My message: Ask the hard questions. The Association of Health Care Journalists annual conference (#ahcj13) covered a variety of topics, with lectures and panels followed by question and answer sessions. As with many conferences, it was tough to choose between competing sessions. I learned a great deal about health care, databases, and resources to help [...]

I was attending World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants 24th Annual International Conference in Cleveland last week, when my aunt, herself a survivor, handed me a copy of Newsweek with a cover article, “The Nazis and Thalidomide: The Worst Drug Scandal of All Time.” The story was prompted by the [...]

On June 27, the FDA approved the first new weight-loss drug in 13 years, Arena’s lorcaserin (Belviq). The track record for anti-obesity drugs has not been very good—each has been withdrawn from the market, after approval, due to safety concerns. Why was this drug approved? How long will this one last before being yanked for [...]

Sometimes it seems like new drugs suddenly appear like magic. Have you ever wondered if there was something special going on behind the scenes? Earlier in Clinical Trials for Beginners, we looked briefly at why drug studies came into being, then at how a drug is developed, from test tube to your tissues. Let’s take [...]

I’m Dr. Judy Stone, an infectious diseases physician and author. I love helping people understand issues and look at things from a different perspective. I hope I can offer you some different insights—bridging the gap between basic science and your medicine chest—as I am still a practicing physician, as well as having had broad clinical [...]