Feinstein Institute study finds robotic ankle rehabilitation helps post stroke recovery – Markets Insider

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MANHASSET, N.Y., Aug. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --A study published in NeuroRehabilitation by Feinstein Institute for Medical Research scientist Bruce T. Volpe, MD and Johanna L. Chang found that isolated ankle training with a robotic therapy device can improve walking speed and balance after a stroke, depending on the severity of the patient's initial impairment. Better understanding of severity-dependent recovery profiles after stroke will help medical professionals determine the best candidates for robotic rehabilitation.

Strokes happen when a patient's brain does not receive sufficient blood supply due to a blockage or rupture of a blood vessel, which can result in impairment of motor or cognitive function. Patients typically participate in rehabilitation programs that focus on specific enhanced motor activity of their limbs under the direction of physical and occupational therapists.

Robotic devices are effective tools to aid in this recovery of, for example, wrist and arm movement. The devices have been less effective in encouraging recovery of walking speed (also known as gait). Dr. Volpe's study examines whether a robotic-assist device that uses interactive ankle movement in a seated position would improve a patient's walking speed and balance.

"Exercise is one of the main ways for patients who have had a stroke to regain movement," said Ms. Chang, who is the lead author of the study. "The use of robotic assisted-devices can enhance the therapy by increasing the intensity of the motor experience. This interactive robotic device moves the paralyzed arm or leg when the patient cannot and gets out of the way when the patient powers the movement. In our study, the baseline or initial walking speed prior to therapy was an important factor in predicting the final walking speed."

Twenty-nine study participants with a foot drop and walking speed abnormalities after stroke were treated three times a week for six weeks with robot-assisted ankle training. The patients were separated into three groups: high function (walking speed greater than 3 feet per second), medium function (1 foot per second) and low function (less than 1 foot per second). During a session, patients were seated in front of a video monitor and the ankle robot was attached at the knee and foot. The patient viewed the video screen that had a cursor and used their legs and ankle to move the cursor to reach a particular target.

After 18 sessions, the high and medium function groups demonstrated significant improvements in walking speed, with the high functioning group achieving a speed that is considered normal for ambulating patients in the community (greater than 4 feet per second). A further exciting result showed that in follow-up three months after the treatment finished, the high function group continued to improve (4.39 feet per second). The low functioning group demonstrated the greatest change in improved balance.

"Much like one medication is not effective for all patients with a certain condition, not all rehabilitation is beneficial to all," said Kevin J. Tracey, MD, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institute. "By understanding who can most benefit from robotic rehabilitation medical professionals can better tailor a program that will result in the highest benefit for patients."

About the Feinstein InstituteThe Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York. Home to 50 research laboratories and to clinical research throughout dozens of hospitals and outpatient facilities, the Feinstein includes 4,000 researchers and staff who are making breakthroughs in molecular medicine, genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and bioelectronic medicine a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we empower imagination and pioneer discovery, visit FeinsteinInstitute.org

Contact:Heather E. Ball 516-465-7917 rel="nofollow">hball@northwell.edu

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SOURCE Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

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Feinstein Institute study finds robotic ankle rehabilitation helps post stroke recovery - Markets Insider

To the online beat – The Hindu

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Thanks for watching, please like and subscribe! Singer Pragathi Guruprasad switches off her camera with a click of finality. She has just finished recording a vlog for her YouTube channel, but before she can edit it, shes off to class at the University of California, Los Angeles. Shes been balancing this double life for a while now; but she doesnt mind it, as she says she owes her true metamorphosis to the beast of the digital age: social media. And this is what she is using exclusively to promote her first-ever world tour, which was announced late last month.

Increasingly, young independent musicians have been using social media as a way to promote their work be it through videos, event invites and fan pages. Whats new is how they are tapping into their database of followers to decide their plan of action in the real world, including tour dates, venues, set lists and more.

Working with social media management company, Pubblisher, Guruprasad has been strategising, using her 3,00,000 plus followers on both Facebook and Instagram, and sizeable followings on Twitter and Snapchat to work out the details of each show. Social media platforms have changed the definition of being a public personality, so while it gives me space to express myself, it also gives me a direct connect with what my fans are thinking and what they want from me, says Guruprasad. Being in this spotlight, she says, is exhausting and exciting in equal measures.

Global reach

Its a sentiment that young Indo-Canadian singer, Jonita Gandhi, knows all too well. When I started uploading covers online, they were simply videos of me in my basement, singing karaoke tracks into my phone. Based on feedback, I realised that it was a great way to hear back from the people who I was singing for. It has clearly worked. In six years, she has established herself as one of Bollywoods youngest leading female playback singers.

Although Gandhi spends more time in the studios at Yash Raj nowadays, she has a lasting love for online platforms. Shes all-too-familiar with going viral, but says the math isnt that simple. I dont think theres really a formula to it, but I would say that artists should try to be themselves and utilise the tools and resources available to help them reach their audiences. Out of sight, out of mind is very true in this case, so stay active and connected, she says.

Staying original

Guruprasad and Gandhi have capitalised on the global audience. As they streamed their covers, they fuelled a new phenomenon: an independent music scene that is wholly online.

Sanam Puri and his band call the change an explosion of access and availability, which gave them a new lease of life. You dont have to rely on what is broadcast any more. Instead, creators can upload content from their mobile devices. This has allowed us to share our work, in our own style, says drummer Keshav Dhanraj. Often called Indias answer to One Direction, Sanam the Band is one of the most-subscribed YouTube channels in India, with 2.4 million subscribers in just five years.

We compose, produce, record, shoot, edit, and release our own material; its the sort of freedom and strength that helps us grow, vocalist Puri adds. The band prefers to keep their voice as authentic as possible. Instead of focusing on whats trending, we like to put out our own message, says bass guitarist Venky S.

Authenticity is a running theme. We get the opportunity to let our personalities be seen through social media, as well as our music, Gandhi says. As her audience has grown, the challenge is maintaining the organic nature of her videos. Shows can be impersonal: I want to take that online connect to the live space to thank the people who have stuck with me for so long, concludes Guruprasad.

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To the online beat - The Hindu

Read A Chapter Of Marie Lu’s Warcross Before It’s Released This September – UploadVR

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We are happy to present a chapter from Warcross, an upcoming book from Marie Lu, a New York Times bestselling author behind The Young Elites and Legend series. Before becoming a full-time author, Marie Lu spent time as an artist for video games, and this is her first book influenced by both games and virtual reailty.

About Warcross: For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isnt just a game its a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty-hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Convinced shes going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the games creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this years tournament in order to uncover a security problemand he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emikas whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that shes only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

Warcross will release on September 12, 2017 and is currently available for pre-order.

I still remember the exact moment when Hideo Tanaka changed my life.

I was eleven, and my father had been dead for only a few months. Rain pounded against the window of the bedroom I shared with four others at the foster home. I was lying in bed, unable, yet again, to force myself to get up and head to school. Unfinished homework lay strewn on my blankets, still there from the night before, when Id fallen asleep staring at the blank pages. Id dreamed of home, of Dad making us fried eggs and pancakes drowning in syrup, his hair still shining with glitter and glue, his loud, familiar laugh filling the kitchen and drifting outside through our open window. Bon apptit, mademoiselle! hed exclaimed, with his dreamers face. And Id screamed in delight as he threw his arms around me and messed up my hair.

