Today was that most terrible and important day for thousands of med students: Match Day.

Here's hoping you got what you wanted.

Thanks to Dr. Ian Taras for this interesting item.  An Israeli company has gotten FDA approval to market a new lung imaging device that works without radiation.  The device evidently uses the vibration of air to image the lung in real time.  The company says the potential uses include imaging in the ICU, and tracking lung cancer.  The device may be targeted to doctors' offices.  Enjoy!

Today in the office,  someone came out of left field and asked me what I thought about the use of cinnamon for the control of their hypertension.  Keeping a somewhat straight face, I said I would look into it, but hadn't heard much about it.

It's funny how the news cycle can turn regular people just doing their jobs into overnight celebrities.

The Chile quake, obviously, is a huge catastrophe, and it will be days before we fully understand the magnitude of the damage.  As a resident of a quake-prone part of the world, I commiserate with residents near Santiago.

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I don't usually link to Woman's Day, but I thought this was a succinct and accurate listing of many health myths embraced by celebrities, including:

Dr. Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in his research linking MMR vaccines to autism, a UK regulatory agency has found. Lancet retracted his paper in 2004, and most of the authors have disavowed the findings reported there.

Imagine getting the privilege of a Lancet publication, only to have to recant a few years later? Must have been some major impropriety. Wakefield stuck by his paper, evidently.

Spending would mean substantial cut of all revenues. Reuters estimates that the US drug industry the world's largest took in $315 billion in sales in 2007. Today AP reported that the drug industry agreed to contribute $80 billion towards healthcare reform. So we're supposed to believe that the industry is contributing 25% of sales (not profits) to reduce the cost of healthcare in America? Somehow I doubt the shareholders of these publicly traded companies will let this happen.

Of course using Pristiq for pain is way off label. The drug is probably mostly a patent extender and not a real improvement over Effexor according to clinical trials. For more information including a lively discussion list see Carlat's Psychiatry blog. There are some anecdotes of use in pain syndromes there but InteractMD.com readers know how I feel about anecdotal evidence. http://carlatpsychiatry.blogspot.com/2008/03/top-5-reasons-to-forget-abo...

Getting closer to an FDA approval a company demonstrates "bioequivalence" of their new plant-derived insulin versus conventional recombinant insulin. http://www.pipelinereview.com/content/view/25803/114/