SILVER SPRING, MD. --

SILVER SPRING, MD. (AFNS) -- The U.S. Air Force Medical Service assures that the service deploys a medically-fit force and educates airmen to become medical professionals, according to Chief Master Sgt. David J. Little, the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General Chief of medical operations and research.

"My purpose is to highlight the Air Force Medical Service - how we take care of our airmen, make sure we have them in the right place at the right time, with the right, appropriate training to take care of that downrange mission," he said. "We operationally support the Air Force, and we do so by being lighter, leaner and faster."

Little assists with ensuring a quality, cost-effective, preventive-based health care continuum for 2.6 million beneficiaries worldwide. His responsibilities include policy execution for 44,000 personnel and 75 medical treatment facilities, with a budget of more than $6.4 billion.

Air Force medical operations operate 24/7, anywhere in the world; nearly 800 Air Force medics are deployed to 22 countries. One C-17 Globemaster III can accommodate a Health Response Team of 40 medics, and wherever they land, patients may be treated within as little as 15 minutes. An emergency room and intensive care unit can be set up and ready for patients in less than six hours.

"It's a tribute to what we can do in a lean, faster, more efficient and effective manner," Little said. "Based on the population at risk, we can increase that. The HRT can handle from zero up to about 5,000 individuals."

In an aeromedical evacuation, three technicians and two flight nurses treat up to 50 patients in a contingency situation. critical care air transport and tactical critical care evacuation teams move thousands of ICU-level patients. An ER doctor and a cardiology-respiratory technician accompany a CCAT, so patients can be stabilized in flight. A TCCET team flight includes a surgeon and nurse anesthetist.

Training and education are crucial. Global health engagement in the Air Force began in the early 2000s as an international health specialist program. Airmen gain their knowledge and skills at the Air Force-Navy's Defense Institute of Medical Operations at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio. The Defense Department and State Department deploy mobile training teams, provided by DIMO, to share more than 35 courses with other nations, including disaster preparedness, public health and infectious diseases, and trauma casualty care.

"Sixty-five officers and enlisted go out and train other nations on how to take care of patients in a contingency or war-time environment," he said.

Originally posted here:

Air Force Medicine: Anytime, anywhere in the world - Air Force Link

What happens when students and clinicians feel a conflict between their deeply held values and the demands of an event unfolding before themand feel powerless to intervene? Research about this set of experiences, first documented years ago in nurses asmoral distress, has evolved in important ways and has now been prominently explored in other health professions ethics literatures.

However, there has been less attention to moral distress among medical students and resident physiciansdespite the fact that they are particularly vulnerable to moral distress given the hierarchical nature of their training.

This months AMA Journal of Ethicsdistinguishes different types of moral distress and considers how clinicians, organizations, and educators can identify and acknowledge moral distress and respond with care for patients and for each other.

Take a moment to consider this question: A student is distressed when her resident asks her to perform a lumbar puncture on a reluctant patient. How should she respond?

Give your answer and find responses to this question in theJune issueof theAMA Journal of Ethics,which explores moral distress and medicine.

Articles include:

How Should Integrity Preservation and Professional Growth Be Balanced during Trainees Professionalization?Experiences of moral distress are not uncommon for medical trainees, who are still in the process of forming their professional identities. This article examines how health professions-training programs can incorporate case-based ethics education sessions to identify and alleviate trainees moral distress, especially in cases where the beliefs that give rise to moral distress may be underdeveloped.

What Is the Role of Ethics Consultation in the Moral Habitability of Health Care Environments? Ethics consultation has traditionally focused on the provision of expert guidance to health professionals when challenging quandaries arise in clinical cases. This article contends that ethics consultation, more broadly conceived, can be a major asset in ensuring that ethical practice is meaningfully supported, that moral distress is mitigated, and that the organizational environment is morally habitable.

Strategies for Promoting High-Quality Care and Personal Resilience in Palliative Care. Palliative care clinicians are faced with ever-expanding pressures, which can make it difficult to fulfill their duties to self and others and can lead to moral distress. This article highlights recommendations related to two promising pathways for supporting palliative care clinicians: improving systemic palliative-care delivery and strategies to promote ethical practice environments and individual resilience.

Culture and Moral Distress: Whats the Connection and Why Does It Matter? Culture is the learned behavior shared among members of a group and from generation to generation within that group. In health care work, references to culture may also function as code for ethical uncertainty or moral distress concerning patients, families or populations. This article analyzes how culture can be a factor in patient-care situations that produce moral distress and addresses common situations where culture can mask more complex problems concerning family dynamics or implicit bias.

In the journals June podcast, Elizabeth Epstein, MD, discusses practical steps that can be implemented to alleviate moral distress, using her home.

The journals editorial focus is on commentaries and articles that offer practical advice and insights for medical students and physicians.Submit a manuscriptfor publication. The journal alsoinvitesoriginal photographs, graphics, cartoons, drawings and paintings that explore the ethical dimensions of health or health care.

The Conley Art of Medicine and Ethics Essay contests for medical students, residents, and fellows is now open through Sept. 25, with $3,000 prizes for winning entries and up to two $1,000 honorable mentions.

Upcoming issues of theAMA Journal of Ethicswill focus on quality of life in Dementia and iatrogenesis in pediatrics.Sign upto receive email alerts when new issues are published.

Link:

How to respond when medicine's culture causes moral distress - American Medical Association (blog)

After a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, Doc Todd suffered from PTSD. With his new album Combat Medicine, he hopes to show other veterans that they're not alone. ZoomWorks Photography/Courtesy of Doc Todd hide caption

After a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, Doc Todd suffered from PTSD. With his new album Combat Medicine, he hopes to show other veterans that they're not alone.

There is no one sure way to reach combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or substance abuse. But a new hip-hop album called Combat Medicine, released Wednesday, might help. It was written and performed by George "Mik" Todd, who goes by the name Doc Todd. He's a former Fleet Marine Force corpsman essentially a combat medic who served alongside the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

Todd's style is tough and direct in a way that only one veteran can be to another. In the song "Not Alone," he urges veterans to take action in their own recovery.