Then Id woken up, and the scene had vanished, leaving me in a strange, dark, quiet house. I didnt move in bed. I didnt cry. I hadnt cried once since Dads death, not even at the funeral. Any tears I might have shed were instead replaced with shock when I learned how much debt Dad had accumulated. When I learned that he had been sneaking onto online gambling forums for years. That he hadnt been getting treatment at the hospital because hed been trying to pay off his debt.

So I spent the morning the way Id spent every day for the past few months, lost in a haze of silence and stillness. Emotions had long vanished behind a cavity of fog in my chest. I used my every waking moment to stare off into spaceat the bedroom wall, at the class whiteboard, at the interior of my locker, at plates of tasteless food. My report cards were a sea of red ink. Constant nausea stole my appetite. My bones jutted sharply at my wrists and elbows. Dark circles rimmed my eyes, something everyone noticed except me.

What did I care, anyway? My father was gone and I was so tired. Maybe the fog in my chest could grow, denser and denser, until someday itd swallow me, and I could be gone, too. So I lay curled in a tiny ball, watching the rain lash at the window, the wind tug at the silhouettes of tree branches, wondering how long it would take for the school to notice I wasnt there again.

The clock radio in the roomthe only thing in the room, other than our bedswas on, a piece of hand-me- down technology donated to the home from a Goodwill center. One of the other girls hadnt bothered turning it off when the alarm sounded. I listened halfheartedly as the news droned on about the state of the economy, the protests in the cities and countryside, the inability of the police to keep up with crime, the evacuations in Miami and New Orleans.

Then it switched. Some hour-long special began, talking about a boy named Hideo Tanaka. He was fourteen years old then, still brand-new to the spotlight. As the program went on, I started to pay attention.

Remember the world right before smartphones? the announcer was saying. When we were teetering on the brink of a huge shift, when the technology was almost but not quite there, and it took one revolutionary device to push us all over the edge? Well, last year, a thirteen-year- old boy named Hideo Tanaka pushed us over a new edge.

He did it by inventing a thin, wireless pair of glasses with metal arms and retractable earphones. Make no mistake. Theyre nothing like the goggles weve seen before, the ones that looked like giant bricks strapped to your face. No, these ultra-slim glasses are called the NeuroLink, and you wear them as easily as any pair of regular glasses. We have the latest pair in the studio herehe paused to put them onand we promise, its the most sensational thing weve ever tried.

The NeuroLink. Id heard it mentioned in the news before. Now I listened as the radio program laid it out for me.

For a long time, in order to create a realistic virtual reality environment, you had to render as detailed a world as possible. This required a lot of money and effort. But no matter how good the effects became, you could still tellif you looked hard enoughthat it wasnt real. There are a thousand little movements on a human face every second, a thousand different quivers of a leaf on a tree, a million tiny things the real world has that the virtual world doesnt. Your mind knows this unconsciouslyso something will look off, even if you cant quite put your finger on it.

So Hideo Tanaka thought of an easier solution. In order to create a flawlessly real world, you dont need to draw the most detailed, most realistic 3-D scene ever.

You just need to fool the audience into thinking its real.

And guess what can do that the best? Your own brain.

When you have a dream, no matter how crazy it is, you believe its real. Like, full-on surround sound, high definition, 360-degree special effects. And none of it is anything youre actually seeing. Your brain is creating an entire reality for you, without needing any piece of technology.

So Hideo created the best braincomputer interface ever built. A pair of sleek glasses. The NeuroLink.

When you wore it, it helped your brain render virtual worlds that looked and sounded indistinguishable from reality. Imagine walking around in that worldinteracting, playing, talking. Imagine wandering through the most realistic virtual Paris ever, or lounging in a full simulation of Hawaiis beaches. Imagine flying through a fantasy world of dragons and elves. Anything.

With the press of a tiny button on its side, the glasses could also switch back and forth like polarized lenses between the virtual world and the real world. And when you looked at the real world through it, you could see virtual things hovering over real-life objects and places. Dragons flying above your street. The names of stores, restaurants, and people.

To demonstrate how cool the glasses were, Hideo made a video game that came with each pair. This game was called Warcross.

Warcross was pretty simple: two teams battled each other, one trying to take the other teams Artifact (a shiny gem) without losing their own. What made it spectacular were the virtual worlds the battles were set in, each one so realistic that putting on your glasses was like dropping you right into that place.

As the radio program went on, I learned that Hideo, born in London and raised in Tokyo, had taught himself how to code when he was eleven. My age. Not long afterward, he built his first pair of NeuroLink glasses at his fathers computer repair shop, with his neuroscientist mothers input. His parents helped fund a set of one thousand glasses for him, and he started shipping them to people. A thousand orders turned overnight into a hundred thousand. Then, a million, ten million, a hundred million. Investors called with staggering offers. Lawsuits flew over the patents. Critics argued about how the NeuroLink engine would change everyday life, travel, medicine, the military, education. Link Up was the name of a popular Frankie Dena pop song, last summers big hit.

And everyoneeveryoneplayed Warcross. Some played it intensely, forming teams and battling for hours. Others played by simply lounging on a virtual beach or enjoying a virtual safari. Still others played by wearing their glasses while walking around the real world, showing off their virtual pet tigers or populating the streets with their favorite celebrities.

However people played, it became a way of life.

My gaze shifted from the radio to the homework pages lying on my blankets. Hideos story stirred something in my chest, cutting through the fog. How did a boy only three years older than me take the world by storm? I stayed where I was until the program ended and music started to play. I lay there for another long hour. Then, gradually, I uncurled and reached for one of my homework sheets.

It was from my Introduction to Computer Science class. The first problem on it was to spot the error in a simple, three-line piece of code. I studied it, imagining an eleven-year old Hideo in the same position as me. He wouldnt be lying here, staring off into nothing. He would have solved this, and the next, and the next.

The thought conjured an old memory of my father sitting on my bed and showing me the back of a magazine, where two drawings were printed that looked identical. It was asking the reader to figure out the difference between them.

This is a trick question, Id remembered declaring to him with crossed arms. My eyes squinted closely at every corner of both images. The two drawings are exactly the same.

Dad just gave me a crooked smile and adjusted his glasses. There was still paint and glue stuck in his hair from when he was experimenting with fabrics earlier in the day. Id need to help him cut the sticky strands out later. Look closer, hed replied. Hed grabbed the pencil tucked behind his ear and made a sweeping motion across the image. Think about a painting hanging on a wall. Without using any tools, you can still tell if its crookedeven by a tiny bit. It just feels off. Right?

Id shrugged. Yeah, I guess so.

Humans are surprisingly sensitive like that. Dad had gestured at the two drawings again with his paint-stained fingers. You have to learn to look at the whole of something, not just the parts. Relax your eyes. Take in the entire image at once.

Id listened, sitting back and softening my gaze. That had been when Id finally spotted the difference, the tiny mark on one of the drawings. There! Id exclaimed, pointing excitedly at it.

Dad had smiled at me. See? hed said. Every locked door has a key, Emi.

I stared down at the homework sheet, my fathers words turning over and over in my mind. Then I did as he saidI leaned back and took in the code all at once. Like it was a painting. Like I was searching for the point of interest.

And almost immediately, I saw the error. I reached for my school laptop, opened it, and typed out the corrected code.

It worked. Hello, World! said my laptops program.

To this day, I cant properly describe how I felt in that moment. To see my solution working, functioning, on the screen. To realize that, with three little lines of text, I had the power to command a machine to do exactly what I wanted.

The gears in my head, creaky from grief, suddenly began to turn again. Begging for another problem. I finished the second one. Then a third. I kept going, faster and faster, until I finished not only that homework sheet but every problem in my textbook. The fog in my chest eased, revealing a warm, beating heart beneath it.

