Art & Anatomy runs special art sessions in schools looking at and drawing the human body inside and out. Photograph: Ali Cleary Photography

As trainee plastic surgeon Meg Anderson paints a string of shapes representing finger bones on to the hand of a 12-year-old pupil in the art room of a Yorkshire comprehensive school, she grins at the confident answers the youngster gives to questions she might face if interviewed for a place at medical school.

You are really amazing, says Anderson, filling in a bone shape in white, after the girl has explained how she would break bad news to the family of a child who was not going to recover. That is exactly the kind of answer that a medical school would be looking for.

This is a special art session at Holy Trinity academy in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, designed to inspire pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds there to take up a career in medicine, by looking at and drawing the human body inside and out.

A few giggles ripple round the art room as Anderson motions to her international aid worker partner Mark Dickson to remove his sweatshirt, to reveal a torso shes painted on to with a high-definition anatomical image, as if his chest were open to reveal his heart, lungs and other organs.

I want you to draw what you can see, instructs Anderson, radiating enthusiasm. If you can draw it, you can probably operate on it. As heads go down and pencils scuffle busily on paper, aspiring paramedic Emily Hitchen, 16, is appreciating the chance to look at biology in a new light. She says: It must be nice to look at someone and think I know what is going on in your body.

Anderson, 29, who works as a clinical researcher in burns and plastic surgery at the Canniesburn plastic surgery unit in Glasgow, has initiated this school session with mainly 15 and 16-year-old art students, because shes passionate about breaking down the barriers stopping pupils from considering studying medicine. Youngsters from underprivileged backgrounds are consistently underrepresented at medical school.

A study by Dundee and Central Lancashire universities of applications to 22 medical schools shows that 80% of medical students came from households containing professionals or those in higher managerial roles, and more than a quarter from private schools.

Anderson herself came from a low-income family in nearby Wakefield, where she was advised at school to consider being a gardener. A combination of outstanding exam results and encouraging parents won her a place at Manchester University Medical School. A keen artist from school days, she found sketching and drawing an invaluable boost to her memory during her undergraduate medical studies.

This anatomy workshop plus career talk at Holy Trinity comes under the umbrella of Art & Anatomy Ltd a not-for-profit organisation Anderson runs with Dickson. They run workshops to teach anatomy to medical students and other health professionals, through anatomical drawing, including drawing directly with poster-type paints on to the body. Many medical schools no longer provide formal teaching in anatomy. Profits are used to run workshops in schools like Holy Trinity. A number of schools in the area, including primaries, are interested in the workshops.

The art room at Holy Trinity is buzzing. To Andersons surprise, and that of Holy Trinity teacher Chela Wilson, 12 out of the 14 in the art group have revealed in a questionnaire that they would consider a career in medicine. Year 7 pupils have been invited to sit in on the class if they are interested in healthcare, and are drawing Dickson with intense concentration.

One boy has filled a page with detailed sketches of Dickson and says: I want to become a master of anatomy.

Many medical schools such as Manchester University have programmes to encourage pupils from less-privileged backgrounds to consider medicine. Some of the Holy Trinity pupils in Andersons workshop are taking part in Sheffield Universitys outreach and access to medicine scheme, which reserves 60 places for pupils who may be the first in the family to go to university.

Aston University launched the Sir Doug Ellis pathway to healthcare programme in November 2016, to prepare more than 100 16 and 17-year-olds from non-traditional backgrounds in the West Midlands to enter medical school and other healthcare professions.

Holy Trinity science teacher Sarah Watts believes the biggest barrier her pupils face is the lack of role models, which keeps their career aspirations low. She hopes Andersons example will help change that. Watts says: My pupils say they could not achieve what I have because somehow I am different, but I come from a background similar to theirs in the north-east.

Over lunchtime, pupils queue up to bombard Anderson with questions about her route into medicine and many of them leave saying they want to try it too. She says: I hope that medicine as a career now seems less intimidating and seems like something these pupils could achieve if they want to do it.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more on issues like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

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Drawn from experience: art inspires poorer students into medicine - The Guardian

Intermountain Healthcare on Monday announced that its stepping closer to bringing a version of its precision medicine tool for cancer to the open market.

The health system, in fact, is pumping an additional $15 million into its spin-out Navican Genomics, which makes the TheraMap technology for matching patients with prioritized treatment options or appropriate clinical trials.

[Also:Promise of precision medicine depends on overcoming big obstacles] While precision medicine has great potential to positively impact cancer patients, its use is currently fragmented at best, Navican CEO Ingo Chakravarty said in a statement. TheraMap will provide precision care for all cancer patients, not just a few.

Navican employs sequencing tests developed at Intermountain to determine exactly which gene mutations are causing the cancer. From there, TheraMap provides testing and treatment options for the greatest number of actionable gene mutations, the startup said.

Intermountains Innovations division launched Navican Genomics in October 2016.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

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Intermountain preps precision medicine tool for commercialization - Healthcare IT News

SINGAPORE: Hoping to ease the pain in her shoulder, a 54-year-old woman soughtTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment at Raffles Chinese Medicine, a unit of Raffles Medical Group.

Instead, she was left with third-degree burns on her arm and will now receive S$50,000 in damages.

The woman, a finance and human resources director who wanted to be known only as Ms Tan, said she first visited the clinic early last year. After receiving four or five acupuncture sessions with no improvement to her condition, her physician suggested a treatment called moxibustionin April.

Moxibustion involves the burning of a spongy herb called mugwort on or near the skin. In Ms Tan's case, a mildly heated container was strapped to her arm and heat-generating bulbs were focused towards her left arm.

According to court documents, the physician, Jin Jinhua, assured her that the treatment was risk-free.

THIRD-DEGREE BURNS, PAINFUL BLISTERS

Recounting the incident, Ms Tan said Ms Jin left the room shortly after setting up the treatment and estimated that she was left alone for about 15 minutes.

It was very hot, and I was in pain. I tried to flip the container off but because of the position I was in, I couldnt. And there was a rattling sound so I was afraid I might accidentally cause the place to catch fire," Ms Tan told Channel NewsAsia.

When Ms Jin returned, she appeared alarmed that blisters had formed on Ms Tans arm, according to court documents.

