It is a great company, trying to great things.  And has done some, from the standard model.  But when Geron announced that they were closing their embryonic stem cell efforts, it was like a lead weight falling on all the hopes of the embryonic promoters.  Geron had persevered where others had failed and got the FDA to approve an embryonic stem cell clinical trial.  As many know, they stopped that trial and closed down the whole division.  Startling to many (especially shareholders).  But the inevitable outcome for efforts that are born of a defiance to the facts of basic biology.  The facts are that the human body, given the right conditions, will rebuild itself.  

For the bulk of modern medical thinking, the adult body was "terminally differentiated," meaning it was a finished product and unrenewable, except for some few exceptions, the liver and bone marrow.  That's one reason bone marrow transplants have been done for 40+ years.  But what was a bone marrow transplant, but a kind of stem cell transplant, with blood stem cells.  And yet, our collective unconscious in medicine remained derived from what we can only think of as a long-standing view of the 'body' as a complete entity, a finished product that then slowly wore out.  As folks have found, bodies do regenerate, although inefficiently.  Think of how an injured brain 'rewires' itself, essentially 'regrowing' the kinds of connections that lead to function.  A transplanted female heart, in a male body, will become partly "male" with male heart cells (cardiomyoctes).  Where did they come from?  And a woman who gives birth to a boy, expecially if she has a sick heart, will find that some of her heart muscle is colonized with her son's stem cells.  The latter has greater relevance about what it is to be an "individual," not just about stem cells.

So, as the real stem cell business, using your own stem cells to cure disease, begins to gain momentum, we may find many of the unspoken presumptions of an old way of understanding bodies will fall away in the face of facts.  But do not look for it to go gladly.  We still hold ourselves above and outside of biology and the natural world.  But underneath it all, we are dynamic, renewable organisms, despite our unwillingness to do that.  Someday, maybe, we will stop fighting nature, supporting the myth of domination.  And then, maybe, we can learn the beauty of living within that nature, and within ourselves.

I was part of a meeting with a handful of noted cardiologist researchers discussing the development of a clinical trial using a medical technology to reduce pain from and incidence of angina.  We have already run a pilot trial that should very good outcomes for treated patients.  The strongest opinions of the group were that the endpoints of the study should be on angina frequency and exercise capacity, as that is the only thing FDA accepts as valid outcomes.  Lots of discussion about how debilitating the condition can be and how there are not good alternatives for folks failing medical management (love that, 'patients failing.'  In my world, medicine is failing the patients, not the inverse - yes, inverse).  Within our technology company, we have always been enamored of imaging, so originally divined to get some kind of imaging for the trials, but that was deemed both unnecessary and potentially pointless, as the images are highly variable, even among symptomatic patients.  A late-arriving cardiologist/researcher, quite young, gave an animated, even slightly angry, defense of images.  Of course, she is an imaging specialist, so did have a dog in the fight, so to speak.  Her argument met the harshest of academic fates, it was simply ignored and the meeting adjourned shortly thereafter.  While we got organized for dinner, she spoke to me under her breath, while looking sharply at the others, "There has to be an objective measure of change, you can't just rely on patient reports, they are just subjective."  I did not push her on this, as I might otherwise (like invoke Roshaman), simply because I wasn't sure she wouldn't get really upset, even as we went to dinner.  I thought about the two 'camps' in this clinical debate.  The older, seasoned clinician researchers were happy to rely on patient reports, because, after all, that is what constitutes the disease itself, is the patient complaint.  The
young researcher seeking objectivity as some kind of 'truth,'
can do so as long as she doesn't examine things too closely.
She might end up making the argument that patients should
be treated on the basis of 'objective' data, independent of
complaints.  That is the basis of lots of therapies, and lots
of unnecessary treatment and side-effects.  But more
interesting is this notion of 'objectivity,' in that even in
mathematics we find, at the core, a subjectivity that cannot
be resolved.  For example, the law of trichotomy lets me
state that any number is odd or even or zero.  Seems pretty
straight-forward.  So is Pi even or odd, as it is clearly not zero? Guess we have to take it on faith that it is one or the other. 

I know that I just wrote a bit about the goofiness of psychiatry, but I just can't leave it alone.  Hmmm...maybe I'd qualify for an obsessive-compulsive disorder there...So read this neat piece, but don't let one see you and definitely don't start laughing to yourself (at least in public).   My new favorite disorder is post-traumatic bitterness disorder (PTED), and a nice piece about it here.

It is kind of a microcosm of all politics.  There are lots of special interest 'disorder' groups, all vying for inclusion.  And the treatments are usually all the same (some medication if you are a psychiatrist or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) if you are not.   So here they all are, vying for space.  Hope they all get some.  Oh, and I think that PTED is the weltanshauung of New Englanders.  Since when did people start thinking is was abnormal? 

Vote for my disease....

