10th International Conference on Homocysteine and One Carbon Metabolism

[Sleepybunny]

Hi,

Thought you might be interested in Martyn Hooper's blog post about this conference.

martynhooper.com/2017/05/24...

[Frodo]

Thanks. Very interesting.

Great to know there ARE experts in the field and research is being carried out and thanks to Martyn for bringing the patient's perspective.

It's very worrying that the B12 medical expert Martyn spoke to did not realise that doctors are still relying on the serum test for diagnosis. I have no idea how this works but surely medical researchers have channels for what they have found out to be filtered into general medical practice? How is new research that changes the existing modes of operation adopted by the medical profession, does anyone know?

Or is research like this blocked due to the cost of the extra testing involved?

[fbirder in reply to Frodo]

No, no research is 'blocked'. Well, not deliberately. But it can get hidden amongst a lot of other research.

Somebody on Quora counted the number of articles listed in PubMed (a database of several thousand medical journals) in 2009. They came up with a result of 845,175 separate articles.

Obviously there is no way that anybody can keep up with all of that. Doctors will set up automatic searches to notify them of new research in their specific areas of interest. Almost everything is lose will pass them by.

One would hope that they would, at least, scan through everything published in the big journals (Lancet, BMJ, JAMA, etc). But with ever-increasing demands on their time that's becoming less and less likely.

[Frodo in reply to fbirder]

Thanks, yes that would be a lot to keep up with!

I was thinking more of the medical establishment than individual doctors (although yes, it would be preferable if they were able to keep up with the latest research), those who train doctors, those who manage and administrate budgets and policies which result in tests and treatment being rationed.

I don't really know enough about the way the medical establishment works in disseminating research into practice.