Ms Tan said the physician apologised for forgetting to leave a bell behind, in case she needed help. Using an acupuncture needle,Ms Jin burst the blisters and bandaged the area, saying that it was likely to subside.

Ms Tan said that the pain of the blister was unbearable when she got home. It was swollen with fluid. She called a dermatologist friend who gave her instructions to relieve the pain. She later consulted a plastic surgeon and an aesthetic doctor, and was told that she had suffered third-degree burns. Ms Tan has since spent more than S$4,000 on treatment.

When Ms Tan approached the clinic unrepresented in September last year, she was offered S$14,400 in compensation by Raffles Chinese Medicine. But she decided to engage lawyer Raj Singh Shergill in October, after reading a newspaper article of a similar case.

The physician and Ms Tan eventually came to a private settlement of S$50,000 in costs, expenses and damages, which Ms Tan accepted on May 19 this year.

A spokesman for Raffles Chinese Medicine said: The settlement agreement was negotiated independently by the physician with the patient directly. As part of the settlement agreement, the patient released Raffles Chinese Medicine from liability.

The spokesman added thatRaffles Chinese Medicine has protocols in place which are "constantly reinforced" to its physicians.

According to court documents, Ms Jin had been fined and censured by the TCM Practitioners Board in 2015 for having acted improperly, negligently and beyond her permitted area of expertise. This was when she was working for Raffles Chinese Medicine but continued to be employed by the clinic. Raffles Chinese Medicine said Ms Jin left shortly after the incident last year involving Ms Tan.

PREVIOUS CASE OF MOXIBUSTIONGONE WRONG

In a separate case of moxibustion treatment gone wrong, a 70-year-old woman suffered third-degree burns on both legs in 2014, after getting the procedure atAnnie Tiang TCM Clinic in East Coast Road.

The patient,Chow See Mui, was also represented by Mr Singh and was awarded S$50,000 in damages.

Madam Chow, who had minor aches before the treatment, ended up in hospital for a month with a S$95,000 bill, which she managed to claim fully from her insurance company. In her lawsuit, Madam Chow said she felt extreme pain during the TCM treatment but was told to bear with it as the treatment was harmless and that the pain would subside shortly.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS MOXIBUSTION?

According to Ms Tjioe Yan Yin, a TCM physician at Nanyang Technological University's Chinese Medicine Clinic,moxibustion - when done right - can relieve pain from ailments such as rheumatism.

She explained that in direct moxibustion, the dried herb is rolled into the shape of a cone or cylinder and placed on the skin. The end that is not touching the skin is burnt, and the herb needs to be removed before the burning portion touches the skin. In indirect moxibustion, the moxa cone is kept about 3 to 4cm away from the skin to prevent burns.

"Direct moxibustion will definitely cause burns," said Ms Tjioe. "Some people accept it because they believe that burning stimulates the blood. They expect the burn to recover."

She added that while indirect moxibustion is widely accepted and used, the direct treatment is not common.

Nevertheless, Ms Tan said her experience at Raffles Chinese Medicine showed that the public should be "made aware of the high risks of such treatments, even if it is done in a reputable hospital".

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Woman suffers third-degree burns after TCM treatment at Raffles Chinese Medicine - Channel NewsAsia

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

By Michael Ricciardelli

Dean Bonita Stanton of the Seton Hall- Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine was interviewed and featured in Industry Magazine. The article, Healthcares Horizon, explores the new School of Medicine as a shift in paradigm for both medical pedagogy and health care delivery.

Noting how The anticipated Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine will offer an innovative team-based approach that will mirror how healthcare will be delivered in the future, the article begins:

Physicians of the future will undoubtedly think and cure differently. Tomorrows doctors will not only have to be bio-medically trained, they will also have to be behaviorally and socially skilled in order to become both socially responsible and collaborative members of the healthcare system and provide high quality, patient-centered care. Now, for the first time in several decades, New Jersey is getting its own private medical institution, one focused entirely on this forward-thinking approach to medicine.

Read the full Industry Magazine article, Healthcares Horizon.

Categories: Health and Medicine

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Dean Stanton and New School of Medicine Featured in Industry Magazine - Seton Hall University News & Events

Republicans should be on the lookout. While we try to muddle through repealing and replacing Obamacare, Democrats are sharpening their message on health care. In their race to the left, Democrats are increasingly calling for a full-fledged single-payer system. And considering Republican credibility on repeal-and-replace is damaged, if not shot, the Democrats message will be compelling to a lot of voters who sense nothing but confusion from the GOP. The momentum is shifting, and the stakes are getting higher for Republicans.

As we all know, in politics, a bumper sticker beats an essay. With the single-payer, universal health care catchphrase, Democrats are beginning to use their simple bumper stickers more frequently. And its not just talk. Last Thursday, the liberal California state Senate voted to support a plan calling for the enactment of a single-payer system. The New York Times also reports that a number of the partys potential 2020 presidential contenders, including Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, have signaled support for some version of universal government care. It looks as though there will probably be a consensus position among Democrats running in 2020 in support of a single-payer system.

In the House of Representatives as well, 112 of the 193 Democrats have co-sponsored Rep. John Conyers Jr.s (D-Mich.)proposalfor a single-payer system. Until recently, the New York Times reports, the bill had attracted a fraction of that support.

This new reality begs the question: Could it be that Republicans are on the brink of defending Obamacare as the only practical alternative to the Democrats march toward socialized medicine? On its surface, single-payer, universal health care will be hard to beat in the face of rising premiums and onerous deductibles that Republicans cant seem to do anything about. A lot of voters will think that Democrats are trying to give them free health care and that Republicans are against it.

Looking back to last years presidential race, it was easy for Republicans to dismiss Sen. Bernie Sanderss (I-Vt.) call for single-payer, universal health care. After all, the Democratic National Committee opposed him and his far-left ideas just as much as Republicans did. But the State of California however liberal it may be is not a rogue, one-off former candidate trying to uproot and destroy the status quo.

At a time when Democrats appear ready to coat their fleet of environmentally friendly and eco-conscious vehicles with single-payer, universal health care bumper stickers, I dont even know what the GOP bumper sticker says.

Republicans are bogged down trying to fix the broken Obamacare system while Democrats advance a simple, albeit misguided message. So, how should the GOP fight back?