I think that folks know I am a big fan of psychiatry, having worked in it and studied it for 25 years now, on and off.  I still think Nietzsche's definition is most apt, "Psychology was born of idleness."  Especially in that we understand to day that the mind/personality/your noun here is an apparition of the concatenation of  the nonlinear activity in the biological substrate (which I pointedly would not reduce to the 'brain' nor, in fact, to the individual, but more on that later).  So the LA Times ran this great article about upper middle class white folk who want to medicalize their children's behavior (and note, I did not call it 'bad' behavior...it is contrary to the parents' desires, but may be fully warranted as a measure of resistance).

What we have here is the usual kind of 'evolution' in psychiatry and psychology.  More and more non-conformist behavior becomes pathological, which means treatable, which means billable.   Think of it as medicating puppies for urinating in the house. Lots of incentive, but virtually no real need.  That is the prescription psychiatry has followed since the introduction of pharmacological interventions.  It is also why they are on the lowest rung of the medical hierarchy. But back to the point.  The point is that psychiatric 'disorders' are decided by a vote.  Folks vote new ones in and old ones out.  I'm personally pulling for 'disruptive mood dysregulation disorder,'  in that the phenomenal inanity of it is majestic.  But, more importantly and more interestingly, I am pulling for Cecelia.  Keep kicking, kid.  Eventually the adults will go away....

Resistance, Rebellion and Death

I was invited to attend the Galien Foundation conference in NYC this week.  They are planning on it evolving into the Davos of healthcare.  They have quite a slog. So here is one issue we discussed.  Only between 50-75% of prescriptions are filled, 30% of those taken as prescribed and only 15% refilled as directed.  So someone points out the 'compliance' for things made by Apple is phenomenally higher. Why is it?  One is so important and the other almost trivial. Apparently, I was the only semiotician in this crowd of CEOs, CMOs, and big pharma board members.  So, I had to comment, yes, out loud with a mike, that it was pretty obvious. Apple signifies hip, cool, young, healthy, high status and medication is a simple reminder of the phenomenal reduction is status, the "anti-Appleness" of the patient.  In the end, it is requiring the patient to affirm their horrible status everyday.  As Certeau taught us, it is the 'inversion that animates resistance'.  The 'non-compliant' patient is just that.  In the act of not taking that medication, they assert their rejection of the imposed status, reclaim their personhood in the face of a machine they cannot resist otherwise, the perpetual documentation of their failure to be "successful," to be healthy, to be young.  It is the only act they control.  After this comment, delivered at the end and shrugged off by the moderator with the comment "Public Health people have been working on this for years..." several folks approached me to concur, the best comment, from a health care policy lawyers was, "I can;t believe someone actually used the word 'semiotics' in this kind of meeting!  Never heard that before and it was exactly right."  Two of the panelists even stopped me to chat about it.  But it is so obvious. Medicine embraced science as a social stepping stone, out of the lower class and into the highest.  So all the transactions of clinical medicine can be characterized as power relations, where the only act of rebellion that remains is to refuse what is in your hand.  But refusing medication can mean death.  So what is unusual about revolutions entailing that kind of sacrifice?  Here is to all those risking death to salvage their self-esteem. Maybe "The Rebel:" should be required reading in medical school.  But maybe not.

Gaming the Pharma Model

In a great frenzy of activity, researchers showed that a component of red wine appeared to improve longevity and decrease chronic disease in several animal models.  So compelling the evidence, Glaxo Smith Kline paid $720 Million for the company, Sirtris, that did the work. 

Even the Sirtris founders, who were now GSK employees, created an outlet to sell the compound as a nutriceutical (albeit in low doses) and GSK had to force them to give up their on-line company.  It is a great read, all in all, about what can go wrong in the race to find the 'silver bullet' for any disease, much less a host of them.  Not only that, but, in the end resevatrol turns out to be an unlikely candidate for anything, save the emotional interest in pharma producing 'silver bullets.'  But as you know from reading here and everywhere, the wholly non-linear and complex nature of, well, nature, precludes, in general, these kinds of single solutions to complex problems.  Creating health is the outcome of multiple, simultaneous events, most of which we can only 'nudge' in the best direction.  Health, like disease, is a trajectory through time, not a problem in plumbing or simple engineering.  But hope springs eternal.  And apparently, so does money to support the dream.  Like geopolitics, our discourse on health is riven by minute, local activity which, in aggregate seems to point to some underlying logic, principle, or postulate that can be discovered by reducing the problem to some set of simple parts, like a lawn mower engine.  And, no matter how we try, like Leonard Cohen sings, "You can add up the parts, but you won't get the sum."  Why?  'There's a crack, a crack in everything.  But, he reassures us, 'that's how the light gets in'. Listen to it. Anthropologist, I think, are in the business of light, no matter how small the cracks.

