Good News for Coffee Drinkers

This week’s New England Journal of Medicine reported a study of 5, 148,760 person-years that showed “coffee consumption was inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality.” Drink up!

Noninvasive testing for paternity in pregnancy

A recent letter in the NEJM describes a noninvasive test to determine paternity in pregnancy. (N Engl J Med 366; 18 May 3, 2012 page 1743.) 5% of raped women become pregnant, but whether the rape or consensual intercourse caused the pregnancy is often uncertain. 80% of unintended pregnancies are terminated before 10 weeks, making it likely many rape victims terminate pregnancies before testing for paternity. The invasive tests carry a risk of miscarriage, but here the authors report a maternal blood test that in correctly determined paternity in all 30 cases studied. 

The Masters on Easter was a curious juxtaposition.

Maureen Dowd contrasts the inclusionary message of the Jesus story with the exclusionary nature of the Augusta National Golf Club.

( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/dowd-what-would-jesus-do-at-the-masters.html?_r=1&ref=maureendowd )

Another great read for "kids" of all ages:

Something to chew on...

If you happen to be a fan of Carl Hiassen (or not), try his latest book for kids of all ages. 

  

It's a fun read. I even laughed out loud!

Human Genome Mapping

It took 3 billion dollars and 10 years to sequence the human genome, and now it looks like later this year it’ll cost about a $1000 and can be done in a matter of weeks. Smaller portions will be even cheaper and faster. (You can find out your mongrel dog’s breed mix for $60 dollars in 2 weeks.) A huge amount of information is accessible and maybe a computer can handle it, but I worry that these “advances” may move doctors farther away from the patient.

Sharing medical research results

The National Institutes of Health spend more than 3 billion dollars a year on clinical trials, yet sharing the results doesn’t happen in a timely fashion, if at all. According to researcher Joseph S. Ross, 54% of the studies are unpublished 30 months after completion and 33% remain so after 51 months. The NIH doesn’t require publication, so Ross suggests this change: withhold a final percentage of the current grant and any future grants until the studies are published. Sounds like a plan. What do you think?