The result of the debate was no consensus to delete. W.marsh 05:00, 26 March 2006 (UTC) reply
*Keep per Bobby and Knut.
JoshuaZ 18:42, 17 March 2006 (UTC) *Delete per Porturology.
JoshuaZ
06:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
reply
COMMENT 2: There appears to be some miss understanding by someone called Porturology that Helgason is urologist. As far as I can see from Swedish publications Helgason is no urologist. He (I think) is psychologist and public health scientist. He is involved in several aspects of health including psychological effect off treatment for different cancers and tobacco prevention. For me he is best known for his work in stop smoking services but I can recall front page articles in Sweden’s biggest newspapers (and TV) some years ago on his studies regarding sexual interest of old men and how treatment for prostate cancer could ruin men’s life since they became impotent etc. I tried to find these articles but they seem not still to be on the internet. However I did find many media articles links (directly to newspaper articles) from Sweden and other Nordic countries that are still available on the internet for Helgason. Most are on his work in tobacco and emotional problems for men with prostate cancer. I my view Helgason is outstanding for his clinical impact on so different fields = tobacco cessation, impotence, quality of life, prostate cancer, emotional problems, care of dying patients and their spouses etc.. In Sweden there are few people with this wide spectrum of impact. Also I looked at his over scientific publications (some were helgason a and some helgason ar) and as I can see they are more the 50? I did not know that he also was doing research in getetics in Iceland. This is what I found just now as links to on line newspaper articles on Swedish search engines. I tried to explain in English what each article is about:
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/idag/did_9739365.asp (Svenska Dagbladet on prostate cancer and emotional isolation)
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=343773 (Dagens Nyheter on Helgasons tobacco prevention work)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/0003/28/roka.html (Aftonbladet on the Swedish quitline)
http://www.systembolaget.se/AlkoholHalsa/Alkoholsamhalle/alkohol_nikotin_rokning.htm (In Sweden the state has monopoly on selling alcohol. This is the alcohol monopoly newspaper interviewing Helgason on his work with the Swedish smoking quitline and his plans to start a similar service for risk drinkers)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/halsa/story/0,2789,280431,00.html (Aftonbladet on oral tobacco and cancer)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/telegram/0,1082,437113_INR__,00.html (Aftonbladet on men and emotional isolation)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/telegram/0,1082,437113_INR_p_,00.html (Aftonbladet on emotional isolation)
http://www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn/tengdar.html?docid=1795132 (Several Icelandic articles in Morgunbladid – paid access only)
http://www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn/grein.html?grein_id=515846 (On the Icelandic tobacco quitline)
http://www.affarsvarlden.se/art/34033 (Affärsvärlden on oral tobacco)
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=6363508 (The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang = VG on oral tobacco as smoking cessation)
http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/helse/article303547.ece (Norwegian Nettavisen on oral tobacco)
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/Inrikes/did_2817840.asp (Svenska Dagbladet on the possibility do develop vaccine for nicotine dependence) Knut Knut 21:32, 18 March 2006 (UTC) reply
MERCY MY FRIENDS: When I opened my e-mail this morning I had received mail from a person drawing my attention to an ongoing debate on this internet cite regarding my works and my person. After having scanned through what has been written (since I sent in my comment and asked people to stop) I feel I have to commend on some of the things stated in this strange debate:
1)In my previous mail I published my e-mail address so that people could communicate with me directly. I am therefore a little surprised that “Porturology” did not write directly to me with his questions. And “ Porturology” you are right, this is a little embarrassing for me but also amusing. Makes you feel like a PhD student defending a thesis. Unfortunately I have other things to do than to follow debates on the internet. I actually though I had put a stop to the debate with my previous comment.
2) Nordic/Scandinavian people do not like to discuss their own work. It is considered to be inappropriate (especially in Sweden)to sell your self in any way. I know this is somewhat different in other countries but there you go! Different behaviour protocols in different parts of the world is what makes the world interesting.
