The MedCOPTER X4 is one of the drones being trialled by the Bengaluru-based Throttle Aerospace Systems. They are currently conducting tests in Gauribidanur, in Karnatakas Chikkaballapur district. (Courtesy: Throttle Aerospace Systems)

One of the consortiums selected is led by the Bengaluru-based drone company Throttle Aerospace Systems, which has partnered with technology company Honeywell and Swiss firm Involi, the consortiums UTM, or unmanned traffic management, partner. They are currently conducting tests in Gauribidanur, in Karnatakas Chikkaballapur district.

We started with the pre-flight checks towards the end of June, followed by long-range flights daily, says Nagendran Kandasamy, founder and director of Throttle Aerospace, which has created customised software, called RANDINT, for the tests. We spend eight-nine hours in the field and have to continue these flight tests for at least 35-40 days. Using a database of medicines, blood groups and other information from Narayana Health, the consortiums use case and health partner, the software creates a mock, on-demand order for medical packages.

Throttle is testing within an airspace bubble predetermined by the Airports Authority of India. Within this 20-22km area, it has created more than 20 mock sectors, or delivery locations. When the software raises a delivery order for a specific sector, Throttles ground staff prepares the payload and attaches it to the drone. Its like feeding the right information and algorithms to Artificial Intelligence software.

In future real-life scenarios, demand for medicines could come from individual users or hospitals, says Kandasamy. Interestingly, in one of its early tests, a Throttle drone not only matched, but handsomely beat,the time it took an ambulance to deliver a package over a distance of around 4km. The ambulance reached its destination in 26 minutes. The drone took four minutes.

The MedCOPTER X8 drone has a secured, locked boxonce the drone lands, the user receives an OTP to unlock it. (Courtesy: Throttle Aerospace Systems)

The machines

The MedCOPTER X4 and X8the two drone models being tested by Throttleuse a winch mechanism and a secured box system, respectively. These are designed specifically for deliveries. The X4 drone can hover at a fixed altitude while a tether lowers the package slowly. The user can unclasp the package from the tether. Or, once the package touches the ground, the tether is released automatically and the drone reels it back in, Kandasamy explains on the phone. The X8 has a secured, locked boxonce the drone lands, the user receives an OTP to unlock it.

Internationally, Zipline, a US-based drone delivery startup founded in 2014, has changed the way blood and medical supplies are delivered to remote communities in Rwanda. These high-speed drones, powered by lithium ion batteries and electric motors, are propelled into the air through a catapult mechanismthey can go from 0-70 mph in less than a second. Recently, Zipline raised around $250 million (around 1,800 crore) in new funding. It is now valued at $2.75 billion.

A key challenge, says Kandasamy, is operating the drones in high wind speeds. The other issue is that we are operating in a bad internet connectivity region. We use 4G networks to send commands to the drones, he explains, adding that the consortium is consulting network providers to get access to better bandwidths of internet data.

Both the models they are trying out can carry payloads of up to 1-2kg. While their nominal cruise speed is around 9m/second, they can reach speeds of up to 24m/second. They are also designed to withstand light drizzle.

The Non-profit Public Health Foundation of India is currently running pilot trials for its 'Sky Bridge' platform in Telanganas Vikarabad area. (Courtesy: PHFI)

The temperature challenge

Apart from weather and network constraints, the trickiest logistical challenge in medicine delivery is temperature control. Just the way a food delivery drone is expected to get you hot and fresh food, medicine delivery drones will need temperature-control mechanisms to maintain the shelf life of supplies. Take, for instance, the covid-19 vaccines: Vials of both Covishield and Covaxin need to be kept at a storage temperature range of 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Earlier this year, Zipline announced that it was partnering with the government of Ghana to deliver covid-19 vaccines. Crucially, the startup used specialised packaging to maintain the right temperatures for the vaccines. Volansi, another American drone startup specialising in the medical logistics space, partnered with pharma major Merck to deliver temperature-sensitive vaccines to parts of North Carolina, US.

There are challenges on several levels. There have to be a lot of modifications to the drone if you have to carry medical payloads, says Suresh Munuswamy, who heads health informatics and technology innovations at the non-profit Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). Medical payloads in most cases are temperature-controlled. There are certain medicines that need to be kept at 15-24 degrees Celsius. Blood samples have to be kept at very specific temperatures as well.

Dr Munuswamy explains the active and passive temperature control methods that can be used. In the active method, an electric-powered mini-compressor is added to the drone to maintain the temperature. The passive method involves precooling certain liquids and fluids to ensure the right payload temperature. Throttle, for example, is testing dry ice or icing gel pads in its payloads. In both these cases, the temperature control takes more space and weight compared to the payload itself, says Dr Munuswamy.

The Sky Bridge platform uses a combination of a four-wheeler vehicle and a drone. The vehicle carries the drones and payloads (10-15kg) , covering large parts of the distance to a location. The drone is used for last-mile delivery. (Courtesy: PHFI)

Drones as a bridge

The PHFI, along with the Health Informatics Rapid Design Lab at the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Hyderabad, has been working on a medicine drone delivery project since 2015, with the aim of using drones as a bridge between medical warehouses and government primary health centres, or PHCs.

The non-profit is currently running pilot trials for its Sky Bridge platform in Telanganas Vikarabad area. This platform uses a combination of a four-wheeler vehicle and a drone. The vehicle carries the drones and payloads (10-15kg) , covering large parts of the distance to a location. The drone is used for last-mile delivery.

The trials will showcase the drones ability to carry different kinds of medical payloads, and temperature-controlled boxes with realistic data for evaluation. They might not be cost-effective but drones bring in extreme time efficiency, says Dr Munuswamy.

At present, the rules around BVLOS and VLOS flights allow only a certain class of drones. Dr Munuswamy believes India must look beyond the current regulations. Once there is enough regulatory support for long-range drones that can fly up to a range of 100km, for example, and bigger payloads, trucks and four-wheelers will become redundant. There have been many ups and downs in this area but the pace of progress has improved now, with better guidelines, he says.

The next three-six months could see some actual results from the existing class of drones, he adds. Drone technology is also quite mature now and there is actual need on the ground for such innovation in India at the moment. What we need is to create a favourable ecosystem where things can actually go forward.

Also read: Drone company Wingcopter gets more firepower in vaccine delivery race

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Will drones change the way we deliver medicine? - Livemint

FOR decades Westminster ran Scotland the way a tired old GP manages a fraught, but largely misunderstood, patient by making ample use of placebos. (You may know that the placebo effect occurs when positive expectations improve an outcome.)

For instance, the Scottish budget is cut but the prevailing narrative on the BBC and other Unionist organs is that these reductions are no big deal and anyway will probably bring about efficiencies in the longer term. Trust doctor Westminster and all will be well. The Scottish patient generally received its medicine sugar coated.

Actually, this nonsense worked rather well. Indeed, so effective was it, there was little need to change.

After all, the Scottish patient even spurned an attempt to ween itself of placebos in 2014. Scottish Tories of old rather liked this patrician approach. It enabled them to be Scots in Edinburgh and British in London. So, what changed?

Doctor Westminster changed thats what. The relatively benign old medical man was replaced by someone who believed in a more muscular treatment. This new medic knew nothing of the Scottish patient and cared even less. For him, the English patient came first and foremost. Energy spent on others was largely wasted effort. No longer was there was there any need to sell the medicine.

So, the Placebo has now been junked. It has been replaced by the Nocebo. Whats that, I hear you ask? A nocebo is when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have. Put briefly, it means the doctor decides youll get whats coming and he will make no attempt to sugar coat or downplay the consequences. In fact, he will go out of his way to tell you how bad things will get for you.

Look at the Latin roots for these words. The term placebo comes from I will please. By contrast, nocebo stems from I will harm. What harm?

Here are a few examples.

N Neglect. The UK Government has moved from unintentional neglect to deliberate mistreatment of the Scottish patient. They do not like you, and they do not want to hear from you. This will soon become even more evident, as Holyrood is neutered and bypassed.

O Overweening arrogance. The British Government increasingly represents only part of this island. And is now happy to make this plain. When challenged they simply shrug. And say, what are you going to do about it?

C Crude, muscular Unionism. Democracy in the UK is dead, in most respects. Without the constraints of a written constitution, Westminster will more and more reward those who agree and condone; but punish severely anyone who displeases. The BBC got this message loud and clear and responded early by surrendering its management to Tory control.

E England trumps all. As the UK Government transforms itself into the BNP in power, nothing that does not aid and support its power base, mostly in England, will be allowed.

B Bloody-mindedness. The doctor does not give a damn about how the Scottish patient feels. He says openly the medicine will be bad. Who cares? Few it seems. Scottish inaction will likely be rewarded with even greater excesses from Doctor Westminster. Dominic Cummings, the former adviser to the PM, has described Johnson as an unthinking Unionist.

