WeirdMedical™

Amazing, an actual website produced by the federal government that exposes those federally funded agencies’ programs that are at the extremes of the spectrum…either strong performers or huge disappointments.

The agency that ranks these programs is the U.S. OMB (Office of Management and Budget).

Net findings by the OMB? –> “20% of Federal programs are Not Performing.” see ExpectMore.gov

Our solution –> let’s shut down these programs immediately and create accountable programs that effectively fund education, infrastructure development, healthcare efficiency programs and comparative effectiveness research.

A few of our favorite poor performers:

1) Health Information Technology Research (AHRQ) -> Read more…

2) Office on Women’s Health -> Read more…

3) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology -> Read more…

…and these are just three out of 30 major poor performing programs managed by the Dept of Health & Human Service.

No wonder our U.S. healthcare system is bloated and ineffective. Where is the accountability?

Who of us in the medical industry would have the guts to give a neurosurgeon permission to have our infant’s brain glued?

According to the authors – “It was just a few months before the parents noticed Joley’s head was growing rapidly and was unusually larger than [her twin's] Jared’s . Her mother could see the tiny veins in Joley’s head bulging out from her scalp.”

…But crazy glue worked!

Image of glue in Ella-Grace Honeymans brain

Got to love N-butyl-cyanoacrylate…read more at HealthMad.com…

Welcome home to our Atlantis Space Shuttle and and the STS-132 mission crew!

Just over 10 hours ago Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, concluding its 32nd and last voyage as a space workhorse. According to NASA it went as “smooth as silk.”

Upon the routine arrival inspection, the shuttle is reported by NASA engineers to be in fine repair, after 25 years reported to have the capacity to easily double the miles it has already logged – 120 million miles. [Seattle PI.]

Space Shuttle Atlantis The Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed back to the Orbiter Processing Facility after landing on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Click picture.

This fact makes it all the more difficult to fathom. It is beyond weird that our space shuttle era is coming to a close, retiring Atlantis first, then Discovery and finally Endeavour at the end of this year.

These spacecraft, their mission teams and crews have allowed us to dream we are astronauts, exploring one of our last frontiers, or engineers, enabling that exploration.

Let our medical industry salute NASA’s vast team of astronauts, engineers, aerospace professionals and its supporting industry suppliers as the STS program winds down.

…and let’s give one more pitch to President Obama – to rethink retiring this program to wait until the mid-2030′s for the Mars program, else the loss of  yet anther critical national treasure further tarnishes our nation’s hope for the future.

Now this is a good use of our federal tax dollars…

In the northwestern reaches of Washington (D.C. that is) sits a museum that is a “must see” if you like the slightly off-taste, arcane, twisted and in some cases, down-right gross medical oddities. Visit the bricks and mortar “Roadside America of American medicine,” the National Museum of Health and Medicine, America’s oldest taxpayer-funded Cabinet of Curiosities near Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A row of little skeletons.

At the National Museum of Health and Medicine you can see precariously displayed and disturbingly barely described:

• hanging display of a complete brain and spine, suspended in liquid in an eerily lit glass cylinder
• girl’s head preserved in arsenic
• well-preserved hairball from the stomach of a 12-year old girl who compulsively ate her own hair
• skull with a huge civil war bullet buried in its frontal lobe
• and the list goes on…

To visit…virtually go to the RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Reporters or National Museum of Health and Medicine, or in real life visit:

6900 Georgia Avenue, Washington, DC

Hours:     M-F 10 am – 5:30 pm, Sa, Su, Hol call ahead

No kidding. This is for real – so when you go to the NMHM in D.C., tell them you want your tax dollars’ worth!

Be it a defibrillator or a MRI scanner, patients become increasingly more vulnerable to hackers each day…

According to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) April 1, 2010 article, “Improving the Security and Privacy of Implantable Medical Devices,”

“…medical devices vary widely with regard to security features, because no specific security guidance or requirements have “     been promulgated by the FDA. In the past, the agency has not viewed itself as a key contributor to the security of medical devices, noting that “the software engineering community, not the FDA, will dictate the solutions.” According to a 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office, the FDA has yet to develop a policy framework for the privacy and security of personal health information.”

