Geir W. Jacobsen

19.03.2018: Doctors, patient organisations, and the pharmaceutical and medical device industry – along with the media – may thwart efforts to achieve evidence-based medicine. Numbers count, but some numbers count more than others. For example, the number seven has a special place in the Judeo-Christian...

19.01.2017: What happens when the captain tells you there is a bomb or a fire on board the plane, or when after a routine examination you receive a letter informing you that signs of life-threatening disease have been detected? After we had landed at one of Europe’s main airports in autumn 2016, the captain...

13.09.2016: The use of snus by young pregnant women appears to be on the increase, but smoking still predominates. Does the increased use of snus give grounds for concern? In my dealings with colleagues of the same age, I have reflected over what professional advances have made the strongest impression on me...

26.06.2012: We wish to thank Viggo Jønsson for his appreciative words and interesting hypothesis. Although we cannot know anything for certain about the intentions of the artist who made this figure almost 700 years ago, it is typical of good art that it evokes a variety of associations in the beholder. One...

27.03.2012: Up towards the ceiling vault of the Nidaros Cathedral, a number of artworks are hidden from public view. Many of the stone sculptures portray mythological animals and other scary creatures. In such company, one would imagine that human faces were also intended to evoke fear and anguish. Do they...

10.01.2012: The majority of cases of tuberculosis in Norway are diagnosed in individuals coming from high-incidence countries. Immigrants are widely screened, but the follow-up of positive cases is very inadequate. If the screening programme is to be continued, it should either be strengthened or considerably...

08.04.2011: In the summer of 1847, the 29-year old Danish doctor Peter Anton Schleisner (1818 – 1900) (1) (fig 1) sailed to the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland. He had received detailed instructions from the Danish authorities. The aim was to combat the epidemic of neonatal tetanus (referred to...