User:Zanna115/sandbox

Article Evaluations

I read the Wikipedia article entitled War on Cancer. It's actually kind of an ambiguous topic so it's hard to know what should and should not be included. I think the person that wrote the article did a very good job of covering all of the different subjects that have to do with this subject, but they didn't go too in depth about any one topic. They might have included some things that didn't need to be talked about, but once again that's hard to know. The article is mostly neutral, but there are some comments about the public's opinion of legislation that could be perceived as not neutral. The citations are from very reliable sources, and the links work. There are also some interesting photos and videos that supplement the written information. There is some information that's pretty recent. They could continuously update a little bit of the information as it happens. This is hard to do though because so much is going on all the time with the different treatments for cancer. I think overall it's okay, but it could be improved some by editing the language and making sure all of the information is accurate and relevant.

Discussion: What's a content gap? Answers: A content gap is probably a section of information that's missing that should be there to make the article complete. Some possible ways to identify them are to read the article and see if some of the parts of the information don't add up. Also if you know about the topic you're reading about already that would be helpful. You could also look at the different sources and see if there's anything missing. Some reasons a content gap might arise is because the author hasn't researched the topic enough or because they didn't get to finish writing the article. To remedy this issue, you could just look up more sources and fill in the gaps. Also looking at topics from different perspectives and disciplines might help. It doesn't really matter who writes Wikipedia as long as they follow the rules of Wikipedia. Unbiased means that the author doesn't lean to either side of an argument. They talk about the different sides equally, and they make sure not to make one sounds better than the other. It's pretty similar to my definition of bias. The only difference is that the rules of Wikipedia are more strict and have stronger consequences.

Good job Grade A RJBazell (talk) 18:20, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

What I Plan to Contribute to William Stewart Halsted Article:

I think that there are quite a few different areas that can be improved on in this article. One of the first ones I noticed is that from some of the sources I've read already, there is missing information about his cocaine addiction and also his career at Yale. Both of these factors are important because they really paint the full picture of this person which is the point of the article. I also think it would be helpful to showcase the different opinions and depictions of Halsted that I read in a journal article. There were also a few more major things that he accomplished that weren't mentioned. This would add needed depth to the issue of the radical mastectomy, but I'll have to be able to always talk about the person and not the procedure because that would be a different Wikipedia page.

List of Sources:

-Rankin, J Scott. “William Stewart Halsted: A Lecture by Dr. Peter D. Olch.” Annals of Surgery 243.3 (2006): 418–425. Print.

-Osborne, Michael P. “William Stewart Halsted: His Life and Contributions to Surgery.” The Lancet Oncology, vol. 8, no. 3, 2007, pp. 256–265., doi:10.1016/s1470-2045(07)70076-1.

-MUKHERJEE, SIDDHARTHA. EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES. FOURTH ESTATE LTD, 2017.

-HAAS LF William Stewart Halsted (1852–1922) Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2000;69:641.

-Cameron, J L. “William Stewart Halsted. Our Surgical Heritage.” Annals of Surgery 225.5 (1997): 445–458. Print.

Discussion: Thinking About Sources and Plagiarism

Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of information because they aren't reviewed by anyone therefore the authors could write whatever they want. Through this, they could be writing things that aren't true whether they know it or not. Also, press releases sometimes are used to persuade people so it wouldn't be an unbiased source. The main reason that you wouldn't want to use a company's website to find information about that company is because once again bias is probably running rampant. It's natural for the company to want to present themselves in the best way possible, but this probably doesn't include all the facts. Some bad opinions of the company or a complicated past might not be mentioned and this would be important information. A copyright violation is copying something under copyright, therefore even if you cite you're still not allowed to do that. This would be like publishing multiple passages of a book. Plagiarism is taking other people's ideas that aren't under copyright. If you cite the ideas, it's usually fine as long as you present the ideas in your own way. One good technique to avoid plagiarism and close paraphrasing is to write down on notecards broad ideas instead of quotes from the text. This way, you know you're presenting the ideas in your own words instead of someone else's without realizing it.

William Stewart Halsted Wikipedia Page Draft

Bold: Stuff I added

William Stewart Halsted, M.D. (September 23, 1852 – September 7, 1922) was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced several new operations, including the radical mastectomy for breast cancer. Along with William Osler (Professor of Medicine), Howard Atwood Kelly (Professor of Gynecology) and William H. Welch (Professor of Pathology), Halsted was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Ward G, and was described as a small room where medical discoveries and miracles took place. According to an intern who once worked in Halsted's operating room, Halsted had unique techniques, operated on the patients with great confidence and often had perfect results which astonished the interns. He was later called the Father of Modern Surgery.