As has been the case for much of 2017, Republicans need presidential leadership to guide the way forward. The White House must do more than simply be willing to sign what the GOP-led Congress sends to the presidents desk. The president needs to define Republican priorities on health care and explain what they mean to families throughout the country. Otherwise, we will become overwhelmed and labeled as the party with no solution.

If Republicans dont act fast, Democrats will pitch their plan for single-payer, universal health care as a choice between something that costs individuals less vs. more, that is simpler vs. more complicated, that leads to greater equality vs. more inequality. And in this fight, Republicans cannot just become the party of no. We cannot just complain about how hard the process is in the face of a growing liberal tsunami of single-payer nirvana.

The question for Republicans is: How will this all play out? If Republicans fail to stand up and speak with clarity, we may be forced to defend the remnants of Obamacare as the best option to ward off socialized medicine. The public senses confusion, and the Democratssense an opportunity. Time is running out.

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The momentum for socialized medicine is growing. Where is the GOP's strategy? - Washington Post (blog)

New York Times

Medicine by Internet New York Times As a doctor working with medical students and residents, I have found that their main source of information on rounds has become the internet. They use Wikipedia and YouTube, and can google more facts than any seasoned clinician can ever know.

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Medicine by Internet - New York Times

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

How to Make Medicine More Expensive Wall Street Journal (subscription) Registering outrage over the high price of medicine is a national pastime, especially for politicians whose solution is always handing themselves more power. The latest examples come from Nevada and Maryland, where legislators are passing bills to ... and more »

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How to Make Medicine More Expensive - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

At a time when greater focus should be placed on the prevention of chronic diseases and injuries that drive up health care spending, lead to millions of lives lost and create significant productivity loss to our economy, it is deeply concerning that President Trumps budget proposes to eliminate large portions of critical prevention funding.

One of the most concerning cuts is the elimination of the sole source of federal support for our nations Preventive Medicine Residency training programs. The budget proposal, which targets funding at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), comes at a time when we should be expanding not shrinking the training of disease prevention and health promotion physicians.

They often train and serve in underserved areas and practice at the community and population level to identify and treat the root causes of ill-health. Their work spans areas from decreasing acute and chronic illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease and respiratory illnesses, to addressing public health preparedness and emergencies such as the Zika virus, disaster preparedness and the growing opioid epidemic.

In addition, these same skills are critical to supporting our nations health system transformation efforts. The move to a more efficient, value-based health system focused on better population health outcomes is accelerated and amplified by applying appropriate population health management skills core to preventive medicine physicians.

At a time when half of the population is afflicted with at least one chronic condition, we must start at the top with public health initiatives that reach the greatest number of citizens possible. America faces an alarming increase in chronic diseases especially due to obesity including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

Though preventable, chronic diseases threaten to overwhelm our health care system. About half of all Americans adults have one or more chronic conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and one in four adults have two or more. Direct medical costs for chronic diseases and conditions exceed $750 billion annually. Research shows that half of these chronic diseases could be preventable, at least.

The return on investment from preventing these conditions is high. Based on current trends, by 2023, chronic disease cases will increase by 42 percent, to 230 million, costing $4.2 trillion in treatment and lost economic output. Reducing our ability to prevent and reduce obesity through cutting preventive medicine funding will thus add far more costs to our nations ever growing debt.

Why is the preventive medicine specialty particularly vulnerable with this budget proposal? Since preventive medicine residents train in community-based settings rather than in the traditional teaching hospital, Medicare and Medicaid do not support the cost of their graduate medical education as with all other clinical specialties. At a time when applications to preventive medicine residency training programs are on the rise due to added emphasis on population health in medical school, the sole source of federal support for these resident positions is now under attack.

The presidents budget will do irreparable harm to the preventive medicine training pipeline, send a signal to our young physicians in training that prevention should be deemphasized and increase our future health care costs adding risk to our nations health and economy.

The National Academy of Medicine (formally known as the Institute of Medicine), recommended adding the capacity to train at least an additional 400 public health and preventive medicine residents per year. Funding to increase the number of residents to meet this workforce gap has been inadequate and further compromised by a cut to HRSAs preventive medicine residency training line-item in the Fiscal Year 2017 budget.

As a result several programs have been forced to turn away residents who were planning to start their residency training on July 1.

This is tragic.

As a national asset poised to help reduce future disease, health costs and improve our nations key performance indicators, preventive medicine residents deserve stable and sustainable funding and the full support of our federal government as other medical specialties.

Without physicians trained to address and prevent these increasingly high-risk conditions, patients will suffer, our national economic competitiveness will further erode and health systems will continue to strain under the weight of costly and preventable diseases.

Dr. Robert Carr, MD, MPH, FACPM, is president of The American College of Preventive Medicine. He is a professor and director of the Executive Masters program in Health Systems Administration at Georgetown University. Follow him on Twitter @ACPM_HQ.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Preventive medicine is at risk in Trump's budget plan - The Hill (blog)

May 09, 2017

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (May 9, 2017) The Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine (TUCVM) bid farewell to 66 veterinary medical graduates during its inaugural commencement on May 6 in the Tuskegee University Chapel. Twenty-seven of the 66 students graduated with honors. This historic day was full of excitement as commencement speaker Dr. Christine Jenkins gave an inspiring commencement address and challenged the Tuskegee University Veterinary Medicine Class of 2017. The students graduating in 2017 are the 68th class to receive the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from Tuskegee University.

Jenkins, senior director at Zoetis Veterinary Medical Services and Outcomes Research, U.S., shared five main points with the Class of 2017 as they prepare to enter their professional careers in veterinary medicine. They included the following: One, graduates are entering a profession with many choices in which they are prepared. Two, take advantage of every opportunity early on to develop clinical proficiency and take on the challenging cases that others avoid. Three, always be humble and honest and learn about business to be financially successful as well as put a plan in place to address financial debt from student loans. Four, most importantly, learn how to be healthy both mind, body and soulwork through your challenges then celebrate. And five, take advantage of the strong Tuskegee network because Mother Tuskegee has provided each veterinarian a great education, Jenkins said.