O Organised evil. The typical Tory administration was ever engaged in one of mans oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior ethical justification for selfishness. Now this pursuit will be conducted red in tooth and claw.

Please be under no illusions. The British Government does not care for you and is coming for you. The Scottish Government really needs to get beyond vain hopes that this administration is going to change. It will not. And it has said so on numerous occasions.

Ask yourself this: what would any sensible patient do if they thought their doctor was intent on harming them and had indeed said so? A rational patient would change their medical supervision. Inaction and soothing words are no protection against someone with declared malign intentions.

Also, right-wing voters in Scotland need to take a good look at this new treatment. They, like the Scottish Government, harbour the notion that with Johnson gone, the world will return to normal. Here is an uncomfortable truth. The new Unionist doctor despises you too. Stick with Johnson, then right-wing politics in Scotland is dead for a generation. Better to condemn the UK administration and form an independent Scottish Tory party.

Scotland is watching. The nation wants and deserves action, not words.

SNP president Michael Russell is the guest on the TNT show at 7pmon Wednesday

Read more:

Changing the medicine - The move from the benign Placebo to the malignant Nocebo - The National

Many doctors suffer from overwhelm and burn-out in the workplace, most unable to find a healthy work-life balance. Melbourne based doctor, Olivia Ong, is looking to change this and help others become the best they can be.

Olivia is the founder and CEO of The Heart-Centred Doctor and is a medical leadership coach who helps busy, high achieving heart-centred doctors avoid burnout and exhaustion, to achieve balanced energy and time flexibility through her Life Transformation for Doctors program.

In 2008 as a junior doctor, Olivia was hit by a car at high speed. She was told that she would be 'in it for the long haul' by her treating physician and he ended up being right. But Olivia never gave up on her goal to walk again. She travelled to Project Walk at The Centre for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery in San Diego in 2010 to pursue her goal and eventually did walk again with two sticks and a limp after four agonizing years. Her spinal cord injury taught her a very important life lesson, self-compassion. This is the premise behind her creative business, Dr. Olivia Lee Ong, The Heart-Centered Doctor as an inspirational speaker, sharing her story with others.

When Olivia returned home to Melbourne, Australia in 2012, she continued her studies and managed to advance her career as a dual-trained rehabilitation medicine and specialist pain medicine physician. Olivia stepped up as a clinical leader at work using her compassionate leadership skills. She became a mother to two beautiful children, whom she adores, and a very supportive husband, close family, and friends.

However, the combination of living with a spinal cord injury, motherhood, full-time work, and studying for fellowship exams became exhausting. Olivia ignored the warning signs and just kept pushing through until she was eventually burned out.Deep down Olivia knew that there had to be a way where she could build a career while growing her family and become the leader and mother she envisioned herself being without the burnout. She took the determination she had applied in learning how to walk again and applied it to transform her life.

Olivia wrote her book 'The Heart-Centredness of Medicine' because she had not only seen and heard about way too many doctors on the verge of burning out due to stress and overwork, but she had also been one of them.

In 2020 Olivia wanted to rediscover the passion in her work, restore her mental and emotional wellbeing and reconnect with her family, her inner self, and her identity beyond the physician.

Now, she offers 1 on 1 and group coaching, workshops, and speaking engagements on burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma in doctors so they can stay in the game longer as compassionate leaders, and leave a positive legacy for the upcoming generation of young doctors.

She discovered self-compassion and creative development tools that helped her thrive at home and at work. Olivia also learned how she could take ownership of her thoughts to gain a whole new perspective. Not only was she not willing to live with fatigue and overwhelm, but she knew that if she could change, so could others.

Olivia has seen many of her medical colleagues burn out. More than 40% of doctors and almost 50% of female physicians feel exhausted and drained. Olivia realised she could help other medical peers discover these heart-based tools so that they can rediscover their self-worth and lead the heart-centred life they truly deserve. Olivia wants to help others find their 'spark of joy' and creativity outside of medicine, so she became a career and advancement coach for medical doctors so she could teach them the skills that helped save her life.

Olivia believes that the world needs more heart-centred doctors in medicine and has made this her driving force and her why.

To find out more about Olivia and The Heart-Centred Doctor, connect with her on LinkedIn.

Continued here:

The Power of Heart-Centred Medicine - International Business Times, Singapore Edition

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL. SOURCE IMAGES: ISTOCK

Susan Pinker is a psychologist and columnist whose most recent book, The Village Effect, explores the science of social interaction.

By May of last year, the number of research papers on COVID-19 was doubling every two weeks. This steady churn has unleashed more than 200,000 journal articles on the coronavirus so far, more than 30,000 of them as preprints, meaning studies that are not yet peer-reviewed. Most are also too fresh to have been replicated by other scientists.

Still, many of these findings are cited by scientists and journalists alike and have been shared with millions of people. Indeed, the human brain seems to be the perfect growing medium for untested, often too-good-to-be-true ideas.

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Just one example: A year ago, a preprint, followed by a published scientific paper, reported that an anti-parasitic drug, Ivermectin, used to treat river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa and head lice everywhere else, could suppress SARS-CoV-2. If this were true, it would be a godsend, as Ivermectin is cheap, FDA-approved as an anti-parasitic, and widely available.

The Ivermectin study did not succeed when replicated, however, and theres no clear evidence that it has any effect on humans with the disease. Like hydroxychloroquine a malaria drug that was touted as a cure by Donald Trump when he was the U.S. president Ivermectin has no clinical effects on COVID-19 in the real world.

But the cat video is out of the bag, so to speak. Ivermectin has become an internet meme; dozens of so-called scientific talks have received millions of views on YouTube, each one promoting Ivermectins anti-COVID benefits, with the backstory that pharmaceutical companies are suppressing this information lest it staunch the flow of profits from vaccines. In a short time, a single, non-replicated study has become the new bleach, or in medical history terms, the new snake oil.

Over the past 18 months, two pandemics have collided. On one hand, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was novel, terrifying and constantly evolving; there was a push for quick answers. On the other hand, science and medicine were in the throes of a replication crisis.

Many iconic studies, especially in my own field, psychology, were being repeated by other scientists and found to be wanting; their findings could not be duplicated. In other words, science was in the process of examining itself when COVID-19 struck. There was a desperate thirst for information and a glut of new studies. But there was also little time or patience for a basic due diligence step replication, simply repeating an experiment to see whether it produces the same results.

Now that COVID-19 infection rates are slowing down, its a good time to step back and look at what types of studies seem impossible to reproduce yet have remarkable staying power. Once launched, they continue to breathe new life into what are essentially rumours; they promote misinformation while giving it the patina of science.

Many of us think that science progresses in a straight line. But it zigzags. One hypothesis emerges, changing our outlook for a moment; if it fails to be confirmed by further evidence, it drops out of sight and another one takes its place. Onward and upward, in infinitesimal steps.

Recently, though, the fact-finding trajectory seems to have changed course. Attention-grabbing studies are briskly published. The press and other researchers latch on; a TED talk and a book contract often follow. Social media help turn it into a meme, one that is often surprising, easy to grasp and sticky, like an ear-worm or gossip. If the information hits a sensitive spot, such as a latent fear of hypodermic needles, contamination or public speaking, and also presents a tidy way to dispatch those anxieties, so much the better.

Somewhere along the way, though, another research team has repeated the experiment and couldnt get the same results. But a non-finding is usually non-newsworthy, and in any case, the surprising fact has already made a dent on our collective psyches. Thats just one way splashy findings like Ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19 continue to get attention, even after having been debunked.

Now, a fascinating new study out of University of California San Diego, led by behavioural economists Uri Gneezy and Marta Serra-Garcia, shows that experiments that could not be repeated have a bigger influence over time than the ones that could. In other words, the more interesting and novel-sounding the idea, the more it is cited by other scientists and the media, and the less likely it can be replicated.

There seems to be a trade-off between the wow factor of a study and its ability to be reproduced which should affect its credibility but does not. In Nature and Science, two high-profile and high-status journals, the non-replicable papers were cited 300 times more than the replicable ones.

Published in May in the journal Science Advances, the Gneezy-Serra-Garcia study analyzed the findings from three massive replication projects, two of them led by psychology professor Brian Nosek, from the Center for Open Science at the University of Virginia, and the third directed by behavioural economist Colin Camerer at the California Institute of Technology. All three focused on social science experiments that have been published in highly reputable journals. Volunteer scientists from the same field then repeated the experiment and hoped to get the same results, much as a cookbook author might test her recipes by baking the same torte in a different kitchen, with different utensils, to see if it looked and tasted the same.

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To test a studys replicability alongside its popularity, Prof. Gneezy and Prof. Serra-Garcia matched each original studys outcomes to its citations on Google Scholar, starting roughly in 2008 and ending in 2019. Although they didnt cherry-pick the wow studies, they still found that just 39 per cent of psychology studies replicated, as did 61 per cent in economics, and 62 per cent of those published in Nature and Science.