Evidence-based Medicine

If you look at a dollar bill, there is a pyramid on it, with many an arbitrary and even conspiracy-like interpretations.  But it is really an icon for evidence, at least in medicine.  So here we have the hierarchy of evidence in medicine, the kind of rationalized approach that we may think, or desire, at least, to create a kind of medical practice that has a familiarity and similarity everywhere we might go.  Sort of standardizing care, like a McDonald's.  Everything is the same, with allowances for local types of disease, say Lyme Disease in the Northeast or the plague in the Southwest, some places might have expertise in the lobster roll and others might add green chile to a burger.  But hidden within is the unavoidable truth that like regional tastes, the more 'standardize' a treatment is based on the 'best evidence', the less likely it is to apply to an individual case.  I might eat at a McDonald's in Albuquerque, but that doesn't mean I even like green chile, or even know what it is, as I hail from the Northeast. The assumptions fit a population, like evidence from a randomized, controlled, double blind study, or a review.  But, for any one person in that 'group,' the assumptions may not fit.  This is the tension between medical practice and medical knowledge.  The knowledge can be standardized, but practice is an individual act, the history and condition of the patient meet another set of conditions and histories, that of the clinician.  An example from neurosurgery:

In a traumatic brain injury patient, presented at rounds, the dutiful residents present the case to the attendings. "Pt. X has a TBI, brain stem involved. We did X, Y, Z and then used anti-hypertensives to keep her blood pressure below 160..."  The Chairman interrupts, "Does her BP want to stay there or are you fighting or keep it there?"  The residents hesitate, trying to ascertain why that statement is made.  The Chairman mercifully continues, "If the patient wants her BP to be higher, she is telling you that she is trying to perfuse her brain and she needs the higher pressure..."  The resident responds, "In these cases, a BP above 160 could lead to a stroke..."  The Chairman interrupts, "But that is the point, if she needs more perfusion and you prevent it, what's the difference?  It is another kind of ischemia (lack of blood flow)."  This is another kind of 'stroke, so to speak, no blood flow due to medical intervention rather than the unwanted stroke.  The outcome is identical.  The residents look around, not knowing whether the 'evidence-based' approach is beyond reproach.

This vignette, repeated in medical rounds around the world is the collision between experience and evidence.  The individual case reveals itself as an anomaly, outside of the hierarchy of evidence and concealed in the hierarchy of experience.  The practice of clinical medicine is like a walk in the city.  The city planners (the evidence-based medical approach) lays out the 'design' to the highest efficiency.  But the individual walking through the city, like the clinician, has desires that may not conform, nor should conform to the existing path, the evidence.  In architecture, these divergent, but necessary paths, are called 'desire lines'.  Each patient, in the hands of the skilled clinician, create unique paths, to get from disease to health. But without the rational constraints of only evidence.

The Gaze

"The sovereign power of the empirical gaze."  Or so says Foucault.  One of the kinds of 'evidence' from practice is the list I posted last, that there are a plethora of diseases, syndromes, and otherwise unpleasant conditions named after doctors (MDs and PhDs) and few 'cures' so named.  Some procedures, but nothing like the pantheon of eponymous disease.  Foucault's proposition, that clinical medicine emerged from the transition from metaphor to mapping (my short-hand) would suggest exactly that, the definition of the condition, the generalization of the gaze within the discipline of clinical medicine, would yield the highest accolade, a 'naming,' like the discoverer of a new celestial object.   The 'fact' therein is that the object is just that, objective.  But, the crux of the matter for Foucault, clinical medicine and most of us cats, is that there is a subjective experience of that 'objective' disease that will, in all cases, differ from the object.  I know, that is too dense and ineffective a sentence, even if I believe accurate.  So, for the celestial example, it is as if all observers (nee, clinicians) had a different view of the object, so essentially the 'celestial body' became an ensemble of all views, a composite object of observations, e.i. non-objective.  That is compounded in the clinic in that every 'disease' is literally personified, as if a meteor had a consciousness that both observed its own condition and that of those who observed it, in a kind of post-modern recursion (as much as I hate that). Every human affliction is a unique experience with a completely non-linear trajectory.  But the clinic is not capable of enveloping that uniqueness, as it is simply the expression of an 'empirical gaze.'  Fairly clear why our admonishments and initiatives in health care cannot be effective.  But the nature of the 'gaze' precludes the mirror.

By anyother name...

Why are diseases named for doctors, but aside from the Heimlich maneuver, not too many cures or treatments?