Take those bottles out, dog

and pour 'em in the sink.

Take the needles out of your arm

And the gun away from your forehead.

It's time, man.

You've been through enough pain.

Stand up.

It's time to stand back up.

Todd says the song is about empowerment, "about taking charge of your life, taking charge of your transition" from the combat zone to civilian life.

In his own transition, Doc Todd went through many of the issues other veterans face: shame, isolation, self-abuse. For Todd, it began in 2009 after he was in a large and dangerous battle in Afghanistan. Many of his friends were seriously wounded. His roommate was killed. Todd was medically evacuated to Germany after he fell seriously ill with pneumonia.

"That tore me up so bad, because I felt like I was alienated from the guys I served with," Todd recalls. "I felt like there was an asterisk next to my deployment. I felt like it would've been better if I got shot because that would've been more heroic."

George "Mik" Todd seen here in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in July 2009. He served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. Courtesy of Doc Todd hide caption

George "Mik" Todd seen here in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in July 2009. He served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines.

Todd says it took him several years before he got help for his PTSD. He was depressed and started drinking heavily. Eventually, he realized what he needed to be doing was helping other veterans. With savings from his job as a money manager and help from his wife, he was able to quit his job. He'd been making music since he was a teenager. Now, he wanted to use his music to help veterans heal. And he had plenty of material for his lyrics.

The struggle is real

Found a feast

And lost a soul

Eventually my drinking

It got out of control

There in darkness, I roamed

Struggling to find home

See Suddenly death didn't

Feel so Alone

In the video for "Not Alone," a young veteran gets out of bed and immediately reaches for the bottle. That scenario is all too real, says former Marine Zach Ludwig who served with Todd in Afghanistan and is now working through his own PTSD.

"He knows what to say and how to say it," Ludwig says, pointing to Todd's combat experience. "What the man says is just blunt force truth."

Todd says facing the truth, no matter how difficult, can do more to help veterans than "coddling" them. His mission with Combat Medicine is to show vets they're not alone and to urge them to get help.

"We have to be responsible for empowering our own lives. And it doesn't really help when the overwhelming narrative is victimization and brokenness," he says.

Read more from the original source:

Combat Veteran Fights PTSD Through Hip-Hop : Shots - Health ... - NPR

A gruff Boston cop with a heart of gold. A cynical lawyer whose taste for vodka martinis gets him into trouble. A spy who knows all about the nukes in Kazakhstan. They could be characters drawn straight from the pages of a best-selling thriller but the real detective in their stories is Dr. Stuart Mushlin, MD 73, president of the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Association. In his new book, "Playing the Ponies and Other Medical Mysteries Solved," the internist reflects on their cases and many others from his more than 40 years of practice. The cop, he writes, suffered from back pain so bad it made the stoic man scream. The lawyer showed up first with a liver condition, then with a rash that Dr. Mushlin traced back to the mans service in Vietnam. The spy had prostate cancer and that was just the beginning of his problems.

Dr. Muslin's book, "Playing the Ponies and Other Medical Mysteries Solved"

Throughout the books 20 essays, Dr. Mushlin, a master clinician in internal medicine and primary care at Brigham and Womens Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, presents his patients not just as cases but as people. Along with details of their conditions ranging from rogue chromosomes to leprosy he offers details of their lives that helped (or hindered) his efforts at diagnosis and treatment. The clear protagonist of "Playing the Ponies"though, is Dr. Mushlin himself. This book came from the heart, and its my voice on the page, he says. I was giving up full-time practice and taking the first steps toward retirement, and I wanted to share the joy and privilege of being a doctor and having patients put their trust in you.

In one chapter, he treats a patient with tuberculosis and reflects on how his own fathers struggle with the disease influenced his decision to become a doctor. When a woman shows up with a condition that harks back to his first-year physiology class, Dr. Mushlin remembers his time as a student at Weill Cornell Medicine in the early 70s. Another essay describes the moonlighting gig he took at a small hospital in a blue-collar town when his young family couldnt make ends meet. It was a chance to pick up both extra income and some hands-on lessons that went beyond his training in internal medicine offering what he calls a more immediate and gratifying experience of helping those in his care, compared with advocating lifestyle changes whose benefits would accrue over the longer term. It made me feel like a real doctor, he writes of sewing up the scalp of a man whod been conked over the head with a wine bottle, one who wasnt just trying to persuade people post heart attack to stop smoking and eat less meat.Dr. Mushlin, who studied English as an undergraduate and once considered a PhD in literary studies, weaves his autobiography through the cases in "Playing the Ponies," which came out in March from Rutgers University Press. I always knew that part of this book would be memoir, he says. In your professional life as a physician, you dont share a lot of personal information with your patients, but your experiences are formative, just as theirs are. I wanted to show how our lives those of my patients, and my own are shaped by our choices as well as by our circumstances.

DEDICATED DOC: Dr. Mushlin at work at Brigham and Women's Hospital where his nickname is "House"

Dr. Mushlin went on to enter private practice as an internist with coverage responsibilities at a community hospital, and in the books title essay he describes a memorable case he saw there. The patient, whom Dr. Mushlin calls S.M., had a rare blood condition that was causing neurological and kidney damage and required a then-experimental total body plasma exchange. Thanks to the young doctors quick thinking, the patient lived but ultimately stiffed Dr. Mushlin on the bill. His wife told me that they had cashed the insurance check, and both had gone to the track and played the ponies, Dr. Mushlin writes. They figured that S.M.s life was pretty lousy now and I had enough money. And they never returned.

In "Playing the Ponies," Dr. Mushlin takes readers through the question-and-answer, trial-and-error method that hes used throughout his career. While his nickname among the staff at Brigham and Womens Hospital is House for the fictional characters diagnostic acumen, not his misanthropic tendencies Dr. Mushlin is the first to admit that real clinicians dont pull answers out of the air like doctors on TV. Theres inspiration, of course, but diagnosis is mostly perspiration and desperation, he says. Essays with wry titles like Thinking Can Sometimes Make a Difference recount the exams, tests and late-night musings that have led Dr. Mushlin to the right answers or sometimes the wrong ones. Ive been puzzled many times, and there are days when your fastball just isnt as fast, says Dr. Mushlin. I wanted to communicate that doctors arent perfect. We need to learn from our mistakes and from our patients.