Yet over a decade, studies that failed to replicate were cited 16 times more often a year than reproducible ones, with no significant change after it was shown that they couldnt be replicated. Papers that failed to replicate were cited much more than papers that were reproducible, Prof. Gneezy told me. If citations are just a proxy for how sexy an idea is, then the findings that are more interesting and get the most attention are the least likely to be true.

Some of the social science findings that havent been replicated include one showing that gripping a pen between your teeth, thus forcing a smile, makes you feel happy. Only one out of 18 attempts by other labs could reproduce this effect (it only works if no one is watching, apparently). Not just facial expression but body posture, too, is supposed to elicit emotions, according to a well-known study of power-posing. The idea that striking a victory stance legs braced, arms in a V can boost ones confidence and alter ones hormone levels (not to mention attenuate ones jitters before public speaking or a job interview) has become the poster child for the replication crisis, mainly because it was such an easy fix for the universal fear of failure. Even if the power-posing study didnt replicate, it continues to top the charts in scientific citations; a TED talk on the topic has garnered 61 million views.

The notion of stereotype threat which is a fancy way of saying that believing stereotypes about your gender, race or ethnic group becomes self-fulfilling prophecy has also largely failed to replicate. For example, the belief that they are bad at math necessarily hampers girls math performance has been studied extensively and is now widely accepted. Yet systematic replications of the phenomenon cant reproduce it. Still, stereotype threat has influenced educational policy, training programs and even admission practices at some universities.

Studies on growth mindset, implicit bias research and ego depletion have faltered in replications thus showing their findings to be exquisitely sensitive to context and statistical nuance. To extend the cooking metaphor, these findings might be like souffls that only rise when the weather is right. Or, they might simply be false. Either way, they persist in the scientific literature, in corporate and educational trends, and in the public imagination.

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The Gneezy-Serra-Garcia study focused on social science. But the phenomenon of non-replicability has hit the worlds of natural science, economics and medicine as well. Heres just a small sampling: A paper published in the journal Nature last year reported that a small inhibitory molecule could tamp down the formation of tau, a sign of Alzheimers disease. Though the study could not be reproduced, it has been cited 605 times in papers published by other scientists. Similarly, animal studies showing successful treatment of Type 1 diabetes based on combining two existing drugs, a neurotransmitter and a malaria medication, raised hopes when published in the journal Cell in 2017. Two other prestigious teams tried and failed to reproduce the results. Still, the research has been cited 238 times.

Other findings that didnt pass muster include a 21 percentage-point boost for the soccer player who kicks first in penalty shots, published in 2010 in American Economic Review. The finding couldnt be coaxed out of a larger sample two years later. Yet the first-mover advantage has been cited 483 times in research, not to mention innumerable soccer broadcasts.

Why is this happening? The researchers who authored the Science Advances study speculate that journal editors perhaps unconsciously might overlook methodological problems in studies with intuitive appeal. These findings may be surprising, or they might provide an easy fix to a complex problem. Ivermectin for COVID-19, power-posing, stereotype threat and first-mover advantage in soccer all fit both bills. Once published, such findings take on a life of their own, gaining currency and momentum. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, Carl Sagan, the American astronomist, said. When our expectations are high, the burden of proof should be high, as well.

Still, its likely an overstatement to call this a crisis. Enthusiasm for replication and attempts to confirm catchy findings have been growing, and thats a good thing. Having studied the problem for years, Prof. Nosek, the executive director of the Center for Open Science, seems unconcerned.

This is about the scientific community self-scrutinizing, he said. Its not surprising that the things that push the boundaries fail to replicate. Thats how it should be. We should be trying things that are not likely to be true. Then we investigate to see if they are.

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Too good to be true? Why science and medicine are in the throes of a replication crisis - The Globe and Mail

Read the Osteopathic Pledge of Commitment

Osteopathic physicians, also known as DOs, work in partnership with their patients. They consider the impact that lifestyle and community have on the health of each individual, and they work to break down barriers to good health. DOs are licensed to practice the full scope of medicine in all 50 states. They practice in all types of environments, including the military, and in all types of specialties, from family medicine to obstetrics, surgery, and aerospace medicine.

DOs are trained to look at the whole person from their first days of medical school, which means they see each person as more than just a collection of organ systems and body parts that may become injured or diseased. This holistic approach to patient care means that osteopathic medical students learn how to integrate the patient into the health care process as a partner. They are trained to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds, and they get the opportunity to practice these skills in their classrooms and learning laboratories, frequently with standardized and simulated patients.

Today, when the challenge of ensuring an adequate number of primary care physicians extends to osteopathic medicine, more than one-third of osteopathic medical school graduates choose careers in primary care. Osteopathic medicine also has a special focus on providing care in rural and urban underserved areas, allowing DOs to have a greater impact on the U.S. population's health and well-being than their numbers would suggest. Over the past three years, more than a third of osteopathic medical school graduates indicated they plan to practice in a rural or underserved area.

Osteopathic medicine is also rapidly growing! One in five medical students in the United States is attending an osteopathic medical school.

One key concept osteopathic medical students learn is that structure influences function. Thus, if there is a problem in one part of the bodys structure, function in that area, and possibly in other areas, may be affected.

Another integral tenet of osteopathic medicine is the bodys innate ability to heal itself. Many of osteopathic medicines manipulative techniques are aimed at reducing or eliminating the impediments to proper structure and function so the self-healing mechanism can assume its role in restoring a person to health.

Link:

What Is Osteopathic Medicine - Its History & Philosophy

(WTNH) If your weekend plans include shoveling, or better yet, something more fun like snowmobiling, proceed with caution. News 8 speaks with a trauma expert from Yale Medicine about what he has seen this winter.

The Connecticut Shoreline has already seen 43 inches of snow this winter season with 30 inches falling in February alone.

Whether youre taking advantage of the snow by doing something fun or just having to deal with it, pain and injury are common when performing a wintertime activity.

We reached out to Yale Medicine and Dr. Michael Leslie, Trauma Chief at Yale Medicine Orthopedics and Rehabilitation. He said with the isolation and stress caused by the pandemic, people arent easing into their winter activities.

Now we see a lot of people who are just looking for something to do. And maybe they havent skied for the last fifteen years and they just take a day and just want to do something. Or theyve never been on a snowmobile before, but, one of their friends or neighbors has one and they just want to get out. Its really quite traumatic when people get hurt in these ways.

Dr. Leslie said they have seen patients come in with an injury only to be diagnosed with COVID. Once they have the stress of the trauma on their body, and COVID, patients exhibit an acute inflammatory response and get much sicker than they might have otherwise, he said.

Read more here:

Trauma expert from Yale Medicine says to take caution when heading outside this winter - WTNH.com

Me and my bro, we get real excited about music. Anytime I have just a piece of a song, I go sing it to him. We start jumping around the kitchen and getting so happy, like, This bout to be dope! This 'bout to be sweet, man! We was like, We got to record this ASAP. I was in Houston. I went to try to record it, because I had wrote this song literally in a day. Actually, I started writing it that night, but the next day I was finished with the song. I was finished the next day.

We went to this Houston studio. I didnt really like what he was doing to my voice. So, I was just like, Ill just wait, and Ill go to LA and record it there. But, my bros went to Atlanta, and I didnt wanna be by myself, because mind you, I left my house that I was living in with my husband. And I left there, and Id start staying with my brother. So, I didnt wanna stay home. I didnt wanna stay there by myself because they were going to Atlanta.

So, Im like, Lemme just get a ticket and go. It was a last-minute. I didnt have nothing planned, but when we got to Atlanta, my bro went to a studio to start recording his song. I was like, Ill pay for some more time. Can I record my song? And I recorded it like this, a night, and then dropped it three days later. It was a really quick process. I was ready to get it out by New Years.

See the article here:

Queen Naija Medicine Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

February 2021

Indiana Regenerative Medicine (IRM), a cutting-edge and innovative clinic specializing in the latest nonsurgical interventions to treat chronic joint pain and other neuropathic pain syndromes, announced that Annamarie Salyer, NP, is joining their team. Annamarie adds her vast professional experience to the IRMs team of Leann Emery (nurse practitioner), Charrissee (registered nurse), Dr. Preston Peachee II (chiropractic physician) and the therapy staff.

Annamarie Salyer is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner who partners closely with Dr. Preston Peachee.She received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in nursing from Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana.

As a registered nurse, Annamarie worked in intensive care, progressive care and medical/surgical care. As a nurse practitioner, she has worked in internal medicine, functional medicine, acute care and addiction medicine. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Annamarie and her husband, Jason, reside in Indianapolis. She loves spending time with her two daughters, Josephine and Gabriella, traveling, and being outdoors. Annamarie is currently practicing in the Castleton location and will be seeing patients in IRMs new office when it opens this summer.

