The paper by Darby and others published March 14th 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine has caused a firestorm of media coverage. The authors report on over 900 women who had been treated for breast cancer in Scandinavia who suffered a major coronary event and compared them with over twelve hundred control individuals. The Swedish women were treated between 1958 and 2001, the Danish women 1977 to 2000. The authors concluded that the risk…
Cancer survival rates are increasing in the US. The American Cancer Society reported recently that by 2022 the number of survivors will soar to almost 18 million, up from 13 million in 2010. In my field, breast cancer, death rates have been decreasing since 1990. A 25% increase in the number of breast cancer survivors between 2010 and 2020 is predicted. These figures mean that those who have been diagnosed with and treated for cancer are living…
Guest Post by Heather Smith Author Bio Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to hire a nanny by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can…
The article by Dr. Pauline Chen in the New York Times on trainee physicians work hours prompted my memory of my own call extravaganza. As an intern on the heart surgery service I shared the workload with two other interns, David and Rick (all names have been changed). The service was a busy one, one of the busiest in the city. That Monday morning in 1987, David signed out to us at 6am before leaving for a weeklong vacation. Rick and I…
St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church, Troon, Scotland There are two churches I know celebrating anniversaries in 2012. They are entirely different in location, size and age. St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church in Troon, on the windy west coast of Scotland, celebrates 100 years. Its red sandstone walls framed my christening, confirmation and early years of worship. In my earliest memories of it, I sat in the miniscule wicker children’s chairs when we…
We all worked with our hands, we just had different tools and worked on different materials, be it fabric, leather, or human tissue. Our basic tools, however, were a needle and thread. When I was growing up in Scotland, I remember studying my dad as he worked at his tailor’s bench. In the yellow light he bent over the fabric, lips pursed in concentration, dividing the tweed with huge shears. Around his neck was his measuring tape, by his…