February 5, 2009
Newsmakers
SHAME, SHAME: Mark Twain pointed out that “man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to,” a recent New York Times article remembered. But in this economic crash, the article stated, many New Yorkers who behaved shamefully are showing little or no remorse. Should we bring back the public stocks — and not the type you trade on Wall Street?
“If anyone should blush, you’d think it would be (John) Thain,” of Merrill-Lynch, who paid bonuses to employees while his company lost $15.3 billion in the last quarter of 2008 and who suggested he should get $30 million, the article stated.
The article quoted Steve Calandrillo, UW professor of law, who agrees that “the goal should not be humiliation, but who sees a potential for altered behavior.”
Calandrillo said, “Folks like John Thain are perfect candidates for public shaming on billboards and in the press. Their good name is what allows them to succeed in business. Once that is stripped, they have little left.”
ADDING CONTEXT: Doctors order X-rays, CTs and MRI scans to see if there are abnormalities in the body, and finding such often leads to surgery. But some abnormalities are of no harm to the patient and are not causing the symptoms. How do doctors know which are which?
The New York Times took up the question in a December article under the headline “The pain may be real but the scan is deceiving.” The story quoted Jeff Jarvik, UW professor of radiology and neurosurgery, among others. “It’s a concern, isn’t it? We are trying to fix things that shouldn’t be fixed,” Jarvik said.
One suggestion was that in the case of back pain — the one area where they have enough data — radiologists should give out more information than just the scan results, such as the percentage of patients with this finding who do not have pain. The idea made sense to Jarvik. “It gives referring physicians some sort of context,” he said.
DRUG TRIAL DISCLOSURE: Not all findings from clinical studies on prescription drugs are released, according to a December article in The Wall Street Journal under the headline “What you don’t know about a drug can hurt you.” A UW-led study of about 2,000 chemotherapy trials recorded in the federal registry showed that only one in five cancer clinical trials is ever disclosed in a medical journal.
The article quoted study co-author Scott Ramsey, professor of internal medicine with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “What’s happening in oncology is happening in all other fields of medicine. You may not get a full picture of whether a drug is effective or not. With the stakes being what they are in terms of money and human lives, this is a big problem in my view.”
JAPAN’S INTERREGNUM: A December article in The Christian Science Monitor quoted Kenneth Pyle, UW professor of international studies as it discussed how Japan is trying to strengthen its global image.
Under the headline “Japan quietly seeks global leadership niches,” the article stated, “A world vastly different from the one that shaped Japan’s postwar policy is driving a change in outlook, says (Pyle). But it’s unfolding gradually: Just as it took 15 years from the arrival of American gunboats in 19th-century Japan until a modern government formed, Japan is now deciding how best to respond to a world where cold wars and a weak China are the stuff of history books.
“‘Right now, there is a kind of interlude, an interregnum where the international system is not clear,’ he says. ‘They are assessing, and it’s going to take some time.'”
FALLING OFF THE WAGON: Alan Marlatt, UW professor of psychology and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center, is quoted throughout a recent Time magazine article titled “Why falling off the wagon isn’t fatal,” on dealing with temptation toward addictive behavior. The article was sparked by Oprah Winfrey’s public discussion of weight gain.
Addicts sometimes focus on whether they are strong enough rather than on specific methods of coping, Marlatt told Time. “It’s like trying to ride a bike,” Marlatt said. “You make mistakes and you learn, and you don’t give up if you don’t immediately find your balance.”
Cravings are normal, too, Marlatt said. “Notice and accept them,” and be mindful of when and why they happen.
Newmakers is a periodic column reporting on the coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services.