3) When I did my PhD in 1997 on prostate cancer it received a lot of media attention. Probably not because it was a good work of science. Probably mainly because it dealt with subjects of media interest like sexual functioning, and the dilemma of trade-off between intact sexual function and curative treatment for localized prostate cancer. Also, it included a population based epidemiological study on male sexual functioning in men without prostate cancer up to 80 years that was considered to be relatively representative owing to a fair response rate. Also. at the time there was a heated debate in Scandinavia (and still is) on whether or not to treat localized prostate cancer with curative intent in if so what treatment to choose. So I became the victim of circumstances. My interest in the prostate cancer debate (treat or not to treat) diminished after I realized that there is a lot of politics and money involved and strong lobby groups primarily interested in selling them selves and their products. After that my work in the field has mainly been on emotional isolation of middle aged men and prostate cancer patients. However, emotional isolation in men is a also a typical media subject. So the bottom line is that my work in the area of prostate cancer has probably had this impact in the media owing to the nature of the subject. This media attention is troublesome since it takes up lots of time an energy and is nothing to strive for.
4)I thank “Knut” for his (her?) interest in my work (thanks for these links). However, I need to correct him/her on one aspect. My works on medical and psychological databases are unfortunately presented under both Helgason AR and Helgason A. This often leads to some confusion since my brothers name is Agnar Helgason and he also publishes under Helgason A. Articles on genetics published under Helgason A. are my brothers articles, not mine. I know less about genetics than an average chimpanzee. Sorry if I disappointed you on that.
5)I do not fully understand the focus on my prostate cancer research in this ongoing debate on my work. The fact is that my work on tobacco prevention and in particular smoking cessation (both clinical, educational and scientific) far outweighs my work in prostate cancer at the moment. I have PhD students in health psychology in two different departments at the Karolinska = public health sciences and oncology and presently my work in smoking cessation takes up 75% of my time. Presently we are e.g. developing a telephone based service for risk drinkers based on our experience of running a smoking cessation quitline from 1998. These services are free of charge and rigorously evaluated. In oncology my PhD students (at the moment)are mainly doing work in palliative care. So please “User:Porturology” and others cool down the prostate cancer debate.
6) I do not understand why people do not use their real names in debates like this? It is much more interesting to know who you are talking to. Is this some kind of policy on the Wikipedia?
Asgeir R. Helgason (asgeir.helgason@sll.se) Asgeir Helgason
The result of the debate was no consensus to delete. W.marsh 05:00, 26 March 2006 (UTC) reply
*Keep per Bobby and Knut.
JoshuaZ 18:42, 17 March 2006 (UTC) *Delete per Porturology.
JoshuaZ
06:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
reply
COMMENT 2: There appears to be some miss understanding by someone called Porturology that Helgason is urologist. As far as I can see from Swedish publications Helgason is no urologist. He (I think) is psychologist and public health scientist. He is involved in several aspects of health including psychological effect off treatment for different cancers and tobacco prevention. For me he is best known for his work in stop smoking services but I can recall front page articles in Sweden’s biggest newspapers (and TV) some years ago on his studies regarding sexual interest of old men and how treatment for prostate cancer could ruin men’s life since they became impotent etc. I tried to find these articles but they seem not still to be on the internet. However I did find many media articles links (directly to newspaper articles) from Sweden and other Nordic countries that are still available on the internet for Helgason. Most are on his work in tobacco and emotional problems for men with prostate cancer. I my view Helgason is outstanding for his clinical impact on so different fields = tobacco cessation, impotence, quality of life, prostate cancer, emotional problems, care of dying patients and their spouses etc.. In Sweden there are few people with this wide spectrum of impact. Also I looked at his over scientific publications (some were helgason a and some helgason ar) and as I can see they are more the 50? I did not know that he also was doing research in getetics in Iceland. This is what I found just now as links to on line newspaper articles on Swedish search engines. I tried to explain in English what each article is about:
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/idag/did_9739365.asp (Svenska Dagbladet on prostate cancer and emotional isolation)
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=343773 (Dagens Nyheter on Helgasons tobacco prevention work)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/0003/28/roka.html (Aftonbladet on the Swedish quitline)