Annamarie is a caring and compassionate practitioner who takes the time to individually evaluate and educate her patients, discussing their concerns to deliver the best care for her patients. She is excited to be part of a team that offers regenerative medicine, a holistic approach to the body healing itself with one of the safest methods of recovery for patients with neuropathy.

Fortunately, Annamarie also has great expertise in treating those who suffer chronic knee pain that is otherwise unresponsive to care. Many patients who have osteoarthritis of the knee and are bone on bone respond well to IRMs treatments, including specialized therapy and rehab, laser therapy, hyaluronic acid injections (which lubricate the joint and act like a shock absorber for the bone-on-bone pain), stem cell therapy and now exosome treatments. This protocol has been used to help thousands of patients to find relief from knee pain without cortisone injections, surgery or pain meds. In most cases, the pain can be eliminated or reduced to the point where patients can walk again without pain and return to simple things, like going up and down stairs, cleaning the house and enjoying the grandkids again.

Neuropathy is weakness, numbness and pain, usually in the hands or feet, caused by damage to the peripheral nerves (nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord). It can be caused by diabetes, chemotherapy, physical injury or chemical exposure. The condition can become so severe that patients are unable to walk, develop wounds that dont heal or, even worse, may be facing amputation of toes, the foot or the leg.

Diabetic and other forms of neuropathy are very difficult to treat because they usually do not respond well to care. Many who suffer from neuropathy pain find little or no relief with conventional care, such as physical therapy, pain meds or the drugs used in treatment such as Neurontin and Lyrica. These drugs can sometimes cause side effects which can be worse than the original problem and increasing doses are needed to maintain the benefits, if there are any at all. People struggle with this condition as there is usually no cure, and it will continue to progress with fewer options for relief as time goes on. Eventually, it results in there being no other treatment options.

Neuropathy patients may feel as if they have fallen through the cracks of the health care system and dont know where to turn or who to trust. It is easy to give up or become depressed with chronic pain, but there is hope. IRM uses a combined approach to effectively treat the condition and not just mask the symptoms.

IRM specializes in helping the peripheral nerves to heal, which removes the pain, numbness and tingling, as well as the burning and prickling sensations their patients experience. This helps to halt and even reverse the effects of neuropathy. Most patients respond well to the treatment that holistically treats all facets of the condition and addresses the nutritional component, the physical degeneration of the nerves, poor circulation and lack of blood flow. Additionally, it addresses the physical symptoms, such as poor coordination, falling and wounds not healing properly or slowly.

The IRM clinical team addresses neuropathy by truly treating the source of the problem, which is nerve damage to the smaller nerves, generally accompanied by poor blood flow in the small arteries. This is why most people will lose the hair on their legs, have tight and shiny skin, have discoloration or itching, and eventually develop wounds that do not heal correctly or at all. Many will even develop edema, or swelling to the legs and feet, and will eventually have pain, difficulty walking, and may start to trip, fall or have their legs give out on them.

As IRM improves the circulation to the feet and toes, it restores oxygen to the tiny arteries. This improvement in circulation aids in getting the proper nutrition to the nerves, allowing them to heal.

IRM uses a very specific, innovative therapy to reestablish communication between the toes and the brain, which promotes healing of the nerves, helps to remove the pain and allows the damaged tissues to begin to heal and repair themselves. Once the damaged nerves have adequate oxygen and the proper nutrition to heal, most patients will see relief of their symptoms with specific rehabilitation.

New treatments like this are often not covered by insurance, so IRM is excited that this neuropathy treatment, as well as their knee pain protocols, are covered by most insurances, including Medicare in most cases. They can now help even more people than before.

Neuropathic conditions did not happen overnight,and IRM cant fix it all in one treatment, but with the right steps, relief is possible. Most people will see a positive change after just one treatment. The longer and the more severe the damage, the more intense the treatment will be, but if you want to get better, IRM has a solution for you.

Every patient is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, so the clinic staff always start with a thorough exam to determine if you are a candidate for care and how they can tailor an individual plan for you. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill that will make neuropathy go away, but if you are willing to get help, Indiana Regenerative Medicine can help you to get better and start enjoying life again!

IRM is currently accepting new neuropathy pain patients as well as knee pain patients, and they look forward to helping those who suffer.

Call (317) 653-4503 or visit indianaregen.com to set up your free consultation and start the road to recovery with Indiana Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Read more from the original source:

Indiana Regenerative Medicine Welcomes Annamarie Salyer to the Practice - Zionsville Monthly Magazine

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By Averee Dovsek |February 19, 2021 1:00 pm

A half-kneeling medicine ball slam is a great way to get your anger out over that triple bogey you had last week, but also helps increase stability in your core and works your upper and lower body.

In the latest episode of, Fitness with Averee, Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to do a half-kneeling medicine ball slam. This exercise is a great option for golfers with a tight hip flexor because the movement is free flowing.

Combine what you learn through Fitness with Averee withSteve Scotts instruction seriesand you will be a different golfer on and off the course.

Watch this episode of Fitness with Averee above andcheck here for previous episodes.

Golfweeks latest newsletter, Get Better which covers everything Instruction and Fitness related, is up and running.Sign up for Get Better here.

Averee, distance, Fitness, Golf Fitness, Video, Instruction, Videos

Read more here:

Fitness with Averee: Medicine ball slams - usatoday.com

Written by Desiree Cooper February 19, 2021

Tara Mayes plans to graduate with a bachelor's degree in animal and dairy science from Eastern New Mexico University this summer. Her career goal is to work in veterinary medicine, helping "pets and all animals live long, healthy lives" and advancing the field by studying animals.

Tara enjoys aiding animals; she volunteers at animal shelters and an animal clinic and is a member of the ENMU Pre-Vet Club. Her interest in animal science began because she loved the "idea of learning about animals and helping them since they can't speak for themselves."

Her advice to students interested in her field of study is to "get as much experience as possible. When everything seems to feel overwhelming or difficult, remember your goal because the success you receive in the end is the best reward."

The senior was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and has three brothers and two sisters. Her mother is a pre-K teacher, and her father is a technician.

Tara chose to attend ENMU to run on the cross country team. She also liked that Eastern's "location in a small town allows one to focus on their studies with fewer distractions."

Her favorite class at ENMU was Common Veterinary Practice because learning the terminology of the field helped her excel in her volunteer work with animals.

Tara says that every professor she has encountered in the Department of Agriculture, Food Science and Kinesiology cares about students and is eager to help them. "ENMU has a great support system of teachers who want to see the students succeed," she shares.

Her go-to spots in Portales, New Mexico, are the Wesley Foundation and the Golden Student Success Center.

The Greyhound's hobbies include exercising, cooking and spending time with family. She dreams of traveling outside of the United States someday and owning a business.

Read more:

ENMU Animal and Dairy Science Major Aims for Career in Veterinary Medicine - ENMU News

Elizabeth Hofheinz, M.P.H., M.Ed.

Do your sports medicine fellows have sufficient exposure to anterior shoulder dislocation, but dont do many arthroscopic hip procedures? How steady is their exposure to knee procedures? These and other questions are addressed in new work by the Department of Orthopaedics at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Sports Medicine Research Institute.

Their study, Orthopaedic Surgery Sports Medicine Fellows See Substantial Increase in Hip Arthroscopy Procedural Volume With High Variability From 2011 to 2016, was published in the February 1, 2021 edition of Arthroscopy.

Using 2011-2016 case logs from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the researchers examined how much exposure that sports medicine fellows graduating from an ACGME-accredited program had to shoulder, hip and knee procedures.

Co-author William Vasileff, M.D., a sports medicine and hip preservation specialist at Wexner, told OSN, The amount of hip arthroscopy being performed has risen dramatically over the last decade or so, and the training surgeons receive when learning this procedure can be quite variable. In addition, there is a significant learning curve with hip arthroscopy to improve outcomes and reduce risks of less-than-optimal outcomes and complications. Fellowship is a big bulk of time where many surgeons get subspecialty training, including hip arthroscopy, and we recognized that there is potentially a wide variety of types of experiences during fellowship training.

To put numbers to their hypotheses, the researchers used linear regression to identify significant changes in case volumes over time for each surgical case/procedure. Also, for the first and last years of the study, the difference in case volume between fellows in the lowest (10th) and highest (90th) centile was determined.

The average number of total procedures per fellow minimally decreased by 3.5% from 2011 to 2016 (726 to 701 cases), wrote the authors. The mean total number of hip procedures significantly increased by 155% from 24.9 to 63.5. There were no significant differences in the mean total number of shoulder and knee procedures. Arthroscopic hip procedures had the largest increase from 2011 to 2016. There was greater than 2-fold difference in total procedural volume between fellows in the 10th and 90th percentile for 2011 and 2016, with the greatest variation (64-fold) for arthroscopic hip procedures.

