Genomics
Reuters (3/19, Seaman) reports that according to a research letter published online March 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine, 49% of US adults appear to profess belief in a medical conspiracy theory. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after analyzing online survey data from some 1,351 adults, then weighting the data to make it representative of the US population as a whole. Examples of some of the medical conspiracies people believe in include the following: The US government is not acting on definitive information that cell phones cause cancer; autism is caused by vaccines; the population is being shrunk by genetically modified organisms, and water fluoridation is a method by which corporate entities are releasing hazardous chemicals into the environment. Time (3/19, Arrouas) also covers the story.
Published: Mar 12, 2014
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- An FDA advisory committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the Pap smear be replaced with a human papillomavirus (HPV) test as the first-line standard of care for cancer screening. The FDA's Medical Devices Advisory Committee Microbiology Panel agreed by a vote of 13-0 in each of three successive votes that the cobas viral DNA test for HPV -- made by Roche Molecular Systems -- was safe and effective for cervical cancer screening, and that the benefits of the tests outweighed the risks. The cobas test currently has approval as a follow-up assessment for women 21 and older who have abnormal Pap tests, and as a co-test with the Pap smear to screen for the high-risk p16 and p18 HPV strains in women 30 to 65. The test comprises genotyping for HPV16 and 18 and pooled assessment of 12 additional high-risk HPV strains. According to the proposal submitted by Roche, women 25 and older who test positive for HPV16 or 18 would proceed directly to colposcopy for further assessment.
Only about half (53%) of more than 500 primary care practices reported having nurse practitioners or physician assistants, and a quarter (24%) had care managers or coordinators, Deborah Peikes, PhD, of Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, N.J., and colleagues wrote in the Annals of Family Medicine. A mere 7% reported having pharmacists, social workers, community service coordinators, health educators, or nutritionists. Peikes DN, et al "Staffing patterns of primary care practices in the Comprehensive primary care initiative" Ann Fam Med 2014; DOI: 10.1370/afm.162.