Throughout his professional life, he was addicted to cocaine and later also to morphine, which were not illegal during his time. As revealed by Osler's diary, Halsted developed a high level of drug tolerance for morphine. He was "never able to be reduce the amount to less than three grains daily" (approximately 200 mg). The addictions were a direct result of Halsted's using himself as an experimental subject, in investigations on the effects of cocaine as an anesthetic agent.

Early life
In 1874 William S. Halsted was born on September 23, 1852 in New York City. His mother was Mary Louisa Haines and his father William Mills Halsted, Jr, and he was the oldest of four children. His father was a businessman with Halsted, Haines and Company which was an organization that supplied dry goods.  William Halsted, Jr. was very involved in the community. His family was of English heritage and was very wealthy with two homes in the state of New York. One of their homes was on Fifth Avenue in New York City and the other was an estate in Westchester County, New York. Though raised a Presbyterian, Halsted was an agnostic by adulthood. Halsted was educated at home by tutors until 1862, when he was sent to boarding school in Monson, Massachusetts at age ten. He didn't like his new school and even ran away at one point. He was later enrolled at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1869. Halsted entered Yale College after a year of studying at home. At Yale, Halsted was captain of the football team, played baseball and rowed on the crew team, but his academic achievements were below average. One of his social setbacks was in his senior year when he wasn't accepted into the prestigious Skull and Bones Secret Society. At the end of his senior year of Yale, a newfound interest in medicine seemed to arise because Halsted attended medical lectures at Yale Medical School and studied books on the subjects of anatomy and physiology.

Medical education
Upon graduation from Yale in 1874, Halsted entered Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. '''There are multiple different theories for why Halsted decided to attend medical school. One theory is that he was inspired by his father's involvement in medical organizations'''. Another possible reason is that he decided to attend medical school because he couldn't imagine himself in the family business, not because he had dreams of becoming a surgeon. Once he entered medical school, his past subpar academic performance was replaced by a performance that made Halsted excel. There were a couple figures that were integral in his career during medical school. The first was Henry B Sands, a well-known surgeon, who was Halsted's tutor during this time. Halsted was also an assistant to Professor of Physiology John Call Dalton. During medical school, Halsted also worked in a pharmacy in his free time. '''After two years of medical school, Halsted started to burn out. He complained about his memory not working correctly among other things so during the summer of his second year he went to Block Island in Rhode Island. Here, he studied while participating in activities like fishing and sailing. He then took a competitive exam to apply for an internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York even though this program was only open to students with medical degrees. Halsted did very well on the exam and was awarded the internship for House Surgeon at Bellevue where he remained for a year.'''

Halsted spent most of his internship in the medical wards but also helped with some surgical operations. The conditions in the hospital were very unsanitary; bleeding patients was a common practice during this time, and surgical tools weren't as well cared for as they are modernly. Interns ran around the hospital with buckets full of pus from the patients. During the internship, Halsted was introduced to the idea of antiseptic through physicians using Joseph Lister's technique that was created in 1867. This sparked an interest in Halsted, and he helped with the issue of infections at Bellevue during the rest of the internship. '''He ended his academic career in the top ten of his medical school class. He then participated in a competition that placed him at the top of his class.''' He graduated in 1877 with a Doctor of Medicine degree.

Medical career
After graduation, Halsted joined the New York Hospital as house physician in April 1878, where he introduced the hospital chart which tracks the patient's temperature, pulse and respiration. It was at New York Hospital that Halsted met the pathologist William H. Welch, who would become his closest friend. He left New York Hospital in October of 1878.

Halsted had exhausted all of the medical training opportunities the United States had to offer in his position, for there was no program to train recent medical school graduates for a career in medicine at this time. He then went to Europe for two years to study under the tutelage of several prominent surgeons and scientists, including Edoardo Bassini, Ernst von Bergmann, Theodor Billroth, Heinrich Braun, Hans Chiari, Friedrich von Esmarch, Albert von Kölliker, Jan Mikulicz-Radecki, Max Schede, Adolph Stöhr, Richard von Volkmann, Anton Wölfler, Emil Zuckerkandl. He became especially close to Anton Woelfler among others which gave him unlimited access to resources. The relationships Halsted forged with these future leaders in their fields would last a lifetime. During this time in Europe, cancer was just starting to be studied more widely, making the timing of his arrival ideal. This experience inspired him with multiple new medical ideas and practices that he would contribute to in the United States.