Dr. Mushlin hopes that the message gets through to the lay readers If you like the cases in the Sunday New York Times, this book is for you, he says and the aspiring physicians whom he envisions as his books ideal audience. Ive always taught my clinical medicine students to listen to their patients stories,Dr. Mushlin says. Patients will keep you humble. They tell you their innermost secrets and hopes, and you never stop learning. Thats what has made being a doctor such a wonderful career.

C. A. Carlson

This story first appeared in Weill Cornell Medicine,Vol. 16. No. 2

More:

On the Case - Cornell Chronicle

The family members of some elderly patients receiving services at Westmoreland Nursing Center in Lake Forest are frustrated and angry at Northwestern Medicine's decision to shutter the facility later this year.

The relatives of some residents and day care clients say they don't have time to make alternate care arrangements for their loved ones.

"It's a bit unnerving," said Joyce Jackson of Lake Forest, who said she and her sister learned about the impending closure in a May 19 letter; their 92-year-old mother, who has dementia, was a longtime day care client and has been a Westmoreland resident for about 18 months. "I don't know why the residents up there couldn't have gotten until the end of the year."

Westmoreland will close in December, with full-time residents required to move out by Aug. 31, according to Christopher King, director of media relations at Northwestern Medicine, which owns Westmoreland.

He said rehabilitation patients, along with outpatient adult services, have until December to relocate.

The decision to close Westmoreland, which has been in operation since 1975, is related to the construction of a new Lake Forest Hospital, King said.

Outpatient clinics for the new $399 million hospital are scheduled to open this fall, with inpatient services opening in early 2018, King said.

King said he didn't know much notice would have been perfect.

"It was a difficult decision," he said. "We've spent the last few months really taking an extensive look at the facility and planning how to advance."

Westmoreland is connected to the existing hospital by a tunnel, King said. Food for Westmoreland is prepared and laundry done at the existing hospital, and Westmoreland shares technology with the facility, he said.

"Our plan is once the new hospital is open and fully functional, the old hospital will be coming down," King said, adding that the cost and "regulatory resources" needed to make Westmoreland an independent facility would not be "feasible."

King said he didn't know the cost of making Westmoreland an independent facility.

Westmoreland now has fewer than 30 full-time residents, King said, although he didn't know the full capacity.

Westmoreland, at 660 N. Westmoreland Road, has fewer than 10 people in rehabilitation, King said. He didn't know how many people were in outpatient adult services, he said.

The final fate of the Westmoreland building and land has yet to be determined, King said.

Jackson said she is unhappy with Northwestern Medicine's decision to close Westmoreland due to its quality and proximity to her home.

"For us, it's like two miles away," she said. "There are activities. We know everyone there; it's like a big family. People who have loved ones there all say it's the best place to go."

Jackson is also concerned how her mother will react to a move.

"She's older and frailer," she said. "Now, at a late stage in dementia, they don't like change. Now she's faced with this change."

Kathy Metke of Mundelein said her 93-year-old father, who has dementia, attends adult day care at Westmoreland four days a week.

"It's good for a person with dementia to do the same routine every day," Metke said. "That's what Westmoreland did. It was a clean facility. The food they provided was good. They had church service two times a week. The quality of life for a 93-year-old man with moderate dementia was very good."

So far, only a Deerfield facility may have a day care spot for her father, Metke said, and that is problematic for her.

"I'd have to go from Mundelein to Deerfield (to drop off her father) to my job at Waukegan and then at the end of the day, have to do that in reverse," Metke said. "I'm not going to spend my life in the car."

All of which leaves Metke unhappy.

"I'm kind of upset," Metke said. "I have to work. I have a mortgage. I'm not going to put my father in a nursing home when he's not ready to go into a nursing home. We had something that was working."

mlawton@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @reporterdude

Read more from the original source:

Northwestern Medicine to close nursing center and adult day care in Lake Forest - Chicago Tribune

The Hindu

KYF(M) celebration spoils Arts and Medicine event The Hindu The 175th edition of the Kochi Biennale Foundation's Arts and Medicine programme at Ernakulam General Hospital turned sour with the youth wing of the Kerala Congress (M), Kerala Youth Front (M), usurping the platform and turning it into a political ...

Original post:

KYF(M) celebration spoils Arts and Medicine event - The Hindu

Photo

Eating fish may help reduce the joint pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has found.

Researchers studied 176 people in a larger health study who had had physical exams and blood tests and filled out food frequency questionnaires that indicated their consumption of various types of non-fried fish.

The study, in Arthritis Care & Research, categorized the participants into groups by fish consumption: less than one serving a month, one a month, one to two a week, and more than two a week. To rate the severity of symptoms they used a disease activity score that assigns a number based on the degree of swelling and pain.

After controlling for race, sex, body mass index, smoking, education, fish oil supplement use, duration of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and other health and behavioral characteristics, they found the average disease activity score in each group declined as fish intake increased.

The lead author, Dr. Sara K. Tedeschi, an associate physician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, said that this is an observational study and does not prove cause and effect.

Still, the observed reductions in pain and swelling from the lowest to the highest group in fish intake is clinically significant. The magnitude of the effect, she said, is large about one-third of the expected magnitude of the standard drug treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with methotrexate.

See the rest here:

Fish as Medicine for Rheumatoid Arthritis - New York Times

George T. Hare

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George T. Hare threw a mean pitch and was a cleanup hitter back in the day. When he had to choose between professional baseball and going to medical school, however, he picked the latter, as he felt a strong calling to become a doctor.

Dr. Hare, 86, of Cherry Hill, formerly of Haddonfield, died of heart failure on Saturday, June 17, at his home.

Building a specialty in geriatric medicine, Dr. Hare was diligent in making sure his patients were comfortable, said daughter Patricia.

He loved medicine more than anything else, she said. He not only treated the patient, but he treated the family as well.

