Thirteen pharmaceutical companies have agreed to donate 14 billion doses of medicine for neglected tropical diseases (NTD) by the end of 2020. And that s not all they ve also come together to devote $785 million in support of NTD research and development intended to fight ailments such as Guinea worm disease, Chagas disease, and leprosy, all of which plague developing nations.

Although it s long been recommended that doctors measure a patient s blood pressure in both arms, this guideline is often ignored.

A group of at least 12 teenage girls in upstate New York have been beset by a host of mysterious Tourrette s-like symptoms. Multiple tests by experts have found that these bizarre symptoms, which include involuntary tics and verbal outbursts, have no apparent toxic or infectious origin, leading health experts to believe that they are most likely of psychological origin.

While much of the recent media surrounding cancer screening has focused on new research and guidelines suggesting that less frequent screening may be beneficial, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that too many Americans are not getting screened at all.

It s an unfortunate fact that doctors all too often fail to discuss weight management with their obese patients. But to make matters worse, a new study published in the journal Obesity has found that doctors who are themselves overweight are even less likely than their normal-weight counterparts to discuss weight loss with their patients.

Tune into NBC Nightly News this Saturday evening to hear ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross discuss what s problematic about the current trend of shopping for discounted medical care via websites like Groupon and Living Social.

This week s Wall Street Journal has two physicians debating whether the doctor-patient relationship should be extended to email. While both of these doctors agree that email correspondence can t substitute for an office exam, questions remain about whether this new channel of communication will create or quell confusion.

Oropharyngeal cancer, which affects the throat, tongue, soft palate, and tonsils, has become increasingly common among men in the U.S. Because a distinct form of it is caused primarily by HPV (human papillomavirus), a recent study set out to determine the prevalence of oral HPV infection.

Diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking. These have long been recognized as major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Now, a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine starkly demonstrates just how significantly these factors increase a person s risk of stroke or heart attack.

I was honored that the Wall Street Journal asked me last month to participate in an in-print debate regarding whether pharmaceutical patents should get a longer life.
My contribution was limited to 1,000 words, so there was much I could not say. Of this, probably the most interesting material involved each side answering questions taken from the other contributor's essay. What follows are the questions that were posed to me, and my response.