Dr. Vasileff: There was a very significant increase in hip arthroscopy procedures performed for fellows in training from 2011-2016 reflecting the growth of the procedures being performed by attending surgeons and teaching fellows. There was also a large difference between the fellows who did the most hip arthroscopy procedures and those who did the fewest (10th vs 90th percentile)?

Opening up new lines of inquiry

The most interesting next step related to this would be to ask several different questions. Did the fellows near the top of the percentile for hip arthroscopy procedures in training go on to do more hip arthrosocpy when in independent practice? And also, for those who had more experience with hip arthrosocpy in fellowship training have fewer complication and poor outcomes, shortening the learning curve in those instances? Lastly, were the few fellows near the top of these percentiles from a handful of training programs, and was this large increase in hip procedures driven by a few high-volume hip practices?

Fellowship training experiences can be extremely variable from program to program, especially when it comes to exposure to hip arthroscopy procedures, said Dr. Vasileff to OSN. Subspecialty training in this sub-sub niche is extremely important to strong patient outcomes and reducing risk of harm. When choosing to pursue a career to include hip arthroscopy and hip preservation surgery, ensure that proper training via fellowship, visiting surgeon programs, educational lab courses and other avenues can all play an important role.

Read this article:

Sports Medicine Fellows' Exposure to Hip Arthroscopy All Over the Map? - OrthoSpineNews

It is a difficult and potentially perilous exercise to examine our past through the lens of 21st century thinking. Each person is a product of the time in which he or she lives, demanding both principled conviction and righteous humility when we make judgments about people who lived centuries earlier.

We wrestle with this whenever we try to better understand those who founded our nation, and when we try to reconcile their actions with the values of equality that our country pledged in the Declaration of Independence. And yet, honest self-examination is a critically important step to better understanding ourselves, to heal old wounds, and to take corrective actions to address ongoing societal harms.

Grappling with our history

In 2008, the AMA concluded a three-year study on the racial divide in organized medicine and publicly apologized for our organizations past discriminatory practices against Black physicians. The AMAs apology was never intended to be the final word on the subject of race for our organization. In fact, the AMA called it a modest first step toward healing and reconciliation. This is a journey of reflection and action that continues.

As we grapple with AMAs 174-year history, we must acknowledge that decisions by AMA leaders contributed to a health care system plagued by inequities and injustices that harmed patients and systemically excluded many from our physician ranks.

In 2018, our AMA House of Delegates adopted policy and a strategic framework for addressing health equity on a national scale, work that led to the creation of our AMA Center for Health Equity the following year.

Already, the center has become a recognized voice nationally on issues of equity and social justice in medicine. It is tasked with embedding the principles of health equity across our AMA and partnering with others to urgently eliminate longstanding barriers and structural inequities in the U.S. To advance this work, our AMA Board of Trustees and AMA House of Delegates last year named racism as a serious threat to public health and advanced concrete steps toward addressing it.

Reconsidering a seminal figure

One critical next step in this journey of reflection and action is evaluating the person commonly thought of as the founder of the AMA, Dr. Nathan Davis.

Dr. Davis was a seminal figure in the early days of the AMA, serving as AMA president and as the founding editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. As drafter of the 1845 resolution that ultimately led to AMAs founding, he believed he was responsible for holding together the AMA as a national governing body of medicine in the years after the Civil War. He has commonly been referred to as the father of the AMA.

Dr. Davis answer for maintaining the AMA as a national organization was to explicitly exclude women and Black physicians from representation in our House of Delegates, thus appeasing many state and local medical societies who barred all but white men from their membership.

Pursued racist path

Perhaps what is most egregiousa smoking gun as it werewas an event concerning physician groups in the Washington, D.C., area. A physician organization there refused to admit Black physicians resulting in the formation of another organization composed of both Black and white physicians. This second group subsequently appealed to join the AMA House of Delegates.

In considering this proposal, other AMA physiciansled by a physician also involved in the founding of the American Medical Associationsupported membership for this integrated group, a stance that might well have directed the AMA toward a path of integration early in our history.

However, Dr. Davis blocked the acceptance of this integrated group of physicians, doing so largely through parliamentary maneuvers. This historical fact defines Dr. Davis role in blocking integration and promoting and embedding racism in the AMA. Dr. Davis role was highly active, not passive, and his choice for a racist direction was pursued with energy and force.

Thus, in an era when some fought for greater representation within organized medicine and clearly saw the harms caused by racism and sexism, Dr. Davis and some of his contemporaries doubled down on discriminatory policies for AMA membership by leaving admission standards to regional medical societies that, in some cases, banned the participation of women and Black physicians for far too long.

The above actions helped maintain the white, male-dominated power structure in American society. Sadly, this would remain AMA policy for nearly a century, until race- and gender-based discrimination was officially outlawed by the Civil Right Act of 1964.

Dr. Davis made considerable and important contributions to medicine in his long career, but his decisions at the AMA, coming in a crucial period of reconciliation for America, severely limited opportunities for Black and women physicians. The decisions silenced their voices in organized medicine, and led to a host of inequities and injustices in health care that remain today.

Clarifying choices

I recently visited the glassed-in enclosure that honors Dr. Davis at our AMA headquarters in Chicago. Located just a few steps from my office, I have passed this display countless times over the years, but only recently have I begun to reflect on the man and ask myself if his actions represent our newly embraced equity values of the AMA and of organized medicine. The answer is clearly no.

We cant erase history, but we can decide the appropriate way to recognize individuals from our past. For this reason, I had the bust and display of Dr. Davis removed from public view and placed in our archives where they will rightly serve as educational materials. Additionally, the AMA has removed the name of Nathan Davis from an award we give annually to honor individuals for outstanding government service. These are two small but necessary steps toward reconciling the AMAs past and laying the groundwork for our future.

First, do no harm is a guiding ethos in medical ethics, reminding us that at its core the art of care and caring for others seeks to reduce and eliminate harms that our patients and communities are experiencing. By continuing to examine our long history, our AMA is reaffirming medicines commitment to this ethos, and to creating a more just and perfect union for all.

Read more:

Reckoning with medicine's history of racism - American Medical Association

LONDON (Reuters) - Group of Seven leaders, who control a little under half of the worlds economy, on Friday sought to look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic towards rebuilding their battered economies with free trade and to countering Chinas non-market oriented policies.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi debuted at the G7 virtual leaders meeting which was chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The leaders called for stronger defences against a future pandemic, including exploring a global health treaty, but the focus was on a green recovery - on the same day that the United States rejoined the Paris climate agreement.

Jobs and growth is what were going to need after this pandemic, Johnson told the opening of the meeting.

An official communiques said the G7 would champion open economies, data free flow with trust and work on a modernised, freer and fairer rules-based multilateral trading system.

After Facebook cut news feeds in Australia, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the role social media platforms should have in preserving freedom of speech and how to regulate them, a French official said on Friday.

G7 leaders also supported the commitment of Japan to hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this summer.

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In a clear reference to China, they said they will consult with each other on collective approaches to address non-market oriented policies and practices.

But the tone of the G7 was distinctly cooperative and collective - as Biden tried to project a message of re-engagement with the world and with global institutions after four years of Donald Trumps America First policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.4 million people, tipped the global economy into its worst peacetime slump since the Great Depression and upended normal life for billions.

MUTE ANGELA

Even at the virtual top table of world politics, the mute curse, which has stilted video calls for millions of businesses and families over the past months of COVID-19 lockdown, struck.

As Johnson began the meeting, a German voice suddenly interrupted him.

Can you hear us Angela, Johnson quipped to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chuckling. I think you need to mute.

Johnson also claimed that Biden had nicked - British slang for stolen - his slogan build back better, though Johnson said that he himself had probably stolen it from somewhere else.

Once the mute problems were over, leaders pledged billions of dollars to COVAX, a coronavirus vaccination programme for poorer countries.

COVID-19 shows that the world needs stronger defences against future risks to global health security, the G7 said. We will continue to support our economies to protect jobs and support a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery.

Though Biden has cast China as the most serious competitor of the United States, China was mentioned only once in the communiques.

Johnson said the G7 - as like-minded liberal free-trading democracies - stood together on issues such as condemnation of the coup in Myanmar and the detention of Alexei Navalny in Russia.

The G7 of the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada has a combined gross domestic product of about $40 trillion - a little less than half of the global economy.

($1 = 0.7155 pounds)

Additional reporting by by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu in Washington; and Michel Rose in Paris; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alistair Bell, John Stonestreet and Nick Macfie

Read more here:

'Jobs and growth' are the medicine the world needs, Johnson tells G7 - Reuters

If youve been to the doctor over the last several decades, youve likely been told about the importance of exercise to your heart and overall health. Youve likely also been encouraged by your doctor to exercise regularly. Have you ever wondered why exercise contributes to good health?

