Monthly Archives: February 2010

Sex ratio and saving, in China

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 25, 2010. Filed under China, News Items. No comments.
There are, by last official count, 122 boys being born for every 100 girls in China, on the average, while in some areas it is as high as 145 to 100.  Over the years there have been countless riffs on how politically, socially, and economically, this unnatural ratio has and will continue to  shape China.  [...]

Western Physicians in China see things differently

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 22, 2010. Filed under China, Public Health. 2 Comments.
Dr. Richard Cyr of the excellent "My Health Beijing" blog has had a practice, in Beijing, for the past three years. Sometime ago I communicated to him that it would be fascinating to read how his Beijing experience differs from his experience as a physician, in the United States. Over on his blog, he recently put up an entry called "An American Doctor in China: What's Different?"

Medical tourism and its related issues are complicated , but scholarship is starting to look into it.

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 22, 2010. Filed under News Items. 2 Comments.
Glenn Cohen is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School. His working paper "Protecting Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism and the Patient Protective-Argument" is the most in depth exploration of the medical tourism industry and the legal issues it raises for would-be patients and would-be providers. In this paper Cohen explores medical tourism that involves patients seeking out treatment in other countries that is legal both there and in their own country of residence. This is one of three types of medical tourism that Cohen categorizes, the other two involving treatment is illegal in the patient's home country but legal in the destination country, and treatment that is illegal everywhere (like organ harvesting). [...]

The useful, the comedic, and the odd. It’s Links Saturday!

Written by James. Posted on February 20, 2010. Filed under Asia, NOT-China, China, News Items. No comments.
Once in a while we like to let you know what we’re reading.  Some of the stories below may end up as the focus of a column we do in the future, most will not.  But, strangely enough, all are entertaining in their own right.  We have gone ahead and annotated them for you so [...]

Human Organ Printing makes sense in a world that’s 9 billion people strong

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 19, 2010. Filed under Asia, NOT-China, News Items. No comments.
The number of biotech patents in Asia has skyrocketed in the past decade. Moreover, Asian labs have taken to stem cells as a champion issue of national prestige; stem cell technology, again, is crucial to pushing forward the development of 3D organ printing . Throw in the fact that the number of scientists, engineers, and medical doctors in the West is stagnating, and it would not be iconoclastic to say that Asia could very quickly find itself at the forefront of organ printing technology; or, at least, find itself in the very thick of things.