Medicine’s history is often portrayed as a sequence of discoveries, all made in laboratories. In fact, though, the biggest changes in US medicine over the last 200 years were propelled by forces beyond medicine, specifically, in media. How medicine’s stakeholders communicated in different eras — in formats including medicine shows, newspapers, cars, telephones, medical journals, and TVs — determined what, and how much, was communicated. Where information flows, medicine follows: now social media, biomonitors and AI are ushering in a new age, one of patient generated medicine.
Category Archives: History
Why aren’t n-of-1 experiments already common for chronic conditions?
Because many treatments’ effects vary depending on the individual, some researchers argue that effectiveness should be evaluated per patient. Yet a simple evaluation protocol that’s been tested and refined for 30 years, called an n-of-1 trial, is rarely used. Why?
Why the name (and question mark)?
In the spring of 2019, we had been talking for nearly a year about building a software toolkit to help automate what many people already do informally—track symptoms and statistically evaluate the effects of various treatments. As the idea started to jell, we started casting about for names for the toolkit. Though there are a […]
0) Two times Fitbit didn’t save my life
Like most of my Saturdays, October 6, 2018 began with an extra-large coffee laced with plenty of cream.