If I could solve these problems, then I could control something. And if I could control something, I could forgive myself for the one problem that I could never have solved, the one person I could never have saved. Everyone has a different way of escaping the dark stillness of their mind. This, I learned, was mine.

I finished my dinner that night for the first time in months. The next day and the day after that and every day since, I channeled every bit of my energy into learning everything about code and Warcross and the NeuroLink that I could get my brains on.

As for Hideo Tanaka . . . from that day on, along with the rest of the world, I was obsessed. I watched him as if I were afraid to blink, incapable of looking away, like he might start another revolution at any moment.

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Read A Chapter Of Marie Lu's Warcross Before It's Released This September - UploadVR

Stream your favorite music from anywhere in the world with a VPN – T3

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Apples iPod revolutionised the music industry and the news that the company has decided to kill off the iPod Shuffle and Nano has left many feeling a bit nostalgic. These days most users have turned to music streaming apps to listen to their favorite tunes but what if those apps are unavailable in your country or even while youre traveling. By using a VPN to connect to the Internet, you can bypass region blocks and access the most popular streaming apps anywhere in the world.

Most VPN service providers offer services globally and thus charge in US Dollars rather than in local currencies, so we've listed pricing in Dollars for the sake of simplicity. Bear in mind that when you click through to the actual deals, you may find the prices automatically displayed in pounds, or whatever your native currency may be.

These are the best deals we found for getting around region blocks to access our favorite apps:

1. IPVanish - From $62.28 a year

IPVanish has 700 servers across 60+ locations with more than 40,000 shared IPs available to its users. This VPN keeps no logs and offers excellent download speeds as well as unlimited P2P traffic and support for up to five simultaneous devices. IPVanish is also running a promotion where new customers can get 57% Off when they sign up today.

2. Buffered VPN - Great Performance at $99 per year

This VPN offers impressive speeds and low latency with excellent upload speeds. Buffered VPN has servers in 37 different locations and supports up to five simultaneous connections. The company also keeps no logs on its users to ensure that you have total privacy online. Buffered VPN currently only offers desktop clients but detailed instructions are available to set up the service on your mobile devices.

3. ZenMate - Only $38.40 for 12 months

ZenMate is a highly user-friendly VPN that is ideal for novice users. This VPN has servers in over 30 countries and its Windows client can be set up in just a few clicks. The company is currently running a promotion where new customers can get 40% off and a 14-day money-back guarantee is available if you are unsatisfied with the service.

Check out the best VPN services of 2017 and visit thebestvpnfor.me to get the best VPN deals and offers on the market, straight from our VPN team.

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Stream your favorite music from anywhere in the world with a VPN - T3

Chinese chatbots shut down after anti-government posts – BBC News

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BBC News
Chinese chatbots shut down after anti-government posts
BBC News
Apple Daily has said it spoke to a former Tencent employee who argued the app had clearly been developed with universal values in mind, and not "Chinese characteristics". The Hong Kong paper Ming Pao said it is not known if and when the ... offline ...

and more »

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Chinese chatbots shut down after anti-government posts - BBC News

Malaysia’s Forest City adds traditional Chinese medicine to its grand plan – South China Morning Post

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The US$100 billion, 1,400-hectare mixed development aims to serve 700,000 residents, and the health facility could lure medical tourists to the Iskandar development zone near the border with Singapore

By Bhavan Jaipragas

4 Aug 2017

Forest City, the sprawling US$100 billion property development being built on artificial islands in Malaysias version of Shenzhen bordering Singapore, is already slated to have seafront high-tech office complexes, schools and hotels.

Now, its Chinese developer, Country Garden Holdings, has unveiled plans to launch a traditional Chinese medicine hub to serve its future population of 700,000 people, many of whom will be from China.

Country Garden Pacificview, the joint venture holding company that owns Forest City, said in a statement on Friday that it had signed an agreement with the Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine to establish a satellite facility within the still-developing city.

Forest City is a 1,400-hectare mixed development being built on the southern tip of Malaysia, just off the border with Singapore. The area surrounding it the Iskandar development zone is seen as Malaysias answer to Shenzhen.

The hospital has a particular focus in orthopaedics and traumatology, thanks to its in-house research institute and a research laboratory focused on traditional Chinese medicine, Country Garden Pacificview said.

The agreement paves the way for the establishment of Foshans first hospital outside China, and potentially the largest traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Malaysia, it added.

There are also plans for Forest City to help Malaysian health authorities draw Chinese medical tourists to the Southeast Asian country, including those seeking assisted reproductive treatment. This is in line with burgeoning interest from the Chinese in medical tourism, said the developer.

The homebuilder on Friday also unveiled what it billed as the worlds largest industrialised building system facility. It said the facility would house the entire production base for the construction of Forest City, and integrate construction design, precast concrete production, transportation, processing of accessories, assembly construction, as well as materials research and development.

The facility streamlines the production of building parts through digitisation and automation.

While the initial focus of the facility will be to accelerate the development of Forest City, excess capacity will also be used to support the growing construction opportunities in Southeast Asia, Forest City Pacificview said. The Hong Kong-listed homebuilder also announced a tie-up with PCCW Global for the development of a new data centre.

The announcements come months after the high-profile Forest City development came under intense scrutiny following Beijings aggressive measures to tighten capital controls.

Some of its Chinese buyers were stranded, unable to make payments due to the annual US$50,000 foreign exchange quota for Chinese nationals. The developer said it offered to refund payments made by these buyers.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post this week, Yu Runze, the president and chief strategy officer of Country Garden Pacificview, said: The project is progressing very smoothly as planned. Its first tranche of apartments are due to be ready next year, but the entire project will not be completed until 2040. Forest City is a joint venture involving Country Garden and Esplanade Danga 88, a Malaysian holding company controlled by Ibrahim Ismail, the influential monarch of the Johor province.

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Malaysia's Forest City adds traditional Chinese medicine to its grand plan - South China Morning Post

University of Chicago Medicine severs ties with Medicaid insurer IlliniCare – Chicago Tribune

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Thousands of low-income patients may have to scramble to find new doctors this month after University of Chicago Medicine became the latest major health system to break up with IlliniCare Health, an insurer that administers benefits for the state's Medicaid program.

U. of C. Medicine follows Northwestern Medicine and Advocate Health Care in walking away from IlliniCare Health, one of 12 Medicaid managed care organizations in the state. Medicaid managed care organizations are insurers that handle benefits for Medicaid, a state- and federally funded health insurance program for the poor.

When the contract ends next month, about 8,000 IlliniCare members will no longer be able to get in-network services from U. of C. Medicine or University of Chicago Physicians Group, according to U. of C. Medicine. IlliniCare pegs that number closer to 4,000 patients.

That includes members who are part of a program serving women, children and adults who gained coverage as part of Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act as well as a program serving older adults, people who are blind, and people who are disabled.

"After nearly two years of working to resolve payment issues, we are disappointed to announce that our current contract with IlliniCare Medicaid is scheduled to end Sept. 3," U. of C. Medicine spokeswoman Lorna Wong said in a statement.

But Michael Marrah, IlliniCare plan president and CEO, disputes the allegation of "payment issues" between it and the health system.

"There is a challenge with being reimbursed by the state but IlliniCare has continued to pay all of its providers in well under 30 days and with 99.9 percent accuracy," Marrah said.

He said it's not totally clear to IlliniCare why U. of C. Medicine is terminating its partnership with the insurer, though both parties say they're open to further talks.