The first inaugural commencement, hooding and oath ceremony was truly a huge success and another historic milestone for the college, said Dr. Ruby Perry, dean of the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Having a separate commencement allowed our veterinary medical graduates the opportunity to have the conferring of their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree along with being hooded and participate in the administration of the Veterinarians Oath in the same venue. Dr. Roslyn Casimir Whittington, interim associate dean for Academic and Student Affairs, presented the Class of 2017 after the conferring of the degrees.

The hooding ceremony is recognized in the medical profession to remind the graduates of the high standards that they should uphold as they enter into the profession as veterinarians. Dr. Pamela Martin, small animal internal medicine section chief, and Dr. Andrew Lovelady, director of clinical programs and large animal ambulatory clinician, assisted in the hooding ceremony and placed the professional doctoral hood over the head of each graduate signifying achievement and completion of the veterinary medical program.

In previous years, the College of Veterinary Medicine always participated in the main Commencement Ceremony of the university, and then convened afterward in another building for the Veterinary Oath Ceremony.

In addition to the powerful message from Dr. Jenkins to the graduates, Tuskegee University President Brian Johnson and Dean Perry honored four veterinary medical alumni with the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award during this historic occasion. The recipients included: Dr. Adam E. McKee (58), president of McKee Global Enterprise LLC, an energy and research management consulting business in Rockville, Maryland; Dr. Willie M. Reed (78), the current dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor of Veterinary Anatomic Pathology at Purdue University; Dr. William T. Watson (65), retired health scientist administrator and director of the National Center for Research Resources Chimpanzee Sanctuary Program at the National Institutes of Health; and the commencement speaker, Dr. Jenkins (84).

A reception followed for the graduates, family and friends at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the campus of Tuskegee University.

About Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine

The Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine (TUCVM) is the only veterinary medical professional program located on the campus of a historically black college or university (HBCU) in the United States. The TUCVM has educated more than 70 percent of the nations African-American veterinarians, 10 percent of Hispanic/Latino veterinarians and is recognized as the most diverse of all 30 schools/colleges of veterinary medicine in the U.S. The primary mission of the TUCVM is to provide an environment that fosters a spirit of active, independent and self-directed learning, intellectual curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, ethics, and leadership; and promotes teaching, research and service in veterinary medicine and related disciplines

2017 Tuskegee University

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Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine salutes 66 graduates at inaugural commencement - Tuskegee University

The Specialists' Stranglehold on Medicine New York Times Republicans are trying to cut health care spending. But hacking away at Medicaid, weakening coverage requirements and replacing Obamacare's subsidies with a convoluted tax credit will not deal with the real crisis in American health care. The ... Mitch McConnell | TheHillThe Hill Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX ...Twitter HR 1628 - Congressional Budget OfficeCongressional Budget Office all 341 news articles »

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The Specialists' Stranglehold on Medicine - New York Times

June 5, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Experts at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress in Geneva (3-5 June) will discuss the unusual and challenging problem of how to perform emergency medical procedures during space missions.

"Space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars are planned in the coming years. During these long duration flights, the estimated risk of severe medical and surgical events, as well as the risk of loss of crew life are significant." according to Dr Matthieu Komorowski, Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK. "The exposure to the space environment itself disturbs most physiological systems and can precipitate the onset of space-specific illnesses, such as cardiovascular deconditioning, acute radiation syndrome, hypobaric decompression sickness and osteoporotic fractures."

In the event of a crew member suffering from an illness or injury, they may have to be treated and cared for by personnel with little formal medical training at their disposal and without the equipment and consumables that would be available in a comparable situation on Earth. Dr Komorowski notes that: "In the worst-case scenario, non-medical personnel may have to care for an injured or ill crewmember. Far from low earth orbit, real-time telemedicine will not be available and the crew will need to be self-reliant." He adds that: "Duplication of skills will be critical to enhance crew safety, especially if the doctor on board himself becomes ill, injured, incapacitated or dies. As such, extending basic medical training to most crewmembers will be extremely important."

Despite these measures, Dr Komorowski cautions that: "In remote environments, medical and surgical conditions with a low probability of success that also require using vast quantities of consumables are often not attempted. Similarly, during future space exploration missions, the crew must prepare for non-survivable illnesses or injuries that will exceed their limited treatment capability."

He will discuss various solutions and countermeasures that could be applied and discuss how they have been inspired by the needs of medical care in austere environments such as Antarctic polar bases, expeditions to remote areas, and during military operations here on Earth. These include ideas such as matching crew members for blood type to enable transfusions in an environment where blood products will not be available, or making use of on-demand 3D printing of medical equipment rather than carrying items that would most likely not be needed during the mission.

In the event of a serious problem such as a cardiac arrest, it may be necessary to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); an especially difficult procedure to perform in microgravity. This will be covered by Professor Jochen Hinkelbein, Executive Senior Physician, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. He is also President of the German Society for Aerospace Medicine (DGLRM).

Prof Hinkelbein points out that "Since astronauts are selected carefully, are usually young, and are intensively observed before and during their training, relevant medical problems are, fortunately, rare in space. However, in the context of future long-term missions, for example to Mars, with durations of several years, the risk for severe medical problems is significantly higher. Therefore, there is also a substantial risk for a cardiac arrest in space requiring CPR." The space environment presents a number of unique problems that must be overcome in order to deliver emergency medical care. In microgravity it is not possible to use one's body weight to perform actions such as CPR as would be done on Earth, and there are strict limits on the amount of medical equipment and consumables that can be taken on a mission.

Prof Hinkelbein will outline the different methods of CPR that have been tested in microgravity experiments onboard aircraft and in specialised underwater space simulators. The research conducted by his team found that using a 'hand-stand' technique was the most effective way to treat a cardiac arrest and most closely matched the guidelines used here on Earth. In situations where that method couldn't be used such as small confined spaces, the alternative is the Evetts-Russomano method of wrapping the legs around the patient to prevent them floating away while performing compressions was judged to be the best alternative.

He concludes that: "In the context of future space exploration, the longer duration of missions, and the consecutively higher risk of an incident requiring resuscitation increase the importance of microgravity-appropriate medical techniques."

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Emergency medicine in space: Normal rules don't apply - Medical Xpress

Lauren M. Anderson

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Centegra Health System likely will join Northwestern Medicine by the end of the year, representatives from both health systems said.