From wikipedia:

A

• Aarskog-Scott syndrome – Dagfinn Aarskog, Charles Scott
• Aase-Smith syndrome – Jon Morton Aase, David Weyhe Smith
• Abdallat Davis Farrage syndrome – Adnan Al Abdallat, S.M. Davis, James Robert Farrage
• Abderhalden-Kaufmann-Lignac syndrome – Emil Abderhalden, Eduard Kauffman, George Lignac
• Abercrombie disease – John Abercrombie
• Achard-Thiers syndrome – Emile Achard, Joseph Thiers
• Ackerman tumor – Lauren Ackerman
• Addison disease – Thomas Addison
• Adson-Caffey syndrome – Alfred Adson, I.R. Caffey
• Aicardi syndrome – Jean Aicardi
• Alagille syndrome – Daniel Alagille
• Albers-Schönberg disease – Heinrich Albers-Schönberg
• Albright syndrome – Fuller Albright
• Albright-Butler-Bloomberg disease – Fuller Albright, Allan Macy Butler, Esther Bloomberg
• Albright-Hadorn syndrome – Fuller Albright, Walter Hadorn
• Alexander disease – William Stuart Alexander
• Alpers disease – Bernard Jacob Alpers
• Alport syndrome – Arthur Cecil Alport
• Alström syndrome – Carl Henry Alström
• Alzheimer disease – Alois Alzheimer
• Anders disease – James Meschter Anders
• Andersen disease – Dorothy Andersen
• Anderson-Fabry disease – William Anderson, Johannes Fabry
• Angelman syndrome – Harry Angelman
• Angelucci syndrome – Arnaldo Angelucci
• Anton–Babinski syndrome – Gabriel Anton, Joseph Babinski
• Apert syndrome – Eugène Apert
• Aran-Duchenne spinal muscular atrophy – François-Amilcar Aran, Guillaume Duchenne
• Armanni-Ebstein nephropathy – Luciano Armanni, Wilhelm Ebstein
• Arnold-Chiari malformation – Julius Arnold, Hans Chiari
• Arthus phenomenon – Nicolas Maurice Arthus
• Asherman syndrome – Joseph G. Asherman
• Asperger syndrome – Hans Asperger
• Avellis syndrome – Georg Avellis
• Ayerza syndrome – Abel Ayerza
• Ayerza-Arrillaga syndrome – Abel Ayerza, Francisco Arrillaga

[edit] B

• Babington disease – Benjamin Babington
• Babinski-Fröhlich syndrome – Joseph Babinski, Alfred Fröhlich
• Babinski-Froment syndrome – Joseph Babinski, Jules Froment
• Babinski-Nageotte syndrome – Joseph Babinski, Jean Nageotte
• Baker cyst – William Morrant Baker
• Baló's disease or Balo concentric sclerosis – József Baló
• Bamberger disease – Heinrich von Bamberger
• Bamberger-Marie disease – Eugen von Bamberger, Pierre Marie
• Bancroft filariasis – Joseph Bancroft
• Bang's disease – Bernhard Bang
• Bankart lesion – Arthur Bankart
• Banti's disease – Guido Banti
• Bárány syndrome – Robert Bárány
• Barlow disease – Thomas Barlow
• Barlow syndrome – John Barlow
• Barraquer-Simons syndrome – Luis Barraquer Roviralta, Arthur Simons
• Barré-Liéou syndrome – Jean Alexandre Barré, Yang-Choen Liéou
• Barrett's ulcer – Norman Barrett
• Bart-Pumphrey syndrome – R.S. Bart, R.E. Pumphrey
• Bartholin cyst – Caspar Bartholin
• Bartter syndrome – Frederic Bartter
• Basedow disease – Karl Adolph von Basedow
• Basedow syndrome – Karl Adolph von Basedow
• Bassen-Kornzweig syndrome – Frank Bassen, Abraham Kornzweig
• Batten disease – Frederick Batten
• Bazin disease – Pierre-Antoine-Ernest Bazin
• Becker muscular dystrophy – Peter Emil Becker
• Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome – John Bruce Beckwith, Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann
• Behçet disease – Hulusi Behçet
• Bekhterev disease – Vladimir Bekhterev
• Bell palsy – Charles Bell
• Benedikt syndrome – Moritz Benedikt
• Benjamin syndrome – E. Benjamin
• Berger's disease – Jean Berger
• Bergeron disease – Etienne-Jules Bergeron
• Bernard syndrome – Claude Bernard
• Bernard-Soulier syndrome – Jean Bernard, Jean Pierre Soulier
• Bernhardt-Roth paraesthesia – Martin Bernhardt, Vladimir Karlovich Roth
• Bernheim syndrome – Hippolyte Bernheim
• Besnier prurigo – Ernest Henri Besnier
• Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease – Ernest Henri Besnier, Cæsar Peter Møller Boeck, Jörgen Nilsen Schaumann
• Biermer anaemia – Michael Anton Biermer
• Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis – Edwin Bickerstaff
• Bilharzia – Theodor Maximilian Bilharz
• Bing-Neel syndrome – Jens Bing, Axel Valdemar Neel
• Binswanger dementia – Otto Binswanger
• Bland-White-Garland syndrome – Edward Franklin Bland, Paul Dudley White, Joseph Garland
• Bloom syndrome – David Bloom
• Blount syndrome – Walter Putnam Blount
• Boerhaave syndrome – Herman Boerhaave
• Bogorad syndrome – F.A. Bogorad
• Bonnevie-Ullrich syndrome – Kristine Bonnevie, Otto Ullrich
• Bourneville-Pringle disease – Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, John James Pringle
• Bowen disease – John T. Bowen
• Brailsford-Morquio syndrome – James Frederick Brailsford, Luís Morquio
• Brandt syndrome – Thore Edvard Brandt
• Brenner tumour – Fritz Brenner
• Brewer kidney – George Emerson Brewer
• Bright disease – Richard Bright
• Brill-Symmers disease – Nathan Brill, Douglas Symmers
• Brill-Zinsser disease – Nathan Brill, Hans Zinsser
• Briquet syndrome – Paul Briquet
• Brissaud disease – Édouard Brissaud
• Brissaud-Sicard syndrome – Édouard Brissaud, Jean-Athanase Sicard
• Broadbent apoplexy – William Broadbent
• Brock syndrome – Russell Claude Brock
• Brodie abscess – Benjamin Collins Brodie
• Brodie syndrome – Benjamin Collins Brodie
• Brooke epithelioma – Henry Ambrose Grundy Brooke
• Brown-Séquard syndrome – Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard
• Brucellosis – David Bruce
• Brugada syndrome – the Brugada brothers
• Bruns syndrome – Ludwig Bruns
• Bruton-Gitlin syndrome – Ogden Carr Bruton, David Gitlin
• Budd-Chiari syndrome – George Budd, Hans Chiari
• Buerger disease – Leo Buerger
• Bumpke syndrome – Oswald Conrad Edouard Bumke
• Bürger-Grütz syndrome – Max Burger, Otto Grutz
• Burkitt lymphoma – Denis Parsons Burkitt
• Burnett syndrome – Charles Hoyt Burnett
• Bywaters syndrome – Eric Bywaters