Jennifer Smith Richards, Annie Sweeney and Jason Meisner

Both IlliniCare and U. of C. Medicine say they're working to help affected patients as they transition to new care. The health system has been getting about 100 to 200 calls a day from patients concerned about the termination after sending out notice last month.

Representatives from Northwestern and Advocate didn't elaborate on the reasons their systems no longer contract with IlliniCare.

Though it's unclear how large a role payment problems played in the U. of C. dispute, other Medicaid managed care organizations have struggled to pay their bills because of the state's budget problems. It's a situation that is "dramatically reducing the Medicaid recipients' access to health care," according to a June court order forcing the state to pay the insurers more money.

About 2 million Illinois residents get coverage through Medicaid managed care organizations.

Another Medicaid managed care organization, Family Health Network, had paid "virtually none of its providers since February," according to the June court order. Three large hospital systems and four hospitals left Family Health Network's provider network as a result. A spokeswoman for Family Health Network declined to comment.

Yet another Medicaid managed care organization, Aetna Better Health of Illinois, has threatened to leave the program if it doesn't receive more state payments.

Since lawmakers approved a budget last month, the state has started to pay the insurers more, but it still owes Medicaid managed care organizations about $3.5 billion.

Gov. Bruce Rauner announced in February that he planned to overhaul the state's Medicaid managed care program partly by narrowing the number of insurers that participate. Advocates of the change have said that would save money, streamline the program and improve health care.

The idea behind Medicaid managed care, in general, is to improve patients' health and spend money more efficiently.

Eight of the current 12 insurers responded to a request for proposals to participate. The state has not yet announced which insurers will be part of the revamped program.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lschencker

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University of Chicago Medicine severs ties with Medicaid insurer IlliniCare - Chicago Tribune

WVU Medicine’s Dr. AJ Monseau to serve as head team physician and medical director for WVU Athletics – WVU Medicine (press release)

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Posted on 8/4/2017

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. A.J. Monseau, M.D., WVU Medicine Emergency Medicine and Sports Medicine physician, has been selected to serve as head team physician and medical director for WVU Athletics.

WVU Athletics are a point of pride for all of us in West Virginia, and as a WVU alumnus, Dr. Monseau embraces the Mountaineer spirit, Albert Wright, president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, said. An athlete himself, Dr. Monseau has dedicated his career to caring for athletes, so we know he will do a great job.

Last year, Dr. Monseau served as the team physician for WVU Mens Basketball. He also served as team physician for USA Wrestling at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As head team physician and medical director for WVU Athletics, Monseau will lead the Universitys staff of team physicians and will work in conjunction with the athletic training staff to provide healthcare to all student-athletes. This includes injury prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, education, and counseling.

Medical care for our student-athletes is of the utmost importance to us, Director of Athletics and Associate Vice-President Shane Lyons said. Athletics has had a long-standing relationship with WVU Medicine that has spanned generations, and we look forward to that great relationship continuing for many years to come. I want to thank Albert Wright, (WVU Medicine Vice President and Chief Ambulatory Officer) Darin Rogers, and (WVU Health Sciences Vice President and Executive Dean) Clay Marsh for all their help, and we are excited to have A.J. in this new role.

Originally from the Northern Panhandle, Monseau received his medical degree from and completed his residency training at the WVU School of Medicine. He then completed fellowship training in primary care sports medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He returned to his alma mater upon completion of his fellowship in 2011.

Currently, Monseau is an associate professor in the WVU Department of Emergency Medicine. In addition to working as an attending physician in the J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, he also sees sports medicine patients through WVU Medicine Orthopaedics. He is board certified in emergency medicine and primary care sports medicine.

Athletics have always been a part of Monseaus life. After completing a three-sport career at Wheeling Park High School, Monseau carried his love of sports through his undergraduate education, during which he competed on the West Liberty University (then West Liberty State College) Wrestling Team for his father, who is a National Wrestling Hall of Fame coach. Though he gave up competing when he began medical school, he made sure to choose a specialty that would allow him to remain connected to competitive sports.

As a native West Virginian and WVU fan, it is an honor to be chosen for this position. I was fortunate enough to go into a field that affords me the opportunity to combine my two passions: medicine and sports, and now I have the privilege of leading the medical care for Mountaineer athletics, Monseau said. Im grateful to Mr. Lyons and Mr. Wright for the faith they have in me, and I hope to make them proud. I look forward to working with the other medical staff and athletic trainers to provide our athletes with the best possible care. Lets go, Mountaineers!

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WVU Medicine's Dr. AJ Monseau to serve as head team physician and medical director for WVU Athletics - WVU Medicine (press release)

University Of Vermont To Phase Out Lectures In Med School : Shots … – NPR

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University of Vermont medical students in the school's new Larner classroom, built to facilitate the active learning environment. Andy Duback/Courtesy of Larner College of Medicine hide caption

University of Vermont medical students in the school's new Larner classroom, built to facilitate the active learning environment.

For students starting medical school, the first year can involve a lot of time in a lecture hall. There are hundreds of terms to master and pages upon pages of notes to take.

But when the new class of medical students begins at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine next week, a lot of that learning won't take place with a professor at a lectern.

The school has begun to phase out lectures in favor of what's known as "active learning" and plans to be done with lectures altogether by 2019.

Ironically, the man leading the effort loves lectures. In fact, William Jeffries, a dean at the school, wrote the chapter on lectures in two prominent textbooks on medical education. But he's now convinced they're not the best way to learn.

Jeffries spoke with All Things Considered about the thinking behind this move. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are lectures bad?

Well, I wouldn't say that they're bad. The issue is that there is a lot of evidence that lectures are not the best way to accumulate the skills needed to become a scientist or a physician. We've seen much evidence in the literature, accumulated in the last decade, that shows that when you do a comparison between lectures and other methods of learning typically called "active learning" methods that lectures are not as efficient or not as successful in allowing students to accumulate knowledge in the same amount of time.

William Jeffries, a dean at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, is leading the push to end lectures for medical students. Courtesy of UVM Larner College of Medicine Photography hide caption

William Jeffries, a dean at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, is leading the push to end lectures for medical students.

So is it because we don't show up or because we're sleeping through lectures?

There's a lot of that, yes. It turns out that the lectures are not really good at engaging the learners in doing something. And I think that's the most important part of learning. We're finding out a lot from the neuroscience of learning that the brain needs to accumulate the information, but then also organize it and make sense of it and create an internal story that makes the knowledge make sense.

When you just tell somebody something, the chances of them remembering it diminishes over time, but if you are required to use that information, chances are you'll remember it much better.

Give us an example of a topic taught in a traditional lecture versus an "active learning" setting.

A good example would be the teaching of what we would call pharmacokinetics the science of drug delivery. So, how does a drug get to the target organ or targeted receptor?

A lot of the science of pharmacokinetics is simply mathematical equations. If you have a lecture, it's simply presenting those equations and maybe giving examples of how they work.

In an active learning setting, you expect the students to learn about the equations before they get there. And when you get into the classroom setting, the students work in groups solving pharmacokinetic problems. Cases are presented where the patient gets a drug in a certain dose at a certain time, and you're looking at the action of that over time and the concentration of the drug in the blood.

So, those are the types of things where you're expecting the student to know the knowledge in order to use the knowledge. And then they don't forget it.

Have you had pushback to this move?

