Singularity Hub reports on the pioneering surgery that used 3D printing to replace 75 percent of a patient’s skull:

At the beginning of March of this year, a radical surgery was performed on an American patient: 75 percent of his skull was replaced with a 3D printed implant. The company that produced the implant, Oxford Performance Materials, made [...]

A medical poster about pulmonary disease. I can’t read all the writing under it (other than “yi” ((one)) and “ren” ((person))), but after the cold I’ve had this week, I think I know just a little about how this guy feels.

“I’m sorry, son. You’ve got tuberculosis.”

OK, maybe not. But I can sympathize.

From the Images from the History [...]

Healthline doesn’t seem to be jumping to any conclusions here… just remarking that if you’re American-born, you’re more likely to have allergies than if you’re one of the hardy souls born elsewhere who then moves to America:

Foreign-born U.S. children have lower odds of developing allergic diseases like asthma and food allergies than children born in the U.S., according [...]

Click to embiggen slightly

The robot is in trouble! We’ll have to help the robot breathe!

This educational illustration comes from the National Institutes of Health “History of Medicine” collection. The Red Cross and World Health Organization used it to train people in first aid.

This photograph probably saved lives.

Nature wades into international politics (and some pretty harsh facts) with a theory for the “unintended consequences” file. Researchers are floating the idea that an international embargo (from 1991 to 1995) can be credited with lowering heart disease and diabetes rates and making Cubans live longer, healthier lives:

Such opaque embargoes kill and the western powers who apply such [...]

AL.com showcases some science that sets straight some old stereotypes. Southerners don’t have bigger guts than Americans from the North or the West. They just tell the truth when researchers ask:

The study recently published in the journal Obesity found that there’s a significantly higher percentage of obese people in a region of central and northwest states including [...]

OUCH. Nature pulls no punches with OUCH. The ways they’re moving forward with stem cell therapies are pretty ingenious:

Several laboratories are investigating ways to treat neurological diseases by injecting cells into patients’ brains, and clinical trials are being conducted for Parkinson’s disease, stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases. These studies follow experiments showing dramatic improvements in rats and mice. But [...]

PLOSone is going to lead to videogame suites being installed in major training hospitals, I just know it, thanks to research showing that playing Nintendo Wii improves surgeons’ skills:

Methodology/Principal Findings

We performed a prospective randomized study on 42 post-graduate I–II year residents in General, Vascular and Endoscopic Surgery. All participants were tested on a validated laparoscopic simulator and then randomized [...]

Harvard researcher Ted Kaptchuk is mastering the medical secrets of sleight-of-mind by figuring out how to use placebos as real medicine:

Last year, he and colleagues from several Harvard-affiliated hospitals created the Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS), headquartered at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—the only multidisciplinary institute dedicated solely to placebo study. It’s a nod [...]