Its been more than a year since Centegra announced plans to explore an affiliation with Northwestern Medicine, and officials would not yet discuss details of how the deal would affect both health systems.

It took about six months from the time Northwesterns merger with Cadence Health initially was announced to the time it was finalized in September 2014.

KishHealth joined Northwestern about seven months after talks of a merger started between the two companies.

Both of those deals were finalized after being approved by state regulators. Centegra and Northwestern have not yet applied for approval from the state.

Discussions continue to progress with Northwestern Medicine, Centegra spokeswoman Michelle Green said in a statement. We hope to be part of their health system by the end of the year, pending state and federal approvals. We will continue to provide updates as the process moves forward.

Both Green and Northwestern Medicine spokesman Christopher King said the parties are in the due diligence process. When Centegra announced in April 2016 that it had agreed to a letter of intent to discuss an affiliation with Northwestern Medicine, both parties said it could take many months before an agreement was made.

Any agreement would need approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board and the Federal Trade Commission.

Northwestern Medicine expects Centegra will join its system by the fall, King said.

When asked to discuss why the process has taken more than a year to complete, and what the benefits of partnering are, King declined to comment because the discussions are confidential between us and Centegra. For the same reason, Green also declined to speak further about details on the affiliation and how it would affect Centegra.

In the hospital systems annual report for 2016, Centegra Health System CEO Michael Eesley said: A partnership between Centegra Health System and Northwestern Medicine would increase the depth of Centegras clinical capabilities, enhance possibilities for physician collaboration and improve efficiencies to provide the best possible care for patients and their families.

Centegra operates hospitals in McHenry, Woodstock and Huntley. The health system also includes several immediate care centers, physician care locations, the Centegra Sage Cancer Center, Centegra Health Bridge Fitness centers in Huntley and Crystal Lake, and Centegra Gavers Breast Center in Crystal Lake, according to its website. The top employer in McHenry County, the health system employs more than 4,000 people.

Northwestern Memorial HealthCare is the corporate parent for the Northwestern Medicine health system, which has a staff of more than 4,000 people, according to its website. The company oversees Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a highly regarded academic medical center within the industry and the primary teaching hospital to Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine.

The health care system manages seven hospitals Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest, Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, Northwestern Medicine Valley West Hospital in Sandwich and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton.

In 2014, Northwestern merged with Cadence Health, which has hospitals in Winfield and Geneva.

DeKalb-based KishHealth joined the system in December 2015. Northwesterns acquisition of KishHealth grew out of talks that started in May 2015, according to previous reports from the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. That deal had no acquisition price, according to documents filed with the state.

The systems most recent merger, with Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, was announced in March 2016. Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare signed a letter of intent to transfer Marianjoy in October 2015. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the change in ownership in December 2015.

Green has said money will not be exchanged to make the deal happen in the case of Centegra and Northwestern. In business dealings, a merger or acquisition typically involves a money exchange or a corporate governance change. Both health systems are nonprofits.

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Centegra Health System, Northwestern Medicine expect to finalize ... - Northwest Herald

As a medical student, do you ever wonder what its like to specialize in preventive medicine? Meet Wendy E. Braund, MD, MPH, the state health officer for Wyoming and a featured physician in the AMA WireShadow Me Specialty Series, which offers advice directly from physicians about life in their specialties. Check out her insights to help determine whether a career in preventive medicine might be a good fit for you, and compare her responses with those of two other physicians in this specialty, Daniel Blumenthal, MD, and Robert Carr, MD, MPH.

Shadowing Dr. Braund

Specialty: General preventive medicine and public health

Practice setting: State health department

Employment type: Government

Years in practice: 10

A typical day and week in my practice:

As the state health officer for Wyoming, I have broad jurisdiction over public health events that occur in Wyoming. We get a surprising number of inquiries from residents looking for answers on things covered within the public health statute, from rodent infestations in empty lots to ownership rights on common graves. My staff and I also respond to any public health emergencies that arise, such as communicable disease outbreaks, floods and fires.

The most challenging and rewarding aspects of caring for preventive medicine patients: Everyone in Wyoming is my patient, which poses some unique challenges and opportunities. Lack of funding and inability to hire staff with formal public health training and expertise are chronic issues. Many of the public health problems we are addressing have long-term outcomes, so determining appropriate proxy measures to determine the impact of our programs and initiatives in the short term is challenging but necessary.

It is a tremendous privilege to be the state health officer and to have the opportunity to set the public health agenda for the state. Everyone within this enterprise knows they are working for the public good, which is very rewarding, especially when we see people getting healthier and living longer, better lives because of it.

Three adjectives to describe the typical preventive medicine specialist: Dedicated, resourceful and data-driven.

How my lifestyle matches, or differs from, what I had envisioned in medical school: Like most medical students, I envisioned a life of seeing individual patients, but now populations are my patients. I do much more administrative work than I envisioned, but like many other specialists, Im on call.

Skills every physician in training should have for preventive medicine but wont be tested for on the board exam: Leadership, systems thinking and financial management. Also, if youre going to practice governmental public health, you absolutely have to be politically savvy, because getting things accomplished, particularly from the legislative perspective, requires navigating the system. You have to be able to put public health issues in terms that are understandable to decision-makers and also know which battles to choose and how to frame them.

One question physicians in training should ask themselves before pursuing this specialty: Are you OK with not seeing patients on a regular basis?

Books every medical student in preventive medicine should be reading: Anything by Abraham Verghese, MD, and Oliver Sacks, MD, as well as A Chancellor's Tale: Transforming Academic Medicine, by Ralph Snyderman, MD.

The online resource students interested in my specialty should follow: The Community Guide.

Quick insights I would give students who are considering preventive medicine: Do a rotation in preventive medicine. Also, talk with preventive medicine doctors in multiple settings. Preventive medicine physicians have very broad skill setsincluding clinical preventive medicine, occupational medicine, health policy, health systems and health administrationand there is huge variability in their practices, from public health to academic medicine to clinical preventive and lifestyle medicine.

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Preventive medicine at the state level: Shadowing Dr. Braund - American Medical Association (blog)

Is medical marijuana right for you? Concerns about the medicine addressed

Interest in medical marijuana in Northwest Florida skyrocketed this week after the first dispensary opened its doors.

Dr. Michelle Beasley at the Medical Cannabis Clinic of Florida said many people have concerns about using the drug to treat their illnesses.

