Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/02/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Catching up with Digest, I noted with interest several posts concerning the prostate. I'm no physician and never wanted to practice medicine. My wife is the physician in my family. I'm a theoretician with advanced degrees in biology, all but doctoral dissertation, and psychology Ph.D., with publications in the prestigious "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (USA). I'm also a frustrated philosopher and chose to practice as a clinical psychologist. I'm also a research biologist and psychologist. Offering full disclosure, I promote biological medicine as tomorrow's medicine today. Now then, the prostate: I believe in casting a "big net" over a problem; which is to say, haul in as many data points as possible. Translation: look at the prostate in as many ways as possible so as to come up with several variables or test results, including digital exam and clinical impression. Each test is a data point and collectively they "profile the prostate." The profile or test pattern contains more information that any single test you can throw at the prostate and any systemic impact (e.g., bones). In my alcoholism research we measured some ten free blood plasma amino acids and used multivariate statistics (regression, factor, discriminant) to process that amino acid profile containing more information than any one amino acid. Medicine doesn't fully exploit the diagnostic power of this approach and it needs to if only to address the biochemical individuality of the patient. Getting at individuality and uniqueness requires a multivariate approach. So go and cast the big net and find guys to interpret it. If interested, check my theoretical medicine and biological medicine blogs for Psychology Today magazine by Googling "leon pomeroy." Be Well, Dr. Leon Pomeroy, Northern Virginia, USA. Leica M9, Fuji X-Pro 1, Canon Zoom Lenses; Ex 16 mm movie maker with wonderful Bolex and Canonscoopic movie cameras.