simply unaware of it. In countries like India, and among Indians everywhere it has reached epidemic proportions as well.

Some of the causes include unhealthy life styles, eating and working habits and so on. People with rice based diets of Asian origin appear to be afflicted by this disease more often.

Type 3: Is there a type 3? New research has shown that a certain number of children with Type 1 Diabetes also show tendencies for Diabetes Type 2. This is a risky condition and thus, even though it has been statistically delineated, has been assigned it's own category. The "double diabetes" as it is known is attributed to patients being overweight and a general lack of awareness.

Apart from this, gestational diabetes refers to the onset of diabetes during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes may then prolong throughout the mother's lifetime and can become Type 2 diabetes at that point.

Awareness

The biggest gap, when it comes to diabetes stems form a lack of awareness. Diabetes would be diagnosed in a lot more people if only they were made aware of diabetes and the symptoms and the predispositions.

One has to remember that people with diabetes Type 2 may not even have the symptoms sometimes. Please refer to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) website for a list of symptoms to watch out for either type of diabetes:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/symptoms/

You should consider taking a Diabetes Risk Test:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/diabetes-risk-test/

The World Diabetes Day website also lists some risk factors:

http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/the-campaign/diabetes-education-and-prevention/diabetes-risk-factors

You should also look at some of the warning signs here:

http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/the-campaign/diabetes-education-and-prevention/diabetes-warning-signs

TuDiabetes:

My friends at TuDiabetes ( http://www.tudiabetes.org ) a non-profit organization focused on Diabetes Awareness, Actions and other Campaigns have a video for you!

Biodetoxification of toxins generated from lignocellulose pretreatment using a newly isolated fungus, Amorphotheca resinae ZN1, and the consequent ethanol fermentation

Background:
Degradation of the toxic compounds generated in the harsh pretreatment of lignocellulose is an inevitable step in reducing the toxin level for conducting practical enzymatic hydrolysis and ethanol fermentation processes. Various detoxification methods have been tried and many negative outcomes were found using these methods, such as the massive freshwater usage and wastewater generation, loss of the fine lignocellulose particles and fermentative sugars and incomplete removal of inhibitors. An alternate method, biodetoxification, which degrades the toxins as part of their normal metabolism, was considered a promising option for the removal of toxins without causing the above problems.
Results:
A kerosene fungus strain, Amorphotheca resinae ZN1, was isolated from the microbial community growing on the pretreated corn stover material. The degradation of the toxins as well as the lignocelluloses-derived sugars was characterized in different ways, and the results show that A. resinae ZN1 utilized each of these toxins and sugars as the sole carbon sources efficiently and grew quickly on the toxins. It was found that the solid-state culture of A. resinae ZN1 on various pretreated lignocellulose feedstocks such as corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw, cotton stalk and rape straw degraded all kinds of toxins quickly and efficiently. The consequent simultaneous saccharification and ethanol fermentation was performed at the 30% (wt/wt) solid loading of the detoxified lignocellulosic feedstocks without a sterilization step, and the ethanol titer in the fermentation broth reached above 40 g/L using food crop residues as feedstocks.
Conclusions:
The advantages of the present biodetoxification by A. resinae ZN1 over the known detoxification methods include zero energy input, zero wastewater generation, complete toxin degradation, processing on solid pretreated material, no need for sterilization and a wide lignocellulose feedstock spectrum. These advantages make it possible for industrial applications with fast and efficient biodetoxification to remove toxins generated during intensive lignocellulose pretreatment.

Liver diseases identified as Europes silent killers

LIVER diseases have become a silent killer in Europe, and are now responsible for more than one in six deaths in the European Union.

More than 10 million people in the region suffer from viral hepatitis alone but many of them will not even be aware of it, according to medical experts.

The European association for the study of the liver want the European Union to launch a public awareness campaign especially about viral hepatitis.

Professor Jean-Michel Pawlotsky told members of the European Parliament yesterday that viral hepatitis is one of the most common and lift-threatening communicable diseases in Europe, and yet it seems to have been forgotten by governments.

"It has become a silent killer because of the large and increasing number of individuals who carry hepatitis B or C, but have not been tested and are so unaware of their condition.

"Without treatment, viral hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death," he said.

The condition should be recognised as an urgent health priority with awareness campaigns, primary prevention measures, earlier diagnosis and better management of the disease, said Prof Pawlotsky. Read more...

Blood sugar levels, Healthy blood

Vitamins and Good Sense

By Bernadine Healy M.D.
Posted 3/4/07

Vitamin studies always seem to stir controversy, but certainly not visions of death. On that score, last week's report on antioxidant vitamins, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was a doozy. The researchers concluded that people taking the antioxidants vitamins A, its precursor beta carotene, and vitamin E, for whatever reason, at whatever dose, and for however long, may be putting their lives in jeopardy. But before you toss out your vitamin pills, let's examine this alarmist study a little bit closer.

Researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital set out to determine whether the antioxidant supplements lengthen one's life. That's difficult to answer, since most people taking vitamins are healthy. So the researchers identified antioxidant clinical trials large and small, as long as they reported at least one death. Any death counted, whether from heart disease or cancer, kidney failure or hip fractures, murders or suicides. Out of 747 antioxidant trials reviewed, 68 met the bill. Then, in what is called a meta-analysis, the 68 trials were combined into what is effectively one study. Read more...

Diet detox , detox patch , kidney detox

Malpractice Fears Can Influence Medical Practice

(HealthDay News) -- Peer pressure and fear of malpractice lawsuits seem to be behind the decisions by some doctors to order unnecessary cardiac catheterizations, new research suggests.

When asked in a national survey why they might order this potentially hazardous procedure that measures blood flow to the human heart, even when it might not be called for clinically, the top two reasons that cardiologists around the country gave were the fact that other doctors do it routinely and that patients might sue if the test wasn't done.

"We didn't say unnecessary," noted study author Frances Lee Lucas, an epidemiologist with the Maine Medical Center in Portland, whose report was published in the April 13 online edition of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. "We said how often for non-clinical reasons. We didn't want to say unnecessary because we knew nobody would ever say they ordered an unnecessary test."

The study of 598 cardiologists didn't attempt to determine the number of catheterizations performed that weren't really needed -- an important issue in an era of rising worry about medical costs. That would be a very difficult study to do, and it would have to include errors in both directions, people who need one and don't get it as well as people who get one and don't need it, Lucas said. Read more...

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