Joseph Costabile, a surgeon at Cooper University Health Care who worked with Dr. Hare, called him 100 percent passionate about patient care. He was a tough doctor who checked on his patients to make sure his orders had been carried out properly.

If you didnt take good care of his patients, there would be hell to pay, Costabile said.

George T. Hare with his wife, JoAnn.

In 1948, Dr. Hare graduated from Haddon Heights High School, where he played baseball, basketball, and football. In 1991, he was inducted into the schools Sports Hall of Fame.

After high school, he attended Gettysburg College, where he played basketball and baseball. In basketball, he was an All-State honorable mention and All-Little Three player, according to Gettysburgs website.

In college baseball, Dr. Hare was both a top starting pitcher and the cleanup hitter in the batting order. He hit safely in 14 games as a sophomore and later hit numerous home runs, according to the website. Dr. Hare is listed as a .295 hitter as a sophomore to over .400 as a senior, switching between the mound and left field. He pitched in defeats against Navy and the Universities of Delaware and Pittsburgh. He was inducted into the Gettysburg Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Dr. Hare turned down an offer by the Cleveland Indians in order to continue his education.

He majored in biology at Gettysburg, receiving his bachelors degree in 1952.

After Gettysburg, he attended New York Medical College, receiving his medical degree in 1956. He did his residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, and interned at what is now Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

During his medical career, which spanned more than 50 years in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Dr. Hare held numerous leadership positions, including medical director of the Camden County Health Services Center and head of the division of geriatric medicine that he created at Cooper. He also was part of a homebound program in geriatric medicine in Camden, and helped establish New Jerseys first palliative care unit in a long-term care facility, his family said.

Dr. Hare was a member of the Camden County Medical Society, serving as secretary and participating with the group at the national level. He served as a member of the Gettysburg Board of Fellows, and was in the Army Reserve Medical Corps, reaching the rank of major.

His daughter said her father had an innate understanding of the elderly, a trait she believes was passed down by his parents, who were kind and generous. He was deeply devoted to his family and was a dedicated physician who touched countless lives, she said.

In his spare time, Dr. Hare golfed, played the slot machines in Atlantic City, and loved his pets.

In addition to his daughter, Dr. Hare is survived by his wife, JoAnn; son Tom; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by sons John and David.

A viewing for Dr. Hare will be from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, June 23, at St. Marys Episcopal Church, 501 Green St,, Haddon Heights. A memorial service will follow at 11. Interment will be at Locustwood Cemetery in Cherry Hill.

Donations may be made to the Voorhees Animal Orphanage, 419 Cooper Rd,, Voorhees, N.J. 08043, or vaonj.org.

Published: June 20, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: June 20, 2017 6:22 PM EDT

We recently asked you to support our journalism. The response, in a word, is heartening. You have encouraged us in our mission to provide quality news and watchdog journalism. Some of you have even followed through with subscriptions, which is especially gratifying. Our role as an independent, fact-based news organization has never been clearer. And our promise to you is that we will always strive to provide indispensable journalism to our community. Subscriptions are available for home delivery of the print edition and for a digital replica viewable on your mobile device or computer. Subscriptions start as low as 25 per day. We're thankful for your support in every way.

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George T. Hare, 86, chose medicine over baseball - Philly.com

An opportunity and a challenge

Today, health care is becoming increasingly connected but also increasingly complex. This unique dichotomy poses both an opportunity and a challenge for institutions like our own, whose job it is to heal, innovate and educate, said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. In publishing this report, we hope to show how big data is the most important trend facing the sector and, in the process, inform and educate the entire medical community including patients, doctors, the private and public sectors who are actively shaping the future of health care.

As big data becomes more of a resource for patients and their physicians, it simply is not enough to stick to the traditional ways of conducting research, engaging in patient care and educating the next generation of doctors, he added. Institutions like Stanford have a responsibility to drive advances in data management so that patients can be partners in their own care. By leveraging big data, we can create a vision of health care that is more preventive, predictive, personalized and precise.

The report suggests that the following areas must be prioritized if the impact of big data in health is to be fully realized:

Print copies of the report can be requested at (650) 850-1265.

See the rest here:

Stanford Medicine launches health care trends report - Stanford Medical Center Report

BBC News

Medicine information leaflets 'too scary', say experts BBC News There is too much focus on the potential side-effects of medicines on information leaflets inside packs and not enough on their benefits, says the Academy of Medical Sciences. Its new report calls for them to be rewritten to give a more balanced view ... Medicine information leaflets 'must be clearer' say expertsITV News all 3 news articles »

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Medicine information leaflets 'too scary', say experts - BBC News

University of Chicago Medicine and insurer UnitedHealthcare have reached a contract agreement that will keep the academic medical system and its doctors in the insurer's network.

The agreement will spare about 8,000 patients from having to either switch doctors or pay significantly more for care.

The new contract agreement comes shortly after patients received letters saying that University of Chicago Medicine and University of Chicago Physicians Group could be out of UnitedHealthcare's network starting June 30.

The letter raised fear among patients that they would have to scramble to find new physicians or face higher costs for medical care.

"This renewed contract means UChicago Medicine's relationship with patients who carry UnitedHealthcare insurance remains unchanged and they will not face any additional out-of-pocket health costs," University of Chicago Medicine said in a statement Monday.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lschencker

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University of Chicago Medicine will remain in UnitedHealthcare's network - Chicago Tribune

June 19 at 6:51 PM

The June 16 Politics & the Nation article Risky Lyme treatments on the rise read like another hit on alternative medicine by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It had all the key words favored by the CDC: risky, dangerous, expensive, unorthodox and its standard phrases, according to a new report, Officials ... are alarmed. Then there was the CDCs gold-standard complaint: unproven treatments. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but proof is reserved for mathematics and logic.

The article said, Many of the treatments ... have no evidence of effectiveness. Thats better. Talk about evidence rather than proof. But it didnt list all of the many treatments with no evidence of effectiveness. Obviously, the clinicians using unorthodox therapies would not be able to stay in business if they were not getting positive results from some of the treatments. The article mentioned a few anecdotal accounts of doom but didnt provide information about other factors that could have played a role in the unfortunate outcomes. Nor did it cite any cases in which people were cured or their health improved by the unorthodox therapies.