[edit] C

• Caffey-Silverman syndrome – John Patrick Caffey, William Aaron Silverman
• Calvé disease – Jacques Calvé
• Canavan disease – Myrtelle Canavan
• Cannon syndrome – Walter Cannon
• Capgras syndrome – Joseph Capgras
• Caplan's syndrome – Anthony Caplan
• Caroli syndrome – Jacques Caroli
• Carrión's disease – Daniel Alcides Carrión
• Castleman disease – Benjamin Castleman
• Céstan-Chenais syndrome – Étienne Jacques Marie Raymond Céstan, Louis Jean Chennais
• Chagas disease – Carlos Chagas
• Charcot's disease – Jean-Martin Charcot
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease – Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Marie, Howard Henry Tooth
• Cheadle's disease – Walter Butler Cheadle
• Chédiak-Higashi syndrome – Alexander Chédiak, Otokata Higashi
• Chiari-Frommel syndrome – Johann Baptist Chiari, Richard Frommel
• Chilaiditi syndrome – Demetrius Chilaiditi
• Christ-Siemens-Touraine Syndrome – Josef Christ, Hermann Werner Siemens, Albert Touraine
• Christensen-Krabbe disease – Erna Christensen, Knud Krabbe
• Christmas disease – Stephen Christmas
• Churg-Strauss syndrome – Jacob Churg, Lotte Straus
• Claude syndrome – Henri Claude
• Clerambault syndrome – Gaëtan Gatian de Clerambault
• Clerambault-Kandinsky syndrome – Gaëtan Gatian de Clerambault, Victor Khrisanfovich Kandinsky
• Coats disease – George Coats
• Cock peculiar tumor – Edward Cock
• Cockayne syndrome – Edward Alfred Cockayne
• Cogan's syndrome – David Glendenning Cogan
• Collet-Sicard syndrome – Frédéric Justin Collet, Jean-Athanase Sicard
• Concato disease – Luigi Maria Concato
• Conn's Syndrome – Jerome Conn
• Cooley's anemia – Thomas Benton Cooley
• Cori Disease – Carl Ferdinand Cori, Gerty Cori
• Cornelia de Lange syndrome – Cornelia Catharina de Lange
• Cotard's Syndrome – Jules Cotard
• Costen syndrome – James Bray Costen
• Crigler-Najjar syndrome – John Fielding Crigler, Victor Assad Najjar
• Crocq-Cassirer syndrome – Jean Crocq, Richard Cassirer
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease – Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt, Alfons Maria Jakob
• Crohn's disease – Burrill Bernard Crohn
• Cronkite-Canada syndrome – L.W. Cronkite, Wilma Canada
• Crouzon syndrome – Octave Crouzon
• Cruveilhier-Baumgarten disease – Jean Cruveilhier, Paul Clemens von Baumgarten
• Cruz disease – Osvaldo Gonçalves Cruz
• Curling's ulcer – Thomas Blizard Curling
• Curschmann-Batten-Steinert syndrome – Hans Curschmann, Frederick Batten, Hans Gustav Steinhart
• Cushing's disease – Harvey Cushing