Eli Friedman, M.D., medical director of sports cardiology at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, says that exercise is medicine for the mind, body and soul.

Exercise lowers blood pressure, blood glucose, and bad cholesterol, he said. It lowers risk factors for cardiovascular disease across the board. It also improves eating, sleeping, feeling better and ones mental health. There are very few instances where we would advise someone not to exercise.

A study published in 2015 in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports indicated that 26 different chronic diseases could be treated with prescribed exercise. The diseases fall into the following categories:

Also, a global health initiative launched by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Medical Association in 2007 aims to encourage healthcare providers to assess patients physical activity and prescribe exercise as a key treatment in the clinical management of chronic diseases.

Health Benefits of Exercise

In terms of cardiovascular health, exercise engages the cardiovascular system and improves its efficiency, Dr. Friedman said. When you exercise regularly, your blood pressure decreases, your resting heart rate goes down and your metabolism increases.

Dr. Friedman adds that both aerobic exercise what most people refer to as cardio and resistance, or strength, training contribute to improved health. Cardiovascular exercise, such as running, jumping, swimming and cycling, gets your heart beating, blood pumping, your lungs moving and your brain signals firing. Strength training, such as weightlifting and resistance movement, improves your bone and muscle health, making each more agile and efficient in using the necessary nutrients needed to perform.

How Much Exercise Is Recommended?

Dr. Friedman says the dose of recommended exercise for most adults is 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercise. He defines moderate as being able to carry on a conversation with someone while exercising. He and the American Heart Association say this amount can be replaced by 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise each week. Dr. Friedman notes that this higher level of intensity makes it difficult to carry on a conversation other than with yes or no answers. The American Heart Association also recommends moderate- to high-intensity muscle-strengthening activity at least twice a week.

If you aim for and hit these numbers, you maximize the benefits of exercise, Dr. Friedman said. In most people, theres really no such thing as too much exercise.

When Is Exercise Too Much?

As a sports cardiologist, though, Dr. Friedman also works closely with elite and professional athletes and sometimes sees issues arise when exercise is pushed to its upper limits. For these individuals, its important to have a physician monitoring their exercise and nutrition to ensure optimal health. But, for most people, exercise within the recommended limits is beneficial.

Still, Dr. Friedman says to be on the lookout for the following symptoms, which can indicate problems, when you exercise:

If you experience these symptoms, contact your doctor, or if the symptoms are severe, call 911 immediately, Dr. Friedman advises.

Exercise After COVID-19

Since studies about the effects of COVID-19 have indicated a possible link between the novel coronavirus and heart damage, Dr. Friedman recommends that people who have recovered from COVID-19 should discuss their gradual return to physical activity and exercise with their primary care physician or cardiologist. In most mild cases of COVID-19 that didnt require any treatment, he says, wait the 10-14 days of recovery recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and slowly return to activity. If symptoms arise seek further evaluation from a healthcare provider.

Some of the effects of COVID-19 noted in these studies include an inflammation of the heart muscle, or myocarditis, which can lead to heart failure and arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats. In some patients, COVID-19 also led to blood clots that affect the lungs, heart attacks and strokes. Still others experienced pericarditis, in which the sac that surrounds the heart becomes inflamed or filled with fluid (pericardial effusion) and puts pressure on the heart, preventing it from functioning properly.

The vast majority of people with mild symptoms from the virus, especially those with symptoms that affected only areas above the chest and did not involve fever, chest pain, shortness of breath or hospitalization, should be able to return to moderate exercise as soon as they feel well enough to do so, he said. But, hospitalization, especially with evidence of heart damage may require a slower return to activity and management by a cardiologist.

Dr. Friedman says that physical activity and exercise that is proportionate to each persons ability can be beneficial. To determine your ability and the level at which you should exercise safely and with maximum heart and health benefits, he recommends talking to your doctor or healthcare provider.

My goal is getting as many people as possible to exercise safely, he said. For most people, the more exercise you do, the better your heart functions and your overall health improves. If you dont exercise, talk to your doctor about how to start, and if you do exercise, dont stop. Take your daily dose of exercise. Its the best medicine.

More here:

'Exercise Is Medicine' Here's Why - Baptist Health South Florida

Five years ago, the Section of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (WEM) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine journeyed to Greenland to provide health care services for researchers at the U.S. National Science Foundations (NSF) Summit Station.

What began as a one-year contract has turned into five years full of learning experiences for Jay Lemery, MD, professor of emergency medicine and section chief of WEM, and the wilderness medicine fellows who have deployed to Summit Station for a once-in-a-lifetime training opportunity.

Since 2016, WEM has deployed three wilderness medicine fellows and paramedics who have split time at the camp during high season between April and August. WEM also provides telemedicine during winter months from the Anschutz Medical Campus. This year, WEM is planning to deploy two wilderness medicine fellows and a paramedic to make up for lost research time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have a decent clinic at Summit Station, but many of the researchers are out deep in the field with a rudimentary medical kit and no medical training, so its our job to help mitigate risk as best we can, says Lemery. Weve improved our emergency capability, been able to send our wilderness medicine fellows to the ice, and have added on-call psychiatric first aid, as well as pre-deployment first aid training programs to researchers.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Brooks.

Before supporting Summit Station, WEM, a section of the CU Department of Emergency Medicine, had provided remote medical services for the U.S. Antarctic Program. That experience helped to hone WEMs skills for the new challenges they would face in Greenland.

In 2018, the WEM team had an encounter with a polar bear that wandered into camp, hundreds of miles away from home. This incident posed an unpredictable situation that brought to the forefront the need for mental health support as part of the teams medical care.

A healthy polar bear walked into the camp hundreds of miles from the sea from its normal habitat, says Lemery. Unfortunately, it had smelled the kitchen and was not going to leave.

Because the polar bear was so far away from the sea, and with no provision like a nearby protected area or national park to move it to, the Greenlandic authorities had to euthanize the polar bear. NSF researchers and staff on the ice, many dedicated to the preservation of biodiversity and protection of the environment, were devastated by the incident and emotionally traumatized.

We quickly identified these stressors and had a team of CU-based psychiatric first aid providers ready to provide support for many weeks after, says Lemery. We felt it was critical to scale up our capacity here and get mental health care providers who understood psychiatric first aid. Luckily, we had people that were really good at it and many of them were CU School of Medicine faculty.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Brooks.

Similar to the rest of the world, the Summit Station could not avoid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research season was canceled in 2020 even though there hasnt been a case of the virus at the camp. Researchers and staff are put through rigorous protocols that include numerous tests and extended quarantines before and after arrival.

The WEM team is heavily involved in procuring appropriate personal protective equipment, and working with both U.S. and Greenlandic authorities to comply with quarantine and testing guidelines from multiple jurisdictions.

Knowing that there will be the potential for cases, we are always working to figure out how we safely get people to and from the camp, says Lemery. We are dealing with different circumstances exposure from civilian and military flights, where exposure to COVID is higher. Were looking to safely have hundreds of researchers and staff head to the ice this spring and summer.

Though the team has always provided telemedicine during the winter months via telephone calls and emails, they have added Zoom as a method to connect with researchers and staff. They have always had the bandwidth to provide virtual telemedicine, however, its because of the new Zoom culture that has grown over past year that has made the concept less foreign and easier to provide care.

The WEM team is planning for an extended season this year because last years research was cut short. This means WEM will deploy for the first time two wilderness medicine fellows and a paramedic at various times during the spring and summer season to provide care for researchers and staff. One of the WEM fellows headed to Summit Station this April will be Mia Derstine, MD. She will spend six weeks at the camp and is thrilled for the opportunity to practice in such challenging conditions.

I hope to learn how to address medicine in a truly remote environment with limited diagnostic tools and backup, says Derstine. I am brushing up on reading about austere medicine, reading literature about using portable ultrasound in such conditions, and starting to train for the altitude.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Brooks.

At the height of the pandemic, another critical change occurred. The NSF switched contractors from CH2M Hill to Battelle to provide infrastructure and logistics support for researchers at Summit Station. WEM was a subcontractor for CH2M Hill providing health care services, a contract that was retained by Battelle.

With this new partnership, Lemery who is also the co-director of the Climate & Health Program sees an increased drive to invest more educational and training resources with the Greenlandic communities. Lemery sees this as not only an opportunity to expand the work of WEM, but also to create new learning experiences for medical students interested in climate and health.

Were hoping to have more community engagement with the Greenlandic communities through our wilderness medicine and climate and health education, as well as online offerings, says Lemery. Theres a real educational synergy there. And being able to have our medical students go up there and participate would be phenomenal. You would have the health angle with wilderness medicine and the chance to meet climate scientists conducting research. This could be a fabulous opportunity.

Lemery adds he wants to make it easier for faculty members from the CU School of Medicine to provide care at Summit Station. He is exploring shorter deployment times to make this option more feasible for faculty members.

