Medical Thought Leaders

RSS

News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Obesity and breast cancer recurrence: an interview with Dr. Joseph Sparano

Breast cancer recurrence is a major problem after treatment of localized breast cancer. The risk of recurrence depends on several factors including the stage of presentation and the biology of the disease.

3 Sep 2012

The safety of trainee surgeons: an interview with Prof Calvin Coffey

Surgical training begins at an undergraduate medical student level where students are involved in operations to a minor degree, and educated using a combination of didactic and problem-based approaches.

31 Aug 2012

Glaucoma and cell death: an interview with Dr. Vivek Gupta

Glaucoma is normally caused by increased pressure of aqueous humour fluid in the eye. A defining feature of this disease is destruction of a particular type of cells in the retina called retinal ganglion cells and excavation of the optic disc region.

31 Aug 2012

Chronic nerve pain: an interview with Professor Sally Lawson

Chronic nerve pain results from pathological changes within a nerve that appear to be self-sustaining and thus the pain continues for a long time.

30 Aug 2012

Preventing falls in older people: an interview with Professor Lindy Clemson

We often think of tripping over a step edge or pathway obstruction but there can be a range of things that can contribute to a fall. One of the most common is that our ability to balance can be reduced. This means that we don’t recover from a trip and are at more of a risk of losing our balance.

29 Aug 2012

Herceptin® (trastuzumab) delivery methods: an interview with Dr Gustavo Ismael

Approximately 20% of all breast cancer patients have overexpression of HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), resulting in a more aggressive phenotype, and a poor prognosis.

28 Aug 2012

Cocoa and blood pressure: an interview with Dr Karin Ried

The compounds in cocoa responsible for blood pressure reduction are called flavanols or polyphenols. Flavanols are also found in green tea, dark berries or red wine.

24 Aug 2012

Chemotherapy during pregnancy: an interview with Professor Sibylle Loibl

The incidence is about 1-3% of all breast cancers. The incidence seems to be increasing due to women delaying their childbearing to when they are in their thirties.

22 Aug 2012

Affordable Care Act: an interview with Val J. Halamandaris, President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC)

The intent of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to provide all Americans with medical insurance. Thirty-five million additional people will be covered, in part by government premiums and in part by making it easier for them to buy their own insurance.

17 Aug 2012

Rhomboid enzymes and malaria treatment: an interview with Sinisa Urban

Rhomboid enzymes live in the cell’s membrane where their job is to cut the anchors of proteins, which releases the target proteins from the membrane.

16 Aug 2012

Malignant mesothelioma diagnosis with an E-nose: an interview with Associate Professor Deborah Yates, UNSW

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumor of the pleura which is the lining of the inside of the chest wall. It is highly linked with asbestos exposure.

16 Aug 2012

Early stage breast cancer in older women: an interview with Dr. Benjamin Smith

Early stage breast cancer in older women is a common problem. In the United States nearly half of women diagnosed with breast cancer are aged 65 or older. A sizeable proportion of those patients have early stage breast cancer.

15 Aug 2012

Medicine brand choices: an interview with Dr Lynn Weekes

In Australia, people will only be offered a choice when the brands are bioequivalent, meaning they contain the same active ingredient (i.e. the chemical in the medicine that makes it work) and have been proven to work the same in the body.

15 Aug 2012

Heartburn and cancer: an interview with Mindy Mintz Mordecai

What most of us think of as heartburn is a symptom of Reflux Disease or GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). It’s that burning discomfort an individual experiences when stomach acids and other fluids come back up into their esophagus.

14 Aug 2012

Schizophrenia and the immune system: an interview with Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert

Schizophrenia is the most disabling disease impacting youth today. It impacts 1% of the total population and typically causes withdrawal from society, loss in IQ, disordered thought and speech, hallucinations and delusions.

14 Aug 2012

Maternal obesity and neonatal death: an interview with Dr. Jenny Cresswell

It is important to say that levels of maternal obesity in sub-Saharan Africa are low by global standards, but obesity is projected to increase over the next two decades.

13 Aug 2012

Medical ethics: an interview with Anita Silvers

Medical ethics assists healthcare professionals to make decisions respectful of persons who happen to be their patients.

13 Aug 2012

Anemia prevention in pregnancy: an interview with Juan Pablo Peña-Rosas, WHO

Anaemia is a condition in which the number of red blood cells in the body is lower than normal or these have lower amounts of haemoglobin, a protein that is involved in the oxygen exchange of the body.

10 Aug 2012

Organ donation: an interview with David Shaw

Most donors die in intensive care units, frequently after car accidents. Once it is clear that recovery is out of the question, families will be told that further treatment is futile and the issue of donation can be sensitively raised.

9 Aug 2012