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St. Francis sports medicine adds to historic two-week run

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It's still fair to say St. Francis High owns the National High School Sports Medicine Championships.

Not only did Eli Hallak, director of the Golden Knights sports medicine program, develop the online competition two years ago, but his students won its division in consecutive years.

It capped off what has to be the best two-week span in the history of St. Francis sports medicine program after it also received a Safe Sports School Award from the National Athletic Trainers' Assn. on May 20. The National High School Sports Medicine Championship results were released May 31.

"I've got to agree it is," chuckled Hallak, who developed the national online competition in association with the American Academic Competition Institute and John Meadows of the computer company Meadows and Associates. "A couple of my colleagues said, 'OK, we're done congratulating you.' It's a testament to the program and a testament to our school, administration and our students that make this program happen."

St. Francis won the National High School Sports Medicine Championships Alert Services (Small Schools) Division for the second year in a row. The Golden Knights also placed in the fifth in the nation with 71.54 points. Culver City was tops in the nation with 78.26 points.

A total of 400 students from 28 high schools and seven states competed at the national level after qualifying out of a field of 2,000 students and 190 schools on a regional scale this year.

Schools advanced by placing in the top 10 in a state or regional division. The competition was put together in 2012 to allow schools to hone and test their sports medicine skills with having to pay to travel out of state.

"[Hallak] did a great job of preparing us for it," said St. Francis' Sean Bird, a student in Hallak's introduction to kinesiology and rehabilitation course that took part in the test and received top-25, All-American status after tying for 16th in the nation. "It's a great thing we were able to win it two years in a row.

"Coach Hallak has been really excited about it and I know both classes have been really excited, as well as the school as a whole."

In another example of repeat success in the competition, which was designed to test and celebrate high school students' sports medicine/athletic training knowledge, St. Francis' Brett Homer took second in the state.

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St. Francis sports medicine adds to historic two-week run

Guest: Prevent prescription-drug deaths with a medicine-return program

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WEVE all heard the stories. The teenager who gets pills from her friends medicine cabinet. The toddler who finds Moms medicine and accidentally poisons himself. The father who becomes addicted to pain pills and accidentally overdoses.

In 2010, 209 King County residents died from an overdose of prescription drugs. Thats a loss of life equivalent to the crash of a full Boeing 737.

Prescription-drug misuse is a national epidemic. In King County, drug overdoses surpassed car crashes as a leading cause of preventable death in 2011. And more people die from prescription medicines than from heroin and cocaine combined.

Like many public-health problems, there is no single solution to prescription-drug misuse. But a convenient and secure unused-medicine-return program is a key strategy for addressing this problem. Thats because we know that roughly one-third of prescription and over-the-counter medicines sold in King County arent consumed. We also know that 32 percent of child-poisoning deaths in Washington were caused by someone elses prescription medication, and 26 percent were caused by someone elses over-the-counter medicine.

Thats why the King County Board of Health is considering a proposal to create a countywide secure medicine-return program. Under the suggested legislation, residents would be able to drop, free-of-charge, leftover and expired medicines in secure boxes conveniently located in most retail pharmacies or law-enforcement offices. Collected medicines would then be destroyed by incineration at permitted facilities.

Drug manufacturers selling medicines for residential use in King County would be required to run and pay for the program, similar to established product-stewardship programs in our state for items like computers. Public Health Seattle & King County would oversee the program to ensure its effectiveness and safety.

Washington has led the nation in efforts to address the medicine-misuse crisis. We require health-care providers to be educated about prescribing opiate painkillers. A prescription-monitoring program is up and running. Law enforcement continues to take action to curb illegal use. A convenient way to dispose of unneeded medicines is the missing piece in our efforts.

There is significant demand for a take-back system in King County. Biannual medicine take-back events run by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are popular with county residents. Since 2010, these events have collected more than 17,000 pounds of unused medicines in King County alone.

Some law-enforcement agencies and pharmacies such as Group Health and several Bartell Drugs stores voluntarily offer drop-boxes for residents to dispose of their drugs. But because these programs arent widely available, they collect just a fraction of the unused medicines in our homes. A comprehensive system offering secure, safe and convenient disposal options to all county residents is needed.

