Neural Networks and the Black Box

The excitement over deep learning and neural networks is well deserved, but the notion that artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of “deep learning” will replace the need for physician expertise is, I would suggest, a bit premature. Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., in “A.I. Versus M.D.” does an excellent job of illustrating the differences between man…

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Between Authors and Editors

I have always been interested in the interaction between writers and editors, probably because I have sat in each of these two chairs. As an editor in a department producing technical articles for the satellite communications industry, I often worked with engineers who found it difficult to put their ideas into words, especially if English…

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Why Would Couch Potatoes Read the Book “The Haywire Heart”?

[Exercise] is undeniably the best medicine there is for preventing a host of cardiovascular diseases….Its documented beneficial results would qualify it as a miracle drug if a pharmaceutical company could figure out how to bottle it….Can there be too much of a good thing? Quite possibly…. (p. xxxi)   Chris Case, John Mandola, MD, and…

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NPs and “Full Practice Authority”

WARNING: I have been through one nurse practitioner (NP) firestorm on Facebook about the ideas presented in this post. However, Facebook fails to provide a good stage for discussion of complex issues. So here’s the whole nine yards on the issue “full practice authority” from my perspective. If you have a low tolerance for notions which…

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On Michel Accad’s MOVING MOUNTAINS

Moving Mountains: A Socratic Challenge to the Theory and Practice of Population Medicine. Michel Accad, M.D. College Station, Texas: Green Publishing House, LLC, 2017, 127 pp.   On the state of current medical research Dr. Michel Accad has much to say in Moving Mountains, and from my perspective, I would say a very important much….

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