- Email: [email protected]
Europe tackles chronic pain
DISSECTING ROOM
Webwatch Contributed by Marilynn Larkin [email protected]
Europe tackles chronic pain European Federation of the International Association for the Study of Pain Chapters (EFIC) www.efic.org lthough acute pain may reasonably be considered a symptom of disease or injury, chronic and recurrent pain is a specific health-care problem, a disease in its own right.” So says EFIC, which is spearheading the upcoming (Oct 8–13, 2001) European Week Against Pain. Close to two dozen countries are taking part in the event (www.efic.org/european_ini_onpain.htm), which aims to highlight “the magnitude of the chronic pain problem— numbers of people affected comparable to all of cancer and to cardiovascular disease—and the need to change attitudes in order for the problem to be addressed in the focused manner that is required”, says spokesperson Marshall Devor (Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel). The EFIC site provides definitions of pain, declarations on pain, and details of the Europe Against Pain initiative, including country-by-country activities during the week-long awareness event.
A
The International Association for the Study of Pain’s main site (www.iasppain.org) is another excellent resource for scientists and health professionals. Highlights include contact information
EFIC
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Baruch Elron expresses phantom limb pain
“Contriving wonderful stories for the publick” Museum of Hoaxes www.museumofhoaxes.com hat is a hoax? asked Alex Boese, a doctoral candidate in the science studies programme at the University of California, San Diego, USA, before constructing the Museum of Hoaxes website. Rather than thinking of a hoax as a deceptive scheme that takes advantage of people’s credulity, Boese “relied on a narrower, 1808 definition from the Oxford English Dictionary that describes hoaxing as “contriving wonderful stories for the publick”. In this spirit, he has built an
W
A moon hoax published in UK (1836)
THE LANCET • Vol 358 • September 29, 2001
informative, amusing, and seemingly rigorously researched site that features details—including images and texts of original documents—on dozens of hoaxes from 750 AD to the present. Go straight to the “hoaxes by category” page to browse the site’s contents. Check out the “Dr Egerton Yorrick Davis” hoax (penned, as it turns out, by respected Canadian physician William Osler) and the ordeal of poor Mary Toft and the rabbit babies. My favourites include “Subways are for sleeping” (David Merrick’s effort to boost attendance at the Broadway play); William Mumler’s “spirit photography” (which huckster P T Barnum helped debunk!); and the Sokal Hoax—a paper (Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity) by New York University physicist Alan Sokal, published by a journal that was unaware the article was intended as a parody. Sokal said he perpetrated the hoax to expose the “decline in the standards of intellectual
for IASP’s 57 global chapters; links to official resources (jump to the highly informative UCLA history of pain project site:www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/ biomed/his/pain.htm) and unofficial resources, which include websites of pain journals, and clinical, scientific, and engaging sites; and a list (arranged by country) of professional medical organisations, patients’ outreach groups, and others who provide information on pain to the general public. Also of interest are full-text articles from IASP’s quarterly newsletters. Many useful resources are also available on the Pain Society site (www.staff. ncl.ac.uk/r.j.hayes/painsoc.html), developed by the British and Irish chapters of IASP. It offers information and materials for professionals, including desirable criteria for pain management, details on setting up a pain monitoring service, and a pain incident monitoring study form. Other sites of interest include the website of the Russian IASP chapter (www.painstudy.ru/wcp), which has posted (in English) all abstracts from the Ninth World Congress on Pain, and the Colombian IASP chapter (www.linemed.com/colombia/fedelat) site; its “Links Favoritos” section, available on the left navigation bar, features annotated (in Spanish) links to numerous niche pain sites and includes a growing database of links in various categories.
rigor in certain precincts of the American academic humanities”. The Museum of Hoaxes also includes links to real hoax sites, a hoax of the day, and a gullibility quiz.
