KHN: Conspiracy theories aside, here’s what contact tracers really do

Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News July 15, 2020 In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, contact tracing is downright buzzy, and not always in a good way. Contact tracing is the public health practice of informing people when they’ve been exposed to a contagious disease. As it has become more widely employed across the country, …

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Interested in a career in public health? Lowell Community Health Center is hiring medical assistants and nurses.

Didn't post until after yesterday's session, but FYI.  

April 26: Boston health news round up

Health writers on both ends of 135 Morrissey Boulevard have been busy -- main Globe newsroom to STAT down the hall:  From Stat;  from the Globe business desk.  Stat shared this story with the print edition of Globe today: Lam, a 22-year-old aspiring doctor, is part of the fast-growing industry of medical scribes working in hospitals …

JAMA and Dartmouth on Mammograms <50

Gooz News summarizes an article on the USPSTF recommendation on mammography from the evidence-based medicine group at Dartmouth.  It is part of a group of  commentaries on the topic in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- you need subscription or access via a library. Without screening, 3.5 of 1000 women in their 40s …

Book review: A coffee enema for a health writer

UMass Med School pediatrician, Darshak Sanghavi -- who also writes a column for Slate --trashes a new book on junk science by a noted New Yorker health writer in tomorrow's NY Times Book Review.     (Note that the book was favorably reviewed by another Slate writer) ..(T)here are two ways to deal with scientific illiteracy: …

H1N1 Vaccine arrives in Mass

Update 10/15 The Globe reports on a hectic scence at one clinic. Patients swarmed a flu shot clinic yesterday at a Jamaica Plain pediatric office, overwhelming medical officials providing H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines for children. This from the state DPH:  Although the H1N1 vaccine became available (and orders were placed) only late last week, …

Hmong, Khmers and East meets West Medicine

The Times has a good story on the use of traditional healing in Western hospitals. I wrote a similar piece for The Boston Phoenix a few years back. From the Times  At Mercy Medical Center in Merced, where roughly four patients a day are Hmong from northern Laos, healing includes more than IV drips, syringes and blood …

State on back-to-school flu issues

From The Boston Globe Massachusetts health authorities took the unprecedented step yesterday of deputizing dentists, paramedics, and pharmacists to help administer vaccines against both the seasonal flu and the novel swine strain expected to make a return visit in the fall. From Mass DPH: We continue our busy summer of planning for the fall flu …

Health Reform: Live Free or Die Edition

I went to a MV bookstore today and there was not one book on health reform in the long “Current Events” section. No wonder no one gets it. Please, hire me to write a book.  On the mainland , Obama went to NH answer his critics.  The Globe says As demonstrators waved signs and shouted across police …

Mass. warning on BPA baby bottles and the brothers Koh

The state is urging parents to stop using BPA baby bottles. DPH is specifically advising mothers of children up to two years old to avoid the use of products that contain BPA for making or storing infant formula and breast milk. Current research suggests that BPA levels in newborns may be much higher than in adults. …