Clearly as wireless connectivity becomes more widespread access to device controllers and software becomes even easier. Quoting the MD&DI’s “DeviceTalk” site summary of the NEJM article:

“Hackers could manipulate the technology to:

• Extract data
• Reprogram the devices
• Flood the devices with information to block incoming communication
• Drain a device’s batteries”

As U.S. federal law stands now, medical device manufacturers hold the sole legal responsibility for remaining alert to, aware of, and ready to act on security breeches. This responsibility is dictated by HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) although no guidelines for device controller or systems software are in place.

The authors of the above NEJM article, Drs. W. H. Maisel and T. Kohno, are urging the FDA to change its position on regulating devices systems software and for manufacturing companies’ software engineers to include security features during the design phase.

Read more…NEJM Article Authors: William H. Maisel, M.D., M.P.H. - Medical Device Safety Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; and Tadayoshi Kohno, Ph.D. – Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle.“

As the one of the more obscure U.S. holidays comes to a close…and with 6 more weeks of winter to endoure…

It is time we all learned more about…you guessed it…Punxsutawney Phil.

Yes, today was Groundhog Day Tuesday, and Phil saw his shadow! But did you know that this little guy is a huge American tradition? The Christian Science Monitor shares with us 5 little known facts about our little PA buddy:

1) Phil is immortal.

2) Phil’s about as accurate as your average meteorologist.

3) Phil’s got competition.

4) Phil’s gone high tech.

5) There’s no Groundhog Day in Alaska.

Hey…this post is fair game. We never promised consistent medical oddities but we always promised consistent weird.

Stay tuned for Fastnacht Day Tuesday – now that IS a medical condition waiting to happen!

Preclinicals – not for just rats, mice and pigs anymore…

Now, zebrafish…For the treatment of Insomnia researchers from Harvard have recently found a new surprising option to aid in therapy development.

Found in tropical regions, this fish proves a worthy test subject in either adult or larvae form. One interesting point noted by the researchers was that zebrafish generally show more relation to humans in sleep patterns than other animals. Also, zebrafish can be cheaply and quickly raised as test subjects. In all, the researchers found 463 sleep altering compounds in the fish, of which many resembled human characteristics.

Sleepy head:
Credit: Albert Pan and Alexander Schier

Having trouble sleeping? Oddly enough you may a sleep study with this fish!

Ready for a weird workout routine for 2010?

The Ross sisters have a weird ability. During the 1940s they performed a unique blend of  acrobatics and contortionism. While they have not performed in years, the Internet has brought them renewed interest with clips of their act appearing on YouTube. In their “Solid Potato Salad” clip they perform one of the most weird displays of motion one can imagine. Named Veda, Dixie, and Betsy Ann, these sisters may look alike but what may really add to their weird and uniqueness is that they are born three years apart from 1926 to 1929.

Biographical Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ross_Sisters, Video Source: That's Entertainment III DVD

You have NO excuses for your 2010 fitness resolution…get off your chair and go workout!

Keep an eye on dads as well as the kiddies!

A recent study found that children can consume up to 6,000 calories on Christmas day, December 25. This includes all the snacks, cookies and meals found between family dinners and treats Saint Nick leaves behind. The study was performed by experts for the Carnegie Weight Management based in Leeds Metropolitan University. They found on average, 956 calories for dinner 587 for desserts on top of breakfast lunch and treats. While children were the most indulgent Men were also found to be gluttons. While this may not be the weirdest display of human nature, it is definitely not healthy.

Source: Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1236388/Obesity-warning-children-eat-6-000-calories-Christmas-Day.html)

Note about your family:  Watch-out for each other during this special time of the year!

Talk about sneezing your head off…

A 12-year-old girl from Virginia, Lauren Johnson, has developed a weird disorder. As reported last Wednesday, Lauren has been sneezing 20 time a minute, 12,000  times a day for over two weeks. Currently, her worst side effect is a raw nose from the incessant use of tissues.

Lauren’s syndrome is referred to as “Machine Gun Sneezing” during which victims cannot stop sneezing. She is one of less than 40 known cases in the world, doctors have tried 11 medical therapies and hypnosis, nothing has worked so far. Her weird condition began after she caught a common cold.

Source: "Ah-ah-achoo! The girl who sneezes 12,000 times a day has doctors baffled," Daily Mail, UK

Just imagine…they have tried everything from conventional medicine to hypnosis therapy…any ideas for Lauren?