Medical Thought Leaders

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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.

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

Advances in HIV/AIDS therapy and the International AIDS Conference: an interview with Professor Sharon Lewin

The anti-HIV drugs, also known as anti-retroviral therapy, came about in the mid ‘90’s. These involved using at least 3 different drugs together.

7 Aug 2012

Medication reconciliation in hospitals: an interview with Dr. Leonard Feldman

Adverse drug effects are harms caused by the use of a medication. There are many different types of ADEs, including medication errors.

6 Aug 2012

Breast cancer drug bevacizumab (Avastin): an interview with Dr Anna Dorothea Wagner

Breast cancer is the most important cancer for women in the developed world. About 20% of all patients diagnosed with breast cancer die of metastatic disease.

1 Aug 2012

Obesity and heart disease risk in children: an interview with Joana Kist-van Holthe

'What defines obesity in children' is a very important question, primarily because we need to use one definition in order to be able to compare the prevalence of obesity in different countries. It is also important to have a single definition in order to evaluate whether interventions are successful or not.

31 Jul 2012

Parkinson’s disease treatment: an interview with Ted Dawson

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder which usually affects people in their 60’s and older. It is caused by the loss of dopamine neurons in the brain leading to rigidity, slowness of movement, tremor, problems with balance and so forth.

31 Jul 2012

Antioxidants and pancreatic cancer risk: an interview with Dr Andrew Hart

The antioxidants that we mainly looked at were selenium, vitamin C and vitamin E. They are chemicals which inactivate pro-oxidants or free radicals. Smoking and normal metabolism can lead to the production of free radicals.

30 Jul 2012

Lack of physical activity and life expectancy: an interview with Dr I-Min Lee

With the approach of the Olympic Games, a group of researchers throughout the world thought that it would be a good time to draw the attention of the world to the health dangers of being physically inactive.

30 Jul 2012

TB combination drug: an interview with Mel Spigelman, MD, CEO and President of TB Alliance

TB is a leading global killer. It is the second leading infectious disease in the world, behind HIV. TB is spread through the air, so it can affect anyone, but has its worst impact on impoverished communities and those people with HIV.

27 Jul 2012

HIV drug resistance: an interview with Dr. Silvia Bertagnolio

Sexual intercourse is the major mode of HIV transmission. HIV may also be transmitted through sharing of needles or contaminated blood products (although this is rare).

27 Jul 2012

Vitamin B12 supplements and hepatitis C treatment: an interview with Gerardo Nardone and Alba Rocco

Since its discovery in 1989, hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been recognized as a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. The most recent WHO estimate of the prevalence of HCV infection is 2%, representing . about 150 million people. Every year, 3–4 million new people are infected with the hepatitis C virus, of those, approximately 60–80% develop chronic hepatitis, and 30% of them progress to cirrhosis and to end-stage liver disease.

26 Jul 2012

Malaria misdiagnosis: an interview with Dr Toby Leslie

Malaria is caused by a multi-staged parasite which is transmitted by the bite of infected female anopheles mosquitoes. It affects millions of people and kills more than 500,000 people throughout the world every year.

26 Jul 2012

Egg allergy treatment for children: an interview with Dr Robert Wood

The tendency to get allergies is a fairly general one, which is mostly inherited – it tends to run in families. There are several foods that are most common for children to become allergic to: milk, egg and peanuts in most countries are the most common food allergies.

23 Jul 2012