MEDICAL

Jan 10 2025HEALTH

Why Runners Seek Doctors Before Long Races

You'd think running is just about putting one foot in front of the other, but many runners also visit doctors before long races. A study looked into who these runners are, what doctors do for them, and how things turn out. The study found that about a third of runners in a 60, 609 person race got me

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Jan 09 2025POLITICS

Texas Board Director Steps Down Amidst Political Uproar

A bit of background – Dr. Robert Bredt has been the medical director of the Texas Medical Board for nearly a decade, earning a good salary. But things got stirred up when it was discovered he also worked for Planned Parenthood. In case you forgot, Planned Parenthood isn't exactly popular with Texas

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

Heart Science: A Leap Forward

Imagine this: in the 1950s, heart attacks were a scary reality with no clear solutions. People often died suddenly, with little anyone could do. But some visionaries, like Mary Lasker and Senator Lister Hill, saw potential in medical science. They convinced the government to invest heavily in heart

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

Health Hoaxes: How Doctors Deal with Medical Misinformation

Lately, false health info, or medical misinformation, has been spreading like wildfire. Blame it on social media and the COVID-19 pandemic for fueling this trend. This isn't just about harmless gossip; it's putting lives in danger. People are making hazardous health choices and turning down helpful

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

AI in Medicine: A Doctor's New Partner

Imagine having a super-smart assistant that can help diagnose diseases and manage patient records. That's what a team of researchers created with MedFound, a language model designed just for the healthcare field. With a staggering 176 billion parameters, MedFound was trained on real medical texts an

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

The Hidden Danger in Medical AI: Poisoned Data

Did you know that the AI models used in healthcare can be tricked into spreading false medical information? This happens because these models, called large language models (LLMs), learn from vast amounts of data found online. Imagine they read a fake news article about a made-up disease and start be

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

Meeting Medical Questions with AI: Introducing Med-PaLM 2

Medical question answering has seen a boost with large language models (LLMs). One such model, Med-PaLM, first surpassed the 'passing' score on US Medical Licensing Exam-style questions. But, long-form answering and real-world scenarios still pose challenges. Enter Med-PaLM 2, an improved version th

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

Are Knee Surgery Studies Playing by the Rules?

Scientists recently reviewed 25 studies on knee surgery. Shockingly, only half had a plan from the get-go, and even fewer were willing to share their data. These studies were supposed to follow specific guidelines, but some didn't explain their methods clearly or how they confirmed their results. Th

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Jan 09 2025HEALTH

Healthy Habits: What Helps Hypertensive Patients in Ethiopia?

Unhealthy behaviors can lead to serious health issues, even death. In fact, they cause more than 23 million deaths each year and contribute to 36. 5% of disability-adjusted life years. Lifestyle choices play a big role in our health and quality of life. This study looks into what factors, both behav

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Jan 09 2025SCIENCE

The EJCN Methods Corner: Five Years of Progress

Have you ever heard of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (EJCN) Methods Corner? It's like a special section in a journal that's all about how science is done. This year, it's celebrating its fifth anniversary, which is a big deal! You might be wondering, why is this a big deal? Well, the M

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