Federal agencies such as the DEA, the Food and Drug Administration, Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Environmental Protection Agency all recommend take-back programs as the safest way to dispose of leftover and expired medicines and consider take-backs a key strategy to reduce prescription-drug abuse.

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Guest: Prevent prescription-drug deaths with a medicine-return program

Modernizing Medicine’s Medical Director, Tim A. Sayed, MD, Is Elected to the HIMSS EHR Association Executive Committee

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BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwired - Jun 19, 2013) - Modernizing Medicine, the creator of the Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical records (EMR) system, announces that Tim A. Sayed, MD, the company's Medical Director of EMA Plastic Surgery and EMA Cosmetic, has been elected to the HIMSS Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association Executive Committee.

The EHR Association is a trade group of more than 40 software companies that develop, market and support EHRs in the United States. Member companies work together to share knowledge and best practices to support the safe operation and use of EHRs to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of patient care. The EHR Association is a partner of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and operates as an independent organizational unit within HIMSS for companies who are EHR software solution providers. The EHR Association helps HIMSS establish its strategic direction and official positions on issues related to electronic health records.

Dr. Sayed will be one of two new members joining the Executive Committee, which is responsible for establishing the guiding principles of the EHR Association and for developing and implementing strategic plans. Dr. Sayed will work alongside representatives from Allscripts, Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc., PracticeFusion, Cerner, GE Healthcare IT, McKesson and Siemens.

"I am thrilled to join the HIMSS EHR Association Executive Committee," said Dr. Sayed, "The opportunity will allow me and the Modernizing Medicine team to have a more significant impact on the adoption of EHRs, and I'm excited to work with the other EHR providers to help establish and foster industry best practices."

To see a full list of members of the EHR Association, click here.

About Modernizing MedicineModernizing Medicine is transforming how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized in order to increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Our product, Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), is a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system with a massive library of built-in medical content, designed to save physicians time. Available as a native iPad application or from any web-enabled Mac or PC, EMA adapts to each provider's unique style of practice and is designed to interface with hundreds of different practice management systems. Today, Modernizing Medicine provides specialty-specific offerings for the dermatology, ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedics and plastic and cosmetic surgery markets, and to more than 900 physician practices across the country. In 2013 Modernizing Medicine was listed at No. 47 on FORBES annual ranking of America's Most Promising Companies.

About the EHR AssociationEstablished in 2004, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association is comprised of more than 40 companies that supply the vast majority of operational EHRs to physicians' practices and hospitals across the United States. The EHR Association operates on the premise that the rapid, widespread adoption of EHRs will help improve the quality of patient care as well as the productivity and sustainability of the healthcare system as a key enabler of healthcare transformation. The EHR Association and its members are committed to supporting safe healthcare delivery, fostering continued innovation, and operating with high integrity in the market for our users and their patients and families.

The EHR Association is a partner of the Health Information Systems Management Society (HIMSS). For more information, visit http://www.himssEHRA.org.

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Modernizing Medicine's Medical Director, Tim A. Sayed, MD, Is Elected to the HIMSS EHR Association Executive Committee

Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films – Video

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Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films
more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/ "Describes some of the biological effects of high energy radiations on plants and animal cells. Explains how typical e...

By: Jeff Quitney

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Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films - Video

City of Medicine Hat Approves Regional Event Centre

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June 17, 2013 - Western Hockey League (WHL) Medicine Hat Tigers Medicine Hat, AB -Tonight, Medicine Hat City Council ratified the design and construction of the Medicine Hat Regional Event Centre with the capacity of 7,059 to be located in Box Springs Business Park in the northwest part of the city adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway.

By an eight to one vote, City Council adopted the recommendation from the Public Services Committee chaired by Alderman Graham Kelly to build the new event Centre that was designed by PBK Architects and will be constructed by PCL Construction Leaders. Council also agreed to have SMG Worldwide Entertainment and Convention Venue Management operate the building which will become the new home for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

"We are extremely elated to have a new facility in the near future that will allow our fans the best possible experience for Tigers hockey," said Dave Andjelic, Tigers' senior director, marketing and public relations. "Not only will the new event centre be terrific for our use but it will also serve the citizens of Medicine Hat very well for the many other events the building will attract. We look forward to making the move to the event centre in a couple of years."

"This is truly a historic day for our franchise moving forward. It has been a long while coming but we are truly grateful with the outcome of council's vote tonight."

