|
Past Shows
April 3, 2004
 Listen to a Real Audio stream of the entire program (available Saturday, two hours after broadcast).
Download a low bandwidth MP3 of the entire program (available Saturday, two hours after broadcast).
 Real Player is required to listen to RealAudio files. Other media players can play the MP3 or Ogg audio files.
Download the RealPlayer plug-in for your browser.
 CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in a new window.
The Decline of the Autopsy
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg files.
(what's ogg?)
Is the art of autopsy becoming obsolete? |
The autopsy, the centuries-old tool that revolutionized modern medicine, is suffering a slow but steady demise. A few decades ago, around half of patients who died in North American hospitals were autopsied, and the results provided invaluable information about everything from how to treat heart disease to what Alzheimer's does to the brain. The decline in its practice has some members of the medical community worried about consequences for the quality of health care, while others think the practice of the autopsy needs to be refocused to match current medical challenges.
Dr. Elizabeth Burton is the director of autopsy pathology at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She's been looking at statistics from pathology reports for the past several decades and found that pathologists regularly find diseases in autopsy the clinicians had missed. She sees this as a indication that doctors still need to learn from autopsies about the nature and progression of diseases.
Dr. Alejandro Arroliga is the head of the intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In his institution the most elusive of diagnoses are of opportunistic infections in patients with compromised immune systems. By autopsying these patients, doctors might be able to learn how to detect and treat these infections in future patients.
Dr. Gregory Davis is a professor of pathology at the University of Kentucky and the associate chief medical examiner for the state. He's nocticed how the autopsy has all but dissapeared from the curriculum in many medical schools. That means doctors graduate with limited knowledge of the tool and won't know when it can be beneficial.
Dr. Sylvia Asa is the head of pathology for the Univeristy Health Network in Toronto. She's not sure we need to continue to do routine autopsies, but she's concerned about the lack of training doctors and pathologists get while in the field. One of the greatest threats to health care today is the spread of new infectious diseases. The autopsy can be instrumental in quickly delivering answers and solutions during an outbreak, but only if hospitals maintain the appropriate facilities.
Related Links
Dark Matter Wind
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg files.
(what's ogg?)
Dark Matter Wind - Courtesy David Law, RPI
|
Astronomers think that much of the mass of the universe is actually in the form of tiny particles that are invisible and pass through us with no effect. Oddly, they've found these particles difficult to detect. Dr. Heidi Newberg, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, thinks she may have found a new place to look. She thinks a dark matter wind from mass torn off from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy might provide a detectable signal for the extremely sensitive instruments now looking for signs of the dark matter.
Related Links
Wasp Brains
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg
files.
(what's ogg?)
Wasps brains accomodate new tasks - Courtesy, Dr. O'Donnell |
Ever felt your head starting to spin when you try to tackle something that’s a little beyond your abilities? How would you like it, then, if you could grow more brain as you need it? As Dr. Sean O’Donnell has discovered, that’s actually the case for certain species of wasps. Dr. O’Donnell is an associate professor of psychology at the Department of Animal Behaviour at the University of Washington in Seattle. He's found that certain species of wasps grow additional processing capacity to meet the challenges of increasingly difficult jobs in the wasp colony.
Related Links
Rat Genome
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg
files.
(what's ogg?)
Brown Norway Rat |
This week, researchers announced the publication of the complete genome of the Brown Norway Rat. Combined with the human and mouse genome, this now gives us three mammals for which we have the complete genetic code, and should provide a treasure trove of information for medical and genetic researchers. Dr. Rob Holt, the Head of Sequencing at the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at the B.C. Cancer Agency, was one of the contributors to the project.
Related Links
Question of the Week: Synchronized Menstruation
Listen to or download the mp3
or Ogg files.
(what's ogg?)
This week we have a question from Edward Mulcaster in Essex, Ontario, who writes: "I’ve read several times that women who live together will often synchronize their menstrual cycles. What purpose might this serve, now or in the evolutionary past?"
For the answer we go to Dr. Jerilynn Prior, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of British Columbia.
Related Links
Last week
|