Halsted returned to New York in 1880 and for the next six years led an extraordinarily vigorous and energetic life. Like when Halsted visited Europe, it was an opportune time for Halsted's involvement because surgery was on the brink of various important discoveries. He operated at multiple hospitals including the Chambers Street Hospital, College of Physicians and Surgeons where he was Assistant Demonstrator in Anatomy, Charity Hospital, Bellevue Hospital and Roosevelt Hospital where he was a visiting physician at all three, and Emigrant Hospital where he was Surgeon-in-Chief. '''At Bellevue Hospital, he convinced the hospital to erect a tent that was used as his surgical area where he could practice the idea of antiseptic surgery. This project cost $10,000 at the time. Halsted also started teaching, but he greatly strayed from classical teaching methods. He reformed the classroom by creating a more hands-on experience coupled with theory for his students who were generally at the top of their classes. He was an extremely popular, inspiring and charismatic teacher due to this'''. In 1882 he performed one of the first gallbladder operations in the United States, a cholecystotomy performed on his mother on the kitchen table at 2 am in which he removed seven gallstones. His mother completely recovered. Halsted also performed one of the first emergency blood transfusions in the United States. He had been called to see his sister after she had given birth. He found her moribund from blood loss, and in a bold move withdrew his own blood, transfused his blood into his sister, and then operated on her to save her life. Because of these operations, Halsted became known for being bold, and his reputation as a surgeon was gradually increasing.

In 1884, Halsted read a report by the Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller, describing the anesthetic power of cocaine when instilled on the surface of the eye. Halsted, his students, and fellow physicians experimented on each other, and demonstrated that cocaine could produce safe and effective local anesthesia when applied topically and when injected. Halsted would also inject himself with the drug to test it before using it on his patients during surgeries. In the process, Halsted and some of his other colleagues became addicted to the drug. Halsted and Dr. Richard Hall were the only colleagues who became addicted that survived their cocaine problems. '''Halsted maintained an active career while dealing with his addiction for five years. Although, there were some clues to his condition during this time. Halsted published an article in 1885 in the New York Medical Journal, and it was incoherent. This showcased what state Halsted was in with his addiction to cocaine'''. His close friend Harvey Firestone recognized the gravity of the situation, and arranged for Halsted to be abducted and put aboard a steamer headed for Europe. In the two weeks it took to complete the voyage, Halsted underwent an early, crude form of detoxification. Upon his return to the United States he became addicted again, and was sent to Butler Sanatorium in Providence, Rhode Island, where they attempted to cure his cocaine addiction with morphine. He was there for seven months. Even though he remained dependent upon morphine for the remainder of his life, he continued his career as a pioneering surgeon; many of his innovations remain standard operating room procedures. The four doctors: Osler, Halsted, Welch, and Kelly Although, his addiction to cocaine ended his medical career in New York City. Following his discharge from Butler in 1886, Halsted moved to Baltimore, Maryland to join his friend William Welch, the founding Chair of Pathology, in organizing and launching the new Johns Hopkins Hospital. '''Halsted began working in Welch's experimental laboratory, and he presented a paper at Harvard Medical School. Although, soon after, he was readmitted to Butler Hospital and remained there for nine months. He returned to Baltimore thereafter. When Johns Hopkins University Hospital opened in May 1889, he became Head of the Outpatient Department, acting Surgeon to the Hospital, and Associate Professor of Surgery after being recommended by Welch when the first choice for the position fell through. These lesser positions alluded to the fact that the administration was still worried about Halsted's past cocaine addiction. In 1890, he was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief of the hospital.''' In 1892, Halsted joined Welch, William Osler, and Howard Kelly in founding the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and was appointed its first Professor of Surgery. '''Although, compared to his teaching in New York, Halsted's teaching was declining. He would pay attention to specific students and ignore the rest. But, he would also give certain residents that worked under him unprecedented learning experiences because of the amount of responsibility he awarded them. During these years at Johns Hopkins, he is credited with multiple achievements in the surgical world.'''

Achievements
Halsted was credited with starting the first formal surgical residency training program in the United States at Johns Hopkins. '''He based this mainly on the ideas that he obtained in Europe, especially those of the Germans, Austrians, and Swiss. This was the foundation for the residency training programs in place today.''' The program began with an internship of undefined length (individuals advanced once Halsted believed they were ready for the next level of training), followed by six years as an assistant resident, and then two years as house surgeon. This program was also developed to create role models and teachers for the next generation of surgeons. Halsted trained many of the prominent academic surgeons of the time, including Harvey Williams Cushing and Walter Dandy, founders of the surgical subspecialty of neurosurgery; and Hugh H. Young, a founder of the specialty of urology. Radical mastectomy His methods of training surgeons spread, first to the rest of Baltimore and then throughout the United States. Many prominent figures in medical surgery were affected and influenced by his new system of training, and it has had a profound impact on American medicine.