"The Tigers would like to thank all the previous members of the steering committee that laid the ground work for this day to come. We also thank the three chairmen Jamie White, Alderman Thompson and Alderman Kelly for their hard work on this project, as well as, former Mayor Garth Vallely and Mayor Boucher. We extend our appreciation to the members of Medicine Hat City Council and also thank the citizens of Medicine Hat who have supported this venture and will see it come to completion," stated Tigers' president Darrell Maser.

Construction is expected to begin in August of this year with an anticipated completion date for September of 2015.

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City of Medicine Hat Approves Regional Event Centre

North American Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals & Stable Isotopes Market – Forecast to 2017

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DUBLIN, June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cmbgcv/north_american) has announced the addition of the "North American Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals & Stable Isotopes Market [SPECT/PET Radioisotopes (Technetium, F-18)], [Beta/Alpha Radiation Therapy (I131, Y-90)], [Applications (Cancer/Oncology, Cardiac)] & (Deuterium, C-13) - Forecast to 2017" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )

The North American radiopharmaceuticals market was valued at $1.9 billion in 2012 and is poised to reach $2.7 billion by 2017 at a CAGR of 7.2%.

A study conducted by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that Tc-99m diagnostic procedures are expected to increase by 15% to 20% in mature markets such as North America between 2010 and 2030. Radiopharmaceuticals in neurological applications such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and dementia are also being preferred by practitioners besides conventional treatment. Further, upcoming radioisotopes such as Ra-223 (Alpharadin) and Ga-68 possess huge potential for clinical applications. The scheduled shutdown of the NRU reactor in 2016 in Canada is, however, a major threat for manufacturers.

The therapy market is predominantly driven by its oncologic applications. Since conventional treatment procedures of cancer, surgery and chemotherapy have significant side effects; radioisotopes are being preferred by medical practitioners due to minimum or no side effects. The radiopharmaceutical therapy market is expected to grow significantly with the launch of the much-desired Alpharadin (Ra-223) in the near future. This isotope has tremendous potential to take up market share of beta emitters and brachytherapy.

The U.S. is the dominant market for diagnostic radioisotopes with more than 80% share. The U.S. is the largest consumer market for radiopharmaceuticals in North America, while Canada is one of the largest producers of Tc-99m. Major players in the radiopharmaceuticals market are Cardinal Health, Inc. (U.S.), Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. (U.S.), Nordion, Inc. (Canada), and Triad Isotopes, Inc. (U.S.).

The stable isotopes market was led by two players - Cambridge Isotope Laboratories (CIL) and Sigma Aldrich - in 2012; they jointly contributed more than 90% to the North American revenue.

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North American Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals & Stable Isotopes Market - Forecast to 2017

Vaccine advocate takes on the alternative medicine industry

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APRIL SAUL / INQ PHOTO

Paul Offit, defender of vaccine safety, has written a new book critical of the alternative medicine industry.

Dr. Paul Offit doesnt like getting threats. But the 62-year-old pediatrician at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia says it goes with the territory when taking on powerful industries and interest groups whose beliefs are deeply rooted in emotion.

Hes ready for a tsunami of criticism with his latest foray into debunking popular wisdom Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine in which he takes on the vitamin and herbal supplements industry, alternative medicine of all kinds, Congress and celebrity doctors who peddle their own products. It hits the shelves on Tuesday.

Yes, I do get hate mail, Offit admits. He makes the case that the vitamin industry in particular has successfully lobbied to keep itself unregulated while selling billions of pills to an eager and gullible public. People think of dietary supplements as natural, benign and helpful, Offit told NBC News. People dont think of them as drugs.

Yet studies have shown that not only do vitamin supplements fail to lower cancer risk, but they can actually cause cancer most notably the 1994 Finnish study that found smokers who took beta carotene which the body converts to vitamin A actually had a higher risk of lung cancer than men who didnt take the supplements. Alternative therapies of all kinds are often not only of no benefit whatsoever -- they can be harmful, he notes.

Offit is best known for taking on vaccine doubters people who worry that vaccinations might somehow harm children and whose fears culminated in a wave of support for the argument that childhood vaccines can cause autism. Offit has received death threats and even not-so-subtle telephone threats against his own children after he challenged these ideas in national media; they worsened when he wrote a book, Autisms False Prophets" that not only systematically took down the arguments but sought to expose some of the powerful money-making interests that were driving a supposed grassroots lobby.

