Catherine Shaffer

20 May 2025

I’m a science writer and a science fiction writer. I frequently write about AI in precision medicine, but I don’t use AI in my published work. Not a single word. I like pets, nature, books, and good TV. Pro-democracy.

Is there still time to get in on this, or did the emails already go out?

batkaren@batkaren.bsky.social

i have an AI agent that screams nonstop. Just an endless scream.

Watched the first episode of the 2013 Russian TV series The Sniffer last night. It’s about a police detective with a dog-like sense of smell. There’s something nonsensical about the events of each scene, as if written by someone that doesn’t understand how anything in the world works…

For example, a cat randomly attacks the detective from a stairway railing above. And there’s a character who inexplicably eats hamburgers, like at an active crime scene he whips out a hamburger. We agreed the show would have made a great comedy.

Catherine Shaffer reposted

George Takei

@georgetakei.bsky.social

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

I agree with all of this. I’ll add that self editing is a separate skill. Some writers can do well enough basically turning in a first draft after a proofread, but the vast majority require multiple revision passes to get it right. Workshopping helps you develop those skills…

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net

Through my writing life, nothing improved my writing more than participation in peer-based workshops: where a group of writers at about the same stage in their artistic development gather to read one another's work and offer feedback specifically aimed at improving each other's stories.

…on manuscripts you can look at objectively. There are some good books on self editing also. I recently read Micheal Totten’s Write, Edit, Publish and learned some things I didn’t know even after 29 years as a pro SF author.

I did stop workshopping years ago because I realized the feedback from my group was so satisfying that I abandoned the stories after getting them critiqued. I recently started again with a new group and it’s working out well as I’m in a more motivated mindset.

trib.alICE wants robot dogs. Boston Dynamics' workers urge company to 'cancel the sale'Dozens of employees at Boston Dynamics have petitioned the company to stop the sale of its robot dogs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I don’t understand. What is the point of a robot “dog?” What does that say about its function? If it can enter unsafe areas, why isn’t it a “search and rescue” robot? Why is it not named and marketed for its function?

WBUR@wbur.org

Dozens of employees at Boston Dynamics have petitioned the company to stop the sale of its robot dogs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Should you get early screening for heart valve disease? It's complicated. In an effort to get ahead of the coming wave of patients 65 and over with heart failure, Edwards Lifesciences this year launched an awareness campaign in partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing.

...related to false positives, that problem is mitigated by using a diagnostic tool rather than a surrogate test that must be confirmed with a real diagnostic test later. Based on WHO guidelines for mass screening programs, he said echocardiographic screening “hits all of the checkmarks.”

The one remaining question, Motazedian said, is when to start and how often to screen, since a clear echo at 65 doesn’t mean you won’t develop valvular disease by 70. For that, he said, more data is needed.

In other words, the quality time gained by giving every 80 year old an echocardiogram was worth the cost the researchers believed the Canadian health system would pay. (This was only a guess; Canada does not share its QALY thresholds.)

While acknowledging the costs and potential harms of mass screening, Ottawa Heart Institute’s Pouya Motazedian pointed out that echocardiography is not just a screening tool. It actually diagnoses valvular disease. So while screening programs in general can produce anxiety...

...point-of-care echocardiography requires an expert to interpret the results. Messika-Zeitoun hopes that this type of screening can reach more patients in the future through the use of AI to aid in image acquision and interpretation.

The cost of screening is a separate issue. One cost effectiveness analysis published in 2024 showed that echocardiographic screening for aortic stenosis was cost effective at CA$28,000 per quality-adjusted (QALY) life year when the health system is willing to pay at or below $CA50,000 per QALY.

One model for population screening for valve disease comes from the Ottawa Heart Institute. David Messika-Zeitoun, a cardiologist and director of the Centre for Valvular Heart Disease at Ottawa Heart Institute leads the program, which provides cardiovascular disease screening...

for all adults over 18 and heart valve screening for patients 65 and over. He and his colleagues found valve disease at a rate of 7%. However, he noted that the mobile screening program in its current form is not scalable because...

heart.bmj.comSurvival of people with valvular heart disease in a large, English community-based cohort studyObjective Valvular heart disease (VHD) is present in half the population aged >65 years but is usually mild and of uncertain importance. We investigated the association between VHD and its phenotypes ...

Their results showed an expected link between advancing age and valvular heart disease. However, mild asymptomatic valve disease was common and not associated with increased death. heart.bmj.com/content/107/...

