Proto Magazine: Dispatches From the Frontiers of Medicine

25/04/2023

Ep. 3 of Proto's podcast series Diagnosis: When Diagnosis Hurts.

Some diagnoses cause damage to health. The issue is increasingly of interest to physicians.

31/03/2023

Ep. 2 of Proto’s podcast series Diagnosis: A Brief History of Diagnosis by Bedside Rounds host Adam Rodman, MD.

The route to a diagnosis is straightforward in modern medicine, right? It’s anything but, according to Bedside Rounds host Adam Rodman.

29/03/2023

In the first of Proto’s new four-episode podcast series, Diagnosis: exploring the 100-year history and continued influence of the Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

For a century, carefully selected MGH patient histories have illuminated the art of medicine.

03/02/2023

Today marks the birthday of Henry Beecher, a Mass General anaesthetist-in-chief and medical ethicist who tackled the question of defining death:

The 1968 Harvard criteria for brain death face new inquiries.

28/12/2022

Gene editing has come quite a way since Proto’s 2010 story about zinc fingers. CRISPR expert Keith Joung offers a clear, compelling overview in a recent lecture at MGH’s Russell Museum:

19/12/2022

Health care workers are burned out, and 40% of nurses are considering leaving their jobs within the next two years. Is addressing health care’s unique stresses on families—in part through on-site childcare—part of a solution?

To reduce burnout and retain staff, should hospitals embrace on-site childcare?

15/12/2022

The first COVID-19 vaccines were in arms less than a year after the virus was mapped. How short can that process get? The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has proposed a model that offers the first shots in 100 days—though not without cutting a few corners. https://protomag.com/covid-19/the-100-day-vaccine/

13/12/2022

Machine learning can now create fake brain scans and patient records that even experts can’t distinguish. Their role in medical research could be transformative. https://protomag.com/technology/the-people-who-never-were/

07/12/2022

The U.S. military is working on a completely autonomous medical triage tool. It would make instantaneous decisions about who lives and dies on the battlefield. The challenges— philosophical as well as medical — are all part of the initiative, which is drawing in experts from a number of fields. https://protomag.com/policy/the-medic-reinvented/

05/12/2022

What good is science journalism? Writer Christie Aschwanden ponders the question in light of the successes—and failures—of medical journalism during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://protomag.com/personal-essays/what-good-is-science-writing/

01/12/2022

The arrival of two new obesity drugs should change the calculus on weight management. They promise to help people lose 15% or more of their total weight. Yet persistent attitudes towards such treatments — as well as obstacles from payers — may keep them from having their optimal effect on what is arguably the greatest crisis in public health. https://protomag.com/clinical-research/prescription-thin/

28/11/2022

Both Canada and the United States have national programs to prescribe encounters with green spaces. Family physician Melissa Lem, who directs the Canadian program, explains how it works and how well “nature prescriptions” work. https://protomag.com/environment/the-nature-prescription/

21/11/2022

If a doctor or nurse is rude to their colleagues, what happens next? Historically, not much. Yet a prickly work environment can result in missed diagnoses and worse outcomes for patients. A new crusade for civility in medical workplaces—the “nice” revolution—is aiming to shift the tone, with mixed results. https://protomag.com/policy/be-nice/

17/11/2022

If a nurse or physician is rude to colleagues, should it affect their medical career? Also read stories about the promising frontier of synthetic data, new obesity drugs and why science writing matters. The new issue of Proto is online now: https://protomag.com/

13/09/2022

The human reference genome still has blind spots. It also does a poor job at representing human diversity. Ting Wang, of the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium, describes an ambitious five-year project to fill the gaps. https://protomag.com/genetics/from-genome-to-pangenome/

09/09/2022

Scorpion venom for a glioblastoma? The sting of the pufferfish to treat neuropathies? A new wave of therapies emerges from research into venomous animals. https://protomag.com/clinical-research/one-mans-poison/

07/09/2022

A rare disease—now treatable thanks to a valiant international effort—offers a window into the metabolism of fat. https://protomag.com/genetics/an-errant-gene/

01/09/2022

Data altruism—a model where people give their data to science, in the same way they might donate their organs after death—is catching on in Europe. Does it have a future in the United States? https://protomag.com/policy/the-gift-of-data/

30/08/2022

Early childhoods marked by tough events—poverty, abuse, violence—can lead to adulthoods that are filled with health problems. New research aims to break that chain. https://protomag.com/clinical-research/the-tender-years/

24/08/2022

The Civil War recorded 70 deaths from nostalgia, a pining for home. Another was recorded in World War I. What were these deaths, and do they still happen? https://protomag.com/medical-history/a-death-from-nostalgia/

22/08/2022

The second coming of psychedelics has arrived. Researchers are digging into the promise of L*D, psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs for the first time in generations. But beneath the hype, what are the practical next steps for turning these insights into clinical reality? https://protomag.com/psychiatry/where-psychedelic-research-goes-next/

17/08/2022

Burnout, the pandemic and anti-science patients have sent health care workers rushing for the exits. Almost one in five have quit their jobs since 2020. What would make them stay? https://protomag.com/policy/i-quit/

15/08/2022

How will the new promise of psychedelic drugs turn into a safe clinical practice? Also medicine confronts the Great Resignation, the Civil War reckons with “deaths from nostalgia” and a new suite of treatments emerges from animal toxins. Proto’s latest issue is online now: https://protomag.com/

01/08/2022

Russian actions in Ukraine have raised fears of nuclear accidents or nuclear attacks. How good are existing drugs for acute radiation poisoning—and how quickly can new ones be developed? https://protomag.com/clinical-research/new-treatments-for-a-worst-case-scenario/

17/06/2022

Cash reparations for slavery are hotly debated. But could they be a solution for the disparities between Black health and white health? A handful of new studies—including one that models the effects reparations might have had on the path of the COVID pandemic—are stirring new debate: https://protomag.com/racism-bias/are-reparations-an-answer-to-black-health-disparities/

10/06/2022

Traffic deaths have risen sharply in recent years. Is cannabis legalization to blame? Finding the answer has posed a series of public health riddles, as research teams push to create better roadside tests and figure out when someone is too stoned to drive.
https://protomag.com/policy/the-stoned-driving-problem/

19/05/2022

The U.S. passed a million COVID deaths this week. The other "million" milestones—Zoom downloads, fake articles pulled from social media, health care worker infections—show the unprecedented course of this pandemic. https://protomag.com/covid-19/this-isnt-covids-first-million/

21/04/2022

The Human Protein Atlas, the Human Cell Atlas, the Cancer Genome Atlas—in an unprecedented era of international collaborations, Proto shares its inaugural atlas of atlases. https://protomag.com/genetics/an-atlas-of-atlases/