Certainly, we've gotten some pushback, but what I tell the average clinical faculty member is: "OK, if you like doing appendectomies using an old method because you like it, and you're really good at it, but it's really not the best method for the patient, would you do it?" Of course, the answer is always no. And then you turn around and say, "Well this method of teaching is actually not as good as other methods. Would you do that?" When confronted with a question like that, medical faculty typically tend to understand and agree.

Will this be the norm at every medical school in 10 or 20 years?

I hope so. [The] University of Vermont is not the only medical school that's recognized the value of active learning methods. A number of my colleagues around the country are leading similar efforts because of the incontrovertible evidence that active learning methods are superior to lectures.

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University Of Vermont To Phase Out Lectures In Med School : Shots ... - NPR

Paul DeJong Is Breakout MLB Star Thanks in Part to Man Serving 4 Years in Prison – Bleacher Report

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It was the day before the 2015 draft began, the day before some team was going to give the most unlikely pre-med student at Illinois State University the chance to take another step towards his dream.

Plenty of kids have a backup plan in case medical school falls through. For Paul DeJong, medical school was the backup plan. Baseball was always the first choice, and it was baseball that had him driving 2 1/2 hours down I-55 to Busch Stadium on that Sunday in early June.

He couldn't actually work out, because of a broken left thumb, but the St. Louis Cardinals asked him to come down to shake hands and talk.

Tom Lipari, the area scout who liked DeJong so much, was there. So was John Mozeliak, then the Cardinals general manager and now the club's president of baseball operations.

And Chris Correa.

"He seemed like he was pretty smart," DeJong said.

Smart or not, he was pretty important to a college kid hoping to get drafted. Correa was the Cardinals scouting director, the guy who would make the picks. And when the Cardinals used their fourth-round pick on DeJong two days later, it was Correa's call to take him in the only draft he would ever run.

"He's really a bright kid," Correa told Rob Rains of STL Sports Page that day.

He's a bright kid, and he's turned into quite a baseball player too. Not even two years after the draft, DeJong was in the major leagues with the Cardinals this May. He just turned 24 on Wednesday, he's playing every day at shortstop and he's batting third for a Cardinals team that still has hopes of making a run at a playoff spot in the National League and he was just named National League Rookie of the Month for July.

He's the first Cardinals rookie to play short and bat third since Red Schoendienst in 1945. He hit more home runs in his first 53 major league games (14) than any Cardinal in history other than Albert Pujols. His 13 home runs since his his most recent call-up on June 15 are tied for the second most in the majors behind only Giancarlo Stanton.

He won't be going to medical school, at least not any time soon.

Oh, and Chris Correa, the scouting director who called DeJong's name in the draft?

He was fired a month later when an investigation showed he had hacked into the Houston Astros' computer system. He pled guilty to five criminal charges, was permanently banned from baseball and sentenced to 46 months in prison. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, he's serving his time at FCI Cumberland in Cumberland, Maryland, with a release date of Dec. 31, 2018.

**

Correa was responsible for making DeJong a Cardinal, but it was Lipari who scouted DeJong at Illinois State and emphatically made DeJong's case in pre-draft meetings.

"I ended up speaking for quite some time," Lipari, a former college coach who was in his first year scouting, said. "Not only on the physical strengths of Paul, but the type of person he was. And of course, we had cross-checkers and analysts who thought highly of Paul as well. Total team effort."

DeJong remained on the board through the first three rounds of the draft, and at some point Correa had Lipari call and ask if DeJong would consider signing for fourth-round money. DeJong, a junior in eligibility but graduating senior academically, quickly said he would (he eventually got a $200,000 bonus).

It didn't matter that he was graduating with a 3.76 GPA, or that he had been as serious as any other pre-med about his academics.

"Paul was an incrediblyhard-working student," said Dr. Christopher G. Hamaker, who had DeJong in a first-year chemistry class.

But medical school had always been a backup plan. Being a doctor sounded cool, but playing professional baseball was his first choice.

The question was whether he'd get a chance. Not only did DeJong go undrafted out of high school, but no college offered him an athletic scholarship. He considered going to Wisconsin, which didn't have a baseball team, but chose Illinois State after coaches showed interest in having him walk on.

"That's what it seems to come down to for me," DeJong said. "I've struggled to get opportunities. Once I finally get it, I take advantage. That's my whole life. I was never considered the elite player. I just quietly wait my turn, and then never look back."

After his third year at Illinois State, the Pittsburgh Pirates chose him in the 38th round of the draft. DeJong didn't sign, but he did decide professional baseball would be his next step. He kept up his challenging academic programBiochem 2 was particularly tough, he saidbut baseball became the priority.

DeJong wasn't a shortstop then. He was a second baseman, third baseman and an occasional catcher. He was catching when a foul tip broke his thumb.

"A lot of teams probably freaked out," DeJong said.

Fortunately for him, and for them, the Cardinals didn't.

**

The road from fourth-round draft pick to starting shortstop batting third was a quick one, but it wasn't direct. DeJong played third base after he signed and for most of last season at Double-A Springfield. He didn't move to shortstop until last July, but the Cardinals thought enough of his offense and defense to send him to the Arizona Fall League to play the position.

He came to the big leagues in late May as a second baseman when Kolten Wong got hurt. He moved to shortstop in late June because he was hitting and Aledmys Diaz wasn't.

He waited his turn. At least so far, he hasn't looked back.

"I see an aggressiveness with the first step, and I like the way the ball is carrying across the infield too," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "I just like what he's doing, the way he's going about it defensively."

And, of course, he's hitting.

There could be some concerns because DeJong had 63 strikeouts and just eight walks in his first 54 major league games. Cardinal fans, who have seen some other youngsters get off to good starts before struggling, want to be sure the same won't happen with DeJong.

For now, the team says it's not concerned.

"If you hit the ball hard, good things will happen," Mozeliak said.

DeJong has hit the ball hard. Of Cardinals players with at least 100 plate appearances this season, MLB.com's Statcast says DeJong has the highest average exit velocity, at 97.9 mph.

**

Matheny knows DeJong's background, but he said his shortstop looks like a ballplayer and not like a science student who lost his way and ended up at the field. But he can still talk chemistry, especially with his grandmother, who worked 30 years at Dow Chemical. He still keeps in touch with some of his professors at Illinois State.

Thoughts of medical school are behind him now.

"It would be tough," DeJong said. "The biggest challenge would be the MCATs. And the workload is way more than in college. There's no way you could do medical school and play baseball."

Besides, those reasons he wanted to be a doctor in the first place kind of apply to baseball too.

"I liked math, but I didn't want to write and I didn't want to read," he said. "I had an uncle who was a doctor. He was always fishing or hunting, and he made a lot of money. I thought, this is a good thing to go into."

He's into baseball now, the first player from that Correa draft to make the big leagues (although outfielder Harrison Bader has since followed). He's the only current major league shortstop out of that 2015 draft now that the Atlanta Braves have sent Dansby Swanson to the minor leagues and the Houston Astros have moved Alex Bregman to third base.

And maybe, just maybe, that chemistry background has played a part.

"I knew he would succeed in baseball because of his work ethic," Hamaker said. "I knew that if he put as much work into baseball as he did into his biochemistry studies he'd play in the majors."

And maybe there was another thing, too.

"He's used to experiments failing in the lab and having to adjust," said Burton Rocks, DeJong's agent. "His background scares some people off because they think chemistry and baseball don't go together. But they do, in a tangential way."

DeJong and baseball go together in a pretty obvious way. Lipari understood that, perhaps a little more than any of the other scouts who were watching.