One of her patients is Channel 3 producer Brett Haskell.

Haskell was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in November and has plenty of questions about how medical marijuana could help him.

He's following up at the clinic 90 days after first asking about medical marijuana.

Under the law, he had to wait that amount of time to build a relationship with Dr. Beasley before she could prescribe the medicine for the first time.

Haskell said, "I was kind of concerned with the 90 days and my time period of getting the cancer cured and going through chemo."

He's gone through chemo and researched medical cannabis to see if it would help with the side effects of his treatment.

"They have other drugs out there that they have for me right now, which is dealing with the nausea and it gives your drowsiness," Haskell said. "There was another one I actually had an allergic reaction to."

Dr. Beasley said many people are worried about taking the medicine and going through their normal everyday lives. She said cannabis use is very patient specific.

The same dosage doesn't work for everyone.

"Some strains are more, make you sleepy. Other ones are more energizing so depending on the type of illness, the age of the patient, their exposure to cannabis in the past, that can all change how much medical cannabis I would start using," Dr. Beasley said.

There's a wide range of medical cannabis from non-euphoric Cannabidiol (CBD) to others that can make you high containing high levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

She said prescribing both is important because they work well together.

Dr. Beasley said, "Having CBD around you gets your own medical benefits from the CBD, but CBD actually helps keep the THC in check so patients can benefit from the medical properties of THC without having to have the side effects."

The end goal is to help patients like Haskell live better lives without pain or suffering.

"All the patients I've seen, their goal is to be more functional in their life," Dr Beasley said.

Haskell is waiting for a required registry card before he can actually go buy medical marijuana.

Dr. Beasley has over 100 patients on the registry and at least double that currently in the 90-day waiting period.

More here:

Is medical marijuana right for you? Concerns about the medicine ... - WEAR

Mick Wiggins/Ikon Images/Getty Images

Mick Wiggins/Ikon Images/Getty Images

A surprising medical finding caught the eye of NPR's veteran science correspondent Richard Harris in 2014. A scientist from the drug company Amgen had reviewed the results of 53 studies that were originally thought to be highly promising findings likely to lead to important new drugs. But when the Amgen scientist tried to replicate those promising results, in most cases he couldn't.

"He tried to reproduce them all," Harris tells Morning Edition host David Greene. "And of those 53, he found he could only reproduce six."

That was "a real eye-opener," says Harris, whose new book Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions explores the ways even some talented scientists go wrong pushed by tight funding, competition and other constraints to move too quickly and sloppily to produce useful results.

"A lot of what everybody has reported about medical research in the last few years is actually wrong," Harris says. "It seemed right at the time but has not stood up to the test of time."

The impact of weak biomedical research can be especially devastating, Harris learned, as he talked to doctors and patients. And some prominent scientists he interviewed told him they agree that it's time to recognize the dysfunction in the system and fix it.

"If it's not operating at full steam ... and not doing everything right," Harris says, "it's worth pointing that out and saying, 'No. Think about this. Let's make it better.' "

The following has been edited for clarity.

On the ways unreliable research results affect patients

Tom Murphy was a healthy rugby player diagnosed with ALS in his 50s. .... With his doctor's help he signs up for an experimental treatment with a drug called dexpramipexole, or "Dex." At first, he's very hopeful, and it seems to be helping him, but they run the tests and figure out that it actually doesn't work. In fact none of the ALS drugs work. I focus on Tom Murphy because he's a victim of the system here of these failures.

What happened in the case of ALS was there were at least a dozen drugs that had been tried in a handful of small studies way too small of animals. And they all seemed to have some sort of promise some of them went into very large clinical trials. We spent tens of millions of dollars developing these drugs, and they all failed. There's a group in Cambridge, Mass. the ALS Therapy Development Institute that went back and reviewed all these studies and realized all the initial studies were wrong. They used very few mice. They weren't thinking enough about the different genetics of the mice. And a lot of other problems. ... This therapy institute came away thinking none of these drug candidates were really realistic.

On the ways the scientific enterprise in Charles Darwin's time was very different

Darwin was very interesting. It took him decades to come up with his theory of evolution and he was not in a hurry he was studying barnacles, he was studying birds, all sorts of things. He felt no pressure to publish until somebody came up with a similar idea, and he decided, 'Hmmm ... maybe I do want to be first. ..." But we're not in that world anymore. Things are very competitive, very fast-paced. So the competitive world of biomedicine is shaping this problem of evidence that can't be replicated a lot.

On why the delight that's long been an intrinsic part of science can disappear over time and why that's bad

I think a lot of people go into science out of a sense of wonder. But ... as time goes on, people feel the career pressures, and they realize it isn't just about exploring and having big ideas. They have to have research that helps them progress toward their first job, toward tenure, then the next grant, and so on. Those pressures are different from just, sort of, exploring and understanding fundamental biology.... And the less you're focusing on delight, the less maybe you're aiming at the truth and the more you are, inadvertently, often aiming at other goals career goals, financial goals and so on. This may give you a fruitful life as an individual, but may produce less value to us as a society.

On how the public should respond when they hear of a big biomedical advance

I think it is good to question it. Every time you hear something like this, just remember, it's all contingent here is one study, and it may not stand the test of time. I think that's healthy. ... When scientists read the scientific literature, they realize, "Oh, probably half of this is wrong." It's just, not knowing which half that's the vexing part.

On the risk that pointing out flaws in science will make people question its value

It's always uncomfortable to point out problems, but it's also essential. I mean, we are taxpayers we are citizens, and we support this enterprise and we expect to reap its rewards. If it's not operating at full steam ... and not doing everything right, it's worth pointing that out and saying, "No. Think about this. Let's make it better." Many prominent scientists agree with me and are concerned about this and are thinking hard about how to make things better, from the top of NIH on down. There are solutions, and I talk about them in my book.

On why the Trump administration's proposed cuts to NIH funding wouldn't make things better

It's a very appealing idea, obviously, to say, "Oh, well, let's just identify the waste and root it out." But that's not the way science works. ... If you cut the [$30 billion] budget of the National Institutes of Health, you're going to shrink that already very small pool of money even smaller, and you're going to increase the competitive pressures. You're going to increase all these perverse incentives that put us in this position to begin with. So I think that would actually be devastating to biomedical research.

