Media monitor
"Ask one question to sick people: 'What happened to you?' and that's all you need to say. People want to talk." —Anna Deavere Smith discussing her play, which is based on interviews she conducted with people about their thoughts on the human body. Her Oct. 25-26 performances at Stanford of her one-woman show were co-sponsored by the medical school's Office of Diversity and Leadership. San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 1.
"You might be right next door to a pharmacy but not have money for medications." —Marilyn Winkleby, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, on her recently published findings that poor people who live in affluent neighborhoods have higher death rates than their counterparts in less well-to-do neighborhoods. Scientific American, Oct. 31.
"The social connotation of someone who naps is lazy, slothful." —Steven Howard, MD, associate professor of anesthesia, on why some people may resist proposals to allow emergency room physicians on the night shift to take short naps. He and other Stanford researchers recently released findings that such naps help doctors to be more alert. San Diego Union Tribune, Nov. 2.
"We know that in many disease states, some patients get better even in the absence of care for reasons we do not entirely understand." —Geoffrey Gurtner, associate professor of surgery, on why a case in India in which stem cells were used to heal a severe ulcer on a patient's leg should not be viewed as proof of such therapy's overall effectiveness. Wired.com, Nov. 1.
"What we're looking at is whether heart cells are actually dying after running a marathon."—Suzanne Miller, MD, resident in emergency medicine, on her study of participants in the Silicon Valley Marathon. KGO-TV, Oct. 27.