TV shows prompting bioethics discussions

In this week's AMNews: TV doctors' flaws become bioethics teaching moments -- comments on a recent study examining medical students' TV viewing habits.

Dr. House is the fictional protagonist of Fox TV's "House," a medical mystery drama that last year drew an average 16.2 million viewers weekly. The bad-boy antics that made the master diagnostician a hit with American viewers also have made him popular among medical students, according to a December 2008 study in The American Journal of Bioethics.

The survey of nearly 400 medical and nursing students at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland found that 76% of doctors in training watch "House" and 73% watch ABC's hospital soap opera "Grey's Anatomy." Nearly 40% watch NBC's "ER" and one in five tunes in "Nip/Tuck," which airs on the FX cable network. Eighty-five percent of medical students said they watched a medical drama in the prior year.

The AJOB paper itself: Matthew Czarny, Edwin Bodensiek, Ruth R. Faden, Marie T. Nolan, Jeremy Sugarman. Medical and Nursing Students' Television Viewing Habits: Potential Implications for Bioethics 2008. The Am J Bioethics 2008 Dec; 8(12):1.

Personalized genetic prediction

Commentary on the current state of genetic testing for personalized medicine, including promise as well as challenges that still need to be tackled..

Personalized Genetic Prediction: Too Limited, Too Expensive, or Too Soon?
John P.A. Ioannidis
Ann Intern Med 2009;150 139-141
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/150/2/139?etoc

“Genetic epidemiology has identified many common genetic variants that are associated with common diseases, and the list is growing monthly (1, 2). This success has boosted expectations for personalized genetic prediction. According to these expectations, genetic information can tell people about their risk for various diseases and which medications they should use or avoid. However, 2 articles in this issue (3, 4) suggest that this promise may be exaggerated and premature.”

New JAMA users' guide article

In today's JAMA -- John Attia; John P. A. Ioannidis; Ammarin Thakkinstian; Mark McEvoy; Rodney J. Scott; Cosetta Minelli; John Thompson; Claire Infante-Rivard; Gordon Guyatt. How to Use an Article About Genetic Association: A: Background Concepts. JAMA 2009;301 74-81.

The start of a 3-article series about how to read a genetic association study.

Update: the 2nd and 3rd articles are now available too.

- Attia J, Ioannidis JPA, Thakkinstian A; et al. How to use an article about genetic association: B: are the results of the study valid? JAMA. 2009;301(2):191-197.

- John Attia; John P. A. Ioannidis; Ammarin Thakkinstian; Mark McEvoy; Rodney J. Scott; Cosetta Minelli; John Thompson; Claire Infante-Rivard; Gordon Guyatt. How to Use an Article About Genetic Association: C: What Are the Results and Will They Help Me in Caring for My Patients? JAMA 2009;301 304-308.