But hes challenging a much bigger group this time. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than half of Americans took some sort of dietary supplements in 2003-2006, 40 percent of them multivitamins.

Some are recommended doctors routinely prescribe certain vitamins for pregnant women to prevent birth defects. But too much vitamin A can cause birth defects, so women must be careful. And the Institute of Medicine recently questioned the common practice of prescribing vitamin D for people whose levels are low.

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Vaccine advocate takes on the alternative medicine industry

Bloodless Medicine safer and more cost effective for all, experts say

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Earlier this spring, Karmina Martinez of Phoenix, Ariz., desperately called hospitals around the country, hoping that one would accept her 14-year-old daughter Jesmina, who needed a large, painful ovarian mass removed.

CARMINE GALASSO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Dr. Aryeh Shander and Sherri Ozawa have helped advance bloodless medicine and surgery at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

None would admit her. The reason?

Jesmina and her family are Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious group whose members, some 1 million strong in the U.S., cannot accept blood transfusions, and there was a chance that Jesmina, at least according to the family's local hospital, might need a transfusion during surgery.

Karmina kept dialing. Finally she reached Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, specifically its 19-year-old Institute for Patient Blood Management and Bloodless Surgery, which agreed to treat her daughter.

"It meant so much you can't imagine," Karmina confided. "We prayed so much to find a way not to go against God's commandments. When we found the Institute, we collapsed crying." A few weeks after Jesmina underwent "bloodless" surgery in Englewood, the teen attended her junior high school graduation.

As data mount showing that blood transfusions are not only costly (on average, $1,200), have higher rates of complications (e.g., allergic reactions and other worrisome immune responses) and, according to Dr. Aryeh Shander, a clinical professor of anesthesiology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and executive medical director of Englewood's bloodless program, aren't necessary "40 to 60 percent of the time," a growing number of doctors today argue that bloodless techniques should be brought into mainstream medicine.

A 2012 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study published in the journal Anesthesiology found that doctors vary dramatically in deciding when a blood transfusion should be ordered. According to Dr. Steven Frank, leader of the study, many doctors are ordering blood transfusions prematurely or unnecessarily. "Anytime there is such a large variation in a practice, there's probably room for improvement," he said. "There's more overuse of transfusions than underuse."

Indeed, at last October's annual American Medical Association conference, a group that convened to discuss improving health-care practices and procedures determined that blood transfusions are one of the top five overused medical treatments.

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Bloodless Medicine safer and more cost effective for all, experts say

Lullaby Medicine for Premature Babies

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Something as old as mankind itself is helping keep preterm babies alive the lullaby.

Research finds that music has become an important new ally for babies who are born too soon and struggle to breathe and eat.

The neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital is filled with technology that helps keep the hospital's tiniest, most fragile patients alive. At New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell and others across the country the relentless beeping of monitors fades when the music takes over. The effect on preemies is dramatic and physical.

Studies conducted by Dr. Jeffery Perlman, chief of newborn medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian, Komansky Center for Children's Health, find that gentle music therapy not only slows down the heart rate of preemies but also helps them feed and sleep better. This helps them gain weight and speeds their recovery.

A study published in May in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatric under the aegis of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, found that the type of music matters. Therapeutically designed "live" music -- and parent-preferred lullabies sung in person -- can influence cardiac and respiratory function. They also found that the melodies improved feeding behaviors and may increase prolonged periods of quiet-alert states among premature babies.

Another study published in February 2011 in the Arts in Psychotherapy by Jayne M. Standley of the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy at Florida State University suggests that babies who receive this kind of therapy leave the hospital sooner.

"When they hear something that is very soothing, they adapt to it," Perlman said.

For these tiny babies, music is medicine.

A pair of twins, Jessica and Joshua, were born three months premature. Their dad has been trained by a professional music therapist at the Komansky Center, and now sings to the babies in their NICU cribs in his native Turkish. And he says he has proof that it's working.

"I watched their heart rate," their father said. "You can really watch it go down, 165, 160, 155, 152. It's an amazing feeling."

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Lullaby Medicine for Premature Babies


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