Volume 221 Issue 6

The loneliness epidemic affecting older people is a costly public health concern

Lidia Engel · Cathrine Mihalopoulos

New Australian guidelines strongly recommend against prescription of modified-release opioids for patients with acute pain

Pamela E Macintyre · Melissa A Jamcotchian · Jennifer A Stevens

Medical nomenclature should ideally describe the pathophysiological processes or clinical criteria relevant to the entity being defined

Leya Nedumannil · Diana Lewis

A 72-year-old man with a history of well controlled type 2 diabetes was admitted to a tertiary metropolitan hospital for investigation of fevers, night sweats and unintentional weight loss of 18kg over six months

Vinny Ea · Brigitte Papa · Rimma Goldberg

The role of modelled versus study-based economic evaluations, and an introduction to common modelling approaches

Winnie Chen · Martin Howell · Alan Cass · Gillian Gorham · Kirsten Howard

Chaturvedi S, Ullah S, Hughes (Wagadagam) JT. Kidney transplantation access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young adults, 1963–2020: an ANZDATA registry study. Med J Aust 2024; https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52355 In the Results section of the Abstract, where it says “Five-and 10-year survival after kidney transplantation was similar for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people”, it should read “Five-and 10-year patient survival after kidney transplantation was similar for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people”. On page 48, the first sentence of the Methods section should start with “We used data prospectively …”. On page 48, in the Study outcomes section, where it says “Primary outcomes were time to first kidney transplantation, death, death-censored graft survival, and survival for people with end-stage kidney disease who did not receive kidney transplants (ie, remained on dialysis) during 1963–2020”, it should read “Primary outcomes were time to first kidney transplantation, death, death-censored graft survival, and survival for children and young adults with end-stage kidney disease who did not receive kidney transplants (ie, remained on dialysis) during 1963–2020”. On page 48, in the second paragraph of the Variables section, where it says “… cyclosporine/mycophenolate/ prednisone; 005–2020”, it should read “… cyclosporine/mycophenolate/ prednisone; 2005–2020”. On page 48, in the third paragraph of the Variables section, where it says “The status at modality treatment transition is defined as receiving a transplant, death, on dialysis, own kidney function recovered, or date of most recent visit if lost to follow-up”, it should read “The status at transition is defined as received transplant, patient death, on dialysis, own kidney function recovered, or date of most recent visit if lost to follow-up”.

No unbiased toxicity data for 6-methylnicotine derived from realistic biological model or in human studies are available

Alexander Larcombe · Laura Hunter

Non-index hospital re-admission is associated with reduced mortality for people from regional or remote areas

Md Shajedur Rahman Shawon · Jennifer Yu · Art Sedrakyan · Sze‐Yuan Ooi · Louisa Jorm

Reducing the number of unplanned re-admissions could improve outcomes for people with heart failure and reduce hospital costs

Trang Dang · Wandy Chan · Sunnya Khawaja · James Fryar · Brenda Gannon · Sanjeewa Kularatna · William Parsonage · Isuru Ranasinghe

Breathlessness imposes major burdens on individuals, the health care system, and the economy

Anthony P Sunjaya · Leanne M Poulos · Gian Luca Di Tanna · Thomas Lung · Guy B Marks · Helen K Reddel · Christine R Jenkins

Clinicians should be aware of the availability of these products in Australia, including without prescription

Caitlin Jenkins · Celine Kelso · Jody Morgan

Foundational qualities of culturally safe and sustainable eHealth interventions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

the eHRCATSIH Group

Uday N Yadav · Rosemary Wyber · Fiona Cornforth (Wuthathi/Maluilgal) · Raymond W Lovett (Wongaibon/Ngiyampaa)

There is a longstanding tradition in the medical world of naming diseases and conditions after individuals who made valuable contributions to their discovery. But who gets to be an eponym, who gets forgotten and should they be used at all? In a perspective published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Leya Nedumannil and Dr Diana Lewis of Northern Hospital, Melbourne question the continued use of the naming style. “While not with the purpose to discredit the diligence of nor imply that unethical intentions always drove those after whom eponyms are coined, we believe their ongoing use in medicine without reflective deliberation may be detrimental,” the authors wrote. The academics say that in some cases the broader teams who were involved in medical discoveries don’t get the same recognition as the person with the eponym. An example of this is seen with Crohn’s disease, which is named after Burril B Crohn despite two other authors co-writing the paper where the condition was first described — Leon Ginzberg and Gordon D Oppenheimer. “Medical progress is seldom a solo feat, and the use of eponyms may threaten important values of collaboration and collegiality in this realm,” Dr Nedumannil and Dr Lewis wrote. Women throughout history have also been excluded with only 4% of medical eponyms being credited to women. “Numerous women have historically had their scientific achievements forgotten or inaccurately credited to men, a notion of systemic bias so widespread that it has ironically acquired an evocative eponymous title itself [the Matilda Effect], named after suffragist Matilda Gage,” the authors wrote. When names are best left in the past Another unintended consequence of using medical eponyms occurs when an individual is found to have engaged in unethical research or even crimes against humanity, as in the case of research undertaken by Nazi collaborators. “An example is the replacement of Wegener granulomatosis with granulomatosis with polyangiitis, due to Friedrich Wegener’s associations with the Nazi Party,” the authors wrote. There is also a risk of medical eponyms continuing a culture of colonialism through favouring Eurocentric researchers over knowledge from other nations and cultures. Research shows that 97% of medical eponyms celebrate European and North American physicians, despite 40% of pharmacological agents used in current practice originating from non-western medicine. “The failure to acknowledge accomplishments of cultural medical practices that often pre-dated and potentially inspired those of conventional medicine is not uncommon, and some eponyms may reflect this,” the authors wrote. A diagnosis by any other name… Even from a merely logistical standpoint, eponyms can cause confusion due to multiple systems or conditions being named after the same person, and because eponyms are not descriptive of the condition, this can make it difficult to communicate with patients. Both Dr Nedumannil and Dr Lewis argue that moving away from the use of medical eponyms would help medical terms avoid ethical pitfalls, while creating opportunities for more easily understandable terminology. “This could not only help dissociate medical terminology from the contentious milieu in which several eponyms came to existence, but potentially also facilitate more precise communication between clinicians and with patients,” they concluded. Read the perspective in the Medical Journal of Australia. The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association. The statements or opinions that are expressed in the MJA reflect the views of the authors and do not represent the official policy of the AMA or the MJA unless that is so stated. Media contacts: For all MJA enquiries, please contact news and online editor, Sally Block, at mja-media@mja.com.au

Sally Block