News Round-Up, 6/28/07
Low birth defect risk from antidepressant use [Note: I haven't had a chance to read any of the studies mentioned in this post yet, so remain pleasantly skeptical]
Egypt strengthens ban on female genital cutting
Biggest study yet backs Glaxo cervical cancer shot
“Permanent makeup” can disfigure long term
C-section not linked to poorer infant health, although we’re reminded that this is not a go ahead for inappropriate use of the procedure.
Google has established a health advisory council. Kevin, MD thinks there aren’t enough medical bloggers or young people. Emergiblog and Pixel RN want to know where the nurses are. I want to know how a company trying to connect people to health information doesn’t bother to get a few medical librarians on board, given that’s our skillset, profession, and raison d’etre. It’s what we have master’s degrees in. It’s what we do every. single. day. Grrr. Bad Google. If you start a health advisory council and annoy the docs, nurses, and medlibs right away, how good a job have you done?
Update: more medical librarians are on Google’s case. Check out The Vital Library (“It seems that Google has a limited perception of who has a stake in and extensive experience with providing health information to the public.”), omg tuna is kewl, and UBC Academic Search – Google Scholar Blog (“Your stock among health librarians has plummeted today. Tut tut, Google Health.”). More as I find them. David Rothman, I’m looking at you for a good post on this.
The Well-Timed Period writes Your Doctor Owns You, a treatise on conscience clauses and how they affect women of reproductive age. Musings of a Dinosaur agrees.
Kevin, MD also lets us know that the 15-year-old who did a c-section (with his stupid parents’ permission) is on the run.
Veggie booty fan? FDA warns of salmonella risk.
Researcher looks for sexuality clues
The Blog That Ate Manhattan has a medblogger set of tips related to the NEJM’s pelvic exam instructions, and says, “7. The video recommends asking the patient is she wants a chaperone present. I would not ask – just have one there, especially if you are male. The second pair of hands is helpful as well.”
The CDC is talking some more about HPV vaccines.
Why most sunscreens don’t work (more on this later)
Via Feministing, Louisiana legislature approves late-term abortion ban with no health exception, an amendment to the immigration bill would’ve made immigrants’ legal status known to the feds if they reported domestic violence to local authorities, and a man gets lenient sentence for raping 10-year-old because she was dressed provacatively.
Judicial bypass for minors seeking abortion denied by Colorado courts
I have a post planned for next week about Google.
David, you know I had to poke you to write something on this one. All in good fun.
Thanks for mentioning me and the Vital Library! By the way, I’m still in library school, but I work as a reference professional in an academic, medical library.
Martha,
Sure! I thought you made a very good point.
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