Kidney Punch

A wound in the scientific body: a hypothesis

John Pickering • Jul 03, 2015

The social and professional media have had a field day with Sir Tim Hunt’s comments concerning women in the lab. Juxtaposed with that in New Zealand has been a very earnest discussion about the gagging of scientists. The purpose of this post is simply to highlight that the two are not unrelated and how we […] … Read More

Send them home

John Pickering • Jun 19, 2015

New Zealand is the home of Home Haemodialysis and Christchurch the hub. Sending people home to dialyse is not only more convenient for them and more cost effective, but also has been shown to reduce mortality. However, is this reduction in mortality sustained across changes in dialysis medicine over time? This is an important question […] … Read More

Christchurch has breast cancer research hub

John Pickering • Jun 09, 2015

Guest post by: Kim Thomas, Communications Manager at the University of Otago, Christchurch A team of specialist cancer researchers have joined forces to focus on the impact of obesity on breast cancer. The researchers all work at the University of Otago, Christchurch’s Mackenzie Cancer Research Group. The Group is headed by Canterbury District Health Board […] … Read More

What is your number?

John Pickering • May 22, 2015

Last night I had the honour to speak following the AGM of the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation (CMRF). The CMRF are a fantastic organisation I’ve talked about before. They are also one of three sponsors of my current research fellowship. What I talked about was volunteers and clinical trials. Two days ago the world celebrated Clinical […] … Read More

Ten Commandments of PowerPoint™ presentations

John Pickering • May 03, 2015

In my “most cringing” file, ranking somewhere alongside brussel sprouts and Abba, are PowerPoint(TM) presentations that are unreadable and distracting. I have made it my mission to rid the world of annoying animation, fantastic fonts, garrulous graphs, and tortuous tables. The following are my commandments – ignore them and dreadful things will be visited on […] … Read More

Major government health directive monitored for efficacy and safety

John Pickering • Apr 09, 2015

Last year I was fortunate to become part of a team at Christchurch hospital led by emergency care physician, Dr Martin Than. About 7 years ago in response to some local issues with how patients presenting with chest pain were being evaluated for potential heart attacks, Dr Than began a research program that investigated what […] … Read More

I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This. . .

John Pickering • Mar 13, 2015

Originally posted on Intelligently Artificial:I’m not even going to pretend that there isn’t a conflict of interest here. A better, more ethical person would take steps to maintain their objectivity and protect their sense of integrity. But in a world where news anchor Brian Williams can singlehandedly drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan, and… … Read More

Hot oil baths and other things to do on World Kidney Day 2015

John Pickering • Mar 11, 2015

“In ancient times the Persian philosopher Avicenna [Ibn Sina] noted that urine may be retained in crisis of fever (s393) and prescribed hot oil baths (s413)(1). Unfortunately, apart from the supportive therapy of dialysis, there has been little progress since in the treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI).”(2) Given that getting AKI at least doubles […] … Read More

Cantabrians, this is your life

John Pickering • Feb 27, 2015

There is little more precious than our health and that of those we love. “Research saves lives” is Canterbury Medical Research Foundation’s (CMRF) proudly held motto. The CMRF has been supporting the people of Canterbury for 55 years thanks to the generosity of Cantabrians. In that time they have funded more than $22 million in grants. Yesterday […] … Read More

Acute Kidney Injury Following Cardiac Surgery: A Well-studied Cohort of AKI

John Pickering • Feb 03, 2015

Originally posted on AJKD Blog:Dr. John Pickering Acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiothoracic surgery has been well reported in the nephrology literature with numerous studies published in the last decade, although the definition of AKI was variable in many of these studies. In a recent article published in AJKD, Pickering et al perform a… … Read More

About Kidney Punch

Kidney Punch is brought to you by Dr John Pickering, a scientist researching the diagnosis of kidney attacks and heart attacks, who wants to be public about his publicly funded research and have a say about a few other matters he thinks are important.

The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the owners of SciBlogs.co.nz, the Science Media Centre or the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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