How to publish your medical/educational book--raise money for your cause

It doesn't have to cost you fat fees to get your medical/educational book published. All you have to do is, first, have a manuscript that's worth reading. Then submit it to MedRounds Publications, Inc. They provide editing and graphic design and distribute your book for you through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a ton of retail outlets. I understand that the company even does some promotion for you--an unusual benefit. And the royalties paid here are much better than you'll get from a traditional publisher--plus you get major Internet presence for the book in addition to the hard copies.

This service was founded by a physician/neuroscientist/ophthalmologist Andrew Doan, who believes it's critically important to have "open-access publications,... to serve academic communities, be an advocate for authors, and support philanthropy." Andrew has this to say:

Why did I start a publishing company? Academic authors get ripped off by publishers. Also, publishers tend to make books out-of-print and do not offer educational texts for the world to use. Knowledge empowers people to grow and improve their situation.

And he doesn't stop there--he's also invented a service that lets non-profits, schools and others raise money by inviting their constituents to search and shop through Google as usual--just use the special search page that the software, MyFundRazor.org, generates.

Not a bad day's work after fulfilling your duties as a physician, Andrew.

Keyhole heart valve surgery - new technique

It saves time and eliminates some of the major trauma to the patient (like cutting the breastbone and stopping the heart). One doctor hails keyhole heart valve surgery as the biggest development since angioplasty. The first such operation in the UK is to be performed soon, though the procedure's already been done in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Canada.

Who wouldn't rather put up with the pain and discomfort of having something jammed up your groin artery than deal with your entire chest being cut open? Speaking as someone who knows a candidate for valve replacement, I sure hope the U.S. decides to test this procedure soon--and finds it effective.

Fat is good!

Well, fat is good in at least some small way. Scientists have recently discovered that a protein called adiponectin that's produced by fat cells plays a heretofore unrecognized role in helping us stay healthy: it helps your body clear itself of the billion-cells-a-day that die off as part of your body's natural cleansing routine.

Imagine that? Our own body processes can cause inflammation if they don't operate efficiently--just the way your immune system goes haywire in an allergic reaction. This discovery may help scientists understand a lot more about autoimmune diseases as well as conditions like diabetes and heart disease that are believed to be connected with poor clearance of dead cells.

It's good to know that fat isn't all bad. Of course, now this will undoubtedly lead up to even more precise prescriptions of how much is too much. I'm sure we all can't wait.

"Healing" drugs sometimes don't

The case of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's need for brain surgery has brought heightened focus to the advisability of using strong blood thinners. Treating people who've had a stroke with powerful blood thinning medications such as warfarin seems to increase the risk of brain hemorrhaging. And this bleeding in the brain, known as a type of hemorrhagic stroke and caused by a blood vessel bursting, is much more lethal than the more common ischemic stroke (a blood vessel gets blocked by something like a blood clot). Fatalities are 50% and higher.

Just points to our growing need to continually test our "proven" remedies. As medical interventions grow ever more sophisticated and surgeons go where no one has dared tread before, we must carefully monitor the followup treatments for levels of true effectiveness. One of the most recent class of drugs to fall victim to "let's do it like we've always done it" syndrome is those for lowering cholesterol. New guidelines say our cholesterol should be so low that almost everyone in the world (well, at least in the U.S.) "should" be on cholesterol-lowering drugs. A Framingham study reported in JAMA notes that, even though at younger ages lower cholesterol does seem to relate to longevity, cholesterol levels for people over 50 seem to have lost any demonstrable link to mortality.

Upshot: be extra careful what you claim about drugs. As research and testing also grow more sophisticated, yesterday's claims can come back to bite you big-time.