He made his case. And the guy headed for prison made the right call.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Sri Lankan students protest private medical university – ABC News

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Thousands of students from state-run universities finished a five-day march across Sri Lanka on Friday, demanding the government shut a private medical university that they say could jeopardize the country's tradition of state-funded education.

The students arrived in the capital, Colombo, accompanied by trade union and rights activists and opposition politicians, and rallied in front of the main railroad station.

The issue has sparked months of demonstrations in the island nation, with doctors and students urging the government to shut down the private South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine, the only private university training medical students.

Rathkarawwe Jinarathana, a Buddhist monk and student leader, said the government wants to privatize education and weaken state-funded education and health services.

"This university will be first one and then many more will follow. Privatizing education will affect a large segment of our society. We are against this privatization process and we demand that the government shut it down," he said.

There was no immediate response from the government to the protest.

Students at state-run schools say the private medical school does not meet the country's educational standards. The institute says its standards and facilities are better than those at state-run universities. A legal battle has been continuing since last year over whether to allow graduates of the university to work as doctors.

Government doctors have staged several strikes in the last few months, demanding that the government acquire the medical university.

For more than half a century, Sri Lanka has provided free education through the university level. Private schools also exist, but the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine is the only private medical school.

A private medical university that opened in the 1980s was acquired by the government due to student protests.

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Look at all the great changes mingling old and new around Liberty Square: A photo tour – Kansas City Star

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Look at all the great changes mingling old and new around Liberty Square: A photo tour
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Though Liberty Square is made up of historic buildings dating to the 1800s, it is a city with its eyes to the future. I've seen the square transform and actually become a place we can go. Some days, we just walk around and have a shopping day, said ...

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Colbert rewrites Statue of Liberty poem for Trump era – The Hill (blog)

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Late-night host Stephen Colbert on Thursday rewrote the famous poem at the base of theStatue of Liberty to fit the President Trump era.

Give me your wealthy, your rich, your huddled MBAs yearning to be tax-free. Send these, the English-speaking, fully-insured to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door and lift my leg upon your filthy poor. P.S. No fatties please, Colbert read.

The "Late Show" host mockedWhite House aide Stephen Miller's appearance at Thursday's White House press briefing this week, during which he explained Trump's new immigration policy that would significantly cut legal immigration.

At the briefing, Millerfired back at a CNN reporter who asked how the new immigration policy would fit in with the iconic Statue of Liberty poem that includes the lines "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Miller retorted thatthe poem was added to the statue later and is not part of the original Statue of Liberty.

Colbert slammed the idea of a merit-based system for immigration.

Its kind of like Weight Watchers, but the goal is to lose brown people, he said.

Its the classic immigrant tale, he said. You come here at 28, speaking perfect English with a briefcase full of cash and a dream that if you work hard your kids might go to the same college you did.

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Liberty conclude monster road trip against Sparks (Aug 4, 2017) – FOXSports.com

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When the Liberty return to New York after their five-game road trip, coach Bill Laimbeers squad will have traveled just under 6,100 miles since the All-Star break.

A trip that started in St. Paul, Minn., and continued to Indianapolis, Chicago and San Antonio concludes Friday night when the Liberty visit the Los Angeles Sparks at Staples Center.

The Liberty (12-11) are 2-2 on their trek away from Madison Square Garden and are coming off a disheartening loss to San Antonio. The Stars outscored Tina Charles and Co. 28-12 in the fourth quarter to earn only their fourth win of the season, 93-81 on Tuesday.

New York has endured an up-and-down season, and the long road trip is helping the team come closer together.

I think some teams are able to find their identity early in the season; for others, it takes longer, Charles told ESPN. The more were able to see what each of us is able to do, the more we can depend on each other.

And now the Liberty, who remain in the thick of the race for a playoff spot, face off against Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike and the Sparks. Los Angeles has the second-best record in the WNBA at 17-6. The Sparks are on a three-game winning streak yet remain three games behind the Minnesota Lynx.

Parker vs. Charles should be a delicious matchup with both being named players of the week in their respective conferences.

Charles, who also was the player of the month for July, was selected player of the week for the 25th time in her eight seasons, extending her record for the most such awards in WNBA history. It was her fourth Eastern Conference player of the week honor this season.

Parker isnt too far behind, having been honored 21 times in her 10 seasons. She recently turned in a historic performance, recording only the sixth triple-double in WNBA history July 28 against the Stars. In Los Angeles 85-73 victory, she compiled 11 points, 17 rebounds and 11 assists as well as four blocks.

The teams are meeting for the second time this season. The Sparks dominated on May 30 as Ogwumike scored 22 points and Parker added 20 in a 90-75 victory at New York. Back then, the Sparks were just trying to find themselves.

We are focusing on what we can do better as a team and what individual people can do to contribute, Ogwumike said. There are definitely some things that are a work in progress for us, but we are building off last year in our own way. In some cases, that requires starting from scratch.

With Parker and Ogwumike, the Sparks have the nucleus to make a deep postseason run.

New York has lacked consistency on offense with Charles being the mainstay. Laimbeer thought he solved the teams offensive struggles before the All-Star break taking All-Star Sugar Rodgers out of the starting lineup and bringing her off the bench.

The results have been mixed. Still, Charles, the unquestioned leader, made sure Rodgers confidence wasnt damaged.

Ive come off the bench to bring energy and scoring and whatever we need, Rodgers said. Tina thought it was a good idea, and that I was mature enough for that role.

Not everybody can do it. But she thought it was something I could achieve, and its working. Im willing to stick with it and keep going forward.

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Libertarian health care: Repeal and deregulate – Washington Times

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Libertarian health care: Repeal and deregulate
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A third combatant has entered the fray, however: The Libertarians now are weighing in on the challenge to create a workable, healthy health care system out of the loose ends and leftovers of Trumpcare and Obamacare. Although Libertarians might ...
For first time, Libertarians to run for countywide officesDelco News Network

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From Bork to Willett: Is the Conservative Legal Movement Going Libertarian? – Reason (blog)

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Public DomainWhen President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, he praised his nominee for being "widely regarded as the most prominent and intellectually powerful advocate of judicial restraint."

It was no exaggeration. During his decades-long career as a law professor, federal judge, and legal commentator, Bork routinely preached the virtues of a deferential judiciary, arguing that in the vast majority of cases "the only course for a principled Court is to let the majority have its way."

Where Bork led, most legal conservatives were ready to follow. Judicial deference, or restraint, became a rallying cry on the legal right.

Borkean deference still holds sway today in many quarters. But it is also increasingly under fire from libertarian-minded legal thinkers who want the courts to play a more aggressive role in defense of individual liberty and against overreaching majorities.

Case in point: The new issue of Governing magazine profiles Don Willett, the Texas Supreme Court justice who recently appeared on Donald Trump's shortlist of potential U.S. Supreme Court candidates. Willett "is witty and approachable, and he's huge on Twitter," writes journalist Alan Greenblatt. "He's also one of the most influential jurists in the country right now."

Willett's rising influence signals Bork's declining favor. It shows that libertarian legal ideas are gaining ground.

To be sure, Bork and Willett are both "conservative" and both have ties to the Republican Party. But they differ in important ways. Bork wanted judicial minimalism; Willett wants judicial engagement. "The State would have us wield a rubber stamp rather than a gavel," Willett complained in the 2015 case of Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, "but a written constitution is mere meringue if courts rotely exalt majoritarianism over constitutionalism."

Texas Supreme CourtAs Greenblatt notes in his profile, "Willett is pretty blunt about his overall intent. He's a champion of individual rights, claiming a central role for the judiciary in protecting those rights against state encroachment." Bork, by contrast, was obsessed with limiting the judiciary's role. If Bork's great enemy was judicial activism, Willett's great enemy is judicial pacifism.

