Dr. Val Gene Iven goes over some medical issues with Marcus Smart, an OSU basketball star from 2012-14. [PHOTO BY BRUCE WATERFIELD, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY]

Val Gene Iven grew up in Pond Creek, north of Enid, then graduated from OSU and the OU Health Sciences. In 1993, he became the team doctor for University of Tennessee athletics. In 2007, Iven returned to OSU in the same role. Iven's brother, Van Shea, was the longtime Channel 4 sports reporter who now is on staff with the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.

I was born in Enid. I'd have had to be born at the house if I was born in Pond Creek.

Growing up in Pond Creek, small-town values, to me those are the best days of my life. Just because the community, your work ethic, growing up on a farm, school system, everybody in town knew you. Can't beat that.

I thought at a pretty early age I wanted to be a doctor. Probably somewhere in the junior high years. I loved the farm life but had terrible allergies, just couldn't be around wheat dust. I could be on the tractor, but the wheat dust just ate me up. So I kind of thought, I want to be a doctor. Had a great role model in Enid, my pediatrician, Dr. (Robert) Shuttee. Went to college, and that's the route I went and never wavered.

Got my M.D. from OU Health Sciences Center. Stayed there, did my residency there in family medicine. Then stayed there and did a fellowship in primary care sports medicine. I was the first fellow that they had in primary care sports medicine.

I thought I wanted to go into medicine and probably thought early on, I just liked kids, maybe going into pediatrics. But I loved sports. Grew up around sports. Tried to combine the two worlds.

Right out of my fellowship, '93, there were a couple of openings at Division I, Tennessee and Florida. Interviewed with both. Tennessee, got the call back from them first. Didn't know anybody at Knoxville or anybody affiliated with the university. I remember telling mom and dad, I'm going to go do this for two or three years and I'll be back. Dad reminded me of that when I came back 13 years later.

This job is a lot that you don't learn in med school. There's just so much nowadays, from the NCAA, from the Big 12. It's much more than just being a physician. From all the things we do in regards to training, from rehabilitation, from nutrition, the whole world of drug testing. All of the people that you have to communicate with nowadays, in regards to coaches and administrators and families. So it's grown so much over the years, it's just a full-time job.

The opportunity brought me back to Stillwater. I had kept in contact with people. And Dr. (Mark) Pascale, our orthopedist, called and said the team physician, Dr. Ken Smith, who had replaced Dr. (Donald) Cooper, decided he was just going to fulfill a role in the student health center and they were looking for somebody full time. It was just an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Your folks are back in Oklahoma. My grandmother at the time was nearing 100. Kids having the opportunity to be around their grandparents. Being back at your alma mater.

Great opportunity in the SEC, meet those people. Now back at your alma mater for 10 years. I've just been blessed.

I missed most of Coach (Eddie) Sutton. But yeah, we've had unprecedented times now, in regards to the run we've had in football, in particular. When I first got back in '07, we were in the process of building. I remember (growing up) sitting in the end zone, wasn't bowled in. Dad and I would drive over on a Saturday, just for the game, drive back. Just wasn't near the world it is now, game day or facilities. So we've come a million miles.

Van Shea is six years younger. Mom thought she was pretty clever with our names. Dad's name is Gene. So she started with Val Gene. She'd heard there was a Val Gene's restaurant. I think that was part of it. And once she came up with Val Gene, she couldn't go with Frank. So she had to come up with something. And we've both been called each other's names.

I'm completely just Van Shea's brother. Anywhere I go, anybody I'm introduced to, it's all, Oh, your Van Shea's brother. And I'm proud of that.

Pond Creek is our roots. That's your family. That's what you're always going to remember and go back to in life in regards to kind of where you got your values and knowing people. I credit a lot of things I've learned through the years, dating back to my days from grade school and high school in Pond Creek.

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Collected Wisdom: Dr. Val Gene Iven combines love of sports with medicine - NewsOK.com

A new approach to medical research in Canadalets patients help decide what gets studied, and how.

No longer are scientists toiling away in labsin isolation. Patients and their family members or caregiversare increasingly involved behind the scenes,working alongside researchers, doctorsand decision-makers at all stages of the research process.

"Fairness and justice would say these people have got the disease surely they should have a bit of a say," says Dr. Andreas Laupacis of Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital.

As a health researcher at the Li KaShingKnowledge Institute, he's advocated that patients should be more involved in setting research priorities.

For him, the light bulb went off during a visit to the JamesLindAlliancein the U.K., which works withpatients to establish "top 10" research priorities for a variety of medical conditions.

He's now used the same methods with several groups in Canada. The first one involved patients with chronic kidney disease who were receiving, or approaching the need for, dialysis.

Once patients were brought into the process, they identified that itching was a major problem, an issue that had received practically no research attention. In fact, four of the top 10 priorities they came up with were hardly being studied at all.

Emily Nicholas Angl has helped hospitals, governments and other organizations engage patients in health research. (Emily Nicholas Angl)

Emily Nicholas Anglhas spent the past eight years trying to bridge the gap between researchers and patientsafter her own encounters with the health care system led her to advocate for more patient involvement.

She says working alongside researchers is a new idea for many patients, who are used to participating only as subjects in studies or clinical trials.

"Understanding why it makes a lot of sense [to get involved] isn't always that obvious," she says. "But once they do, everyone feels like this is important and meaningful."

The Canadian government threw its support behind the idea in 2011, when the Canadian Institutes of Health Research launched its Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research,or SPOR. At its heart was a mandate to get patients involved as partners in health research.

SPOR now funds a number of networks that include patients in the research of chronic diseases such as kidney disease, chronic painand diabetes.

Dr. Adeera Levin is one of the principal investigators at the Can-SOLVE network, which received funding to involve patients and Indigenous people in research on chronic kidney disease. A council of more than 30 patients from across the country helps guide all aspects of the research projects.

"What we're trying to do is change the culture of medicine by putting patients in all our activities," she says.

