Enclothed Cognition

The history of medicine is an incredibly fascinating subject and is often quite grisly - but grisly is a bit of an understatement when it comes to three particularly unique medical books housed in the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. These publications - all focused on the subjects of women's health and obstetrics - are bound in the skin of an Irish widow named Mary Lynch, who died in 1869 at the age of 28.

Large-scale outbreaks of infectious disease have been relatively rare throughout history, but when they do occur they can be disastrous. These diseases caused millions of deaths throughout history and many of them still cause hundreds of deaths each day. 

Walking down the aisle at a grocery store, you probably wouldn't guess how many of the items available on the shelves would not be there if it weren't for the U.S. Army. As a matter of fact, many food items that have become dietary staples for most American families exist only because of military research to create meals that would keep for longer periods of time.

Moreso than nearly any other industry, improvements in healthcare technology are transforming delivery and industry best practices in ways that we never could have predicted. Take a look at some of the current trends in healthcare IT that are shaking up the way the healthcare industry operates in the 21st century.

Physicians face unusual healthcare situations all the time. It is their job, after all. 

With Halloween less than a week away, we've compiled a list of ten of the most demented and evil doctors in history. In positions of power these medical "professionals" were able to take advantage of their patients for their own twisted purposes, breaking the Hippocratic Oath and making them notorious for their heinous crimes.

This weekend thousands of anesthesiologists will flock to San Diego to hear lectures from featured speakers, attend educational lectures, and rub shoulders with industry leaders at the 2015 Anesthesiology Annual Meeting. To celebrate the coming together of anesthesiologists from around the world, lets take a look back on the development of anesthesia, an absolutely essential component of effective patient care.

While there is no question that physician burnout is on the rise, different studies report different rates of the phenomenon. These deviations arise due to the different criteria used to determine burnout. 

Its not yet November, but lets take some time to be thankful for how far the medical industry has progressed. Medical knowledge improves and evolves every day, hospitals are (usually) extremely sanitary environments, and medical instruments must be tested and approved for safety. 

On a rural island off the coast of Nicaragua, the landscape seems picturesque at first, with children bicycling along dirt roads that encircle vast fields of sugarcane. Until you start to notice how few men there are on the Nicaraguan island, you might not guess that "La Isla de las Viudas" is one of the many areas in Central America whose population has been devastated over the past two decades by a mysterious kidney disease. This regional epidemic lies at the intersection of a social injustice and a public health crisis, where “Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown origin” (CKDu) has become more deadly than HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and leukemia combined.