Philanthropic donations to new medical schools and centers across the nation

A number of medical school construction projects across the United States have received pledges of financial support that exceed the $25 million pledged to the proposed UNTMD campus.  These successful fundraising efforts frequently included extensive community outreach in which alumni, trustees, business and civic leaders, and community members offer major donations and sponsor challenge grant proposals designed to jump-start contributions from individuals and foundations.  The list below outlines some of the major contributions to new or expanded medical schools in recent years:

Campbell University (North Carolina)

Campbell University, a private, Baptist university in North Carolina, is spending $60 million to develop a new medical school that will open at its Buies Creek campus in 2013.  The school will use “savings, donations, loans, and other funds” to fund its project.[1]

Southeast Alabama Medical Center (Alabama)

The Southeast Alabama Medical Center is developing a private college of osteopathic medicine at the SAMC campus.  According to the SAMC Web site, the $40 development cost “includes a $15 million operating budget funded by SAMC and $25 million construction costs financed through bond sales.[2]

Marian University (Indiana)

Marian University, a Catholic, liberal arts university in central Indiana, received a $30 million pledge from an anonymous donor in support of its planned college of osteopathic medicine.  The college’s projected development cost is $75 million.[3]

University of California, San Francisco (California)

The University of California, San Francisco is planning to build a 183-bed children’s hospital that includes a pediatric emergency room and research facilities.  The children’s hospital will be part of a $1.5 billion hospital system, scheduled to open in 2014, that will also include a cancer center and a women’s hospital.   The university plans to raise $600 million through private donations.  As of June 2010, Marc Benioff, the founder of salesforce.com, and his wife Lynne pledged $100 million.  In addition, philanthropist Charles Feeney, founder of Duty Free Shoppers Group, pledged $125 million toward the project.[4]

Tet Tradition

First Morning or Head Day: is reserved for the nuclear family, that is, the husband’s household. Immediate family members get together and celebrate with the husband’s parents. A younger brother, if the parents are not alive, will visit his older sibling. Faraway sons and daughters journey to be with their parents on this day.

1. Children anticipate a ritual called Mung Tuoi, or the well wishing on the achievement of one more year to one’s life. With both arms folded in front of their chest in respect, they thank their grandparents for their birth and upbringing.

2. Reciprocally, the grandparents will impart words of advice or wisdom to their grandchildren, encouraging them to study seriously, to live in harmony with others. The promises made by the children are similar to New Year’s resolutions made during the western New Year. Adults will make silent promises to themselves to improve their lives, habits and relationships in the coming year. The children accept small gifts, usually crisp bills. Ideally, part of the gifts will be saved for future "investment," and part spent for Tet amusements. The words on the little red envelope in which the bill may be tucked read: Respectful wishes for the New Year.

3. When there was a king ruling Vietnam, the mandarins of the royal court formally wished the King and Queen, "Happiness as vast as the southern sea; longevity as lasting as the southern mountains." Each trade and professional guild in Vietnam has a founder or guardian spirit and on this or one of the next several days, the craft workers will make offerings to their guild ancestor.

Interracial Marriages and Blending The Two Cultures

By Jane Le Skaife for Nguoi-Viet Online

Michelle Nguyễn and Rachel Nguyễn are sisters-in-law, brought together by the love for their husbands, who are brothers. But what also united them is a common bond: white women married to Vietnamese American men who have learned to adopt their husbands’ traditions as their own and pass them on to their children.

“Most of my cultural experiences occur with Vũ’s extended family,” said Rachel, 38, of her husband Vũ and his family. “The best part of these encounters is being able to be a part of a very different culture in a very intimate way.”

Although mixed unions like those of the Nguyễn account for only eight percent of all marriages according to the 2010 U.S. Census, that eight percent comes out to about 4.5 million couples in the United States. That is 4.5 million opportunities to blend and appreciate cultural differences through matrimony.

MULTICULTURAL MATRIMONY: Michelle Nguyễn, 37, and Tuấn Nguyễn, 36, got married in 2002 wearing traditional Vietnamese aó dàis. Michelle and Tuấn embraced both cultures during their wedding ceremony nearly a decade ago. They paid their respects to Tuấn’s ancestors during their nuptial. The couple currently reside in Austin, Texas with their three boys. Photo courtesy of Michelle Nguyễn.

Even though Michelle and Rachel are not Vietnamese Americans, the two Austin, Texas, women both have taken strides toward respecting and practicing the cultural traditions of their husbands’ Vietnamese family. Tết is merely one of the many ways of doing so.

Michelle, 37, and her husband Tuấn met during their college years at Michigan State University. It was the first time she had ever dated a non-white person. When Tuấn left for medical school, the couple continued a partly long-distance relationship for seven years before marrying in 2002.

Together now for almost 16 years, Michelle still remembers the difficulty of meeting her husband’s family for the first time.

• “They didn’t really accept that he was dating me,” she said. “They continued to try to fix him up with Vietnamese women. It was a little bit rough for a while there. I didn’t go to his graduation because his parents were there.”

Fortunately over time, Michelle’s in-laws grew to love her as the mother of three of their grandchildren: Maxwell Tiến, 7, Miles Tuấn, 3, and Mason Tài, 5.

• “Once you have grandkids, everything goes away, and it’s great,” Michelle said. “Before we were married, it was a little rough. Now, I’m like ‘Miss Perfect.’ They love me.”

