World Press Prize on PhotoJournalism

South African photographer Jodi Bieber won the World Press Photo Award 2010 for the portrait of a young Afghan mutilated for leaving the house of her husband. The photo of Bibi Aisha, whose nose and ears were cut off by the Taliban husband, was on the cover page of Time Magazine on August 1,2010.She was abandoned after being mutilated, the young woman had been rescued by U.S. aid, then operated in the United States.

Via Mail Online: The smile that defies the Taliban: Afghan teenager whose mutilated face shocked the world unveils her new image


Via New York Times: Portrait of Pain Ignites Debate Over Afghan War

 

Prenatal Surgery: Performing Surgery of The Fetus!

In the study, the prenatal procedure was typically done at 24 weeks gestation. Surgeons make an incision in the abdomen and take out the uterus to get access to the fetus's lower spine. They apply a patch and put the fetus and uterus back in the mother. The baby is delivered, ideally at close to full term, by Caesarean section.

At 12 months old, 40% of babies who had the surgery in the womb needed a shunt to drain fluid from the brain, compared with 83% in the post-natal group. That was the most significant benefit, researchers said. Revising or changing shunts can subject spina bifida patients to a childhood of surgeries. "If you can avoid a shunt, that in itself is a wonderful thing," said Scott Adzick, surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and lead author of the study.

At 30 months, 42% of babies in the prenatal group and 21% in the post-natal group were able to walk without crutches or other devices, researchers said.

Via Wall Street Journal: Study Backs Prenatal Fix

I am still amazed everyday how medicine makes head way to cure or treat diseases. Truly amazing that to take the fetus out to perform the procedures and put the fetus back in the womb. Those cutting-edges physicians, surgeons, researchers, and other healthcare professionals are truly the heroes!

MCAT scores and Medical Schools: There is some hope for low score!

The MCAT scores and GPAs are the objective indicators of how well the applicants will perform academically in schools and on the licensing board examinations. These are not the only determining criteria for acceptance to medical schools. However, other extra-curricular actitivites or life experiecnes can also play an important  factor in the decision making process by the admission comittee. According to Association of American Medical Colleges, there are matriculants with MCAT scores less than 15.Out of 56,255 current students, 7,292  have less than 26 on MCAT scores, 12,014 have 27-29 on MCAT scores, and the rest have higher scores than 29.

Medical School Rankings Average MCAT Scores

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine 12.5

Harvard Medical School 11.9

University of California--Los Angeles 11.9

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons 11.8

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 11.8

Brown Medical School 11.7

University of Michigan Medical School 11.7

Baylor College of Medicine 11.6

Stanford University School of Medicine 11.6

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine 11.6

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 11.6

Cornell University 11.5

Duke University School of Medicine 11.5

Emory University School of Medicine 11.5

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine 11.5

Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine 11.4

University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine 11.4

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 11.4

Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University 11.3

Yale University School of Medicine 11.3

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine 11.2

New York University School of Medicine 11.2

Ohio State University College of Medicine 11.2

Dartmouth Medical School 11.1

University of Southern California 11.1

University of Virginia School of Medicine 11.1

Mayo Medical School 11

A Growing Gender Gap in Doctors’ Pay: $17,000 Pay Gap

In 1999, new women doctors earned $151,600, on average, compared to $173,400 for men  – a 12.5% salary difference. In 2008, that salary difference widened by nearly 17%, with women starting out at $174,000, compared to $209,300 for men. (These are average salary figures, across all specialties).

The findings are interesting as the make up of medical students is equally the same for men and women. In some years, women's enrollment in medical schools is even higher than men.

Via Wall Street Journal: Women Doctors Face $17,000 Pay Gap

EyeDrD.org or I have been mentioned in the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Daily Report Blogs

February 9th, 2011: AOA Members Reach Out Online

“Speaking of reaching out, AOA members and affiliates are instrumental in connecting with patients and the public in new ways.  AOA member Tayson DeLengocky, DO, has started a website, EyeDrD.org​, to promote DOs and osteopathic medicine as well as to provide a forum for discussion of issues related to the osteopathic medical profession, such as the “MD Option” at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine as well as societal and international currents.  Since its inception in Oct. 2010, the site has generated more than 17,000 hits and is ranked in the top million websites in the world.”

 November 22nd, 2010: AOA Family Members Make News and Gain Publicity

“Osteopathic family members are making headlines in local news outlets also.  The popular physician blog KevinMD.com published commentary from AOA member Tayson DeLengocky, DO​, regarding solutions for fixing the physician shortage in Texas. Dr. DeLengocky does not believe an MD school at UNTHSC is the answer, but that expanding residency program opportunities would be a more effective path and a better use of resources.”