“One risk of screening is that it may produce anxiety among patients regarding a finding, such as mild regurgitant valve disease, that may be of little or no consequence for that individual's current health or future outlook,” Jones said in an email.

jacc.orgBurden of Undiagnosed Valvular Heart Disease in the Elderly in the Community: Heart of New Ulm Valve Study

Another 35% had mild valve disease. And 77% of people in the study with valve disease had no symptoms or minimal symptoms. www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/...

But not every expert agrees that screening should be universal for older adults. Nicholas Jones, a cardiologist at Oxford University Hospitals, and colleagues screened more than 4000 patients over 65 for valvular heart disease in the OxVALVE study.

To get around this problem, Mario Goessl, director of transcatheter valve therapies at the Center for Valve and Structural Heart Disease at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, said people 65 and over should go straight to transthoracic echocardiography.

Goessl’s team tested mass screening by echocardiogram in older adults in the Heart of New Ulm Valve Study. They found that 16% had undiagnosed moderate or severe valve disease.

heart.bmj.comCardiac auscultation poorly predicts the presence of valvular heart disease in asymptomatic primary care patientsObjective Cardiac auscultation is a key clinical skill, particularly for the diagnosis of valvular heart disease (VHD). However, its utility has declined due to the widespread availability of echocard...

In asymptomatic primary care patients over 65, only 32% of mild valvular heart disease cases and 44% of significant cases were caught by auscultation.

heart.bmj.comHeart murmurs in the general population: diagnostic value and prevalence from the Tromsø StudyBackground Heart auscultation is a widely used and cost-effective clinical tool for detecting valvular heart disease (VHD), particularly in primary care. However, existing evidence on its diagnostic a...

Even trained cardiologists can miss cases. In the Seventh Tromsø Study (2015–2016), just 35.5% of more than 2000 patients with significant valvular heart disease had an audible murmur.

Dan Lippis, corporate VP of TAVR at Edwards, said that a “pit stop” should involve a physical and a careful stethoscope examination by a physician. If a heart murmur is present, the next step should be an echocardiogram.

However, neither the 2020 ACA/AHA, nor the 2025 ESC/EACTS valvular heart disease guidelines recommend screening asymptomatic adults, and auscultation—a stethoscope exam—can miss many cases.

medscape.comWhen to Screen Older Patients for Valve Disease?Some experts are encouraging patients older than 65 years to get screened for heart valve failure, even as research lags on the benefits of population screening programs.

I wrote about early screening for valvular heart disease for Medscape last month.

getyourvalveschecked.comStay in the Race | GetYourValvesCheckedRLL Racing co-owners Bobby Rahal, David Letterman, and Mike Lanigan know that a timely pit stop can make all the difference when it comes to heart valve failure

In a short documentary, Mike Lanigan said he was diagnosed with heart valve failure after discounting increased fatigue as age-related. He had a transaortic valve replacement (TAVR), resulting in renewed energy. getyourvalveschecked.com

Valvular heart disease involves narrowing of the valve, reverse flow, or floppy valve leaflets that don’t close properly. In severe cases, lifesaving interventions such as valve replacement are needed.

Symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling. But valve disease sometimes has no obvious symptoms. Early intervention can improve outcomes, but in the absence of clear guidelines for early screening, it’s up to doctors and patients to get the ball rolling.

catherineshaffer.comShould you get early screening for heart valve disease? It's complicated. - SerendipityIn an effort to get ahead of the coming wave of patients 65 and over with heart failure, Edwards Lifesciences this year launched an awareness campaign in partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan racin...

This article was originally posted on my blog. If you'd like to read it there or share, here's a link: catherineshaffer.com/should-you-g...

The “Stay in the Race” initiative, featuring RLL co-owners Bobby Rahal, David Letterman, and Mike Lanigan, encourages patients over 65 to “take a pit stop” by discussing their heart disease risk with a doctor.

Iconic moment right here

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

wow -- a protester directly behind Vance gets up and yells "release the Epstein files!" Vance suggest he's an illegal immigrant.

How's your day? Mine is "wearing sunglasses indoors on a cloudy day."

LIke most women, I'm used to taking on the lion's share of the household management and chores like cooking, grocery shopping, menu planning, tidying and vacuuming, etc., etc. And, naturally, I have tended to stew with resentment, nag my housemates for help, and create systems etc to no avail.

You might be surprised. I sure was. After some days where we all had cereal for dinner and cluttered piled up, stuff started happening. Dinners were made. A rug was shampooed. Garbage was being taken out. It's not like I would do it, but it's getting done.

There's an unfortunate thing that happens when you're hyperfunctioning. Others tend to stand back and let you do it. This won't work for every family because a lot of other things may be going on, but it's worth thinking about.