Bisphenol A or BPA is an organic compound that has quickly fallen out of favor and into the news headlines in the past few years. Used in making polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resins which are materials to make plastics, BPA emits hormone-like properties that are weak but detectable, leading to a public outcry of its use in items such as food storage, baby bottles, water bottles and plastic utensils. As with many substances, the United States and countries of the European Union remain divided in how they are handling BPA. Read further >

The Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report recently entitled “Putting patients into ‘meaningful use’”(PDF). It begins with the true story regarding a life-saving diagnosis by Facebook in which a Wisconsin woman ended up in an emergency room, and then in a coma, after months of experiencing symptoms that had confounded doctors trying to make a diagnosis. A family member “friended” the doctor to the woman’s Facebook account – where she had been tracking her symptoms, conditions, medications, etc. After reading her status updates, the doctor pieced information together and was able to diagnose and treat her; she has since recovered. Read further >