And since when did garlic supplements become dangerous and expensive?

William Cates, Charlottesville

Originally posted here:

A hit on alternative medicine - Washington Post

UNM's Simply Spicy Symposium July 8-9

A state-of-the-art, two-day symposium on herbs and spices used in health and medicine is scheduled in Taos, July 8-9, at the Sagebrush Inn & Suites. The public is welcome to learn about herbs and spices used in the management of most common medical conditions, while networking with physicians, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists and other professional health practitioners. Admittance is $150.

The symposium, hosted by the UNM School of Medicine Section of Integrative Medicine, will feature interactive spice demos, cooking demonstrations and a healthy recipe contest. The symposium opens Saturday morning with sunrise yoga 6:30-7:30 a.m. and finishes with a cooking demonstration from 4-5 p.m. Sunday opens with sunrise yoga and concludes with a question-and-answer session and closing ceremony. Lunch is provided both days.

Plenary presentations include:

Workshops provide knowledge in areas such as herbs and spices for common infections, Native American ceremonial herbs and spices, spices for womens health, medicinal Chinese spices and optimizing gut health.

For more information on Simply Spicy, visit http://som.unm.edu/education/cme/2017/simply-spicy.html, contact Kathy Breckenridge at kbreckenridge@salud.unm.edu or call (505) 272-3942.

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Community invited to explore botanical and culinary medicine - HSC Newsbeat

Heat Advisoryissued June 19 at 2:34PM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Apache, Coconino, Navajo, Yavapai

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 19 at 2:34PM MST expiring June 23 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 19 at 2:34PM MST expiring June 23 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino, Yavapai

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 19 at 2:34PM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino, Gila, Yavapai

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 17 at 3:01PM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino, Gila, Yavapai

Heat Advisoryissued June 17 at 3:01PM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Yavapai

Heat Advisoryissued June 17 at 3:01PM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Apache, Coconino, Navajo

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 17 at 2:15AM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 17 at 2:15AM MST expiring June 22 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino

Excessive Heat Warningissued June 14 at 2:52PM MST expiring June 20 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Gila, Yavapai

Excessive Heat Watchissued June 14 at 3:18AM MST expiring June 20 at 8:00PM MST in effect for: Coconino, Gila, Yavapai

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Valley doctor putting residency on hold to study medicine in Mars - ABC15 Arizona

For the second time in five years, Alberto Gonzalez has been convicted of practicing medicine without a license.

Gonzalez pleaded no contest Monday to the felony charge and faces two years in custody. Three misdemeanors were dismissed under the plea agreement.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 17.

According to the state Department of Consumer Affairs, Gonzalez ran a business in Lamont where he practiced as a doctor and administered injections to patients. He also admitted upon his October 2016 arrest to treating people in the Monterey and Seaside areas.

Prosecutor Kacie Spenst said she hopes "the people of Lamont are protected by this conviction."

In 2012, Gonzalez was investigated by the Bakersfield Police Department when they learned he had been practicing medicine inside of his home.

Police reports filed in court said Esther Diaz Figueroa contacted authorities on Oct. 21 of that year and said she had gone to see a doctor who claimed to be from Los Angeles. Figueroa, worried she was diabetic, said the doctor, later identified as Gonzalez, injected her with four syringes of medicine and charged her $400.

Figueroa told police she began to suspect that the "medicine" was in fact just water or a saline solution, the reports said.

Officers went to Gonzalez's residence in the 5700 block of Monitor Street and found 10 people waiting at the front door. Police said a patient directed officers to a bedroom where they found several vials of prescription medication and an uncovered trash can with used syringes.

Several of the syringes were marked "Testosterone," according to the reports. When police asked Gonzalez where he got his medication, he told them he got most of it from salesmen who came to his home.

There were also several vials of blood in a bag in the living room from patients with high blood pressure, the reports said. Gonzalez told officers he diluted the blood with water and dumped it in the backyard.

Police found two guns in the home, one reported stolen out of Los Angeles County.

Gonzalez, in that case, also pleaded no contest to practicing medicine without a license and received a two-year sentence.

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Bakersfield man pleads no contest to practicing medicine without a license - The Bakersfield Californian

Martin S. Wolfe, a tropical disease specialist who founded one of the countrys first medical practices devoted to ailments incurred in travel and who, in the 1970s, accompanied Henry Kissinger as his personal physician, died June 15 at his home on Block Island, Rhode Island. He was 82.

The cause was a failure of his artificial heart pump, said his son, David Wolfe.

Wolfe developed an interest in tropical diseases as a medical student and, early in his career, spent five years doing field research in Ghana and Pakistan.

As a staff medical officer for the State Department, he traveled the world with then-Secretary of State Kissinger. He also served as a tropical medicine expert for the World Bank.

In 1980, Wolfe opened Travelers Medical Service, believed to be the first medical office of its kind in Washington. He also had an affiliated parasitology laboratory and a private practice.

Wolfe advised people making overseas trips about potential health risks and administered immunizations. If travelers returned with mysterious ailments, he often had to become a medical detective.

He determined a diagnosis by retracing a patients journeys to pinpoint where exposure to various maladies might have occurred. Wolfe often consulted with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about infectious diseases found in other parts of the world but rarely seen in the United States, such as malaria, cholera and yellow fever.

He wrote more than 100 academic papers and textbook chapters about tropical medicine and travel medicine, which has become a recognized medical specialty.

Through his research and his work with diplomats and other international travelers, Wolfe became an authority on such exotic conditions as giardiasis and schistosomiasis, both of which are caused by parasites. The ailments, often linked to exposure to contaminated water, can lead to severe physical problems if left untreated.

Perhaps the most commonplace complaint of travelers returning to the United States with diarrhea. Wolfe recommended that people travel with a supply of Pepto Bismol or Imodium.

The question we always ask in tropical medicine, he told The Washington Post in 2008, is where have you been and what have you been doing?

Martin Samuel Wolfe was born April 9, 1935, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His father was a tavern owner.