Halsted held the belief that cancers spread through the bloodstream, which led him to think that sufficient local removal of the tumor would cure the cancer. This belief led him to perform the first radical mastectomy for breast cancer in the U.S. at Roosevelt Hospital in New York in 1882; an operation first performed in France a century earlier by Bernard Peyrilhe (1735-1804). Halsted had observed a German surgeon perform increasingly aggressive surgeries to remove cancerous tumors from the breast, but the patients still relapsed even with this more aggressive surgery. An English surgeon, Charles Moore, believed that even more breast tissue should be removed and doctors that were trying to save women from disfigurement were doing them a disservice. Halsted took this to the next level, eventually resorting to removing the pectoralis major, lymph nodes near the collar bone, and lymph nodes near the armpit. Some surgeons in Europe even removed ribs from women with breast cancer. This caused great disfigurement of the women operated on. Halsted presented his findings at the American Surgical Association conference in New Orleans in 1898, concluding that the procedure slashed the percentage of local reoccurrence.  He also presented more findings in 1907, showing the same results. '''Although, the radical mastectomy throughout the years has come under fire. It is now known that survival from breast cancer is more closely related to how much the cancer has spread before surgery than how much is removed during surgery.'''

'''Halsted created multiple techniques for surgery so damage to tissues and blood supply could be minimized. Some of these new advances included different types of forceps, sutures, and ligatures. He was also the first to introduce rubber gloves into the operating room for surgery in 1889, drastically increasing the sanitization of operations. Although, this wasn't originally championed for sanitary reasons.  The main reason for the introduction of these rubber gloves was to protect the hands of his scrub nurse, Caroline Hampton.  She was allergic to the antiseptic so Halsted facilitated an arrangement with Goodyear Rubber Company to make rubber gloves.  Caroline Hampton would later become his wife.'''

He is also known for many other medical and surgical achievements. Besides working on breast cancer, Halsted also contributed to the surgical treatment for other diseases including vascular aneurysm, inguinal hernia, and a certain kind of primary carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater. In addition, he helped develop anesthesia, an integral part of modern surgery. As one of the first proponents of hemostasis and investigators of wound healing, Halsted pioneered Halsted's principles, modern surgical principles of control of bleeding, accurate anatomical dissection, complete sterility, exact approximation of tissue in wound closures without excessive tightness, and gentle handling of tissues.

Other achievements included advances in thyroid, biliary tract, hernia, intestinal and arterial aneurysm surgery.

Personal life
In 1890, Halsted married Caroline Hampton, the niece of Wade Hampton III, a former general in the Confederate States Army and also a former Governor of South Carolina. They purchased the High Hampton mountain retreat in North Carolina from Caroline's three aunts. There, Halsted raised dahlias and pursued his hobby of astronomy; he and his wife had no children. He died on September 7, 1922, 16 days short of his 70th birthday, from bronchopneumonia as a complication of surgery for gallstones and cholangitis.

 ^THESE ARE ONLY THE SOURCES I ADDED; ALL OF THE UNBOLDED SENTENCES ALREADY HAVE SOURCES AND ARE CITED BECAUSE THEY WERE IN THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE; I JUST DIDN'T BRING THOSE TO THIS PAGE 

Discussion: Thinking About Wikipedia - Questions and Answers

I think Wikipedia's definition of neutrality is actually very interesting and helpful. Wikipedia is very big on not taking a side within their articles, and I think this is a very valuable think that's very hard to find now in the Internet based world. Part of neutrality according to Wikipedia is making sure your sources aren't from organizations that are talking about themselves. This was an aspect of neutrality that I never really considered. It makes a lot of sense that to be completely neutral your sources would be other organizations talking about the topic, never commenting on themselves because there is undoubtably going to be some bias whether purposeful or not. The impacts of Wikipedia as a source of information are that there is an infinite amount of information by just typing something into Google. Wikipedia seems to always be the starting point for any kind of research that's being conducted. It gives you a great foundation to help accumulate general knowledge and a good touchstone for finding my information like peer-reviewed journal articles or books. The limits of Wikipedia is that it's known for being unreliable just because of the fact that anyone can edit the articles. Anyone being able to edit the articles is both a great thing but also one that causes some questions and possible issues. The kinds of sources that could be included and counted as reliable are peer-reviewed journal articles depending on the topic, books that are written by experts and published by reputable companies, and newspapers articles. Some problems would be if the sources themselves are bias or wrong. This can definitely happen no matter how closely their cross-checked. If Wikipedia was written one hundred years ago everything would have been much harder and probably more bias actually. The reason for this is just because information was nowhere near as accessible as it is now so there would be a lot of room for error and only relying on a limited amount of sources. Although, in some ways it could be more accurate because it would've been easier to know what was and wasn't true since there wasn't the danger of so much fake information on the internet. One hundred years from now I think that Wikipedia can really only improve. The content will hopefully be even more accurate and just more and more information will constantly be added to this incredible flow of information.