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Pressure To Publish Leads To Shoddy Science And Bad Medicine ... - NPR

Bridget Verrette

April 7, 2017

The April 2017 issue ofHealth Affairsfeatures the first article in a new series on The Practice of Medicine.

The series will explore many facets of the practice environment and how that environment affects physicians and other clinicians. It will cover a broad range of topics, including how clinicians respondboth on a daily basis and in a strategic senseto regulatory requirements, payment policy, quality measurement, technology, and more. The articles will also explore how these factors affect care delivery.

This months debut Practice of Medicine article examines the amount of time physicians actually spend with patients compared to time spent on the various tasks associated with desktop medicine. The study, conducted by Ming Tai-Seale, Associate Director of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, and a group of co-authors, features some surprising findings.

Health Affairs welcomes submissions for The Practice of Medicine series on a rolling basis throughout 2017. Successful submissions will be timely and relevant to the current policy environment. The next paper in the series, scheduled for the journals May issue, will take a look at the potential impact of MACRA on the practice of medicine. Between journal articles, continue to check the Health Affairs Blog for related content, such as a recent post by a group of hospital CEOs that explains the phenomenon of physician burnout and offers solutions to reduce its burden.

This series is supported by The Physicians Foundation.

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A New Health Affairs Series: The Practice of Medicine - Health Affairs (blog)

A 37-year-old surgical assistant who posed as a plastic surgeon, performing face-lifts, tummy tucks and other medical procedures with limited if any anesthesia, pleaded guilty to second-degree felony assault, criminal impersonation and unauthorized practice of a physician Friday.

Provided by Denver District Attorney's Office

Carlos Hernandez Fernandez claimed to be a licensed doctorsince at least January 2015, performing procedures at Hernandez Fernandez Clinic at 424 S. Federal Blvd., according to a statement from Denver District Attorney Beth McCann.

He was initially charged with 15 counts against four victims in August, according to the DAs office. But more victims came forward, bringing the total charges up to 126 counts with 37 victims. Under a plea deal, he pleaded guilty to onlyone count of assault, one count of impersonation and one count of unauthorized practice.

Fernandez faces a prison sentence of up to six years with three years of parole, according to the DAs office. The term length will be determined at a sentencing scheduled for June 2. Fernandez must pay victims roughly $175,000 in restitution before or at the time of sentencing, according to the DAs office. If more victimsshow documentation, more restitution will be paid.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

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Fake Denver plastic surgeon pleads guilty to assault, unauthorized ... - The Denver Post

Ahmed Mohamed was 6 years old when he and his family arrived in Rochester as part of the first wave of Somali immigrants in 1996. His knowledge of English at the time consisted of three words.

By the time he had reached medical school, Mohamed had become the pride of many in Rochester's Somali-American community. They began to call him doctor, despite his protestations at the time that he had yet to earn his degree.

Today, Mohamed is a doctor, a resident physician in Mayo Clinic's Department of Internal Medicine, one of a tiny handful of Somali-American doctors at the clinic. And to those who have witnessed his progress, it hasn't come as a great surprise.

Despite a starting point well back of his native-born peers, Mohamed doesn't convey a sense that he faced more challenges and struggles than any other person.

Yes, there was a language barrier at first, but by fourth grade, Mohamed had mastered English well enough to graduate from the district's English for Speakers of Other Languages program. Yes, belonging to a minority immigrant community in majority-white Rochester did lead to an occasional fight but only when it became necessary.

"Going back to first grade, I was very good studen,t and I never disrupted class," Mohamed said. "I rarely said anything. I was quiet in class up until I got into med school."

Yet his mild and his soft-spoken manner belie a relentless drive and sharp mind, teachers and mentors say.

"He was just a wonderful student," said retired Mayo High School history teacher Larry Fowler, who taught Mohamed in 10th grade. "He was just a really bright kid."

Mohamed credits his success to his parents, who instilled within him high expectations. Both preached education's power to achieve one's dreams. His dad, Abdullahi Hassan, was an agronomist in Mogadishu who spoke five languages before civil war forced the family to flee.

As a boy, he and his brothers were expected to have their homework finished before they could go out and play. Sometimes his mom, Khadija Naji, would insist on him reading a book before he could join his friends.

"I think they kept a pretty good leash on us," Mohamed said. "We never really wandered outside of within eyesight of the house."

Mohamed said the idea of becoming a doctor first began to impress itself on him in his teens. His first extended exposure to doctors came when he would accompany his grandmother on her doctor's visits. Blessed with a sharp memory, he was able to recall and relay everything the doctor said about his grandmother's care to his mom.

It was seeing the care that doctors provided and the clear benefits his grandmother received that created the impetus to become a doctor. That coupled with a discovery that he was fascinated with science and "learning about living things and how they work" drove him.

Mohamed said he was neither daunted nor particularly preoccupied with the fact that African-Americans are woefully under-represented in the medical field. While more black men have graduated college over the past few decades, the number of black men applying to medical school dropped from 1978 to 2014.

"I just wanted to pursue becoming a doctor on my own," he said. "I made a detailed plan for what i wanted to accomplish each year of college."

While a student at the University of Minnesota, Mohamed was introduced to Eddie Mairura, a Kenyan-born man who is now an orthopedic surgeon in Dallas. At the time that he started mentoring Mohamed, Mairura was a medical student at the U when Mohamed was working on his undergraduate degree.

Mairura's own experiences in medical school underscored the demographic challenges facing blacks. In his own medical class of 220 people at the U, there were only four black people. Mairura hoped to be a guide, opening the door wider for minority students.

"I think medicine is really about giving back. When people achieve success, they don't celebrate by themselves, they got there by standing on the shoulders of other people," Mairura said.

Mairura found Mohamed to be a person with no shortage of determination and motivation "100 percent committed" to becoming a doctor. Mairura set him up on job shadowing opportunities and recommended certain courses that he take. Mohamed picked his brain whenever he could.

"He was very very focused," Mairura said. "I've mentored a lot of people, but I think he's the only one that makes me look good. I laid out a road map for him and then stepped out of the way or (risked getting) run over."