http://www.systembolaget.se/AlkoholHalsa/Alkoholsamhalle/alkohol_nikotin_rokning.htm (In Sweden the state has monopoly on selling alcohol. This is the alcohol monopoly newspaper interviewing Helgason on his work with the Swedish smoking quitline and his plans to start a similar service for risk drinkers)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/halsa/story/0,2789,280431,00.html (Aftonbladet on oral tobacco and cancer)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/telegram/0,1082,437113_INR__,00.html (Aftonbladet on men and emotional isolation)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/telegram/0,1082,437113_INR_p_,00.html (Aftonbladet on emotional isolation)
http://www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn/tengdar.html?docid=1795132 (Several Icelandic articles in Morgunbladid – paid access only)
http://www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn/grein.html?grein_id=515846 (On the Icelandic tobacco quitline)
http://www.affarsvarlden.se/art/34033 (Affärsvärlden on oral tobacco)
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=6363508 (The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang = VG on oral tobacco as smoking cessation)
http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/helse/article303547.ece (Norwegian Nettavisen on oral tobacco)
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/Inrikes/did_2817840.asp (Svenska Dagbladet on the possibility do develop vaccine for nicotine dependence) Knut Knut 21:32, 18 March 2006 (UTC) reply
MERCY MY FRIENDS: When I opened my e-mail this morning I had received mail from a person drawing my attention to an ongoing debate on this internet cite regarding my works and my person. After having scanned through what has been written (since I sent in my comment and asked people to stop) I feel I have to commend on some of the things stated in this strange debate:
1)In my previous mail I published my e-mail address so that people could communicate with me directly. I am therefore a little surprised that “Porturology” did not write directly to me with his questions. And “ Porturology” you are right, this is a little embarrassing for me but also amusing. Makes you feel like a PhD student defending a thesis. Unfortunately I have other things to do than to follow debates on the internet. I actually though I had put a stop to the debate with my previous comment.
2) Nordic/Scandinavian people do not like to discuss their own work. It is considered to be inappropriate (especially in Sweden)to sell your self in any way. I know this is somewhat different in other countries but there you go! Different behaviour protocols in different parts of the world is what makes the world interesting.
3) When I did my PhD in 1997 on prostate cancer it received a lot of media attention. Probably not because it was a good work of science. Probably mainly because it dealt with subjects of media interest like sexual functioning, and the dilemma of trade-off between intact sexual function and curative treatment for localized prostate cancer. Also, it included a population based epidemiological study on male sexual functioning in men without prostate cancer up to 80 years that was considered to be relatively representative owing to a fair response rate. Also. at the time there was a heated debate in Scandinavia (and still is) on whether or not to treat localized prostate cancer with curative intent in if so what treatment to choose. So I became the victim of circumstances. My interest in the prostate cancer debate (treat or not to treat) diminished after I realized that there is a lot of politics and money involved and strong lobby groups primarily interested in selling them selves and their products. After that my work in the field has mainly been on emotional isolation of middle aged men and prostate cancer patients. However, emotional isolation in men is a also a typical media subject. So the bottom line is that my work in the area of prostate cancer has probably had this impact in the media owing to the nature of the subject. This media attention is troublesome since it takes up lots of time an energy and is nothing to strive for.
4)I thank “Knut” for his (her?) interest in my work (thanks for these links). However, I need to correct him/her on one aspect. My works on medical and psychological databases are unfortunately presented under both Helgason AR and Helgason A. This often leads to some confusion since my brothers name is Agnar Helgason and he also publishes under Helgason A. Articles on genetics published under Helgason A. are my brothers articles, not mine. I know less about genetics than an average chimpanzee. Sorry if I disappointed you on that.
5)I do not fully understand the focus on my prostate cancer research in this ongoing debate on my work. The fact is that my work on tobacco prevention and in particular smoking cessation (both clinical, educational and scientific) far outweighs my work in prostate cancer at the moment. I have PhD students in health psychology in two different departments at the Karolinska = public health sciences and oncology and presently my work in smoking cessation takes up 75% of my time. Presently we are e.g. developing a telephone based service for risk drinkers based on our experience of running a smoking cessation quitline from 1998. These services are free of charge and rigorously evaluated. In oncology my PhD students (at the moment)are mainly doing work in palliative care. So please “User:Porturology” and others cool down the prostate cancer debate.
6) I do not understand why people do not use their real names in debates like this? It is much more interesting to know who you are talking to. Is this some kind of policy on the Wikipedia?
Asgeir R. Helgason (asgeir.helgason@sll.se) Asgeir Helgason