[edit] D

• Da Costa syndrome – Jacob Mendez Da Costa
• Dalrymple disease – John Dalrymple
• Danbolt-Closs syndrome – Niels Christian Gauslaa Danbolt, Karl Philipp Closs
• Dandy-Walker syndrome
• De Clérambault's syndrome – Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault
• de Quervain's disease – Fritz de Quervain
• de Quervain's thyroiditis – Fritz de Quervain
• Dejerine-Sottas disease – Joseph Jules Dejerine, Jules Sottas
• Dennie-Marfan syndrome – Charles Clayton Dennie, Antoine Marfan
• Dent's disease – C. E. Dent
• Denys-Drash syndrome –
• Dercum's disease – Francis Xavier Dercum
• Devic's disease – Eugène Devic
• DiGeorge syndrome – Angelo DiGeorge
• Di Guglielmo's disease – Giovanni di Gugliemo
• Donovanosis – Charles Donovan
• Down syndrome – John Langdon Down
• Dressler's syndrome – Lucas Dressler
• Duane syndrome – Alexander Duane
• Dubin–Johnson syndrome
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy – Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne
• Duke's disease – Clement Dukes
• Duncan's disease –
• Duncan's syndrome
• Dupuytren's contracture – Baron Guillaume Dupuytren
• Duroziez's disease – Paul Louis Duroziez

[edit] E

• Eales disease – Henry Eales
• Edwards syndrome – John H. Edwards
• Ehlers-Danlos syndrome – Edvard Ehlers, Henri-Alexandre Danlos
• Ehrlichiosis – Paul Ehrlich
• Ekbom's Syndrome – Karl Axel Ekborn
• Erdheim-Chester disease – Jakob Erdheim, William Chester
• Escherichia coli– Theodor Escherich

[edit] F

• Fabry disease – Johannes Fabry
• Fanconi anemia – Guido Fanconi
• Fanconi syndrome – Guido Fanconi
• Farber disease – Sidney Farber
• Felty's syndrome – Augustus Roi Felty
• Fitz-Hugh–Curtis syndrome – Thomas Fitz-Hugh Jr, Arthur Hale Curtis
• Foix-Alajouanine disease – Charles Foix, Théophile Alajouanine
• Fournier gangrene – Jean Alfred Fournier
• Forbe's Disease – Gilbert Burnett Forbes
• Friedreich's ataxia – Nikolaus Friedreich
• Fuchs' dystrophy – Ernst Fuchs

[edit] G

• Ganser syndrome – Sigbert Ganser
• Gaucher's disease – Philippe Gaucher
• Ghon focus – Anton Ghon
• Gilbert syndrome – Augustin Nicolas Gilbert, French gastroenterologist
• Graves' disease – Robert James Graves
• Graves-Basedow disease – Robert James Graves, Karl Adolph von Basedow
• Grawitz tumor (nephrocellular carcinoma) – Paul Albert Grawitz, German pathologist
• Grinker myelinopathy
• Guillain-Barré syndrome – Georges Guillain, Jean Alexandre Barré
• Gunther's disease – Hans Gunther
• Glanzmann's thrombasthenia – Eduard Glanzmann
• Gorlin-Goltz syndrome – Robert J. Gorlin, Robert W. Goltz

[edit] H

• Hailey-Hailey disease – Hugh Edward Hailey, William Howard Hailey
• Hallervorden-Spatz disease – Julius Hallervorden, Hugo Spatz
• Hand-Schüller-Christian disease – Alfred Hand, Artur Schüller, Henry Asbury Christian
• Hansen's disease – Gerhard Armauer Hansen
• Hardikar Syndrome – Winita Hardikar
• Hartnup disease –
• Hashimoto thyroiditis – Hashimoto Hakaru
• Henoch-Schönlein purpura – Eduard Heinrich Henoch, Johann Lukas Schönlein
• Heyde's syndrome – Edward C. Heyde
• Hirschsprung disease – Harald Hirschsprung, Danish physician
• Hodgkin disease, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma – Thomas Hodgkin
• Horton headache – Bayard Taylor Horton
• Huntington's disease – George Huntington

[edit] J

• Jaeken's disease – Jaak Jaeken
• Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease – Alfons Maria Jakob, Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt

[edit] K

• Kahler's disease – Otto Kahler
• Kanner syndrome – Leo Kanner (this name is rarely used now)
• Kaposi sarcoma – Moritz Kaposi, Hungarian dermatologist
• Kashin-Beck disease – Nicolai Ivanowich Kashin, Evgeny Vladimirovich Bek, Russian military physicians
• Kawasaki disease – Tomisaku Kawasaki
• Kearns-Sayre syndrome – Thomas P. Kearns, George Pomeroy Sayre
• Kenny syndrome – Frederic Marshal Kenny
• Kienbock's disease – Robert Kienböck, Austrian radiologist
• Kikuchi's disease – Masahiro Kikuchi, Y.Fujimoto
• Kimmelstiel-Wilson disease – Paul Kimmelstiel, Clifford Wilson
• Kimura's disease – T. Kimura
• King-Kopetzky syndrome – P.F.King, Samuel J. Kopetzky
• Kinsbourne syndrome – Marcel Kinsbourne, Austrian neurologist.
• Kjer's optic neuropathy – Poul Kjer, Danish ophthalmologist
• Klatskin's tumor – Gerald Klatskin
• Klinefelter's syndrome – Harry Klinefelter
• Klüver-Bucy syndrome – Heinrich Klüver, Paul Bucy
• Köhler disease – Alban Köhler, German radiologist.
• Korsakoff syndrome – Sergei Korsakof, neuropsychiatrist
• Krabbe's disease – Knud Haraldsen Krabbe, Danish neurologist
• Krukenberg tumor – Friedrich Ernst Krukenberg, German physician
• Kugelberg-Welander disease – Erik Klas Henrik Kugelberg, Lisa Welander

[edit] L

• Lafora's disease – Gonzalo Rodriguez Lafora, a Spanish neuropathologist
• Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease – Arthur Legg, Jacques Calvé and Georg Perthes
• Leigh's disease – Denis Archibald Leigh, British psychiatrist
• Leiner syndrome – Karl Leiner, André Moussous
• Leishmaniasis – Sir William Boog Leishman
• Lemierre's syndrome – André Lemierre
• Lenègre's disease – Jean Lenègre
• Lesch-Nyhan syndrome – Michael Lesch, William Leo Nyhan, a pediatrician
• Letterer-Siwe disease – Erich Letterer, Sture Siwe
• Lev's disease – Maurice Lev, Jean Lenègre
• Libman-Sacks disease – Emanuel Libman, Benjamin Sacks
• Lobomycosis – Jorge Lobo, Brazilian dermatologist
• Löffler's eosinophilic endocarditis – Wilhelm Löffler
• Ludwig's angina – Wilhelm Friedrich von Ludwig, German physician
• Lynch syndrome – Henry T. Lynch

[edit] M

• Machado-Joseph disease (Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3) –
• Marie-Foix-Alajouanine syndrome – Pierre Marie, Charles Foix, Théophile Alajouanine
• Maladie de Charcot, French name for Motor Neurone Disease – Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist
• Mallory-Weiss syndrome – G. Kenneth Mallory and Soma Weiss
• Mansonellosis – Sir Patrick Manson
• Marburg multiple sclerosis – Otto Marburg
• Marfan syndrome – - Antoine Marfan, French pediatrician.
• Marshall-Smith syndrome – Richard E. Marshall and David Weyhe Smith
• McArdle's Disease – Brian McArdle
• McCune-Albright syndrome – Donovan James McCune and Fuller Albright
• Meig's syndrome – Joe Vincent Meigs
• Ménétrier's disease – Pierre Eugène Ménétrier, French physician
• Ménière’s disease – Prosper Ménière
• Menkes disease – John Hans Menkes
• Mondor's disease – Henri Mondor, French surgeon.
• Monge's disease – Carlos Monge
• Mucha-Habermann disease –

[edit] N

• Noonan syndrome – Jacqueline Noonan

[edit] O

• Ormond disease – John Kelso Ormond
• Osgood-Schlatter disease – Robert Bayley Osgood, Carl B. Schlatter
• Osler-Weber-Rendu – Sir William Osler, Henri Jules Louis Marie Rendu and Frederick Parkes Weber

[edit] P

• Paget's disease of bone (* Paget's disease) – Sir James Paget, British surgeon
• Paget's disease of the breast (* Paget's disease of the nipple) – Sir James Paget, British surgeon
• Paget's disease of the penis – Sir James Paget, British surgeon
• Parkinson's disease – James Parkinson –
• Patau syndrome – Klaus Patau
• Pelizeus-Merzbacher disease – Friedrich Christoph Pelizaeus and Ludwig Merzbacher
• Perthes syndrome – Arthur Legg, Jacques Calvé and Georg Perthes
• Peyronie's disease – François Gigot de la Peyronie
• Pick's disease – Arnold Pick
• Pickardt syndrome –
• Plummer's disease – Henry Stanley Plummer
• Poland's syndrome – Sir Alfred Poland
• Pompe's disease – Johann Cassianius Pompe
• Pott's disease – Percivall Pott
• Pott's Puffy Tumor – Percivall Pott
• Potter sequence – Edith Potter
• Prader-Willi syndrome – Andrea Prader, (Alexis Labhart) and Heinrich Willi
• Prinzmetal angina – Myron Prinzmetal