It's hadits challenges. Researchers and patients have had to find a common language free of scientific jargon. Dialysis machines also need to be made accessible at the group's meetings in cities across Canada. But for Levin, involving patients has helped focus the research on what's important.

"Sometimes if you're really trying to change the way you understand a disease or care for a group of patients, having them there is very groundingand makes you much more efficient."

In addition to nationalnetworks like Can-SOLVE, every province now has its own organization to foster patient-oriented research.

Virginia Vandall-Walker leads patient engagement for Alberta's SPOR Support Unit, which was first out of the gate in 2013. Her team communicates with researchers who want to get patients involved in their work, and helps them recruit patients, add patient engagement to theirgrant applicationsand facilitate sessions with patients.

Patients with chronic kidney disease are engaged in all aspects of research projects at the Can-SOLVE CKD network. (Can-SOLVE CKD Network)

She notes that some of the researchers who are getting involved are well regarded in their fields, and she hopes they will help engage other researchers from the province.

And she says that because the initiatives are so new, various groups across the country continue to learn from each other and make improvements. "It's like we're in the test tube," she says.

Health researcher Dr. Donald Redelmeier sees a number of upsides to patient engagement in research, but cautions that there are some drawbacks.

He points out that it can be a time-consuming process for researchers who are already facing a tremendous amount of work in launching a new study.

"Maybe it's worth their time, but that's a bit of an open question," he says.

He also points out that the slow, incremental movement of science, and the inevitable failures, can be disheartening for patients who also must invest a lot of time.

For Emily Nicholas Angl, though, the past eight years havetaught her that patients are often keen to lend their expertise.

"I'm always amazed by how much people want to improve things for others," she says. "The altruism is vast in the patient community."

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Trying to 'change the culture of medicine' by letting patients decide what gets researched - CBC.ca

Medicine is a complex field. So complex that any given person cant know more than a fraction of whats going on. Keeping up with the latest discoveries is impossible. Machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence offer a new way of looking at medicine and a great power to automate medical tasks.

At the South by Southwest conference event in Austin, TX, a panel of experts came together to discuss the state of medical AI and how machine learning can benefit both patients and doctors. The discussion was moderated by Kay Eron, general manager of health and life sciences at Intel.

The conversation opened with a look at how the panelists found themselves in the machine learning field. Naveen Rao, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of artificial intelligence solutions at Intel, answered that his interest came from a realization that machines werent all that different from biological beings. He was also concerned with how skills were so individual.

Its always been strange to me that knowledge is locked away inside a few individuals, he said.

My mission is to put powerful analytic tools in the hands of every decision maker, said Bob Rogers, chief data scientist for analytics and AI solutions at Intel. He stated that we need tools to navigate this very complex world we live in.

When asked about current trends, neural networks came up instantly. John Mattison, MD, assistant medical director and chief health information officer, Southern California region, at Kaiser Permanente, explained that engineers are discovering that neural nets have increasingly evolved toward how living brains work. Because of this, he felt there was a real role for looking at biological examples for technical solutions.

Rao backed up this thought, offering that neural networks represent the world in almost the same way the world is built. All data in the world seems to be hierarchical, and people can break it down.

One of the things thats changed in machine learning, you could use data to make models, but they had limited utility. You had to do a lot of work up front. Whats exciting in this new generation, it can learn from example data without preprogramming, said Rogers.

The world of genetics has also offered incredible new tools to medical practitioners. Machine learning and genetics together show awesome potential. The panel spoke on some of the challenges to overcome before that potential could be realized.

The cost of testing used to be an issue, but that cost has since been dropping. In its place, the threat of data discrimination has become a prime concern. People simply wont share their medical information if theres a chance it could be used against them. Without shared data, it will be hard, if not impossible, to create the massive sample sizes machine learning needs.

Secondly, in medicine, good enough isnt good enough. Trust is an issue. The proof points in the technology are really important to start with, Rao said. He continued, saying the technology must be well beyond the experimental point before people can trust it.

Another concern the panel shared was the response from the Food and Drug Administration. The panel admitted the FDA would love to change its procedures to keep up with the pace of technology, but government, much like medicine, is a conservative creature that moves slowly. On the other side, companies resist opening their research to the kind of transparency the FDA requires.

Even with these hurdles, the combination of medicine and machine learning offered huge business opportunities. Mattison shared his thoughts on the subject, saying that things are changing so fast the real opportunities are in generalized solutions and areas that will last through the change.

What are the kinds of applications that are most impactful? Rogers asked. He mentioned the least-trained person in the medical field was the patient themself. An AI agent could help them navigate their complex healthcare future.

Medical research is mostly a case of accidents, and the systems involved are too complex to model, Rao mentioned. Neural network techniques, however, could make those impossible models possible.

Watchthe complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBEs coverage of the South by SouthWest (SXSW). (*Disclosure: Intel sponsors some SXSW segments on SiliconANGLE Medias theCUBE. Neither Intel nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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New trends and troubles for AI in medicine - SiliconANGLE (blog)

WILLIAMSPORT -- Evangelical Community Hospital has acquired the practice of Central Penn Interventional Pain Medicine (CPIPM) in Williamsport. With the acquisition, Shiyi Abla-Yao, MD, lead practitioner of CPIPM, joins the Evangelical family of physicians.

Dr. Abla-Yao will continue practicing at the CPIPM location as well as at the new Pain Medicine of Evangelical practice at West Branch Medical Center (WBMC), Lewisburg. Construction at Pain Medicine of Evangelical at WBMC is expected to be completed in March with the office opening for patient care in April 2017.

Kendra Aucker, President and CEO of Evangelical, said, The addition of CPIPM and its seasoned professionals to the Evangelical family is another example of the Hospital listening to what the community needsin this case, specialty relief from painand finding the best possible way to make it available to them.

This acquisition represents a perfect fit for both Evangelical and Dr. Abla-Yao, ensuring patients have seamless access to the pain management care theyve received in the past as well as the opportunity to take advantage of Dr. Abla-Yaos expertise at a new location.

Were excited to be part of this venture with Evangelical, said Dr. Abla-Yao. As a physician, there is nothing more rewarding than helping patients be relieved of ailments that hinder them from living life fully.

With over two decades of experience in anesthesiology and pain medicine, Dr. Abla-Yaos expertise is a welcome addition to the new Pain Medicine of Evangelical practice. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in Nursing from Gwynedd Mercy College, Gwynedd Valley, Pa., and went on to receive her Doctor of Medicine Degree from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. She completed her residency in anesthesia with an emphasis on multidisciplinary pain management and an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medicine Education (ACGME) fellowship in Pain Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Dr. Abla-Yao is no stranger to Evangelical Community Hospital, in 2000 she was integral in the establishment of a pain clinic at the facility and worked with the Evangelical Surgical Center in treating a wide variety of pain syndromes. She has maintained her relationship as a courtesy staff member at the Hospital from 2011 to present.

Dr. Abla-Yao is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology including certification in anesthesiology, pain medicine, and medical acupuncture. She is a professional member of the American Medical Association, the American Society and the Pennsylvania Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Academy of Pain Medicine and of Medical Acupuncture, and the International Spine Injection Society.

For more information about Evangelical Community Hospital and its family of services, visit http://www.evanhospital.com.

Evangelical is a non-profit organization that employs over 1,600 individuals and has more than 170 employed and non-employed physicians on staff. The Hospital is licensed to accommodate 132 overnight patients, 12 acute rehab patients, and 18 bassinets. The Hospital serves residents throughout the Central Susquehanna Valley, including those living in Snyder, Union, Northumberland, and Lycoming counties.

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Evangelical Acquires Central Penn Interventional Pain Medicine in Williamsport - NorthcentralPa.com

KOLKATA: The police have arrested one more middleman on Saturday for being allegedly involved with a gang that sold expired drugs as valid over-the-counter drugs. The investigating sleuths said that the accused was picked up from the Burrabazar area of central Kolkata. "We had identified the accused Paltu Hazra (35) from the statements of the two other accused, especially printing press owner Pawan Jhunjhunwala. He is a resident of Janai in Hooghly with a shop at 22, Sukhia Street. While Pawan used to erase off the manufacturing date and batch details, Paltu used to reprint new dates and batch number on those," said joint commissioner (crime) Vishal Garg. There are a few more who would play a similar role in the gang for the past eight years," said an investigating officer. This fresh arrest takes the total number of those nabbed in this illegal business to three. The investigators have also identified a third company whose executives took active help of this gang to dispose unsold expired products. These companies allegedly even alleged arranged the printing machines at Burrabazar to the two Howrah based businessmen. "You can say that the two arrested men - printing press owner Pawan Jhunjunwala and wholeseller Niresh Sarogi who were arrested by the police on Thursday night on the charge of changing the expiry date of expired medicines with new ones along with their batch numbers - were key ground players. The main culprits who ran the show from behind are yet to be arrested," claimed a source. The accused duo erased the expiry dates of medicines using those machines. "We are preparing a list of the top officials of these companies. They would be interrogated," a senior official of the detective department said. Sources in Lalbazar said that the probe has now revealed that most of the expired medicines were generic products. "These medicines were sometimes sold in the open between 17-30 percent discounts passing them off as fair price shop items thus fooling the buyers. These medicines were mostly sold from the Burrabazar-Posta region," claimed an officer adding that they will soon meet the Bagri Market traders whose cooperation would be sought to weed out such malpractices. The cops said that the probe will also look in to the role of several pharmacists who hand over the unsold expired drugs. "We strongly believe that the gang took full help of the lapses in the system," said a police source. During investigations, the probe team found that several chemists complained that were not getting the cost of the expired drug reimbursed while returning them to the manufacturer. "The medical representative pushes us to buy products but if we don't sell them, they return only 20% of the cost price," an ARS officer quoted a distributor. The cops claim it was this "recovering of costs that the accused took to this illegal printing and selling of expired drugs," explained an officer.

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Third arrest in expired medicine racket - Times of India

africanews

Ivorian authorities have burnt 50 tonnes of counterfeit medicine africanews International Institute of Research on Counterfeit medicines in Ivory Coast deplores that the trade in fake medicines remains largely unpunished in the world or is being considered as a simple offense of violation of intellectual property, although it ... and more »

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Ivorian authorities have burnt 50 tonnes of counterfeit medicine - africanews

Chief medical officer is on a mission to have patients treated as human beings, writes Magnus Linklater

Quite how Catherine Calderwood juggles her job as chief medical officer for Scotland with her continuing practice as an obstetrician and being the mother of three young children is a mystery she keeps to herself. Seated in her office in St Andrews House in Edinburgh, she appears coolly on top of all three tasks. Yet they are formidable. Among them are tackling Scotlands appalling health record, persuading doctors to reassess the way they treat their patients, changing the national diet and revolutionising the way that health professionals communicate with the public.

Dr Calderwood, 48, regards her medical practice as vital it keeps her in touch with real life. Among her patients last week was a girl from Romania, 33 weeks pregnant and living with two

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A prescription for better medicine that is grounded in the real world - The Times (subscription)

NEW PALESTINE Her hands were sweaty and shaky, but still, she said it was time.

Ashley Malloy remembers the butterflies she felt when she decided she would move to Malawi.

Wes Gunn remembers, too. Board members of Chikondi Health Foundation had gathered for their meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, to talk about the mobile medical clinic work developing in the southeastern Africa. Malloy, a nurse practitioner, approached Gunn.

I could see the immense fear in her eyes because of all the what if questions, said Gunn, president of the foundations board of directors. But in that moment, I knew God had been preparing her for many years.

Blessings Hospital in Lumbadzi, Malawi, spends about $9 to treat each patient, from performing surgeries to treating malaria to delivering babies. Patients pay about 45 cents toward their care, which goes back into the hospital's work. Donors help pay for the rest. Submitted

Ashley Malloy spent some of her night shift during a 2015 mission trip waking a patient periodically to make her turn and move after surgery. Malloy said the woman had been bleeding during surgery, so much so that some team members left to buy a unit of blood. Meanwhile a group gathered at the door and prayed for the bleeding to stop; when team members returned with the blood, Malloy said, the bleeding had stopped and it was no longer needed. Submitted

Ashley Malloy holds Josh, who was visiting Blessings Hospital in Malawi, after a family member had had surgery there. Malloy, who attends Park Chapel Christian Church in Greenfield, is preparing to serve in Malawi for three years."Her integrity is highly respected by all people who know her," said Wes Gunn, president of Chikondi Health Foundation, her sending agency. "She walks the walk." Submitted

Blessings Hospital in Lumbadzi, Malawi, spends about $9 to treat each patient, from performing surgeries to treating malaria to delivering babies. Patients pay about 45 cents toward their care, which goes back into the hospital's work. Donors help pay for the rest. Submitted

A mobile medical clinic carries supplies from Blessings Hospital. According to Chikondi Health Foundation, 2,300 people received care through mobile clinic visits in 2016. Ashley Malloy, a New Palestine High School graduate who will make clinic visits, hopes they will eventually offer opportunities for education and preventive care. Submitted

Blessings Hospital in Lumbadzi, Malawi, spends about $9 to treat each patient, from performing surgeries to treating malaria to delivering babies. Patients pay about 45 cents toward their care, which goes back into the hospital's work. Donors help pay for the rest. Submitted

Ashley Malloy gathers with a group of children in Malawi. Submitted

The view from Blessings Hospital shows people across the road walking. Submitted

It was a moment years in the making, one foreshadowed by other moments. There was the day in Ukraine in 2008 when the mission trip was ending, but she felt she could have stayed; she said that is when God first approached her heart for the mission field. There was also the time, on another mission trip to Tanzania, when she was lodging with church planters in a remote area and became interested in village medicine.

Those moments and others point to one coming at the end of April, when the New Palestine High School graduate will board a plane to begin 17 hours of flights to take her back to Lumbadzi, Malawi, the place she found hardest to leave. Of her first trip there in 2010, she wrote to mission supporters recently, It was on this trip that I realized my heart would not be satisfied until I returned.

She did return with short-term teams in 2012 and 2015. During the next three years, her challenge is to help expand access to medical care for those living in remote areas of one of the worlds poorest nations, where health care is free but more difficult for rural residents to access.

People die needless deaths for lack of treatment, Gunn said.

But by putting care ranging from malaria medicine to blood pressure checks within reach, and by working to build the skills of Malawians, Chikondi hopes to change that.

Chikondi (which means love in the native tongue of many who live in Malawi) was formed by people who wanted to support the work of Blessings Hospital. The foundation paid, for example, for a hospital administrator to receive more training.

Gunn said donors pay about three-fourths of the cost to operate the hospital and mobile clinic, a cost that reached $102,000 in 2016. The hospital and mobile clinic treated nearly 11,000 patients most of them outpatients last year, Gunn said; patients pay about 300 kwacha, or 45 cents, per visit.

A foundation donor paid for the vehicle to launch the mobile medical clinic. It carries care providers and supplies weekly to villages, where they set up clinics in churches often fashioned of mud-brick walls and dirt floors.

Malloy, a member of Chikondis board of directors, will partner with the Malawians already providing care at the hospital by offering routine care as the clinic visits three villages a week. The hope is to visit five villages by years end, and after that, for Malloy to help launch a second mobile clinic.

There was a time when such a goal was not on her mind, a time when her aim was to become an athletic trainer and return to New Palestine. Shes done that, graduating from Franklin College in 2005 and over the years staffing the sideline for a number of Dragon teams.

When youre working with Ashley, you have her full undivided attention, said Adam Barton, dean of students at New Palestine High School. She is 100 percent invested in everything that she does.

Barton has known Malloy as a student in his biology class, a boys basketball manager during his coaching days and a trusted family babysitter. Years later, she remains close to the family; he and his wife were among the first she told of the plan to serve in Malawi.

After graduating from high school and college, Malloy went on to graduate school at Troy University in Alabama, remaining down south after those studies to be an athletic trainer for the Faulkner University football team.

Its funny how random everything seemed at the time, she said, but how God was fitting the pieces together, too.

During those years, a new thought formed: She really enjoyed what she did, but she didnt know how useful it would be globally. It was a thought that would eventually push her to nursing school and later to become a family nurse practitioner.

During those years in Alabama, she also met Gunn, missions pastor of the church she was attending. She was part of trips he organized to Ukraine and Tanzania.

Later, he began organizing visiting surgical teams to visit Blessings Hospital in Malawi, which Gunn said has about 15 surgeons for the countrys 17 million people. Even after Malloy returned to New Palestine, she traveled with the first team in 2012, returning in 2015.

Having personally witnessed her work in that setting, having seen the way she engages patients at the hospital and children at the nearby orphanage, Gunn feels confident Malloy is a good fit for the work shell be doing.

The Malawians respond in an incredible way to her, he said. She just has a deep love, and people sense that in her.

Barton, knowing Malloys friends in the community have also noticed that, anticipates many will be following her journey.

Shes made so many connections around here, Barton said, that theres going to be a lot of people here praying for her.

Getting involved

The non-profit organization MedSend will make Ashley Malloys student loan payments while shes in Malawi. Part of her living expenses will be paid by a $15,000 grant from the Sara Walker Foundation in Nashville. Fundraising continues for the other half. Those interested in contributing can donate at http://www.chikondihealth.org.

Chikondi Health Foundation welcomes medical professionals to join its visiting surgical teams and also has posted a wish list of medical supplies. The next trip is June 2-11. Learn more at http://www.chikondihealth.org/serve/travel.

Link:

Step of faith: Local grad to support Malawian medicine - Greenfield Daily Reporter

Lexington Herald Leader

Hoping Trump makes medicine great again Lexington Herald Leader The Democratic response to President Donald Trump's speech to Congress by our former governor of Kentucky does not represent an accurate perspective of medicine from the standpoint of a practicing internist. As a physician practicing in Kentucky over ...

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Hoping Trump makes medicine great again - Lexington Herald Leader

Simon Asher | The Daily Wildcat

Arizona's Lauri Markkanen (10) slam dunks during the pac-12 Semi-finals on Friday, March 10. Arizona beat UCLA 86-75.

Published Mar 10, 2017 10:55pm

Updated Mar 11, 2017 2:09am

LAS VEGAS When No. 7 Arizona beat No. 3 UCLA 86-75 in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament, it was a sight straight out of a movie. Payback.

Head coach Sean Miller called a timeout with 0.9 seconds left in the game so the Wildcats could relish in the glory that they beat a team that split them in the regular season.

When UCLA played us in McKale, I thought they did a great jobthey called a timeout with one second left just to make sure they had poise," Miller said on Pac-12 Networks."I wanted to make sure our guys had poise with one second left."

The memory of Kadeem Allen shooting the air ball a few weeks ago stewed in Millers mind, because the Wildcats have only lost two games at home in four seasons and that second loss was against UCLA on senior night. The mindset for Arizona was to play for Allen.

It was personal for us, Allen said. My team dedicated this game to me before it even started. They told me they were going to give it their all and they followed up what they said and got the job done.

Miller copied UCLA head coach Steve Alfords method of calling a timeout in order to secure the win and essentially rub it in the other teams face, but the Wildcats also replicated the high-pace offense the Bruins have been known for all season long. Remember the time Miller said UCLA was the Golden State Warriors of college basketball?

Miller had every right to say that, because the Bruins are actually the No. 1 offensive team in the country averaging 90 points per game and are fourth in three-point field goal percentage (41.3 percent).

Arizona shot 10-for-20 (50 percent) from beyond the arc Friday while UCLA only went 4-for-25 (16 percent). The two primary threats from deep, guardsBryce Alford and Lonzo Ball went a combined 2-for-16. At one point, an Arizona fan sitting behind me said, keep shooting Steph! in regards to his fathers comments claiming Ball is better than Stephen Curry.

The usual suspects Lauri Markkanen and Allonzo Trier shot 7-for-14 from three-point range so the script was flipped and the holy UCLA offense was left running around trying to make defensive plays, but Arizona didnt let upnot even a little bit.

Were a hard team to beat when were in transition, Allen said. Coach gets on us some games when we slow the ball downwalk the ball up. We dont play that style. We play fast, we play aggressive, we play physical and thats Arizona basketball.

Another page Arizona ripped out of UCLAs playbook was being active on the glass, because a few weeks ago, the Bruins outscored the Wildcats 20-4 in second chance points. The Cats denied any chance of that repeating, because they scored eight more second chance points and collected five more offensive rebounds than UCLA.

Its not a lie UCLA played an uncharacteristic game against Arizona and the Bruins still remain a potential Final Four team if the offensive production returns to full force, but the Wildcats gave them a taste of their own medicine.

Next up, Arizona will play the other Pac-12 regular season co-champion, the No. 5 Oregon Ducks. We all remember the last time the Ducks and the Wildcats played each other when Oregon thumped UA by 27 points and shot 64 percent from three-point range.

I dont know if we really had a chance that game, because they made so many shots," Trier said."It doesnt matter if we play a [Division II] team, if they make that many threes, its going to be tough to beat them."

Saturdays Pac-12 Championship is not only for bragging rights of the conference, but also for seeding in the NCAA Tournament. If the Cats want to beat an arguably more athletic team than UCLA, bringing the A-game is a must.

Let the games begin.

Follow Justin Spears onTwitter.

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Column: Arizona gives UCLA a taste of its own medicine, move to Oregon for Pac-12 Championship - Arizona Daily Wildcat

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)East meets West in the world of medicineas more doctors are willing to help patients explore alternative treatments to deal with stress or pain through chakra healing.

Something released inside of me and I felt more connected to myself and the people around me and I feel like Im living my life again, said retired disabled Army veteran, Savannah Gentry.

She was tired of medications and turned to chakra healing as a last resort.

Im 100% disabled and they want to give me every pill imaginable and I cant live my life pilled out, Gentry said.

Pharmacist turned chakra practitioner Elena Bensonoff says she works with four Tampa doctors who refer her patients who are seeking alternative treatments.

It could be anything from anxiety it could be physical symptoms a person could be lost or overwhelmed with whats happening in life., said Bensonoff of Wholistic of Tampa.

Bensonoff also works with patients on how to deal with stress and pain, through exercises, foods and lifestyle practices.

So when things start to get stressful or chaotic in your life you go back to that moment of peaceful feeling and you have those gentle reminders., said Melissa Pierce who is a therapist who not only refers patients to Bensonoff, but found relief herself after several sessions.

The chakra trend is growing, and medicine merges and ancient practices are more accepted.

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Chakra healing is the latest growing trend in medicine - WFLA

New York Times

Improving Medicine With Art New York Times Some doctors are so inundated with the business of medicine that good bedside manner has become a lost art. As a preventive measure, the new Dell Medical School, part of the University of Texas at Austin, is challenging students in its inaugural class ...

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Improving Medicine With Art - New York Times

Forbes

How Using Social Media Could Minimize Adverse Effects From Medicine Forbes Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) are the 4th leading cause of death in America. More people die from adverse effects from medicine than from pulmonary disease, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, accidents, and automobile deaths. People get sick or die because ...

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How Using Social Media Could Minimize Adverse Effects From Medicine - Forbes

Proposal urges stronger focus on social and environmental factors in precision medicine Science Daily The authors suggest a naming system that expands the "-omes" discussed in precision medicine, such as the "genome" or "proteome," which describe the factors within an individual's body that impact disease or wellness. They call these internal domains ...

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Proposal urges stronger focus on social and environmental factors in precision medicine - Science Daily

A McGill University graduate, Edward "Ted" Percy joined classmate Dr. Hugh Brodie as the team physician for the Redmen and later worked with the Alouettes, the Expos and the Canadiens. Ross Outerbridge / Outerbridge Photography

Ted Percy, one of the pioneers in Canadian sports medicine, has died in Victoria after a decade-long battle with cancer. He was 92.

A McGill University graduate, Percy joined classmate Dr. Hugh Brodie as the team physician for the Redmen and later worked with the Alouettes, the Expos and the Canadiens.

He was involved with the Alouettes, but when BobBrodrick, who was with the Expos, or Doug Kinnear, who was with the Canadiens, needed a surgeon, they called on Ted, Brodie said.

Percys most famous patient mighthave been Canadiens defenceman Serge Savard, who broke his leg in five places in 1970 and then broke the same leg a year later.

Ted screwed his leg back together and he was able to play in the Canada-Russia series in 1972, Brodie recalled. Team Canada gave all the players a watch to commemorate the series and when Serge returned from Russia, he gave his watch to Ted and he wore it all the time.

Dr. Robert (Bobby) Berke, who was one of the stars of the 1969 McGill football team thatwent to the national final, recalled Percys work as the team physician and as a mentor in his medical studies.

He also remarked on Percys wit.

Berke had a patient who recounted an unfortunate incident in which he walked into an open manhole in Westmount. The man was able to avoid falling completely in the opening, but he suffered severe shoulder damage.

When the man presented himself to Percy, the doctor asked: Did you see Ed Norton down there.

Readers of certain age will understand the reference to the sewer worker portrayed by Art Carney in the classic comedy series The Honeymooners starring Jackie Gleason.

Percy was born in Montreal on Oct. 15, 1924, the youngest of four children of Irish immigrant parents. He attended Westmount High School and enrolled at McGill in theearly 1940s. His undergraduate education was interrupted by the Second World War and he served overseas as a pilot with the RCAF.

He returned to McGill and graduated with honours from the Faculty of Medicine in 1951. His residency and fellowship in orthopaedic surgery culminated in his appointment to the orthopaedic staff of six hospitals, including the Montreal General and the Montreal Childrens Hospital.

Percy played a pioneering role in the field of sports medicine. In addition to his work with McGill and professional teams, he set up the first medical team for international Canadian athletes in 1970, was chief medical officer with the Canadian Olympic, Canadian Commonwealth, and Canadian Pan American Games teams, was a member of the International Association of Medical Officers, and was elected vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Association.

Percy was also a co-founder and the first president of the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine.

In 1978, Percy moved to Tucson, where he was recruited by the University of Arizonas Faculty of Medicine to establish their sports medicine program. He remained an active member of both the medical and academic team there until his retirement in 1991.

With his children settling in British Columbia, Percy and his wife, Myrne, spent many summers in Kelowna before moving to Victoria in 2011. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, four children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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Obituary: McGill's Ted Percy was a sports medicine pioneer - Montreal Gazette

You check in at the hospital for chronic back pain. The doctor asks you to follow her past the MRI machines and operating room to a recently converted yoga studio. An unrolled mat awaits. En route you peek your head into an adjacent treatment room to watch an acupuncturist needling a patient. Rows of IV drips and homeopathic remedies line the shelves.

This not uncommon scene plays out in many small centers across the nation. Yet as Stat News reports, some of the countrys top hospitals and institutions are offering the same modalities, to mixed reviews. Staff and administrators claim to be listening to patient desires. Critics state this is not good medicine.

Part of the problem is that the numerous therapeutic modalities existing outside of the purview of Western medicine are lumped together into the ambiguous alternative therapies.' Yoga and meditation, for example, have been clinically studied over the last few decades, showing promising results for pain relief, anxiety, and cognitive functioning. Homeopathy and energy healing, however, have at best been shown to be no better than the placebo response.

When dealing with the common cold, using an ineffective or unproven therapy such as a homeopathic proving is largely benignthe placebo response might prove helpful in such circumstances. But this trend is more insidious, Stat reports. The spa-like wellness centers are branding their own forms of mysticism, offering questionable treatments for cancer, heart disease, and chronic pain.

Duke even markets a pediatric program that suggests on its website that alternative medicine, including detoxification programs and botanical medicines, can help children with conditions ranging from autism to asthma to ADHD.

Separating wheat from chaff is challenging in the modern medical environment. Our emotions and perceptions really do play a role in healing, a major criticism of the cold mechanisms of Western medicine. One 1984 study found that the view from your hospital room influences healing time; more recent research suggests that hospital gardens are effective in speeding recovery. This makes sense as our environment always affects our nervous and immune systems. Being in a calm, peaceful space or gazing at a mountain lifts our mood, which aids healing.

The trend toward offering mineral and vitamin IV drips, by contrast, appears to be a money grab. Excess vitamins have detrimental effects. The notion that more is better is provably false. One IV drip purporting to attack and shorten illness features high doses of Vitamin C, zinc, and lysine, all of which create GI problems at high doses. It costs $175 an hour. For ten dollars less you can get a fat burner containing L-carnitine. Side effects of this amino acid include diarrhea, seizures, and vomiting, as well as causing your breath, sweat, and urine to have a fishy odor.

Not everyone experiences such side effects, nor are elevated doses of vitamins and minerals for short durations necessary harmful. Theyre even therapeutic under certain circumstances. Ordering a boost without credible supervision because you read a wellness blog claiming it helps shed visceral fat, though, does not honor the Hippocratic oath. It merely drains your wallet while putting you at risk of potential side effects.

Acupuncture is another common menu item. The system is based on unproven meridian channels and roughly four hundred points along the body. Research on its efficacy is mixed, with many studies finding it no more effective than placebo. But as interest grows, more research is being conducted. A recent study published in Brain found traditional points effective in treating long-term pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Some research states that adenosine might be the therapeutic mechanism behind acupuncture. Studies investigating electroacupuncutre, like the one published in Brain, are different from the style originating in Traditional Chinese Medicine, as an electric current is passed between pairs of needles. Add to this the time spent relaxing on a table listening to ambient music and its challenging to know what exact mechanisms are at play. That said, if a technique is shown to work, hospitals and clinics have a duty to offer it to patients. It should not be discredited if there is positive evidence in certain situations.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in this whole movement is egos. Doctors, nurses, researchers, and clinicians stand their ground. With insurance in disarray even major institutions are struggling to find revenue streams. One clinician at UCLA, also a licensed acupuncturist that formerly worked in integrative medicine at Cedars, told me,

The world of Western medicine is extremely territorial. Physicians, nursing, all positions in the paradigm fight vigorously to hold their ground and protect scope of practice. It's very difficult to generate revenue for an IMG [integrative medical group] in the hospital setting, which is why a lot of them fail. Billing proves problematic.

Hopefully one day our notion of medicine will expand beyond invasive surgical techniques and pharmaceuticals and embrace modalities that are less expensive with fewer side effects. We should welcome major institutions integrating such therapies into their programs.

Yet when this movement is fueled by popular demand and not credible science we run into the same problems patients encounter when enduring pharmaceutical cocktails, overpriced treatments, and rushed doctors. Since before the days of Hippocrates medicine has been as much a work of art as science. Trendy vitamin drips and energy healing might bring in revenue but do not honor the oath each professional is bound to. Throw down a meditation cushion to help forge a mind-body connection, but leave homeopathic bee venom behind.

--

Derek's next book,Whole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health, will be published on 7/4/17 by Carrel/Skyhorse Publishing. He is based in Los Angeles. Stay in touch onFacebookandTwitter.

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Major Hospitals are Offering Alternative Therapies. Is This Medicine ... - Big Think

Many Australian women are turning to Chinese medicine to treat chronic medical conditions, and doctors are concerned.

The younger the woman is the more likely they are to bypass the local GP and turn to 'complimentary' medicine, new research has found.

A longitudinal study of 17 thousand participants found in just one year acupuncture was used by around 1 in 10 women aged 34-39 years and around 1 in 16 women aged 62-67 years.

Women with arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome and endometriosis were more likely to use Chinese medicine and acupuncture, according to the University of Technology, Sydney study.

It also found the older women who consulted an acupuncturist were more likely to have low iron levels, anxiety disorder and depression, while those who were married or in a de facto relationship were less likely to use Chinese medicine compared to their single counterparts.

Those with private health insurance were 1.65 times more likely to use the treatment compared to those without.

"This research is important in providing a first examination of the prevalence and predictors of acupuncture and Chinese medicine use amongst women in Australia," co-author Professor Jon Adams said.

Dr Tony Bartone, Vice President of the Australian Medical Association, says the study findings are concerning because it confirms anecdotal information that large numbers of Australians are choosing Chinese medicine for "hard-to-treat" medical conditions.

"It is more concerning that younger people and those with private health insurance are more likely to seek these treatments without the advice of their family doctor," Dr Bartone told AAP.

Chinese herbal medicine has a long history of use, dating back thousands of years and it continues to be used in many countries as the first and primary treatment of choice.

It traditionally involves the use of raw herbs boiled in water for a period of time, which is then consumed as a liquid tea.

There are also a range of other options for taking herbal medicine are also available.

Dr Bartone says patients should always consult their GP first because there is little evidence supporting the efficacy of Chinese medicine.

He agrees with the authors of the UTS study that much more significant research is needed on the use of alternative medicines and to find out why they are becoming so popular.

"Acupuncture has been shown that it may have a role in a narrow range of conditions," Dr Bartone acknowledged.

"However, the credible scientific studies throughout the world have failed to demonstrate robust reliable evidence that these modalities have a role to play, if any, in the management of the conditions highlighted in the study.

Dr Bartone also proposed that private health insurers only fund benefits for evidence-based treatments.

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Women turning to Chinese medicine: study - SBS

How much can you learn from Neanderthal plaque? A lot, scientists have discovered: DNA from the plaque provides an amazingly detailed view into the life of our extinct human relatives, including what they ate, how they took medicinal plants to combat disease, and what their mouth bacteria was like. The discovery gives scientists a window into the precious microbial world inside our closest relatives; this information could be used to better understand how bacteria that live inside our own bodies, called microbiome, evolved and how these microbes affect our health.

The study, published today in Nature, shows the exact foods consumed by five Neanderthal specimens in Europe: woolly rhinoceros, moss, pine nuts, and wild sheep. One individual suffered from a tooth abscess and a stomach bug, and appears to have treated himself using plants that have the same pain-killing component as aspirin, as well as a natural antibiotic. Finally, the scientists analyzed the different bacteria found in the Neanderthals mouths, including one thats 48,000 years old and is still found in our mouths today.

We basically have a new window on the past for us.

We can now track [the human microbiome] in time and space, and understand the evolutionary process, study co-author Keith Dobney, the head of department and chair of human paleoecology at the University of Liverpool, tells The Verge. We basically have a new window on the past for us, but we also have a way to use that to understand the present.

Neanderthals lived between about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in Europe and parts of Asia, where they were eventually replaced by Homo sapiens. Since they were discovered in the 1800s, hundreds of studies have come out about their diet and lifestyles. One study found that Neanderthals ate lots of meat, such as reindeer, woolly mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros. Other studies showed that they were pretty intelligent they made glue as far back as 200,000 years ago, and built complex structures about 176,000 years ago, way before modern humans were around.

Todays study adds to our understanding of Neanderthals, and gives direct evidence of what they ate and how they lived. The researchers sequenced DNA from the calcified plaque of five specimens in Europe dated from 42,000 to 50,000 years ago: two from Spain, two from Belgium, and one from Italy. Plaque the disgusting film coating our teeth is made of bacteria and bits of food. Analyzing it shows scientists what we eat and what diseases we have. The researchers found that the Neanderthals living in Belgium ate mostly meat, including woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep. The individuals in Spain, however, were on a veggie diet: they ate mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss. (The Italian Neanderthal failed to produce results.)

One specimen in Spain was also found to suffer from a tooth abscess, a painful bacterial infection, as well as a chronic stomach bug that today causes severe diarrhea in people, says Dobney. The plaque on his teeth also contained the DNA of a Penicillin-like fungus (a natural antibiotic), as well as poplar, a plant that has the same pain-killing component of aspirin. That suggests that Neanderthals in Spain were taking medicine when they were sick a pretty advanced behavior. The general public view of Neanderthals is a pretty kind of basic, stereotype cartoon version of simplistic knuckle-dragging cavemen, Dobney says. But thats changing now. These were sophisticated relatives of ours.

The Spanish specimen also preserved the DNA of a 48,000-year-old bacterium that is still found in our mouths today in a slight different form. The Neanderthals must have passed that bacterium to modern humans when the two interbred, Doney says. They were obviously passing pathogens and microbiome to each other, he says.

The researchers did the near-complete sequence of this ancient form of Methanobrevibacter oralis; by comparing this ancient bacterium, as well as the other Neanderthal bacteria, with todays, scientists can better understand how the human microbiome evolved. This opens a new chapter in understanding the evolution of the commensal bacteria we carry in our [mouths,] Johannes Krause, the director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, who did not take part in the study, writes in an email to The Verge.

These were sophisticated relatives of ours.

The study has some limitations. The DNA analyzed by the researchers is extremely old, and may have been contaminated by the soil in the caves were the specimens were found, Krause says. Its possible, for instance, that Spanish Neanderthals werent actually eating moss, but ancient moss was in the surrounding environment. Anything from the cave environment could have contaminated the samples, Krause says. (Dobney says thats very unlikely, because the DNA of animals, plants, and fungi degrades quickly unless its enclosed in some protective environment, like the calcified plaque.) We also dont have a database of the complete genome of all plants, animals, and bacteria in the world, so the researchers may be mistakenly matching an ancient DNA fragment with a modern organism, while instead it belonged to another organism thats not in the database yet, Krause says.

The most interesting part of the study is the analysis of the Neanderthals mouth microbiome, says Christina Warinner, the co-founder of the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research at the University of Oklahoma. In recent years, scientists have started studying the collection of bacteria and viruses that inhabit our bodies with renewed interest, and we have only begun to understand the role these tiny creatures play in our health and disease. Learning what body bacteria our human ancestors had, and how those bacteria evolved, will help us better understand our bodies today. The study is an important reminder of how we've really just scratched the surface of the human microbiome, and how much work there is to do to understand the evolution and ecology of this fundamental part of our human biology, Warinner writes in an email to The Verge.

Its just the coolest science on the planet at the moment.

Dobney agrees. Its fantastically relevant to how we understand health and diet today because we can track it in time and space, he says. Dobney began looking at calcified plaques in the 1980s, when he was in his 20s. But the technology at the time didnt allow him and his colleagues to really analyze ancient DNA. I knew this could be really cool, he says. But we just couldnt do it. Nobody believed it could be done and the technology wasnt really there. It was tantalizingly close.

That has all changed in the past few years, Dobney says, and the technology has finally caught up with his dreams. Its just the coolest science on the planet at the moment, its amazing, he says. The moral there is, never give up on a good idea.

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Gunk from Neanderthals' teeth tells us they used medicine - The Verge - The Verge

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Drug Industry Bets Big On Precision Medicine: Five Trends Shaping Care Delivery Forbes The Death Of "One Size Fits Many" Care Models. Precision medicine promises a paradigm shift in care delivery, one that removes the need for guesswork, variable diagnoses and treatment strategies based on generalized demographics. Precision medicine ...

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Drug Industry Bets Big On Precision Medicine: Five Trends Shaping Care Delivery - Forbes

NEW HAVEN >> Sodium azide, a substance commonly found in laboratories and used as a preservative, may have been the cause of four people falling ill at the Yale School of Medicine in February, officials said.

Four members of the Yale School of Medicine community became ill after drinking from a single-service, pod-style coffee machine Feb. 28 at the 333 Cedar St. facility.

They were monitored at Yale New Haven Hospital, but all four have since returned to work, Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said Tuesday.

Yale Police, the New Haven Fire Department, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Yale Environmental Health and Safety team responded and initiated an investigation.

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On Tuesday, officials learned that an independent laboratory test on items removed from the area indicated the presence of sodium azide, Peart said. The potentially deadly chemical is commonly found in air bags, farming and hospital laboratories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. It is odorless as a solid, but when mixed with water or an acid, sodium azide changes rapidly to a toxic gas, according to the CDC.

The single-serve coffee machine was not connected to a water source and the area was evaluated and declared to be safe by Yale Environmental Health and Safety, Peart said Tuesday. The Yale Police Department is continuing its investigation in collaboration with local, state and federal law enforcement.

At the same time, staff are reviewing security and safety procedures with its public safety team, Peart said.

Out of an abundance of caution, we have let the Yale School of Medicine community know that the symptoms of exposure to sodium azide are dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting, rapid breathing and rapid heart rate, she said. Weve let the School of Medicine community know that if they experience these symptoms, they should contact Yale Health Acute Care. Weve also asked that anyone with any information regarding this incident to please contact Yale Police.

Robert J. Alpern, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, has shared this update with those who were affected, as well as members of the School of Medicine community, Peart said.

Gathering complete information will take some time, she said. As always, the safety and security of the Yale community is our utmost priority.

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Sodium azide may have caused illness at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, officials say - New Haven Register