The differences don't stop there. According to Bork's interpretation, the 14th Amendment offers zero constitutional protection for economic liberty, which means that the courts have no business striking down government regulations on 14th Amendment grounds. Since the amendment does not explicitly refer to economic liberty, Bork reasoned, it does not protect it. When "the Constitution does not speak," he insisted, we are "all at the mercy of legislative majorities."

Willett takes a different view. "The Fourteenth Amendment's legislative record," he has pointed out, "is replete with indications that 'privileges or immunities' encompassed the right to earn a living free from unreasonable government intrusion."

Willett has even thrown shade in Bork's direction: "A conservative luminary, Bork is heir to a Progressive luminary, Justice Holmes, who also espoused judicial minimalism. Both men believed the foremost principle of American government was not individual liberty but majoritarianism." Willett clearly ranks individual liberty first.

Thirty years ago, when Borkian judicial deference was in its heyday, the conservative legal mainstream was largely hostile to libertarian legal ideas. That Don Willett is now championing those same ideas and is at the same time under possible consideration for a Supreme Court seat demonstrates just how far the dial has moved in a libertarian direction.

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From Bork to Willett: Is the Conservative Legal Movement Going Libertarian? - Reason (blog)

Traditionally conservative college students reject the vocal liberalism and libertarianism of their peers. – National Review

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Young Americans are usually thought of as decidedly liberal. This is an oversimplified picture. A sizeable minority of Millennials identify as conservative. Despite some evidence that Millennial conservatives lean left on social issues, it would be wrong to write all of them off as libertarians. Some young conservatives, in fact, hold anti-libertarian attitudes, and their numbers may be increasing.

Plainly speaking, these young conservatives hold socially and culturally conservative views. On the other hand, they are wary of individualism and free markets. They are not necessarily anti-capitalist, but fear that laissez-faire economic systems can be excessively cutthroat, prizing individual material gain above the wellbeing of the community.

This strain of conservative thought is closely related to the traditionalism of Russell Kirk, the 20th-century conservative political theorist who authored The Conservative Mind. Kirk identified ten foundational conservative principles. The first principle states that conservatives believe in an enduring moral order. Moral truths do not change with the times, and neither does human nature. Conservatives are champions, he continues, of custom, convention, and continuity because they prefer the devil they know to the devil they dont know.

Conservatives value private property because it is closely linked to freedom, but argue that getting and spending are not the chief aims of human existence. Decisions directly affecting members of a community should be made locally and voluntarily. Regarding governance, conservatives recognize that human passions must be restrained: Order and liberty must be balanced. Moreover, a conservative favors reasoned and temperate progress, but does not worship Progress as some type of magical force.

Young, anti-libertarian conservatives represent a new generation of traditionalists. And they are increasingly prominent on some college campuses.

Christian McGuire, a student at Virginias Patrick Henry College and editor-in-chief of the George Wythe Review, spoke to National Review about the schools conservative climate, saying the whole campus is fairly conservative. Patrick Henry College is a Christian school, so faith strongly influences students political views. McGuire says most students come from a background of religious conservatism, and feel as ifthey have been left out of the national discussion. More bluntly, he claims most of Patrick Henry College realizes we lost the culture war.

In response, McGuire and his fellow conservative classmates have started to turn to traditionalist thinkers such as Kirk. McGuire mentioned other increasingly popular thinkers among campus conservatives: Edmund Burke and G. K. Chesterton. Even Catholic social teaching is influencing some students. They are finding that these are rich sources of conservative thought.

When asked whether monarchist sentiments could be found on campus, McGuire responded firmly: Yes, absolutely. Though still very much a minority view at Patrick Henry College, some traditionalist-minded students are open to the idea of a king.

Traditionalist sentiments can also be found almost 600 miles northwest of Patrick Henry College, at the University of Notre Dame. Mimi Teixeira, a student at Notre Dame and vice president of the schools Young Americans for Freedom chapter, told National Review there is a sizeable group of students inclined to traditionalism. They are more interested in, and connected to, the Catholic faith and Catholic social teaching, she says. Besides Burke and Kirk, Pope Saint John Paul II is a powerful influence on this group.

The Notre Dame traditionalists are skeptical of classical liberalism. We do have a group of conservatives, she says, who dont agree with the Enlightenment. They contend classical liberalism is missing a piece.

Notre Dame isnt the only Catholic university with a sizeable number of young traditionalists. The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., is home to many students who could be understood as profoundly traditional, according to Friar Israel-Sebastian N. Arauz-Rosiles,O.F.M. Conv., a seminarian at the university. The schools Catholic identity deeply influences how students think. He describes Saint Thomas Aquinas as probably the single most influential thinker on the university campus, in terms of his impact onstudents theological and political outlook.

Friar Israel has noticed that some students attend a yearly Mass in honor of Blessed Karl of Austria celebrated at Saint Mary Mother of God Church in Washington, D.C. A member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Blessed Karl of Austria was the last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Friar Israel acknowledges this mightmerely represent a superficial interest in Catholic monarchy. Nevertheless, he has encountered a number of students who reject classical liberalism and such political theorists asThomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

At Hillsdale College in Michigan, traditionalist conservatism has many adherents. Michael Lucchese, a senior at Hillsdale, says lots of people come in libertarian, and come out hardcore traditionalist. They reject, he continues, the sort of free-markets-will-solve-everything mentality of libertarianism in favor of a more traditional conservatism. Hillsdale students are exposed to the Great Books of the Western canon, including texts by Plato and Aristotle. Russell Kirk, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Leo Strauss also influence Hillsdale students. Lucchese added that C. S. Lewis is the most uncontroversial figureon campus, beloved by everybody.

Like McGuire, Lucchese reports that some students are sympathetic to monarchism, especially in the history department. Pointedly, he says many students are dissatisfied with the modern world. They recoil at the prevalence of sexual immorality and the atomism at the heart of liberal capitalism. Traditionalism looks to higher, permanent things such astruth, goodness, and beauty. Students see that as more fulfilling than what the modern world has to offer.

Traditionalist conservatism is not establishing deep roots on all campuses. Marlo Safi, a student at the University of Pittsburgh and editor-in-chief of The Pitt Maverick, told National Review that most conservatives there are of a libertarian bent. I have only met maybe five people, she says, whom I would call traditionalists in the vein of Russell Kirk. Most conservative students prefer to talk about Milo Yiannopoulos and people who are currently on the scene, says Safi.

Similarly, Anthony Palumbo, editor-in-chief of the Wake Forest Review, told National Review theres not much traditionalist conservatism at Wake Forest. Most conservatives at Wake Forest care little about social and cultural issues, preferring to promote free-market economics.

Among students, traditionalist conservatism seems to be especially common at Catholic universities and smaller Christian colleges. These young traditionalists question the idea of Progress, and express discontent with the modern world. They find value in community, and their views are usually rooted in faith. The Left may be winning the culture wars, but these students keep the flame of traditional morality ablaze. They reject libertarianism, especially what they see as its excessive faith in free markets and individual material gain. They often look to similar thinkers for inspiration: political theorists such as Russell Kirk, statesmen such as Edmund Burke, philosophers such as Plato, numerous Catholic intellectuals, and others.

They are not quite a monolithic group. Not all of them are monarchists, for example. The degree to which they are skeptical of classical liberalism also differs. Some are very much opposed to Locke and Rousseau; others are more cautious in their criticism.

The presence of traditionalist conservatism among college students reveals that some young Americans reject the vocal liberalism and libertarianism of their peers. More than that, however, these young traditionalists fear that the modern world has gone astray. They are the vanguard of a new generation standing athwart history, trying to reorient Americans toward ideas and ideals thatnourish the whole person: community, truth, goodness, and beauty.

READ MORE: The Strange Traditionalism of the LiberalElite Did William F. Buckleys Conservative Project End in Failure? The End of Reaganism

Jeff Cimmino is a student of history at Georgetown University and an editorial intern at National Review.

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Libertarians score big victory in ‘right-to-try’ drug bill – Politico

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The Senate unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would allow people facing life-threatening diseases access to unapproved experimental drugs, providing a victory for libertarian advocates who see government regulators thwarting patients rights.

The bill, S. 204 (115), passed swiftly and easily in a Senate bitterly divided over health care. The powerful pharmaceutical lobby, which had quietly opposed an earlier version, kept an unusually low profile. The industry has been focused on fighting off any efforts to go after drug pricing, which President Donald Trump has said he would tackle.

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The bills chief champion, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), declared it a victory for individual liberty over government, and for the right to hope. Its also been championed by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, and Vice President Mike Pence, who tweeted that it gives patients hope & a chance.

The legislation would allow patients with serious diseases anything from a late-stage cancer to multiple sclerosis to request access to experimental drugs directly from drug companies without having to go through the FDA, which has its own compassionate use program that approves 99 percent of requests.

But the right-to-try bill doesnt require drugmakers to make the experimental treatments available. In the 37 states that have similar laws on the books, Goldwater can point to only one doctor who says he has utilized a state right-to-try law for a patient and that medicine was being made available to certain patients by the FDA anyway.

Thats led some critics to call it right-to-ask and it may give desperately ill people false hopes.

This bill is inherently deceptive, Alison Bateman-House, a medical ethicist at New York University who led the charge against Johnsons bills, wrote in an email. What [patients] have a right to (and did long before this bill) is to ask drug companies for permission to use their experimental drugs outside of clinical trials. If the drug company says no, both before and after this legislation, that's the final word: neither the FDA nor the courts have to power to make companies provide access to their experimental drugs-in-development.

And if the experimental drugs do become widely used outside the standard clinical trial system, it could undermine some of the rigorous science needed to know whether medicines are safe and effective. Many drugs that start the clinical trial process flop. Some are harmful.

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You have a situation where patients think they want to take a risk and dont necessarily understand what risk they are taking," said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, which lobbied against the bill.

And while the revised bill would require annual reports on whether the drugs used by these patients helped or potentially harmed them, patient safety experts are concerned it may not be enough.

But its hard for lawmakers to say no to hope.

Opposing right-to-try laws is akin to opposing motherhood, apple pie, and the American flag; you just dont do it and expect to be re-elected, David Gorski, an oncologist at Wayne State University, wrote in his blog on science-based medicine. Its easier for a senator to vote for the bill than to explain to constituents the nuances of why the new law might not help them and might even harm them.

PhRMA issued a statement but declined to say whether it now supported the bill, which must still be approved by the House after the summer recess. We appreciated the opportunity to work with Sen. Johnson and look forward to continuing to work with his office, it said. The revised Right to Try legislation that passed the Senate includes important protections for patient safety and the clinical trial process.

Senate HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking Democrat Patty Murray (D-Wash.) the same duo who are about to embark on bipartisan Obamacare stabilization" hearings played a role in helping Johnson work out a compromise. Alexander told POLITICO after the vote that Johnson tried to run it by everyone who was affected, including the pharmaceutical industry, trial lawyers and patients. Im very happy for him and the patients around the country who will benefit from it.

Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), one of the few Democrats who had been in favor of it all along, said more liberal members all wanted to step up once the revised bill was explained to them.

FDA also worked behind the scenes to push for changes to make the bill safer for patients.

Not every senator endorses the libertarian rhetoric about getting federal regulators out of patients' way that propelled right-to-try a key theme of the message the Goldwater Institute took through the states and to Washington.

Theres no more fundamental freedom than the right to save your own life. Right to Try guarantees that freedom by ensuring that patients, along with their doctors, are in control of the treatments they receive when facing a terminal diagnosis, Goldwater's president and CEO Victor Riches said in a statement after passage.

But more liberal lawmakers faced significant lobbying, featuring heartbreaking stories of young children or newlyweds facing shortened lives. Meanwhile, the most powerful opposition, the drug industry and doctors groups, kept their disagreement very low-profile. Their soft voices gave lawmakers little political protection for a "no" vote.

Theres no doubt about it there are a lot of patients out there that think this is the answer to their prayers. They certainly believed that, and they pushed their members of Congress to support a bill that in many cases the members of Congress thought was not a good idea, said Zuckerman.

PhRMAs low-profile on right-to-try hurt detractors from the outset. The industry group never took a formal position on the state right-to-try laws or earlier federal proposals. But it consistently reiterated its concerns about any approach to experimental medicines that sought to bypass the FDA and the clinical trial process. Of the major drug makers, only Merck formally came out against the earlier Johnson bill.

Its huge, NYUs Bateman-House said of PhRMAs reluctance to take a stronger public stance. When I speak with legislators, they say, Well if its that bad, why isnt pharma speaking against it?

Critics of right-to-try concede the final Senate bill is much improved from earlier versions. It adds crucial safeguards that should help protect patients' safety and their pocketbooks, as they can no longer be charged excessive amounts for unproven drugs.

But the critics, including bioethicists, safety advocates and researchers, still worry about the risk of undermining an agency like the FDA an important safety regulator that has ensured that drugs are studied in controlled settings so FDA can make informed decisions to approve or disapprove them.

The bill looks to be an "improvement," said Patti Zettler, a professor at Georgia State University and former associate chief counsel at FDA. "However, the fundamental problem with the bill is not resolved in that it still envisions removing, or drastically reducing, FDA's role in expanded access."

And it may fall short an example of Congress checking a box, but not really solving a problem.

Its something where your reluctant representative can claim they are taking action but does not effectively address root problems, said Ameet Sarpatwari of Harvard Medical School. Weve seen this with rising drug prices, and now we see it with experimental treatment. It is a show, but it is also dangerous in the sense that it furthers this sort of attack on FDA as somehow being antithetical to the interest of patients.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Patti Zettler's affiliation. She is a professor at Georgia State University.

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Jury Nullification Used To Free Libertarian Activist In Maryland – The Liberty Conservative

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Jury Nullification Used To Free Libertarian Activist In Maryland
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Dennis Fusaro, a libertarian activist, and Steve Waters were found not guilty by a jury of their own peers for illegal free speech. The men had sent a robocall back in 2014 to 5,000 people in Anne Arundel County, Maryland on the weekend before an ...

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Jury Nullification Used To Free Libertarian Activist In Maryland - The Liberty Conservative

Inside the Total Catastrophe That Ensued After an Elected Libertarian Mayor Promised the ‘Freest Little City in Texas’ – AlterNet

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Inside the Total Catastrophe That Ensued After an Elected Libertarian Mayor Promised the 'Freest Little City in Texas'
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If Von Ormy is a libertarian experiment with democracy, it's one that hasn't turned out as expected. The crisis of government in Von Ormy doesn't present itself at first glance. The town is located on I-35 just south of the Medina River, where San ...

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Inside the Total Catastrophe That Ensued After an Elected Libertarian Mayor Promised the 'Freest Little City in Texas' - AlterNet