As the Arctic conditions evolve due to climate change, we may see more sustained human activity there, and we have an expertise in keeping people safe in these very extreme environments, says Lemery.

We think well have more ability to send our faculty to the Summit Station clinic for six months per year, and possibly to other NSF sites as well.

Original post:

CU Section of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Reaches Five-Year Mark for Providing Care in Greenland - CU Anschutz Today

Cornel West spoke of love, solidarity and spirituality Thursday as the inaugural speaker of the UB Department of Surgerys Beyond the Knife lecture series. The Harvard professor did not touch on his recent threat to depart from his position at the university.

West, 67, is one of the most well-known activists and political authors in the U.S.. West has served as a Harvard professor of law, divinity and African American studies since 2017, according to The Boston Globe.

On Thursday, West told The Boston Globe that his request for tenure had been denied by Harvard and is considering cutting ties with the university.

After being tenured at Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Union Theological Seminary, the recent Harvard denial of a tenure process strikes me as a political decision I reject. Nothing stands in the way of my profound love for and solidarity with oppressed people West said in a statement on Friday.

West claims that his request for tenure was denied for being too controversial of a figure.

What Im told is its too risky. And these are quotes. Its too fraught. And Im too controversial he said

West has drawn criticism in the past for his left-wing critique of Democratic figures such as Barack Obama. In a recent speech for an event hosted by the Western New York Peace Center, West rebuked President-elect Joe Bidens neoliberal policies. West serves as an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and appeared at rallies supporting Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign.

However, Wests spat with the Harvard administration did not arise during his Thursday lecture. Instead, West tackled topics such as systemic racism, recent social movements and their relation to health care.

Slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, white supremacist lies about Black people all try to tell us were less. Less in intelligence, less worthy of access to education, less worthy of access to healthcare. Thats the barbaric dimension of our precious and fragile experiment with democracy, West said. Brother Martin used to tell us that the worst form of inequality is the very fact that we are the richest nation in the history of the world and still have so many people of all colors, disproportionately black and brown, who dont have access to high-quality healthcare.

Wests speech kicked off a soon-to-be-annual lecture series hosted by the Department of Surgery. The departments initiative, formed in response to the death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic, seeks to mitigate racism and inequality in healthcare, according to Steven Schwaitzberg, president of UBMD. The event was free and open to the public. Over 1,200 people signed up to watch the event live. A recording was made available on the UB Health Sciences YouTube channel.

West also took aim at the alleged mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccination process among some Black communities.

Weve got to realize that Black people are not stupid. Theyve got a history of insights and theyve got memories of violation, West said. Weve got to unflinchingly and candidly confront those insights and those memories and convince them that out of deep care for them that this vaccine is going to be a force for good in their lives.

The Spectrum has been covering the University at Buffalo since 1950, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.

West concluded his speech by answering questions from a panel of three residents and medical students at the Jacobs School of Medicine. West praised the UB students discipline in the field.

I think of what you all do as being like jazz musicians. You have to be so disciplined, you do your homework, youre sharp. Yet at the same time you have cultivated the capacity to listen and learn West said.

Brendan Kelly is the assistant news editor and can be reached at brendan.kelly@ubspectrum.com or on Twitter @bpkelly5

See the original post here:

Cornel West speaks at School of Medicine event shortly after threatening to leave Harvard - University at Buffalo The Spectrum

Mary Drier, For the Tribune

Drier: Laughter really is the best medicine

Michigans claim to fame has been upstaged.

The image of our state is one of the most recognizable ones in the continental United States.

Besides Michigan, the states of Maine and Florida are also recognized by their shape when borders on a map are not outlined.

I remember reading somewhere Native Americans believed the left handed mitten was made by the Great Spirit when he started creating the world, and the Great Lakes were made from his sweat from doing that.

Anyway, our iconic image was upstaged during the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders became an internet sensation after being photographed sitting huddled in a chair wearing a pair of brown and white mittens.

Memes of Bernie and his distinctive mittens started popping up all over Facebook being inserted in a variety of familiar settings. One was of Bernie stilling on a park bench with Forrest Gump, in the movies The Shining, in Star Trek, and sitting in the iconic Game of Thrones chair. Those are just a few of the many Bernie memes that have him inserted in a variety of settings.

For weeks after the inauguration, Bernie memes were everywhere. Bernie and his mittens went viral.

His mittens were unique not only in their pattern but in how they were made. His mittens were a gift from a Vermont elementary school teacher who has a side business of making mittens out of old sweaters.

That sparked the creation of Chairman Sanders merchandise with his huddled inauguration image on them. Some of the merchandise included T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers on his website. They all quickly sold out.

Sales of that merchandize raised nearly $2 million, which went to charitable organizations in Sanders home state of Vermont.

There was even a crocheted image of Sanders, his mittens, and his brown jacket that was auctioned off.

It amazed me how that simple image of a well-known little old man hugging himself to keep warm morphed into a media craze, and how much good it raised for charities.

The memes at least for me brought a smile, a welcome break from the images of Jan. 6, and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Drier: Laughter really is the best medicine - Huron Daily Tribune

For a team atBethune-Cookman University, music and wellness have never been more in harmony.

Thanks to a$39,500 grant from the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, theLa-Doris McClaney School of Performing Arts and Communication of BCU's Department of Music is planning to implement a training model to increase health and wellness in targeted sectors of the community through the integration of music withEastern and Western medicine. It's an effort led by Dr. Rose Grace, Dr. Daniel Hollar and Dr. Diana Lee that grew out of the school's annual "Music and Medicine" symposium, which is now in its third year.

Brittni Cleland, certified dance and movement therapist and mental health clinician, leads a workshop during the second "Music and Medicine" Symposium

The symposium focused on helping musicians deal with the stresses of their profession, both and physical and mental in nature. But in the face of the ongoing pandemic, Grace said they recognized that these coping mechanisms presented to their students and fellow music educators could benefit health care workers and other frontline workers, including classroom teachers. There couldn't have been an urgenttime where their symposium model could be more applicable, she explained.

Thanks to a $39,500 grant from the Pabst SteinMetz Foundation, established in 2018, BCU is hoping to expand its music and wellness training model to help other populations in the community. Courtesy photo

The goal really is to introduce, educate, but most importantly improve everybodys health wellness in both their professional as well as personal lives," said Grace, an associate professor of piano at BCU. She has also served as the founder and director of the BCU music outreach program during the past 12 years.

Grace, of Ormond Beach, first became aware of the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation last year during a conference on arts and wellness programs. At the time, she and her team were planning their second symposium after having received positive feedback from the inaugural event. Little did she know that this year's symposium would be virtual, to be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20. This year's theme is "Fighting the COVID Fatigue."

Dr. Rose Grace, said she is grateful that the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation awarded them grant. Courtesy photo

Thanks to the foundation's grant, BCU will be able to expand this training model,made up of workshops featuring clinicians such as chiropractors, musicians, audiologists and tai-chi instructors. They hope to hold a series of comprehensive training workshops throughout the year focusing on holistic approaches to mental health support, stress reduction and efficient body usage, according to a press release.

I really do think we are going to truly revolutionize, I hope, the lives and the state of wellness of our individuals here in this immediate community and I certainly hope within Florida and hoping beyond that," Grace said.

The combination of music andhealing struck a chord with Graceseven years ago.

At the time, Grace, who is a pianist,had been diagnosed with a lung infection. The aftermath of the intense treatment left her in a state where she couldn't play, and she said her cognitive abilities were weakened. But through acupuncture and tai chi, Grace was able to begin playing again.

She started to apply the same concepts of eastern medicine with teaching.

During one exercise, she asked vocal students to sing before and after completing a tai chi routine. The difference was "astounding," Grace said.One student she interviewed afterward said she felt she had better control of her breath and was more focused on her vocals.

If I didnt actually experience it for myself and somebody told me about it, I would have told them, OK, stop telling me those fairy tales," Grace said."But I felt that powerful impact of it, so when I was hearing our students in some sense relating the same thing, where they felt an instantaneous improvement and freedom, and focus it was empowering and thrilling for me to hearthat [Lee]and I could bring something so beneficial to our students, to our campus and beyond that to the community.

The power of the training model lies in bridging medicine, arts and sciences together, a press release states. As one of six grant recipients, and the only university awardee among nonprofit organizations, collaboration between the three team members is essential.

Dr. Hollar, an assistant professor of psychology at BCU. Courtesy photo

Hollar, an assistant professor of psychology at BCU who also serves as the Department Chair of Behavior and Social Sciences Studies, earned his doctorate degree from Florida State University with research interests focusing on suicide, eating disordered behavior and ethnicity among individuals of African descent. He is the project's co-prime investigator alongside Grace.

Lee, of Ormond Beach, is the project's external collaborator, and is theformer director of the Odessa Chambliss Center for Health Equity at BCU. During the past three years, she has worked alongside Grace to bring the symposiums to the community.