[edit] R

• Ramsay Hunt syndrome – James Ramsay Hunt, American neurologist
• Raynaud's disease – Maurice Raynaud, French physician
• Refsum's disease – Sigvald Bernhard Refsum, Norwegian neurologist
• Reiter's syndrome – Hans Conrad Julius Reiter, German physician
• Rett Syndrome – Andreas Rett, Austrian pediatrician
• Reye's syndrome – R. Douglas Reye
• Rickettsiosis – Howard Taylor Ricketts
• Riggs' disease – John M. Riggs (dentist)
• Riley-Day syndrome – Conrad Milton Riley, Richard Lawrence Day
• Ritter's disease – Baron Gottfried Ritter von Rittershain
• Robles Disease [1] (Onchocercosis [2]) – Rodolfo Robles, Guatemalan physician
• Roger's disease – Henri Louis Roger
• Rotor syndrome – Arturo Belleza Rotor, Filipino internist
• Rubenstein-Taybi syndrome – Jack Herbert Rubinstein, Hooshang Taybi

[edit] S

• Salmonella – Daniel Elmer Salmon
• Sandhoff disease – Konrad Sandhoff
• Schamberg's disease – Jay Frank Schamberg
• Schilder's disease – Paul Ferdinand Schilder
• Schinzel-Giedion Syndrome – Albert Schinzel, Andreas Giedion
• Seligmann's disease – Maxime Seligmann
• Sever's disease – J.W.Sever
• Sheehan's syndrome – Harold Leeming Sheehan
• Silver-Russell syndrome – Henry Silver, Alexander Russell
• Simmond's Disease – Moritz Simmonds
• Sjogren's syndrome – Henrik Sjögren, Swedish ophthalmologist
• Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome –
• Stevens-Johnson syndrome – Albert Mason Stevens, Frank Chambliss Johnson, American pediatricians
• Sturge-Weber disease – William Allen Sturge, Frederick Parkes Weber
• Still's disease – Sir George Frederick Still
• Susac's syndrome – John Susac

[edit] T

• Takayasu's arteritis – Mikito Takayasu, Japanese ophthalmologist
• Tay-Sachs disease – Warren Tay, Bernard Sachs
• Theileriosis – Sir Arnold Theiler
• Thomsen's disease – Julius Thomsen, Danish physician,
• Tietz syndrome – W.Tietz
• Tietze's syndrome – Alexander Tietze
• Tourette syndrome – Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette
• Treacher Collins syndrome (Mandibulofacial dysostosis) – Edward Treacher Collins
• Turcot syndrome – Jacques Turcot
• Turner's syndrome – Henry Turner

[edit] U

• Unverricht-Lundborg disease – Heinrich Unverricht, Herman Bernhard Lundborg
• Usher syndrome – Charles Usher

[edit] V

• Vincent's angina – Henri Vincent, French physician
• Virchow's syndrome – Rudolf Virchow, German physician
• Von Gierke's disease – Edgar von Gierke
• Von Hippel-Lindau disease – Eugen von Hippel; Arvid Vilhelm Lindau, Swedish pathologist
• Von Recklinghausen's disease (* neurofibromatosis) – Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen
• Von Willebrand's disease – Erik Adolf von Willebrand

[edit] W

• Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia – Jan G. Waldenström, Swedish physician
• Warkany syndrome (trisomy) – Joseph Warkany, American human geneticist and pediatrician
• Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome – Rupert Waterhouse, an English physician, Carl Friderichsen, a Danish pediatrician
• Weber-Christian disease – Frederick Parkes Weber, Henry Asbury Christian
• Wegener's granulomatosis – Friedrich Wegener
• Weil's disease – Adolf Weil
• Wells syndrome – George Wells
• Werner's syndrome – Otto Werner, German scientist
• Wernicke's encephalopathy – Karl Wernicke
• Whipple's disease – George Hoyt Whipple
• Williams syndrome – J. C. P. Willams, New Zealand cardiologist
• Wilms' tumor – Max Wilms, German surgeon
• Wilson's disease – Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson
• Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome – Alfred Wiskott, Robert Aldrich
• Wohlfart-Kugelberg-Welander disease – Karl Gunnar Vilhelm Wohlfart, Erik Klas Henrik Kugelberg, Lisa Welander
• Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome – Louis Wolff, Sir John Parkinson (physician), Paul Dudley White
• Wolman disease – Moshe Wolman

[edit] X Y Z

• Zellweger syndrome – Hans Zellweger
• Zieve's syndrome – Leslie Zieve
• Zollinger-Ellison syndrome – Robert Zollinger, Edwin Ellison, American surgeons