He was an Eagle Scout and captain of his high school basketball team before entering Cornell University, where he received a bachelors degree in 1957 and a medical degree in 1961.

One of his medical school professors encouraged his interest in tropical medicine, and Wolfe did research in Ghana from 1962 to 1964. After a residency in New York, he trained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Wolfe conducted additional medical research in Pakistan from 1967 to 1970, when he joined the State Department.

He taught courses in tropical medicine and parasitology the Georgetown and George Washington University medical schools and was a consultant for many years to the State Department, Peace Corps and World Bank.

Wolfe was a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which presented him with its top award. He was a member of the Cosmos Club and Adas Israel Congregation.

Wolfe retired in 2015. The Travelers Medical Service in Washington is now operated by his son, a physician; its New York branch is run by a daughter, a registered nurse and public health specialist.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Lotte Brunes Wolfe of Washington; three children, Rebecca Wolfe Acosta of New York City, David Wolfe of Bethesda, Maryland, and Miriam Strouse of McLean, Virginia; a sister; and seven grandchildren.

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Martin Wolfe, doctor specializing in tropical and travel medicine, dies at 82 - Bangor Daily News

By Larry Williams II Times Record lwilliams@swtimes.com

Robots. Artificial hearts. 3D printing of human tissue.

It may sound like science fiction, but as Dr. J.D. Polk, chief medical officer at NASA, pointed out at his keynote lecture, Journey of Exploration, during the 32nd Annual Arkansas Osteopathic Medical Association convention Saturday, these are all science fact thanks to space exploration.

Youd be surprised how much exploration has to do with medicine, said Polk to a packed lecture hall at the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM), 7000 Chad Colley Blvd. Right now, NASA is the busiest its ever been.

Polk was referring to the planning and preparation occurring at NASA for the first manned mission to Mars. He said the United States space agency is busier now than they were during the Apollo missions of the 1960s.

The amount of technology invented (for the Apollo program) is huge, said Polk. Right now, we all think that hydrogen fuel cells for cars is a new invention. Hydrogen fuels cells are how the lunar module landed on the moon. The biggest hassle was power, at that time. We didnt have solar panels.

Along with power, the space program also needed to reduce a computer the size of a room to fit on the lunar module, which was 23 feet tall by 31 feet wide and deep. The circuit board was born, which is now present in everything from a cell phone to childs toy.

An iPhone has more computing power than the lunar module, added Polk.

He noted that the amount of technology needed to be invented for the Mars mission will far outstrip the lunar missions. On the moon, astronauts stayed for a handful of days.

A one-way trip to Mars will take approximately six months.

Mars and Earth dont stay lined up constantly, said Polk. You have to wait until the two of them are lined up before you launch. And then, because they dont stay together, youre staying on the surface of Mars for 18 months, and then its another six months back.

Polk, as chief health and medical officer, is responsible for writing up the human factors for all of the vehicles being developed for the Mars mission. Such considerations as time spent in a zero-gravity atmosphere, both on the vehicles and on the planet, and how that affects human health come into play.

Outside of the future Mars mission, Dr. Polk showed the trickle-down effect of space exploration technology into medicine. The same impeller design used by the space shuttles fuel pumps was used by a cardiothoracic surgeon in Texas on a miniature scale to keep end-stage heart failure patients alive.

A lot of things came from the space shuttle, said Polk. The space shuttle windows, because they get hit with micro-meteoroids, they get scratched constantly by small bits. If you can imagine something the size of a grain of sand hitting that glass at 17,500 miles per hour, its going to leave a mark.

Because of that, we now have scratch guard lenses for eyeglasses.

NASA has two robots who have inspired prosthetics for the physically disabled: Robonaut and Valkyrie. Because of them, Polk showed slides of current hardware for amputees that perfectly mimics human movement.

But perhaps the most astonishing technology previewed was 3D printers that produce skin grafts for burn victims. Polk said that a sample of a patients cells would be taken as the raw material for the printer, thus eliminating the chances of rejection of the new graft by the patients body.

This isnt just something thats five, ten years down the road, said Polk. This is happening now.

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Space-driven technology aids medicine, NASA doc says at Fort Smith convention - Times Record

We cannot approach the week ahead without acknowledging the impact of the week just passed. There is no getting around it. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds Rate and kept its forecasts hawkish despite the stagflation obstacle some investors saw. But it is an illusion; inflation is only missing in action, and I believe on its way. So take your bitter medicine Mr. Market, and like it, because it is necessary. The Fed's positioning and the uncertainty about the U.S. economy should keep a lid on the market for now. The ongoing investigation of the President and the sluggish progress of key cogs of his agenda (tax reform) add drag as well, though if we get progress, the line will be cut for the market to race higher. We're just not there yet, but we do have rising geopolitical tensions and a Special Counsel investigation to digest daily. And with the long days of summer ahead of us, stocks may have marked highs we will not see again for a while.

The SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed the busy news week down 0.3%, though stocks might have reacted more violently considering everything that happened. The SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA) gained by 0.4%; the PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ: QQQ) declined by 1.3%; and the iShares Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) dropped by 1.0%. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Bull (NYSE: UUP) fell by 0.1%; the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) fell by 2.6%; the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) dropped by 1.0% and the PIMCO Active Bond Exchange Fund (NYSE: BOND) gained by 0.3%.

In the week ahead, you can bet your bottom dollar the investigation of Russia's election meddling and now the President of the United States as well, according to his tweet, will key the start of the week with tension. But as we progress, the market will take its lead from relevant developments. So let's examine the economic schedule for starters.

The Economic Schedule

As always, the week following an FOMC Policy Meeting presents a parade of Federal Reserve officials. The schedule of speakers will therefore offer more color on Fed thinking. It could drive some volatility in the week ahead but I wouldn't count on it with the FOMC clearly expressing itself just a few days ago. More importantly, economic data will now be looked to to justify the Fed perspective.