Grace said she is eternally grateful for her enthusiasm and dedication to the project.

Dr. Diana Lee has worked alongside Grace in the past three years to bring the music symposiums to the community.Courtesy photo

I dont think I would have been able to do this as well if I didnt have her wonderful support and collaboration," she said.

The project will launch within the Central Florida communities, with the hopes of expanding it across the U.S. in the future.

The skys the limit," Grace said."So well see.

To learn more about the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, visit pabststeinmetzfoundation.org

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The power of music: Bethune-Cookman to expand its 'Music and Medicine' symposium thanks to grant - Ormond Beach Observer

(February 19, 2021 / JNS) On any given day, people coming into the Kosher Palate in Dallas do so know they are going to be spending money on groceries or prepared foods. This past week, however, hundreds of people were treated to free hot meals made by the staff of the supermarket/catering company amid a week of brutally cold winter weather.

My husband being the kind of guy he is, he likes to feed people, and he said there are people who are at home and no way to get hot food, so we have to feed them, said Miriam Goldfeder, who along with her husband, Chaim, own Kosher Palate. That was Tuesday night, and we have fed about 1,000 people each night since. I saw people who came in that I have never seen before.

Goldfeder, who also opened their home to family friends who had no heat, explained that we have a full kosher kitchen, so we have the cooking capability, as well as cases full of meats and chicken. Plus, we are preparing for Pesach, so we have more on hand than usual.

A GoFundMe account was established to help offset the costs of the meals. The Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas also contributed funding and arranged for three communal food distribution sites in different parts of the city.

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Both initiatives have allowed the Goldfeders to supply even more foodas of now, the plan is to provide meals at least through Shabbat. The GoFundMe effort proved so successful that the couple has been able to set aside some of the funds to provide Passover items to Jews in need, as well as sending funds to help people in Austin who are in need.

Additionally, a truck filled with additional kosher-food provisions for Shabbat arrived in Dallas on Friday from the Lev Rochel Bikur Cholima Jewish organization in Lakewood, N.J.while a chef friend of Chaim Goldfeder flew down on Thursday morning from his home in New Jersey to help with the on-site cooking.

A truck filled with kosher-food provisions for Shabbat arrived in Dallas from the Lev Rochel Bikur Cholim, a Jewish organization in Lakewood, N.J., Feb. 19, 2021. Credit: Courtesy.

A massive plunge of arctic air and winter storms throughout Texas knocked out power for nearly 4.5 million residents this past week as the states power grid was unable to keep up with demand brought on by the record cold. Power-generation stations and the electric grid in Texasseparate from the rest of the country, and as such, unable to get help from neighboring stateswere not properly winterized to handle the below-freezing temperatures. The precipitation made travel outdoors dangerous while indoors, water pipes froze and then ruptured, sending floods cascading down walls and through ceilings. At least 30 people have died since last Sunday from the cold.

The weather is expected to return to normal in the region by next week, which should reduce the strain on the power grid, and melt the snow and ice. Already, power has been restored to much of the state, although clean water and even food in some areas remain scarce.

A car in Dallas drives through the snow on Feb. 15, 2021. Credit: Matthew T. Rader via Wikimedia Commons.

Plenty of practice when it comes to natural disasters

It was amid these conditionsand despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemicthat members of the Jewish communities throughout the Lone Star State mobilized to help people in need. They opened their doors to friends without power, cooked meals, arranged for medication pickups for those homebound, and, in one extreme case, mobilized to ensure that hundreds of doses of critically needed coronavirus vaccines would not go to waste.

Many members of our community have been without power, said Rabbi Ari Sunshine of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas. Weve also heard about a number of folks who had pipes burst, and in some cases, had flooding damage ranging from minor to quite major.

At Shearith Israel, we have been trying to match up congregants in need of resources (hot food, warmth, a warm place to sleep, etc.) with other congregants who have not been affected, said Sunshine, who along with his family, took advantage of a members hospitality as he had no power for two days.

People line up to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of Texas synagogue after a freezer lost power. Credit: Rabbi Barry Gelman.

Now back at home, Sunshine said his congregation is continuing to look after others.

We have initiated an emergency fundraising effort tied into the mitzvah of matanot levyonim for Purim to raise money to help those in our Jewish community and larger Dallas community who are in most acute need, he said, with 50 percent of the funds going to Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas and 50 percent going to the North Texas Food Bank.

In the first 24 hours of the campaign, which runs until Purim starts on Feb. 25, the synagogue had already raised nearly $20,000.

In Houston, the winter weather and resultant issues proved a test of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houstons relatively new Jewish Response and Action Network (JRAN).

One thing about living in Houston is that we have had plenty of practice when it comes to natural disasters, said Jackie Fisherman, director of government relations at the Federation and organizer of JRAN. This is different. Even in Hurricane Harvey, there were areas of Texas that were unaffected and could send aid. This is widespread. But we were prepared, and we have risen to the situation as best we could.

Kosher food to be distributed to those in need throughout Texas. Credit: Courtesy.

Part of JRANs mission was to create a network of Jewish communal leaderssynagogue rabbis, heads of local organizations, etc.who could provide real-time, on-the-ground feedback on emergency conditions and what was most urgently needed. That network was put to the test this week.

For instance, when word came that a senior residence was about to run out of fuel for their generator, Fisherman was able to connect them to the proper authorities to make sure they got what they needed.

Its been so heartwarming to see how the community has come together, she said, pointing out two particularly emotional moments. The first found dozens of volunteers stepping in to deliver kosher meals to homebound seniorsprovided through the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Centerwhen the regular volunteers couldnt make it in.

Its amazing that people were able to come outeven though we were in the middle of an ice storm, the power was out, there were no street lightsand deliver the food. These deliveries, she continued, also served as a well-check on the homebound seniors, most of whom were OK but cold.

The other particularly inspiring act, said Fisherman, was how a house of worship, United Orthodox Synagogues, mobilized in mere minutes to become a vaccine-distribution center when a freezer at the local health department holding critical doses of the COVID-19 vaccine failed. It made such a big impact. It was open to everyoneJew, non-Jewthey used every last drop of vaccine.

Members of a Jewish family get vaccinated. Credit: Rabbi Barry Gelman.

And they did it not once, but twice.

In recounting the experience on Facebook, Rabbi Barry Gelman of the United Orthodox Synagogues wrote that the synagogue was notified at 9:30 a.m. that hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine had to be used, as some of the county freezers malfunctioned.

Knowing they needed to be used within hours of being removed from the freezer, there was no time to waste. The rabbi called the synagogues president to get permission to use the building as a vaccine-distribution site. With 35 minutes of that initial call, members of the synagogue community had established a working distribution site with spaces for check-ins, screenings, vaccinating and the requisite 15-minute, post-vaccination waiting spot.

We distributed over 350 vaccinations. Emails and WhatsApp [messages] were sent, and folks from all walks of life flocked to UOS, said the rabbi. We saved lives today!

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'We saved lives': Texas Jewish communities mobilize to get food, medicine to those in need - JNS.org

For the first time, scientists have grown bile duct organoids that could repair damaged ducts and livers as a new cell therapy.

Scientists report that they have grown bile duct organoids in the lab and shown that these can be used to repair damaged human livers. The study was conducted at the University of Cambridge, UK.

According to the team, this research paves the way for cell therapies to treat liver disease growing mini-bile ducts in the lab as replacement parts that can be used to restore a patients own liver to health or to repair damaged organ donor livers, so that they can still be used for transplantation. As approaches to increase organ availability or provide an alternative to whole organ transplantation are urgently needed, cell-based therapies could provide an alternative.

In their study, the scientists developed a novel approach that takes advantage of a perfusion system to maintain donated organs outside the body. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and organoid culture, the researchers discovered that, although duct cells differ, biliary cells from the gallbladder, which is usually spared by the disease, could be converted to the cells of the bile ducts usually destroyed in disease (intrahepatic ducts) and vice versa using bile acid. This means that the patients own cells from disease-spared areas could be used to repair destroyed ducts.

They then grafted these gallbladder organoids into mice and found that they were able to repair damaged ducts, opening up avenues for regenerative medicine applications in the context of diseases affecting the biliary system.

As proof-of-principle for their method, they repaired livers deemed unsuitable for transplantation due to bile duct damage. The team then showedfor the first time that it is possible to transplant biliary cells grown in the lab known as cholangiocytes into damaged human livers to repair them.

Professor Ludovic Vallier, joint senior author, said: This is the first time that we have been able to show that a human liver can be enhanced or repaired using cells grown in the lab. We have further work to do to test the safety and viability of this approach, but hope we will be able to transfer this into the clinic in the coming years.

The study was published in Science.

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Bile duct organoids could be used as cell therapy for regenerative medicine - Drug Target Review