November 16th,2010: Great News from the AOA Family

“AOA member Tayson DeLengocky, DO, has created a blog to help spread the word about osteopathic medicine and his personal experiences as an Asian-American physician and vitreo-retinal surgeon”

May 6th, 2009: Article Advocates for Degree Preservation

“Taylor DeLengocky, DO, a member of the AOA Bureau on International Medical Education and Affairs, wrote an article for the Fort Worth (TX) Business Press supporting preservation of the osteopathic degree at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. The article, “MD Program Push at UNTHSC Sends Wrong Message,” counters several statements made by the University in justifying their exploration of an additional medical school. Rather than using its resources to create a new school, Dr. DeLengocky thinks the UNTHSC should “invest its resources in partnerships with other hospitals to create new GME sites” and “take a stand against prejudice” instead of coercing DOs to become MDs.”

March 24th, 2009: Osteopathic Family Supports DO Degree

An editorial written by Tayson DeLengocky, DO, who serves on the AOA Bureau of International Osteopathic Medical Education and Affairs, urged those in the TCOM community to “rally to defend this special osteopathic medical school, because Texas residents deserve the holistic and preventive approach to their healthcare that DOs have to offer.”

The Good and The Bad of Healthcare Law

by Donald J. Crane, MD and Beverlee L. Gilmore

Crane Gilmore & Associates, Inc

» THE GOOD

• Standardized healthcare plan
• Everyone covered 
• No denial for pre-existing conditions 
• No lifetime limits on healthcare expenditures 
• No rescission
• More emphasis on primary care
• Comparative effectiveness research 
• Transparency in provider financial relationships
• Increased premium for smoking 
• Co-pay waiver for prevention
• Limit on deductibility for insurance company executive salaries.

» THE BAD

• Unintelligible
• Defensive medicine unaddressed
• Cost
• Problems with SGR formula
• Problems with research agenda
• End-of-life guidelines dropped
• Employer involvement
• Agenda to encourage a single payer system
• Excise tax on drugs, medical equipment and insurance companies.

THE BAD
And now, for those parts of the legislation that we don’t like, or that need to be massaged:

1. It’s unintelligible. The two bills signed by President Obama and not read by members of Congress before passage are well over 1,000 pages and riddled with references to other laws and regulations, making them too complex for mere mortals. Even those with years of experience in the health insurance business cannot understand many of the provisions in the legislation—nor the logic for many of them. Several of the regulations and procedures ensuing from the legislation are still in the formative stages. Plus, the cost to other governmental agencies outside of Health & Human Services that are providing support is still being realized. For example, the Internal Revenue Service is requesting billions more per year in order to scrutinize income tax forms to determine who should be fined for not carrying health insurance. How many other governmental agencies, both state and federal, will require an infusion of resources—money, staffing, hardware, software, office space, etc.—not accounted for in the original legislation?
   

Letter to WSJ Editor: Nurse Practioner Claims Same Equivalent Competencies As Primary Care Physicians

With the nation facing a severe shortage of M.D.s, particularly in the specialties our population increasingly requires, it would be folly to cut off the quality professionals who are fulfilling primary-care needs, and who allow M.D.s to pursue the careers they are best educated for.

PAs provide, extend and support medical care in every specialty. They are essential to the medical needs of this country.

The NP work force has evolved rapidly in the past six years toward doctoral education for nurses practicing in independent primary care. Although Dr. Brown may have "sadly watched these nonphysicians take over," he should look carefully at the facts. A randomized clinical trial reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2000 showed the equivalence of specially educated NPs compared with MDs in primary care. That specialized training is now incorporated in doctor of nursing practice degrees, and the graduates have, since 2008, been passing a certification exam which the National Board of Medical Examiners says measures the same competencies as physician exam takers following medical school.

These nursing graduates also bring unique competence in public health, prevention and health promotion to their patients. Years of training is a poor predictor of competence. Physicians in primary care have, on average, seven years of education and residency postcollege; doctorally prepared nurses in primary care have five years.

The underpinnings necessary for specialty medical practice are part of every physician's training, even if they never pursue those paths. For nurses, education and residency for primary care are targeted from year one, and the outcome evidence shows they are doing it right.

Prof. Mary O'Neill Mudinger

Via Wall Stree Journal: The Future Is Now for Physician Assistants and Nurses

We are about 3 month-old and has reached a milestone

I would like to report that http://www.eyedrd.org/ has kept growing since the last report on the New Year day. We have posted close to 100 blog entries since the first blog was posted on October 24^th, 2010. The initiative of launching the website was stated in the yesterday’s blog entry. The website would not have come to life without the helps of a few friends. I am deeply grateful to their selfless efforts in helping me to realize my goals.

I would like to thank your readership and the contributions of a few authors. Since the New Year day, the site has generated 9,000 more page-views (total of 19,000 page-views). We have achieved a milestone set out in our last report. Eyedrd.org is ranked below 1 million at Alexa. Alexa tracks the traffic that goes to the websites on the internet and ranks them according to the amount of visitors.  EyeDrD is currently ranked #982,758 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings and the site has attained a traffic rank of 178,491 among US sites.

I hope this blog site will be able to provide a forum for discussion of a wide range of issues related to medical/osteopathic medicine, health, eye, alternative medicine, societal and international currents. The survival and the growth of the site depend on your readership and contributions. I hope that http://www.eyedrd.org/ has not failed you in its quality and contents.