It also helps that Michelle has put forth a lot of effort into preserving the Vietnamese culture in her intercultural family. Whether it’s cooking Bún Bò Huế for the family, honoring the passing of her father-in-law, or celebrating Tết, there are definite signs of the Vietnamese culture in their lives even though the children may still be too young to recognize their mixed backgrounds.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: The Nguyễn brothers have committed relationships with Caucasian American women. From left: Vinh Nguyễn with his long-time girlfriend Claire, Vũ and his wife Rachel, and Michelle. Tuấn, Michelle's husband, took this picture during a nice meal of Bún Bò Huế Photo courtesy of Michelle Nguyễn.

Happy Vietnamese New Year/ Tet

 

New Year =Tet falls on a time when the old year is over and the New Year comes by lunar calendar. This is also the time when the cycle of the universe finishes: winter ends and spring, the season of birth of all living things, comes.

Tet is an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. It is a time when one pays respect to his/her ancestors and grandparents who have brought up him/her. It is an occasion when everyone sends each other best wishes for a new year, stops thinking about unhappy things and says good things about each other.

The Deceptive Income of Physicians

The following excerpt from the book "Informed Consent" by Benjamin Brown, MD

Physicians spend about 40,000 hours training and over $300,000 on their education, yet the amount of money they earn per hour is only a few dollars more than a high school teacher.  Physicians spend over a decade of potential earning, saving and investing time training and taking on more debt, debt that isn’t tax deductible.  When they finish training and finally have an income – they are taxed heavily and must repay their debt with what remains.   The cost of tuition, the length of training and the U.S. tax code places physicians into a deceptive financial situation.

Want to know more about the U.S. medical education system?

Purchase my book at:   www.InformedConsentBook.com

Biomedicine: A Quicker Way to Identify Skin Cancer

The device, called the Verisante Aura, is held above a mole, and uses Raman spectroscopy, a technique that distinguishes molecules using their vibrational states, to scan for those whose relative concentrations are characteristic of melanoma. The device returns a verdict within seconds. Following a successful small clinical trial, Verisante is now analyzing the results of another trial with 1,000 moles. The company plans to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year.

Researchers at the British Columbia Cancer Agency have developed a device using Raman spectroscopy to detect melanoma within seconds by looking at the molecular profile of moles . Verisante Technology, which has licensing rights to the technology, plans to submit regulatory approval applications in the U.S. and Canada for the hand-held device later this year. It is expected to be used in Canada and Europe within a year and to be approved by the FDA in 2013. The estimated cost of the device is of $30,000.

Via Biomedicine: A Quicker Way to Identify Skin Cancer

Havard Business Review: Hospitals Can Work Better

Given this complexity, it's a minor miracle that hospitals function as well as they do, and a tribute to the dedication of administrative and professional staff. And yet recent trends are proving that their best just isn't good enough. According to a study by the think tank Resources for the Future, over 48,000 people in the United States die each year from hospital caused infections. Even more disturbing, a Hearst media study suggests that preventable medical errors (including infections) lead to at least 200,000 deaths per year, double the estimates from several years ago. Patient satisfaction with hospital care is also declining, based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index. And amidst this perfect storm of increasing doctor error and decreasing patient satisfaction, hospitals are under intense pressure to reduce costs due to health care reform, reimbursement restrictions, and economic pressures. It's a tough time to be running a hospital.

There are definite several areas that hospitals can address to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care. However, there are too many regulations that have limitied the physicians' decision in the direct care of patients and has also transformed patient care into a semi-robotic care. These have escalated the cost of healthcare.

Via Havard Business review Blog: Hospitals Can Work Better

What does TCOM mean to you? What does it mean to be an Osteopathic Physician?

The following inaugural speech of John Wright, DO, TCOM alumni association president.

I would like to thank the alumni association for this great opportunity to serve the organization and its members. I would like to thank Dr. Stephen Laird for his leadership and service over the past year. Thank you, Stephen, you did a wonderful job. I would also like to thank the alumni board. Please raise your hands so you may be recognized. Thank you.

There is a Chinese proverb which states:  "May you live in interesting times." For those of us involved with the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and UNTHSC, these are very interesting times. It is no secret that a threat to TCOM exists. This threat is extremely serious because, in time, it could lead to the end of TCOM.

The proposal to open an allopathic medical school alongside TCOM is the greatest threat our beloved school has ever faced. Scott Ransom, Lee Jackson and the Board of Regents at UNT do not see a future where two medical schools exist side by side; they see a future where they can slowly manipulate funding and resource allocation to increase the size of their pet project at the expense of TCOM. We must continue to accelerate our efforts to oppose those who would have TCOM wither on the vine.

While their report analyzes the cost projections involved in opening an allopathic school at UNTHSC, Dr. Tayson DeLengocky (TCOM ’02), and Brian Bartoz outline the many fallacies, factual errors and myths that this plan stands upon. [Editor’s note: The report – “A Cost Analysis of the Proposed MD Program at UNTHSC: Spending More and Getting Less” – is posted on the TOMA website.]  If Scott Ransom and Lee Jackson were actually concerned about increasing the number of medical school graduates state wide, they would favor allocating more to existing programs. Their estimates of starting costs for a new program are so unrealistically low, it can only be seen as a bait and switch tactic to gain enough support for an allopathic school to be opened, only to reveal the true cost when it is too late.