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DC News You Can (Maybe) Use

Kaylee DuganJune 22, 2016

News 01 min read

WHEREIN: We bring you the developments (happening in and around D.C.) that we think are newsworthy, or, at the very least, almost newsworthy.

White House staffers stand up for D.C. (via City Paper)

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DCPD really want you to get home safe now that SafeTrack (which is anything but) is in effect. (via City Paper)
Local LGBTQ groups are offering free mental health resources for those in need. (via NBC)
AU’s Museum is holding the first ever exhibition of North Korea’s Social Realist paintings. They’re… interesting. (via DCist)

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Niche.com just named Arlington the best city in the U.S. and the 7th best suburb. At the same time. (via ARL Now)
In other random rankings, if you care about Arby’s per capita, D.C. is one of the worst states in the Nation. (via Estately)

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The minimum wage bill has gotten it’s final approval. $15 an hour for everybody! (via WAMU)
The National Mall is going to be the home to the largest water gun fight ever. This is what summer was made for. (via Borderstan)

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13nov6:00 pmYoga in Luce6:00 pm Smithsonian American Art Museum

13nov6:00 pmSAAM Presents: Street Heroines6:00 pm Smithsonian American Art Museum

13nov7:00 pmBlack Midiw/ Fat Tony7:00 pm U Street Music Hall

13nov7:00 pmRa Ra Riot7:00 pm 9:30 Club

14nov10:00 am10:00 pmImmersive Multimedia Exhibition: Lucid Motion by Rhizomatiksat ARTECHOUSE10:00 am - 10:00 pm ARTECHOUSE

14nov6:00 pm8:30 pmProfs & Pints: What Medical Tests Don’t Show6:00 pm - 8:30 pm Social Circle Bistro at the Cambria Hotel - Washington DC Convention Center

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Event Details

Profs and Pints presents: “What Medical Tests Don’t Show,” a look probability, uncertainty, and the correct interpretation of medical tests, with Dan Morgan, professor of epidemiology and public health and medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chief of the Veterans Affairs Maryland Healthcare System.

The last 40 years have witnessed both a dramatic increase in the ease of administering medical tests and a surge in the number of such tests available, with more than 13 billion performed every year. Due heavily to pharmaceutical advertising aimed directly at patients, more patients are ordering tests on themselves without any scientific training on how to properly order test or interpret test results.

It’s a dangerous trend. Even doctors working with modern laboratories, where such testing is much more reliable, sometimes wrongly interpret test results in ways that seriously affect patients. People at home, who are unlikely to fully understand how considerations of probability factor into medical test interpretations, are especially prone to giving test results far too much weight. Especially troublesome are results that are “false positives,” creating the temptation for people to falsely conclude that they have a condition or disease and experience unnecessary anxiety or seek unnecessary treatments. Both clinical research and evidence-based medicine have demonstrated a blindness to false positive results and shown how patients can be harmed from treating diseases that aren’t there.

Join Dan Morgan, a physician epidemiologist, for a talk that will give you a much deeper understanding of medical testing, equipping you to better look after your health in the long term. He’ll look at how testing became a part of medical testing, show how such tests are connected to larger trends in modern medicine, and offer a brief crash course on the science underlying medical-test interpretation.

Dr. Morgan will discuss how uncritical faith in technology and physiology, without regard to considerations of probability, often leads to harms. He’ll look at major mishaps in the field—such as the collapse of the company Theranos, infamous for falsely claiming it had developed a one-drop blood test—and the ways in which even doctors with great reputations sometimes get this stuff wrong. And he’ll touch on some promising new developments, such as the computer-aided creation of visual aids that help explain probabilities to physicians and patients, that will enable all involved to better understand what medical tests mean.

You’ll walk out of the room better equipped to look after your health in the long run. Not a bad return for less money than you might spend on a co-pay and less time than you might spend in a waiting room. (Advance tickets $12. Door: $15 (cash only), save $2 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself plenty of time to place orders and be seated or settled.)

Time

(Thursday) 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Social Circle Bistro at the Cambria Hotel - Washington DC Convention Center

899 O Street NW, Washington DC 20001

Cost

Advance ticket: $12. Door: $15, save $2 with student ID.

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Calendar GoogleCal

14nov6:00 pmLast Dinosaursw/ Born Ruffians6:00 pm U Street Music Hall

14nov6:30 pmMandolin Orangew/ Sunny War6:30 pm Lincoln Theatre

14nov7:30 pm10:00 pmAMADEUS7:30 pm - 10:00 pm Folger Theatre

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