Click of the week Laboratory tests explained Lab Tests Online, billed as a “public resource on clinical lab testing from the laboratory professionals who do the testing”, is a recently launched, noncommercial, peer-reviewed website developed by several respected organisations, including the American Society for Microbiology. The well organised site includes a searchable library of tests, a library of disorders with links to tests commonly used for each, a compilation of screening recommendations from numerous organisations, and relevant news and feature articles. A highlight is “follow that sample”, which gives users a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to a blood sample or throat culture once it arrives at the lab. www.labtestsonline.org
1109
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Webwatch Contributed by Marilynn Larkin [email protected]
Europe tackles chronic pain European Federation of the International Association for the Study of Pain Chapters (EFIC) www.efic.org lthough acute pain may reasonably be considered a symptom of disease or injury, chronic and recurrent pain is a specific health-care problem, a disease in its own right.” So says EFIC, which is spearheading the upcoming (Oct 8–13, 2001) European Week Against Pain. Close to two dozen countries are taking part in the event (www.efic.org/european_ini_onpain.htm), which aims to highlight “the magnitude of the chronic pain problem— numbers of people affected comparable to all of cancer and to cardiovascular disease—and the need to change attitudes in order for the problem to be addressed in the focused manner that is required”, says spokesperson Marshall Devor (Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel). The EFIC site provides definitions of pain, declarations on pain, and details of the Europe Against Pain initiative, including country-by-country activities during the week-long awareness event.
A
The International Association for the Study of Pain’s main site (www.iasppain.org) is another excellent resource for scientists and health professionals. Highlights include contact information
EFIC
“
Baruch Elron expresses phantom limb pain
“Contriving wonderful stories for the publick” Museum of Hoaxes www.museumofhoaxes.com hat is a hoax? asked Alex Boese, a doctoral candidate in the science studies programme at the University of California, San Diego, USA, before constructing the Museum of Hoaxes website. Rather than thinking of a hoax as a deceptive scheme that takes advantage of people’s credulity, Boese “relied on a narrower, 1808 definition from the Oxford English Dictionary that describes hoaxing as “contriving wonderful stories for the publick”. In this spirit, he has built an
W
A moon hoax published in UK (1836)
THE LANCET • Vol 358 • September 29, 2001
informative, amusing, and seemingly rigorously researched site that features details—including images and texts of original documents—on dozens of hoaxes from 750 AD to the present. Go straight to the “hoaxes by category” page to browse the site’s contents. Check out the “Dr Egerton Yorrick Davis” hoax (penned, as it turns out, by respected Canadian physician William Osler) and the ordeal of poor Mary Toft and the rabbit babies. My favourites include “Subways are for sleeping” (David Merrick’s effort to boost attendance at the Broadway play); William Mumler’s “spirit photography” (which huckster P T Barnum helped debunk!); and the Sokal Hoax—a paper (Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity) by New York University physicist Alan Sokal, published by a journal that was unaware the article was intended as a parody. Sokal said he perpetrated the hoax to expose the “decline in the standards of intellectual
for IASP’s 57 global chapters; links to official resources (jump to the highly informative UCLA history of pain project site:www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/ biomed/his/pain.htm) and unofficial resources, which include websites of pain journals, and clinical, scientific, and engaging sites; and a list (arranged by country) of professional medical organisations, patients’ outreach groups, and others who provide information on pain to the general public. Also of interest are full-text articles from IASP’s quarterly newsletters. Many useful resources are also available on the Pain Society site (www.staff. ncl.ac.uk/r.j.hayes/painsoc.html), developed by the British and Irish chapters of IASP. It offers information and materials for professionals, including desirable criteria for pain management, details on setting up a pain monitoring service, and a pain incident monitoring study form. Other sites of interest include the website of the Russian IASP chapter (www.painstudy.ru/wcp), which has posted (in English) all abstracts from the Ninth World Congress on Pain, and the Colombian IASP chapter (www.linemed.com/colombia/fedelat) site; its “Links Favoritos” section, available on the left navigation bar, features annotated (in Spanish) links to numerous niche pain sites and includes a growing database of links in various categories.
rigor in certain precincts of the American academic humanities”. The Museum of Hoaxes also includes links to real hoax sites, a hoax of the day, and a gullibility quiz.
Click of the week Laboratory tests explained Lab Tests Online, billed as a “public resource on clinical lab testing from the laboratory professionals who do the testing”, is a recently launched, noncommercial, peer-reviewed website developed by several respected organisations, including the American Society for Microbiology. The well organised site includes a searchable library of tests, a library of disorders with links to tests commonly used for each, a compilation of screening recommendations from numerous organisations, and relevant news and feature articles. A highlight is “follow that sample”, which gives users a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to a blood sample or throat culture once it arrives at the lab. www.labtestsonline.org
1109
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.