On Monday, we will hear from New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley in the morning and Chicago Fed Bank President Charles Evans in the evening. There will be no critical data reported in America Monday otherwise, so expect the full focus of investors to be on analyst commentary on the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Whole Foods Market (NYSE: WFM) deal, the Fed speakers and any developments around the investigation by Special Counsel Mueller.

Three more Fed speakers highlight Tuesday's schedule, with Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren scheduled to make news before the market open. In the afternoon we will hear from Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan.

The only other data on tap for the day is the Current Account for Q1, due at 8:30 AM EDT. The consensus of economists expect the current account deficit to widen to $121.8 billion, from $112.4 billion in the fourth quarter.

Tuesday's earnings schedule is very interesting and highlights Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), HB Fuller (NYSE: FUL), Korn/Ferry Int'l (NYSE: KFY), La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB), Lennar (NYSE: LEN) and Red Hat (NYSE: RHT). Housing industry strength will likely benefit most relative corporate reporters, including possibly builder Lennar, building products supplier HB Fuller and home furniture maker La-Z-Boy. FedEx is also reporting and offers insight into economic health. I'll be keeping my eye on all these firms and likely reporting on at least one of them in the days ahead.

Wednesday's economic schedule highlights housing data, with Existing Home Sales (NYSE: IYR) due for the month of May. Economists see the annual pace of sales edging lower to 5.55 million in May, down from 5.57 million in April. Existing home sales were up 1.6% year-to-year in April.

I'm still looking for the housing market to recover in coming months, as it did last year on new seasonal or special effect (seen last 3 years) economists are still trying to understand. April was a relatively poor month and economists are playing it close to the vest here for May with a conservative consensus forecast close to the prior month report. Maybe we'll do better...

The existing home market makes up the majority of U.S. home sales, but I think a healthy market is characterized by a larger percentage of new home sales to total sales.

Wednesday's earnings is highlighted by reports from Actuant (NYSE: ATU), Carmax (NYSE: KMX), Cyanotech (NASDAQ: CYAN) and Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO). Let's look at Carmax and Winnebago for anecdotal insight into the state of consumer discretionary spending.

Thursday's data will be led by Leading Economic Indicators, due at 10:00 AM EDT. This report for May is expected by economists to show a 0.3% increase, matching the mark set in April. The consensus range varies one-tenth of a percentage point either way, but this data is critical to investors today, so the slightest swing will move the market. Good news is good news here and justifies the Fed's rate action and still serves stocks; bad news is bad news and hurts us.

The rest of the day's data is marginally important to market direction and velocity. The FHFA House Price Index will catch some eyes, simply because housing prices are an important component for inflation measures. Economists see a 0.5% increase for April's data reported today. That would mark a slowing from the 0.6% gain seen for March. On a year-to-year basis, prices were up 6.2% in March, and that illustrates how hot home prices have been on lacking supply and an improving economy and job market.

The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index, due this day, is a measure of Midwest manufacturing. Last month, the index marked 8.0; positive readings indicate economic expansion.

Thursday's earnings schedule highlights the reports of Accenture (NYSE: ACN), Apogee Enterprises (NASDAQ: APOG), Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), Carnival (NYSE: CCL), Commercial Metals (NYSE: CMC), Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN), Methode Electronics (NYSE: MEI), SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), Sonic (NASDAQ: SONC) and iKang Healthcare (NASDAQ: KANG). Again, my focus will be on consumer discretionary spending indications from Carnival and also possible housing strength benefits at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Bill Dudley is back on Friday, along with Fed speakers Bullard, Mester and Powell, so things might get interesting to close out the first summer Friday. Don't kid yourself; we are entering the period of light trading volume as money managers (too many anyway) spend their weekends (long ones) watching the markets from the beach - I hear Shelter Island is the place to be from a trader friend I lost several years ago tragically the day after Father's Day. Steve Koufakis, I'll raise a drink to you this weekend, and I'll spill some ouzo for you too.

As for data, New Home Sales (NYSE: PHM) is due for May at 10:00 AM EDT. Economists expect the annual pace of sales to recover some, rising to 590K after dropping sharply in April to 569K. Oftentimes, on a big move like that, we see revisions the following month, so I would not be surprised to see one here for April.

A shout out to Philly-based builder Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), a close to home company I valued and owned shares of in graduate school (and did well with). I got to meet one of the Toll Brothers and tell him about it not long thereafter. And oh by the way, Toll Brothers was pointing out tightness in its relative labor market years ago at the Emerald Research Groundhog Day Conference. Look for more companies to be doing the same in the months ahead as labor market tightness becomes an endemic problem. It should ignite inflation.

Markit will be reporting its PMI Composite Flash measure Friday too, with economists looking for it to hold near the prior month level (consensus forecast at 53.8 for June). Manufacturing is seen gaining slightly to 52.6 and Services is seen falling to 53.7, from 54.0. Readings above 50.0 mark economic expansion.

The earnings schedule includes BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) and Finish Line (NASDAQ: FINL).

In conclusion, keep your eye on all of the above, and one eye on the President's Twitter account, as it all matters nowadays for stocks... sad! For more of my musings on the market, follow the column here at Seeking Alpha.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Week Ahead - Mr. Market Takes His Bitter Medicine - Seeking Alpha

A stunningly good, extraordinarily comprehensive paper on the health effects of saturated fat in our diets has weighed them in every relevant way, measured them with every pertinent metric, and found them wanting. There are no saturated fatty acids shown to be better than harmless at best, and those we consume most often and abundantly in fatty meats, processed meats, fast foods, dairy and processed dairy products are decisively worse than that. They are bad for us.

Until rather recently, the idea that pepperoni pizza, ice cream, and bacon were far from good for our health would have evoked nothing beyond a yawn. We all knew that already. But the world of nutrition is stunningly good at following every action with an equal and opposite reaction, and propagating pseudo-confusion, generally because there is profit in it. Confusion is profitable for iconoclasts with conspiracy theories to sell. It is profitable for publishers, who always have the next revolutionary diet in the queue. It is profitable for the media, which seek to keep us unbalanced and tuning in for the next fix by comforting us when we are overly afflicted, and afflicting us when overly comfortable.