Le Figaro: The First "Drug Baby" Umut Talha - An Ethical Challenge

It's a boy, and one imagines his parents doubly happy. The small-Umut Talha, born January 26 Antoine Beclere hospital in Clamart, is not only an infant in "good health", weighing 3.650 kg at birth. His arrival in the world should also help heal her older sister suffering from a serious illness, officials said professors René Frydman and Arnold Munnich.
As the bioethics law authorizes in France since 2004, parents of Umut-Talha ("our hope" in Turkish), whose two previous children are suffering from a blood disease, beta-thalassemia, have decided design a "drug baby" or "double hope baby." For this, they have resorted to IVF , with a dual diagnosis for preimplantation embryo retain a healthy, genetically compatible with their sick children.

Precious umbilical cord

The doctors were able to ensure that the unborn child would not have the same disease as his elders and would be a match with one of the children in care. At birth, the umbilical cord connecting Umut-Talha to his mother, rich in stem cells, was collected. These stem cells that give rise to blood cells, will be retained for a subsequent transplant to his sister.
This practice, first in France, is very rare in the world. The United States have been using a decade. It is subject in France to the agreement of the agency of biomedicine , which issues licenses on a case by case basis. According to Professor Rene Frydman, already designed the first French test-tube baby in 1982, the hospital in Clamart has a dozen couples in this therapeutic approach. Projects "that could result in the next two years," he told Le Parisien.

A process challenged

Informed citizens need to look beyond traditional media sources to get the full story.Press censorship belittles readers’ intelligence.

The pillars of the American democracy are the three branches of government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial, which ensures a separation of powers and facilitates checks and balances. Freedom of the press has been perceived as a fourth branch of the American democratic system. However, this soft power that the press has enjoyed has not had any check and balance structure to ensure that all viewpoints are heard. The press bias has become more real, and has been geared more towards sensationalism instead of true and checked reporting of facts. Partiality can never be eliminated completely because we are all human and do hold our own preferences. Fortunately, technological advancements such as the internet and social media networks have given ordinary people the ability to convey their views and voices.

Let me recount my experience dealing with the local media, the Star-Telegram and the Fort Worth Business Press. The local papers have bought into the propaganda and the figures presented in the business plan for a proposed second medical school, UNTMD, at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC). The Star-Telegram endorsed the UNTMD business plan without studying the feasibility and the merits of the plan:

Le Figaro: The first "drug baby" was born French

These children are conceived in the hope of a cure of their elders suffering from a rare disease. An acceptable practice since 2004.

It's a boy, and one imagines his parents doubly happy. The small-Umut Talha, born January 26 Antoine Beclere hospital in Clamart, is not only an infant in "good health", weighing 3.650 kg at birth. His arrival in the world should also allow to treat one of his older siblings suffering from a serious illness, officials said professors René Frydman and Arnold Munnich.

As the bioethics law authorizes in France since 2004, parents of Umut-Talha ("our hope" in Turkish), whose previous children are suffering from a blood disease, beta-thalassemia, have decided to design a "drug baby" or "double hope baby." For this, they have resorted to IVF , with a dual diagnosis for preimplantation embryo retain a healthy, genetically compatible with their sick children.

The doctors were able to ensure that the unborn child would not have the same disease as his elders and would be a match with the child or children to care. At birth, the umbilical cord connecting Umut-Talha to his mother, rich in stem cells, was collected. These stem cells that give rise to blood cells, will be retained for a subsequent transplant to her brother or sister.

This practice, first in France, is very rare in the world. It is subject in France to the agreement of the agency of biomedicine , which issues licenses on a case by case basis.

Via Le Figaro: Le premier 'bebe medicament" francais est ne

Necessity is the Mother of Inventions: Rats to be used to detect Tuberculosis

The animals’ sensitivity — that is, their ability to detect the presence of tuberculosis — ranged as high as 86.6 percent, and their specificity, or ability to detect the absence of the germ, was over 93 percent.

In another test that compared the rats’ success to microscopy, the rats picked up 44 percent more positive cases.

Necessity is the mother of inventions. Developping countries cannot afford expensive medical devices and have enough trained medical personel to tend care to their patients. The preliminary results of rats' performance are quite promising.

Via New York Times: Detecting Tuberculosis: No Microscopes, Just Rats

New Device Detecting Tuberculosis in lesss than 2 hours

The World Health Organization is endorsing a new tuberculosis testing apparatus that does not need trained laboratory technicians and takes less than two hours.

Cephid is a new device to make diagnosis of tuberculosis within 2 hours and does not require trained personnel to perform the task. Considering it may take up to 3 months to see if the bacterium is resistant to the most common TB drug, rifampicin. This device is only approved to be used in the third world countries as there are severe shortage of qualified professionals. If this device was approved to be used in the USA, it would have relieve the burden of long wait to see resistance to TB drugs.

Via The New York Times-Tuberculosis: World Health Organization Endorses a Device for Quicker Diagnosis