Author Archives: Sylvia Kraemer

Mammography’s Shadows, VII: Legacies

Good science gives the same answer to questions posed by both male and female investigators.  But good science normally only answers questions as they are posed.  In the case of breast cancer, ordinarily only females experience the disease, with its attendant costs to themselves—and opportunities for others.  The same is true for current breast cancer […]

June 29, 2015 – 3:00 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, VI: The National Cancer Institute Weighs In

Like all federal agencies the National Cancer Institute is subject to indirect political pressure through congressional and executive branch control of agency budgets.  Such pressure can and does influence programmatic decisions. That had been the case with the Breast Cancer Demonstration Project of the 1970s (see this blog’s post for May 25, 2015, “Mammography’s Shadows: […]

June 18, 2015 – 3:37 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, V: The Doctrine Unravels

The American Cancer Society continues to advise “women age 40 and older” to have a mammogram “every year and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health.” Most privately operated medical institutions in the United States, reliant as they are on revenue streams from diagnostic and treatment procedures, echo […]

June 17, 2015 – 4:49 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, IV: Hunting Cancer with X-Rays

All of us come into the world designed by evolution to survive.  Failing some rare mishap, we arrive equipped with immune systems ready to do battle with unfriendly biologic mischief makers.  The wizards within us that enable this microscopic life-preserving enterprise reside in the nuclei of our 75-100 trillion cells. Just as millions of  ‘0s’ […]

June 9, 2015 – 4:06 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, III: The Campaign

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute recognized the limitations of the mammography screening trial conducted during 1963-1969 by the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP-GNY).  Those limits prevented the trial from supporting a widespread screening protocol for breast cancer among asymptomatic women of average risk. (See previous post, “Mammography’s Shadows, II:  Numbers and […]

May 26, 2015 – 4:57 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, II: Numbers and the First Large X-ray Screening Trial

Quantities, measured and analyzed with numbers and statistics, are the foundation of our ability to communicate the attributes of much of the physical world.   Mathematical formulas and calculus enable us to predict what will happen when we manipulate matter in motion.  Notations measuring differing lengths of vibrating strings can create the exquisite harmonies of the […]

May 15, 2015 – 5:38 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, I: The Mammogram

If recent habits persist, this year roughly two-thirds of all women over 40, and even more women over 50, will appear in radiology departments around this country for their annual screening mammograms.  They will have been persuaded by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American College of Radiology (ACR), and most likely their own […]

May 7, 2015 – 3:30 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

How Not to Cut a Public University Budget

The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald’s November 6 article about the probable loss of NASA research grants that support the work of four students is heart-breaking.  If this seems excessive, consider what that tells us about the dismal unraveling of USM under its troubled leadership of the past few years. As one who spent much of her […]

November 24, 2014 – 11:00 am | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Colleges and Universities, Education | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

That ‘Vision Thing’

Not the least of Maine’s glories is her coastline, thousands of miles of it, with countless harbors offering respite or refuge for her many sailors.  And experienced sailors know that, while they can find a harbor on a nautical chart, the likelihood of their arriving there depends upon a well-weighted keel and their crews’ ability […]

August 18, 2014 – 5:34 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

“Net Neutrality” and The New Enclosure (Part I)

Those of us who oppose allowing Internet service providers to impose tolls on users wanting to use higher broadband transmission speeds are rowing upstream.  This is not only because powerful interests—among them, AT&T, Verizon, and cable companies—want to exploit U.S. policy’s current treatment of Internet access as a commercial commodity, rather than a public utility. […]

July 14, 2014 – 4:43 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Current History, History of Ideas, Intellectual Property, Open Systems, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)