We had, presumably, grown comfortable with the notion that broccoli and beans were good for us, bacon and bratwurst, not so much. So we were due for a dizzying dose of affliction, and over recent years, we have been so served. If you have not heard that saturated fat is good for us now, that butter is back, and that we should all praise the lard, then please tell me where you live. I will move in next door so I can avoid all this nonsense, too. Im a good neighbor.

Its simply not true that we would be better off eating more meat, butter, and cheese to say nothing about how that would devastate the planet. Its simply not true that saturated fat has been exonerated and is good for us now, simply because sugar is known to be bad. Its not true that nutrition experts have focused only on saturated fat, while ignoring sugar. Instead, its all the same constellation of lies repeated so often by those who simply like hearing them, that they have been adopted into the current cultural lore as gospel.

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I read the scientific literature as a matter of routine and professional obligation, and consider this new paper in circulation one of the more impressive evidence reviews I have ever seen. The paper is clearly intended to address all of the popular arguments about saturated fat with methodical, evidence-based dispassion. Accordingly, it encompasses both systematic literature review and meta-analysis of research data. The paper explores mechanistic research, observational epidemiology, and human intervention trials. Appropriately, impressively, and somewhat unusually, the authors base their conclusions on the confluence and overall weight of such diverse and complementary lines of evidence.

The authors systematically address not only the lofty claim that saturated fat was unfairly convicted of crimes against our coronaries, they also explore every component part of that revisionist history. They examine the evidence linking saturated fat to elevations of blood lipids, notably LDL, and the evidence linking LDL to coronary disease. They parse out the effects of diverse fatty acids and their darling sources, from coconut oil to chocolate. Throughout, they are attentive to the instead of what? question so crucial to nutritional epidemiology, and so often overlooked. They even address the studies that disagree with their primary conclusions, and openly explore reasons for diverging results.

The evidence in this laudable paper is transparently displayed for all to see, and it is followed by the authors where, and only where, it leads. It does not lead to the foolish conclusion that the harms of excess bacon-cheeseburgers preclude the harms of excess french fries, or soda. The right remediation for bad diets is good diets, not alternative diets, equally bad.

Refined carbohydrates and added sugar are bad for us, but demonstrably no worse than saturated fat from the usual dietary sources. Saturated fat from less usual sources, such as coconut and cacao, is less harmful and perhaps innocuous, but not beneficial. In contrast, unsaturated fat from the usual sources, notably nuts and seeds, olive and avocado, fish and seafood is beneficial. So, too, are vegetables and fruits, beans and lentils, and whole grains.

When the net health effects of saturated fat are weighed and measured on scales unbiased by foolishness, fanaticism, and pecuniary motives, they are found wanting. All of us wanting the application of just such scales, and a fair accounting of the overall weight of evidence to inform our dietary choices and support our health owe the authors of this standard-setting paper a debt of gratitude. And just maybe in select cases and the fullness of time our lives, too.

Dr. David L. Katz; http://www.davidkatzmd.com; founder, True Health Initiative

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Dr. David Katz, Preventive Medicine: Saturated fat is weighed, measured, and found wanting - New Haven Register

Alvin Benn, Special to the Advertiser 8:21 p.m. CT June 17, 2017

Dr. Don Overstreet of Selma originated the UAB Family Residency Program, a pilot project that prepared dozens of doctors to practice in rural areas of Alabama.(Photo: Advertiser file)Buy Photo

SELMA Dr. Donald Overstreet was a doctor who refused to retire, even as illnesses and injuries sapped his strength and macular degeneration dimmed his vision.

Osteoarthritis added to his personal pain as he tried to use his new titanium hips and knees. They didnt stop him, either. He just kept plugging along as best he could.

Overstreet and medicine had been carrying on a continuing love affair for decades and when he set up a small private practice as he entered his 80s it only seemed to rev up his batteries.

Father Time eventually took control of him as his 90th birthday neared. Nobody had to tell this doctor that enough was enough.

His heart finally stopped ticking at the age of 89 on June 1 and those who loved him the most knew there wasnt much they could do except mourn the passing of a physician who broke the mold in his profession.

His contributions to family medicine in the rural Black Belt are monumental, said the Rev. Jerry Light, who officiated at a memorial service for Overstreet on Saturday afternoon.

Friends and relatives from Alabama and neighboring states were on hand to honor him at Selmas First Baptist Church. Some had studied under him at the Selma Family Medicine Center.

Dr. Boyd Bailey succeeded Overstreet as director of the family medicine program and it was evident that he was still very much in awe of an amazing man.

He brought life to the program and those who studied under him have never forgotten him, said Bailey. Half of those who learned from him began their medical careers in Alabama.

A few hours before Overstreet was memorialized at the church, some of his former students were on hand for an annual program honoring those who had become resident doctors.

Dr. Melissa Behringer who directs the current family practice program said the number of physicians who successfully completed it now total 155 over a period nearly 40 years long.

She sounded a bit apprehensive as she mentioned Overstreet, Bailey and now me but those who have watched her direct the program give her high marks.

I can still remember when I ran into a tough problem Id stop and ask myself What would Dr. Overstreet do now? And then Id move on to handle it.

Overstreet was born in Flatwood, a tiny settlement in Wilcox County, and served in the Navy as a corpsman during World War II.

He used the GI Bill at the University of Alabama and then it was on to medical school. He eventually moved to Selma where he joined two veteran doctors.

Family practice doctors arent surgeons, but they are familiar with more than their share of daily challenges due to daily life in rural regions.

I was born during a gale and there wasnt a hospital anywhere near our house, he recalled one day during an interview at his clinic. My brother developed pneumonia and almost died. It wasnt like living in a city.

When he became a physician he soon developed a following with patients lined up for some healing in the boondocks where he practiced.

Bailey said family medicine is quite a departure from one involving specialists because thats what we are in so many cases.

Family physicians are able to take care of 85 percent of medical problems, he said. Thats the goal of family medicine and our patients shouldnt have to rely on specialists.

Dr. Don Overstreet felt the same way. Could be it was because he rarely had to call one.

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Dr. Overstreet made 'monumental' contributions to Black Belt medicine - Montgomery Advertiser