R Adams Cowley (1917-1991), the Baltimore thoracic and trauma surgeon, was an outstanding politician and promoter of emergency medical services. His skills included the effective use of language, for example, identifying the critical time immediately after injury as a "golden hour," and describing s …

Under the leadership of Drs. Vincent P. Dole, Marie Nyswander, and Mary Jeanne Kreek, in collaboration with the psychologist, Norman Gordon and sociologist, Herman Joseph at The Rockefeller University beginning in the 1960s, the first medical treatment for heroin addiction was developed. Drs. Dole, …

Several countries are experiencing public health crises as a result of opioid addiction. Fatal overdoses have reached record highs in many regions and Hepatitis C virus is the norm among people who inject drugs in several countries. Thus, providing for the global availability of medication-assisted …

The Crucial Test of Therapeutic Evidence: Torald Sollmann, M.D., Cleveland

In clinical classes, mythological designations can serve as a point of departure for digressions into literary, art and medical history in order to provide an understanding of cultural traditions and enhance education.

With a Little Help From My Friends: Seeking Consistent and Persuasive Evidence

The resuscitation of an adult trauma patient has been researched and written about for the past century. Throughout those discussions, 2 major controversies persist when discussing resuscitation methods: (1) the ideal choice of fluid type to use during the initial resuscitation period, and (2) the i …

Oral antimicrobial treatment of acute streptococcal pharyngitis commonly is given for 10 days. An investigation was conducted of journal publications and textbooks from the dawn of the antimicrobial era to the present in order to discover the basis for this settled practice. Current treatment durati …

Oral Rehydration Therapy-20th Century Wonder

Very little is known today about the linguistics and facts relating to venoms in the ancient world. The article concerns itself initially with the terminology: How were venoms conceptualized and what position did they occupy among medicines and other poisons? Additionally ancient knowledge of the co …

Radiochemotherapy is undergoing a complete expansion. Currently, possibilities of treatment combination are skyrocketting, with different anticancer and targeted molecules, different radiotherapy techniques, and dose escalation with each therapy. The development of a modern phase I radiochemotherapy …

Target-Controlled Infusions: Surfing USA Redux

The modern day drug delivery technology is only 60years old. During this period numerous drug delivery systems have been developed. The first generation (1950-1980) has been very productive in developing many oral and transdermal controlled release formulations for clinical applications. On the othe …

Target-controlled infusion (TCI) is a technique of infusing IV drugs to achieve a user-defined predicted ("target") drug concentration in a specific body compartment or tissue of interest. In this review, we describe the pharmacokinetic principles of TCI, the development of TCI systems, and technica …

Journal of Drug Targeting Life Time Achievement Award for Prof. Robert Langer

The dispute over low and high potencies is no longer current in today's homeopathy, but from the 1830s to the 1960s it played a major role in scientific discourse. The devotees of high potencies claimed to be the only true Hahnemannians, while their antagonists tried to practise a scientific, modern …

Professor Jan Feijen: a pioneer in biomedical polymers and controlled drug release

The Pars Collection: a window into the past

Of fires and frying pans

From a historical perspective, this article describes the use of antipsychotic long-acting injections (LAI) in the treatment of schizophrenia, a disorder that was defined in the final years of the 19th century. An efficient treatment for schizophrenia was discovered only in 1952 with the introductio …

Avicenna (980-1037 AD), also known as Sheikh or-Raeis, was an Muslim philosopher, physician, surgeon, astronomer, politician, encyclopedist, and mathematician. Avicenna's writings comprise of five books, know as the Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) and the canon covers a wide variety of m …

Dose-dense chemotherapy has made a significant contribution to the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. One way of achieving dose-density is through the use of sequential therapy with noncross resistant therapies to cause cell kill in tumors composed of heterogeneous cells. Another way to achieve th …

Traditionally, any drug intended for combating the tumor would distribute profoundly to other organs and tissues as lack of targeting specificity, thus resulting in limited therapeutic effects toward the tumor but severe drug-induced toxic side effects. To prevail over this obstacle of drug-induced …

23. From stealthy, controlled release polymersomes to cylinder-shaped 'filomicelles' for imaging and delivery: Original research article: Self-porating polymersomes of PEG-PLA and PEG-PCL: hydrolysis-triggered controlled release vesicles, 2004

21. pH-sensitive chitosan-based nanoparticles for protein drug delivery: oral approaches: Original research article: a novel pH-sensitive hydrogel composed of carboxymethyl chitosan and alginate cross-linked by genipin for protein drug delivery, 2004

20. Multi-targeting system with fusion between thermoresponsive carriers and mild hyperthermia: Original research article: Thermo-responsive drug delivery from polymeric micelles constructed using block copolymers of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(butylmethacrylate) (1999)

19. Targeted nanoparticles for smarter cancer therapy: Original research article: Folate receptor targeted biodegradable polymeric doxorubicin micelles, 2004

18. Biodegradable block copolymers for delivery of proteins and water-insoluble drugs: reflections and commentary a decade later: Original research article: Biodegradable block copolymers for delivery and proteins water-insoluble drugs, 2001

17. Histidine based pH-responsive polymeric micelle for tumor: Original research article: Polymeric micelle for tumor pH folate-mediated targeting, 2003

15. Vitamin E TPGS based nanoparticles of biodegradable polymers for controlled release of anticancer drugs: Original research article: a novel controlled release formulation for the anticancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol): PLGA nanoparticles containing vitamin E TPGS (2003)