Graduating from medical school at Michigan State University was an occasion for celebration. But it was also a bittersweet moment for Mohamed. His dad was hospitalized at Mayo Clinic suffering complications from leukemia.

Though weak and struggling to speak, his dad gave Mohamed a thumbs up when Mohamed told him about his job interview opportunities, including an offer at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, which was his top choice.

One of Mohamed's mentors who was also visiting the hospital at the time told Mohamed's dad, "you did it," acknowledging his influence as a role model in Mohamed's life. But his dad quietly raised his hand and pointed to Mohamed as if to say, "he deserves the credit." Mohamed's dad died a week later.

As a first-year resident, Mohamed divides his time between seeing patients as a primary care physician at the Baldwin Building and rotating through sub-specialties, such as cardiology and neurology.

Mohamed, 27, is cognizant of his responsibilities as a role model for his community. With his country still trying to rise from the ashes of a civil war and public perceptions often defined by media portrayals of Somali terrorists, he hopes to offer a counterbalance to those views.

In the same way that mentors have offered shoulders for him to stand on, so he hopes to do the same for others.

At Somali public gatherings, parents will approach Mohamed seeking advice for their college-bound children. They'll ask for his phone number, so he can talk to their kids.

"It does motivate me, because I want to see younger kids in the community achieve success, whether it's in medicine or something else," Mohamed said. "And the advice that I give younger kids in the community is, do something you enjoy doing."

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'Medicine is really about giving back' - Post-Bulletin

RICHMOND

State health officials revoked the license of a Virginia Beach chiropractor Friday night after hearing more than two hours of testimony from patients who said he touched them in a sexually inappropriate manner, and even engaged in sex acts during treatment sessions.

The Virginia Board of Medicine voted unanimously to revoke the license of Jerry Hedrick, who has been accused by seven patients of acting inappropriately during treatment sessions. One of those patients also filed a sexual battery charge against him, which will go to trial in Virginia Beach in May.

The board spent less than 15 minutes in a closed-session deliberation before announcing the revocation, which is the strongest action it can take and is rarely used. The board had suspended his license in March, pending the formal hearing Friday.

One patient, described as Patient A in Board of Medicine records, testified Hedrick ran his hands across her buttocks, breasts and between her legs during her third chiropractic session with him. She was so appalled, she filed a sexual battery charge against him in Virginia Beach in October, two days after the treatment session.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for April 24 and a trial for May 16 in that case, which Hedrick appealed after a December conviction in lower court.

Patient A testified Hedricks hands went underneath her underwear and his fingers touched her skin at the top of her buttocks. He also moved her head by grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling on it. He inappropriately massaged her chest area through her clothing, ran his hands across her breast and touched her vaginal area through her clothing.

At the conclusion of the session, he asked how it felt to be ravaged on your birthday.

She called a friend and said she thought her chiropractor had molested her.

Asked why she was testifying, Patient A said, He doesnt need to be doing this to people, period.

She said she found him through her companys health insurance program, and didnt want other women to experience the same thing.

Three other patients testified in person, and another by telephone.

The patients involved in the Board of Medicine case ranged in age from 21 to 48, and reported inappropriate sexual behavior dating back as far as 2004.

Hedrick sent the board a letter saying he would not appear at Saturdays hearing. In the past, he has declined comment to The Virginian-Pilot on the accusations. The patients names are not being used to protect their privacy.

A patient identified as Patient B said Hedrick straddled the table behind her and held his groin area against her buttocks during a 2013 session. She immediately got up, told him point-blank what he was doing was wrong and left. She also reported him to the insurance company who covered the treatment.

Not all the patients testified willingly.

One, described as Patient C, said she was testifying because she received a subpoena. Between August 2008 and April 2009, Hedrick kissed the woman, who was 31, massaged her upper-chest muscles while she was uncovered from the waist up and brushed his hand across her nipples.

He sent text messages to this patient suggesting oral orgasms. One text said: Do you like erotic stories? I sometimes like to write them. Pretty hot. Even working on a pirate-themed one.

Hedrick unzipped his pants and began rubbing his erect, exposed penis against her.

In one case, he seemed to acknowledge crossing professional boundaries: I apologize if I ever made you uncomfortable if so, I am truly sorry. I will remain professional if that is what you want.

He engaged in kissing, genital touching, oral sex and sexual intercourse with this patient at his office, sometimes after appointments.

I felt like I was living out his porn fantasies, the woman testified during the hearing.

The woman said she understands the doctor-patient boundaries of medical doctors,but was unclear about chiropractors. She said she and a few other patients involved in this case met Hedrick through a history re-enactment group called Blackbeards Crew.

I didnt want to get Dr. Hedrick in trouble, she testified. I felt just as responsible as he was.

One board member, Dr. Lori Conklin, asked whether she thought Hedrick had brought the trouble on himself by violating the doctor-patient relationship, and whether she was concerned about other women who might be treated the same way.

It was a shock to learn he was coming on to women with unwanted advances, Patient C testified.

Another patient testified by phone that Hedrick had used what was called trigger point treatment, in which he used his gloved hand to touch her pelvic area to treat pelvic floor dysfunction. She felt he eventually moved into movements that were meant to be sexually arousing rather than as treatment, and she quit seeing him.

Tracy Robinson, a lawyer with the Virginia Department of Health Professions who was presenting the case to the board, said Hedrick made a point of being a solo practitioner with no employees in order to prey on female patients for his sexual gratification. He also talked to patients about other patients he was treating, a violation of patient confidentiality.

Testimony indicated the Department of Health Professions had investigated Hedrick in the past, and that he denied acting inappropriately, and agreed to create an office setting with more people so he would not be treating patients as a lone practitioner. He also said he would give more verbal cues so that patients would not misinterpret his treatment.

But Robinson said he continued the same pattern of practicing in a solo atmosphere, to enable him to find new victims to exploit.

The board unanimously agreed with Robinsons recommendation of a revocation. Hedrick will not be able to reapply for a license for five years.

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Board of Medicine revokes license of Virginia Beach chiropractor accused of sexual misconduct - Virginian-Pilot

Mayo Clinic to expand downtown Minneapolis sports medicine ... Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal The health care provider is adding 16000 square feet to the facility, which opened in 2014. and more »

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Mayo Clinic to expand downtown Minneapolis sports medicine ... - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal