Cancer Treatment by Electromagnetic Fields Goes Mainstream

Before and after applying 200khz frequencies to brain cancer. Disease has stabilized.

Alternating electric fields arrest cell proliferation in animal tumor models and human brain tumors. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, June 12, 2007 vol. 104 no. 24 10152-10157.

Eilon D. Kirson *, Vladimír Dbalý ^† , František Tovaryš ^† , Josef Vymazal ^† , Jean F. Soustiel ^‡ , Aviran Itzhaki *, Daniel Mordechovich *, Shirley Steinberg-Shapira *, Zoya Gurvich *, Rosa Schneiderman *, Yoram Wasserman *, Marc Salzberg ^§ , Bernhard Ryffel ^¶ , Dorit Goldsher ^‡ , Erez Dekel ^‖ , and Yoram Palti * , ** , ^††

Author Affiliations

*NovoCure Limited, Matam Advanced Technology Centre, Haifa 31905, Israel;
^†Na Homolce Hospital, Roentgenova 2, 150 30 Prague 5, Czech Republic;
^‡Rambam Medical Center, PO Box 9602, Haifa 31096, Israel;
^§Basel University Hospitals, Hebelstrasse 32, 4031 Basel, Switzerland;
^¶Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d’immunologie et Embryologie Moléculaire, Rue de la Ferollerie, 45071 Orleans, France;
^‖Weizmann Institute of Science, PO Box 26, Rehovot 76100, Israel; and
**B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel

Communicated by Joseph Schlessinger, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, April 5, 2007 (received for review January 15, 2007)

Abstract

We have recently shown that low intensity, intermediate frequency, electric fields inhibit by an anti-microtubule mechanism of action, cancerous cell growth in vitro. Using implanted electrodes, these fields were also shown to inhibit the growth of dermal tumors in mice. The present study extends these findings to additional cell lines [human breast carcinoma; MDA-MB-231, and human non-small-cell lung carcinoma (H1299)] and to animal tumor models (intradermal B16F1 melanoma and intracranial F-98 glioma) using external insulated electrodes. These findings led to the initiation of a pilot clinical trial of the effects of TTFields in 10 patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). Median time to disease progression in these patients was 26.1 weeks and median overall survival was 62.2 weeks. These time to disease progression and OS values are more than double the reported medians of historical control patients. No device-related serious adverse events were seen after >70 months of cumulative treatment in all of the patients. The only device-related side effect seen was a mild to moderate contact dermatitis beneath the field delivering electrodes. We conclude that TTFields are a safe and effective new treatment modality which effectively slows down tumor growth in vitro, in vivo and, as demonstrated here, in human cancer patients.

————–
Despite using frequencies that are not optimal for eliminating cancer cells and not using frequencies to eliminate Rife BX BY and Gregory cancer virus infections, significant benefit was found with long term treatment of brain cancer with an electromagnetic device designed by NovoCure. A clinical trial is well under way.

Lyme Frequencies – Version 6.2

CDC publishes a map of Lyme disease risk showing the gradual spread of Lyme disease across the United States. CDC estimates reported cases are 10% of actual cases, so Lyme disease is a massive epidemic that has spread to other countries as well. Over 50% of the people I now test are positive for Lyme organisms, although many of them may temporarily be asymptomatic. Merck researchers observe Lyme mycoplasma in over 95% of the population.

Lyme disease is unlike any other syndrome on the planet. Alternative practitioners note that it is more difficult to treat than cancer. The reason for this is that it is a complex of thousands of viruses, parasites, fungi, mycoplasma, and other organisms. There is enough published circumstantial evidence to conclude that it is designed to be undetectable in the early stages, untreatable, and eventually, permanently disabling. It is also gets worse if treatment is attempted, a phenomenon observed in the Herxheimer reactions noted by those who try to treat their Lyme disease. Frequencies need to be carefully designed to avoid these reactions as much as possible.

During 1991-2002, the reported incidence of Lyme disease nearly doubled. Most cases continued to occur in northeastern, mid-atlantic, and north-central states, and the largest population of cases continued to be reported among persons aged 5-9 years and 50-59 years, possibly as a result of greater exposure than other groups to infected ticks, less frequent use of personal protective measures, differential use of health-care services, and/or reporting bias. For additional information, visit CDC’s web site at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/index.htm.

Analysis of hundreds of people and animals with Lyme disease have produced the latest Frequency Foundation Lyme Disease Version document which has now grown to a small book of over 100 pages. In the latest version, frequencies are published in ready to run F165 programs which can be modified to run on any device. The frequency set is certainly not finished as new Lyme organisms or updates to older frequencies are discovered on a daily basis.

Note: Current Frequency Foundation subscribers can update these lyme sets by downloading Borrelia biofilm frequency sets.

Lastest Upgrade to Lyme Frequencies

Refinement of frequency sets are based on work with hundreds of people and animals on a daily basis for many years. Several new programs and major updates to previous programs are included in the latest version:

• Lyme heart viruses – a group of Lyme viruses tend to proliferate in the heart and cause pain and palpitations in some individuals.
• Lyme stealth organisms – certain organisms take years to detect and are very persistent. Some of them have crippling effects. These have been packaged into a separate program.
• Lyme insects – funded research on insect frequencies has led to the creation of a Lyme insect program. Most of these frequencies are tick frequencies.

In addition, previous programs contain hundreds of new frequencies.

• Lyme mycoplasma – the core of Lyme disease is a mycoplasma bioengineered from weapons grade brucella at Plum Island laboratories [1].
• Lyme viruses – many of these are crippling. Many of the most dangerous viruses in the world were brought to Plum Island for experimentation, the Rift Valley virus from Africa, for example.
• Lyme babesia – there are hundreds of strains of the babesia parasite.
• Lyme parasites – there are many other parasites, many of which are released after killing babesia
• Lyme cells – the Lyme mycoplasma get inside cells and cause genetic mutation. These aberrated cells often cause pain and some can progress to cancer.
• Lyme bacteria – many of the bacteria in Lyme emit neurotoxins. These are what physicians typically treat with antibiotics. Paradoxically, these are the easiest to eliminate with frequencies. Lyme is a much bigger problem than spirochetes which many have discovered after their physician pronounced them cured.
• Lyme rickettsia – variants of this organism cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and other diseases.
• Lyme fungus – these are very difficult to get rid of without frequencies. Some produce toxins which get into cyclic biochemical pathways that prevent elimination without frequencies or special treatment.
• Proteus mirabilis – another pathogen always found in Lyme.
• Gnathastoma spinigerum – another pathogen always found in Lyme.

While sets of the Lyme frequencies can be manually run on any device, they are best run with programmable frequency generators like the F100 series from Atelier Robin due to the length of the programs. Frequency octaves can be created for any device as described in the documentation.

Cancer cells killed by electrical frequencies

Cancer Res. 2004 May 1;64(9):3288-95
Disruption of cancer cell replication by alternating electric fields.

* Kirson ED,
* Gurvich Z,
* Schneiderman R,
* Dekel E,
* Itzhaki A,
* Wasserman Y,
* Schatzberger R,
* Palti Y.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, NovoCure Ltd., Haifa, Israel.

Low-intensity, intermediate-frequency (100-300 kHz), alternating electric fields, delivered by means of insulated electrodes, were found to have a profound inhibitory effect on the growth rate of a variety of human and rodent tumor cell lines (Patricia C, U-118, U-87, H-1299, MDA231, PC3, B16F1, F-98, C-6, RG2, and CT-26) and malignant tumors in animals. This effect, shown to be nonthermal, selectively affects dividing cells while quiescent cells are left intact. These fields act in two modes: arrest of cell proliferation and destruction of cells while undergoing division. Both effects are demonstrated when such fields are applied for 24 h to cells undergoing mitosis that is oriented roughly along the field direction. The first mode of action is manifested by interference with the proper formation of the mitotic spindle, whereas the second results in rapid disintegration of the dividing cells. Both effects, which are frequency dependent, are consistent with the computed directional forces exerted by these specific fields on charges and dipoles within the dividing cells. In vivo treatment of tumors in C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice (B16F1 and CT-26 syngeneic tumor models, respectively), resulted in significant slowing of tumor growth and extensive destruction of tumor cells within 3-6 days. These findings demonstrate the potential applicability of the described electric fields as a novel therapeutic modality for malignant tumors.

PMID: 15126372 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

The National Institutes of Health is recruiting patients for a clinical trial that takes advantage of this effect.

A “breakthrough” finding made by NovoCure was that finely tuned alternating fields of very low intensity, now termed TTFields (Tumor Treating Fields), cause a significant slowing in the growth of cancer cells. Due to the unique geometric shape of cancer cells when they are multiplying, TTFields cause the building blocks of these cells to move and pile up in such a way that the cells physically explode. In addition, cancer cells also contain miniature building blocks which act as tiny motors in moving essential parts of the cells from place to place. TTFields cause these tiny motors to fall apart since they have a special type of electric charge.

Feb 2007 Flu Frequency Update: Version 2.01

Flu season is here and the CDC flu charts are headed straight up! All the flu outbreaks I have seen during years where I have been analyzing frequencies have been transmitted by parasites infected with viruses, fungi, bacteria, insects, and smaller parasites inside larger parasites. The infected parasites keep reinfecting you so the symptoms linger. They also stir up other pathogens that might be quietly lingering in your body, particularly Lyme infections which exist in the majority of the population.

For those who got a good case of this year’s flu, it was the worst in recent memory – a month of congestion, sneezing, coughing, asthma symptoms, headaches, joint, and muscle aches and pains, with repeated reinfection. This is the most complex flu observed to date by the Frequency Foundation as it is carried by dozens of Lyme organisms. For those already infected with Lyme (more than 50% of people tested) it stirs up a dormant Lyme infection and makes the flu worse than ever.

The latest version of this flu frequency set contains:
· 2 flu viruses
· 13 helper viruses
· over a dozen insect frequencies
· at least half a dozen strains of the Lyme babesia parasite
· over a dozen strains of other Lyme parasites
· and the Gregory cancer “virus” (a type of nanobacteria) [1]

To make things worse, many of the parasites are infected with the other flu organisms so killing them with frequencies or otherwise releases more flu organisms and the brucella bacteria which is major component of Lyme disease.

Frequency sets are provided in the F100 programming language for use on F165 or other frequency generators, and for transmission by Advanced BioPhoton Analyzers (APBAs). Details on how to translate them to FSCAN devices are provided. Programs for plasma devices that operate under 10,000 hz are also included.

Lyme Frequency Set Version 4.2

Refinement of frequency sets has continued on a daily basis since Release 4.0. Updating these sets has become a major task and can now only be done in increments. This release has a significantly upgraded Rickettsia program as requests have been received for frequencies for this persistent bacteria that gets into cells.

In addition, a scalar octave table has been added for the Rickettsia frequencies. This will allow finding a frequency in the range of any frequency device without doing calculations. For those having difficulty understanding the F165 programming language, please review the section where an F165 program is translated into frequencies for the FSCAN. This, in combination with the Rickettsia scalar octave table will allow creation of programs for any Rife plasma or pad device. As other programs are upgraded at a future date, scalar octave tables will be provided.

All repeat commands have been removed from programs. They may need to be run multiple times. Symptom patterns or some form of kinaesthesiology must be used to determine whether to run them again (muscle testing or a dowsing technique).

Background on the Lyme Frequency Sets

The dark field microscopic photo shows red blood cells (circles), one of the many strains of Lyme parasite (large white object), brucella (small white spots), and one of the crystalline forms of the Lyme mycoplasma (faint thin lines).

A steady stream of email and voice mail asking for frequencies for various pathogens is received by the Frequency Research Foundation on a daily basis. Because Lyme disease is such a major public health problem, the latest frequency sets are published here for a small fee that covers administrative costs for maintaining them. Periodically, they are updated as research progresses. For those who want regular updates to all frequency sets, a subscription fee for 2006 may be selected below.

These frequencies are for research purposes only and may be helpful, harmful, or ineffective depending on how they are used. They are offered as a service for fellow researchers to experiment with at their own risk. Care must used to avoid herxheimer effects or other negative reactions.

There are many Lyme programs that must be used in combination based on findings from research on hundreds of humans and animals in the U.S., Europe, Ukraine, and Russia by multiple researchers who pool their experience. It is a tedious and demanding process to tease apart the frequencies for various organisms, particularly when some of them overlap. Therefore, the frequencies are constantly upgraded based on new research findings. For some background on evolution of these frequencies see: https://www.frequencyfoundation.com/2005/07/update-on-lyme-its-not-just-in-ticks.html

The programs are recommended to be run in the following order:

Mycoplasma/Brucella/Visna virus
Parasites
Bacteria
Cells
Viruses
Proteus mirabilis
Gnathastoma spinigerum
Rickettsia

Programs are specified in the F100 programming language which is documented at http://www.atelierrobin.net. This is a powerful scripting language for Rife frequencies as it allows careful control of dwell, pulse, and duty cycles. All programs run square waves with a duty cycle of 66.6% to take advantage of harmonics.

Programs run the primary frequency as a carrier wave modulated by scalar octaves of the primary frequency. Those who want to run these frequencies on devices with a limited frequency range should use the scalar octaves generated by the programs. Scalar octaves and how to calculate them are described at:
https://www.frequencyfoundation.com/2006/09/calculating-scalar-octaves-for-rife.html

By the end of 2008 many upgrades to the Lyme frequencies have been created with thousands of new frequencies. See a later posting or subscribe using the button on the left side of this page to get regular updates.

Identifying Frequencies from Photos

I spent years working with the original FSCAN in the center photo above. The DIRP function for detecting resonant frequencies of pathogens in my body was useful, but the DIRP can generate spurious peaks. The problem was always how to zero in on the right peak.

In the 1990’s a California psychotherapist who also happened to be a dowser would test me for nutritional status. I obtained a very sensitive dowsing instrument called a Cameron Aurameter (see left photo above) and began mimicking the psychotherapist. In 2001, after having a recurrent eye infection since 1995 (multiple physicians were completely unable to eliminate it, even after I determined it was a parasite infection for them) I tried using the Aurameter to get the frequency. I had my FSCAN with me in Snow Bird, Utah, and when I identified the frequency with the Aurameter, my vision was cleared in less than three minutes and the infection has never returned! I immediately went home to cure my cats who had given me the eye infection.

After thousands of experiments over many years, I can repeatedly determine frequencies for pathogens and, in most cases, confirm with a peak on an FSCAN DIRP, then transmit the appropriate frequencies, and get immediate relief from an infection.

Since 2001, researchers from all over the world have asked for assistance with frequencies. It is amazing what you can learn from a mycobiologist in Saigon or a rare bird handler in Indonesia. Working with experts like this has enabled me to determine exact frequency sets for virtually any fungal infection (common in Saigon) or viral infection (incurable in rare birds of Indonesia until I worked with them).

Because many of my associates work at a distance, I began experimenting with high resolution digital photos and soon found that I could determine a frequency from a photo of an individual with the Aurameter as easily as from a person standing next to me. In fact, the photo method has become so reliable, I use a photo of the person even if the person is in the room with me. It allows me to precisely scan body parts and organ systems.

Once I was able to determine frequencies remotely using photos, the next challenge was to broadcast frequencies to a person or animal and eliminate the pathogen remotely. This has been achieved through successive hardware refinements to systems using Advanced Biophoton Analyzer technologies.

I have trained a number of clinicians and lay people on these techniques and some of my students are doing remarkably well. I consult with them myself when I have a difficult problem. During a recent food poisoning episode, for example, I was virtually incapitated and had difficulty determining frequencies for myself. With a little help from my friends, I was cured in the morning and could work in the afternoon.

I’ve been experimenting for years with identifying frequencies from microscopic photos of various organisms and tissue samples. Since I’m able to eliminate almost any organism but do not have an easy way to know what I am eliminating, I’m improving my capability of identification of the specific organism.

This can sometimes be done with plate zapping and testing with the Cameron Aurameter. If a microscopic slide of the organism inserted into the FSCAN electronic circuit significantly increases the Aurameter response, it is likely to be the right organism. But I am looking for a more rigorous identification. The proposed approach will strain the credulity of most medical researchers, but trust me, it is better to get rid of infections than to be believed! And the most famous medical researchers of the past were not usually believed until after their death. Barry Marshall, M.D. is an exception.

From a microscopic photo of an organism (such as H. pylori in a biopsy of Barry Marshall’s stomach above) I can often pick up a frequency with the Aurameter. I happened to have been studying the background of H. Pylori because it is a fascinating story of medical ignorance, stupidity, and/or psychopathology. The literature is “rife” with them. One of the leading cardiologists in the United States is working with me on grant proposals to NIH on disease management. He calls this problem “the cognitive gap.” The distance between reality and preconceptions in the physicians mind is just too large to allow accurate perception. Just to show how bad it can get, let’s review the case of scurvy in the British Navy:

1497 – Vasco da Gama’s crew of 160 men sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. 100 men died of scurvy. This was a typical mortality rate from scurvy on this type of journey.
1601 – English sea captain James Lancaster tries lemon juice experiment on some of his ships. Most men stayed healthy. On the three ships without lemon juice, 110 out of 278 men died of scurvy.
1747 – British Navy Physician James Lind tries a similar experiment on the HMS Salisbury. Men with scurvy were cured within a few days with citrus juice.
1795 – British Navy adopts citrus juice policy and all scurvy is eliminated on military vessels.
1865 – British Board of Trade adopts citrus juice policy on merchant marine vessels and eliminates all commercial scurvy.

In this case it took 264 years to eliminate all scurvy by eradicating Vitamin C deficiency on long ocean voyages.

In the case of H. Pylori, Johns Hopkins researchers wrote a monograph on bacterial infections and ulcers in the 1800’s. New York hospitals were curing ulcers in the 1950’s with antibiotics. Barry Marshall, an Australian M.D., figured out it was H. Pylori in the early 1980’s. Of course no one could believe him as ulcers where considered primarily a psychiatric problem, an issue that persists today for any illness that a physician cannot diagnose or treat. So Barry drank a bottle of H. Pylori, got drastically ill, and one of his fellow residents biopsied his stomach. It was undergoing the transformation seen in developing ulcers. You can view his stomach biopsy at http://www.hpylori.com.au/picturebook.html.

Marshall published results in 1983 and 1987 in the literature and the entire medical profession studiously ignored it. This goes on today with many diseases, such as the relationship of the Borna virus with bipolar disease.

The critical event that transformed the medical community, according to Marshall, was a story on page 3 of the National Enquirer on March 13, 1990. The top 3/4 of the page covered “Death Row Dog Saved Minutes From the Gas Chamber–And Becomes a Superstar.” The bottom quarter article was “Breakthrough Pill Cures Ulcers.” As evolutionary biologist Dr. Paul Ewald notes, “the dependence of medical progress on that report does not inspire confidence in the portrayal of medicine as a science that deftly roots out truth from the evidence.”

A Johns Hopkins monograph notes that a relationship between stomach bacteria and ulcers was noted in 1886 and discounted because everyone assumed that bacteria could not grow in the stomach. It is easy to be blinded by prevailing assumptions. In this case, it took us 104 years to discover that ulcers were not a psychiatric problem.

It actually took until last year before psychiatrists decided to spray viruses in the sinuses of a case an control group and prove that negative emotional status depresses the immune system and allows disease to progress. So there is a relationship between stress and proliferation of H. Pylori. Perhaps we should go easy on the psychiatrists for interpreting an association as a cause, when the rest of the medical profession was so misinformed.

In any event, there are plenty of photos available of the H. Pylori organism and tissue biopsies where the infection is causing ulcers. After determining the frequency, the next step was to test myself. Since H. Pylori is quite a common organism and I have eliminated it before in myself, I assumed that a small residual amount of the organism would be detectable. I treated myself with the FSCAN and got a positive response with the Aurameter for 30-60 seconds, which is typical of a light infection.

Following that, I sent the frequency to a friend who uses the National Institutes of Health DNA database to calculate the resonant frequencies of DNA strands. The H. Pylori organism was sequenced in 1997. In previous cases, I found my numbers identified with the Aurameter to be harmonics of numbers in her DNA database. It proved to be true in this case as well.

The final step is to find a volunteer with an ulcer and cure them with the frequency or one close to it. Different strains will have slightly different frequencies. Also, segments of the organism may have frequencies of their own when the organism is broken up, or microorganisms within the target organism may be released. When you break up the flu virus, for example, you will get multiple frequencies, and some of them seem able to reconstitute the flu organism. I haven’t observed this with a bacteria like H. Pylori.

H. Pylori frequencies are available in my note on Barry Marshall winning the Nobel Prize for his findings.

This remarkable sequence of findings was used in research on animals recently. Lab tests were done on animals before and after frequency determination along with frequency transmission to eliminate the pathogen. The goal was to provide reproducable results that can be verified in a lab. Working with Dr. David Kenney, former Chief Veterinary Officer of Sea World, an entire SPCA facility was cleared of all disease in a few months simply by determining frequencies for sick animals and broadcasting them remotely.

Gregory “Cancer Virus” Frequencies

“Cancer virus” in carcinoma of the uterus – Gregory, 1952

Remarkable findings are routine in electronic medicine. However, some are more useful than others. After recent discussions in the Rife newsgroups, I bought a copy of:

Gregory, John E. Pathogenesis of Cancer, Second Edition. Fremont Foundation, 1952.

Dr. Gregory was a surgeon who studied the pathology of tumors under one of the first electron microscopes. He found the same organism in all cancer patients and called it a “cancer virus” because of its small size. It would not be called a virus today because it replicates by cell division.

The frequency of the “cancer virus” in the circle in the photo above is 11666766. After testing a number of individuals with cancer, I have found this and other forms of the “cancer virus” in all of them.

It is easy to knock out malignant cells with electromagnetic frequencies as shown by Gorgon. However, it is not so easy to prevent development of new malignant cell populations. Previously, I have shown new populations related to the SV40 virus, parasites, baccilus licheniformis, and nanobacteria. Yet eliminating all of these organisms does not necessarily stop recurrence.

The Gregory “cancer virus” may be a key factor. Dr. Gregory comments:

Is this virus a product of cancer or the cause of the disease? To answer this question, cultures of malignant melanoma virus were injected into mice and baby chickens. In 25 per cent of the injected animals there developed cancers which included cancer of the ovary, adrenal, breast and stomach, spindle cell sarcoma, myosarcoma, and leukemia. A control group, ten times larger, developed no malignancies. Further, the virus isolated from the developed malignancies was the same as that injected. The virus was also re-cultured from the tumor and again it was the same as that injected. This carries out all the criteria of Koch’s Postulate. I have now carried out this experiment and have fulfilled Koch’s Postulate over fifty times.

It is interesting to note that in the group of tumors developed, less than 10 per cent were the same type of tumor as that from which the original virus came. This proves that the cancer cells were not transplanted, producing the tumors…

One research group at a medical school has carried out this experiment through nine consecutive animals, producing nine different malignancies. The virus was cultured from each tumor, and the virus culture was then injected into the next animal, producing another cancer. When the last experiment was finished the final re-cultured virus was found to be the same as that used to start the experiment.

This proves that human cancer virus, which has been found in 100 per cent of human cancers, actually causes the cancers and is not present as a secondary invader.

An additional experiment was performed to rule out the possibility that the tumors were caused by the transmission of a chemical agent. This virus was heated to 56 degrees C. for one hour and then injected into twice as many animals as before, but no malignancy developed. This proves that it is living virus which produced the malignancies.

While there are many organisms, genetic programs, cellular problems, and immune issues related to malignancy, the “cancer virus” appears to be the only organism present in 100% of the cases. Removing it should certainly lower risk. With a little luck, it might be equivalent to the pump handle that John Snow removed from the Broad Street water supply during the 1854 London cholera epidemic. It stopped the epidemic immediately.

More recent information (2019) indicates that this is the organism found in all tumor cells that was DNA sequenced and found to be bacillus licheniformis. Frequencies are available to subscribers.

Pseudoscience: Ignorance about Borna Virus

One of my friends called me last night. He had checked himself into the hospital because of his bipolar disease. He told the physicians he had the Borna virus and it was flaring up. We had used frequency transmission to deal with it on multiple occasions. The hospital physicians asked, “What’s the Borna virus?” They then proceeded to give him too much Lithium resulting in a two week hospital stay.

Ignorance masquerading as science is pseudoscience and medical error is the third leading cause of death, mostly based on “scientists” who are supposed to know what they are doing. When they used to do autopsies in real medicine to find out what was going on, physicians in the U.S. and the U.K. discovered a third of the patients that died in hospitals died of an undiagnosed disease. So they have pretty much stopped doing autopsies as it puts them at risk of being sued for malpractice.

If my friends physicians consulted PubMed they would have found over 862 papers in the medical journals on the borna virus. It is associated with a wide variety of mental illness, particularly bipolar disease and depression.

Why didn’t the physicians consult his medical records at his primary physician’s office? They would have found out that he had tested positive for the borna virus and the primary physician was handling it, including the appropriate does of lithium. This failure to review available medical information on a patient will be viewed as malpractice in the not too distant future. There is a national initiative to enable sharing of this critical patient care information. While we are waiting for computer systems to do it automatically, how about using an old fashion phone call?

The physicians should have immediately queried the internet about the patient’s problem. Every bipolar person I have ever tested has it, and so do most members of the family. The virus is very widespread and causes all kinds of problems in addition to bipolar disease.

They wanted to know how he caught it. They could have done a Google search on “borna virus.” They would have found that 8% of our DNA is actually borna virus DNA. Or they might read a comprehensive review of the borna virus from the National Institutes of Health We used to teach science in medical schools. I wonder what they are teaching students these days?

The effects of Borna virus were first noticed in Saxony in Germany in 1766 in horses – first they got sad, and then hyperactive, and then most of them died. But the virus got its name about a century ago, when it killed some 2,000 cavalry horses in the town of Borna in Germany. But only recently, in the 1990s, have we found a link between this virus and depression. Depression is a disorder of your mood or emotions. It affects some 5% of the population at any given time. There’s actually a bunch of diseases that go under the single name of “depression”, and they tend to come and go during your life. They do more than just make you a little bit unhappy. They can cause severe disability, greater than is caused by heart disease, diabetes or even arthritis. In fact, it’s thought that 70% of suicides happen in people suffering from depression. But what’s the evidence that this strange new virus called Borna virus can cause depression?

Well, much of this research has been done by two virologists, Hanns Ludwig from the Free University of Berlin, and Liv Bode from the Robert Koch Institute (also in Berlin). In 1994, they found that clinically depressed people were more likely to have some of the proteins associated with Borna virus in their blood. The next year, they found traces of the actual RNA of the Borna virus as well. In 1996, these virologists took some Borna virus from clinically depressed patients, and when they injected this Borna virus into rabbits, the rabbits became apathetic, sluggish, withdrawn and stopped their normal grooming – in other words, the rabbits started suffering depression. And in January 1997, they found that if they used the anti-virus drug amantadine in depressed patients, as the virus disappeared from the blood stream, so did the symptoms of depression.

When I was teaching medical students at the University of Colorado Medical School from 1975-1983, we did not go home with a question like this unanswered. And we had to do real work in the medical library to get the answer. Today it takes three minutes on the internet.

The current issue of Health Affairs discusses the appalling 17 year gap between evidence based findings in the leading medical journals and information that is resident in the typical physicians head:

Implementing Evidence

Evidence-Based Decision Making: Global Evidence, Local Decisions

Carolyn M. Clancy and Kelly Cronin

Despite the notable progress to date, evidence-based decision making has been largely overshadowed by the persistence of poor-quality care in the United States. Elizabeth McGlynn’s landmark report on U.S. health care quality, AHRQ’s National Healthcare Quality Report, and a recent cross-national report on quality indicators raise important questions about the gap between the promise of evidence-based health care and its current level of adoption. All stakeholders in the health care system presumably find the current seventeen-year delay from evidence to practice unacceptable. This translation chasm is even more intolerable, given the increased array of choices resulting from large public and private investments in biomedical science. Although many factors, including local professional norms and patients’ values and preferences, contribute to deviations from evidence-based care, a fundamental question remains: Why does the gap persist?

Limited resources. Investments in biomedical science have resulted in a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic options for clinicians and patients. The extant infrastructure for conducting systematic reviews–including AHRQ’s Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs), the worldwide Cochrane Collaboration, and independent private-sector organizations–has led to much progress in developing methods and conceptual enhancements for systematic reviews. Nevertheless, the field is not advancing as rapidly as it could because of limited resources.

Knowledge chasm. Moreover, by definition, systematic reviews rely on available studies. Since the link between decisionmakers’ needs and establishment of clinical research priorities is somewhat circuitous, the net result is that decision-makers have few resources for learning quickly which patients are likely to benefit from new options and which patients will experience marginal benefits or outright harm. Payers and consumers confront the same knowledge chasm and lack good information for coverage decisions, cost sharing, and treatment choices.

Need for a systems approach. We now know that knowledge about best practice is necessary but not sufficient to effect change in practice and policy. Impatient purchasers are testing innovations to identify incentives and programs that reward evidence-based (“best”) practice, but they have a limited knowledge base on which to derive or evaluate new approaches. Although the Institute of Medicine’s reports on medical errors and quality have reinforced the importance of a systems approach to improvement, major support for research to inform such an approach has only recently become available.

Poor accessibility. Finally, evidence is infrequently available in a form that can be acted upon at the time decisions must be made. From clinical encounters to policy decisions, there are few clear pathways between the evidence that is available through peer-reviewed literature reviews and the point of decision making. Clinicians searching for information all too often find that existing knowledge is not accessible in real time and may not necessarily map to the issue at hand. Also, although consumers are increasingly active in seeking information about health and specific conditions, most of this activity is peripheral to care delivery. Personalized decision making, including provider and treatment selection as well as self-management, looms on the horizon. Development and adoption of personal health records could support individual choice based on current information.