MedBr First to Know 7/27/2015

Pickleball in Calgary and Seattle Anyone?

     This week I am traveling to Calgary and Seattle to visit friends and I am taking four racquets to get them to play pickleball with me. We have gone to Calgary for at least 12 summers now and loved every single one of them. The weather is fabulous, the cowboys handsome and the horses and dogs are beautiful…plus the Calgarians make us feel so welcome! Calgary is home to the continent’s oldest polo club as well as Spruce Meadows for jumpers so if you are still looking for a summer vacation, head that direction.

     Watch our Medical Headline Videos:

•      New drugs are helping people suffering with Marfan Syndrome live longer. Dr Alan Braverman, MD, Cardiologist at Washington University in St Louis is testing angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB’s).
•      Dr Vipul Patel, MD, Director of the Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital and Ranjan Perera, PhD, Associate Professor at Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Research Institute are working on a faster and more accurate test for prostate cancer than the PSA test that is currently in use. The next step is to initiate a wide-scale clinical trial of their urine test.
•      Jennifer Long, Occupational Therapist at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, shows patients how to live with a disability. Our report is called “Parenting on Wheels.”

     Dr David Geldmacher, MD, Professor of Neurology at the University of Atlanta at Birmingham is giving patients a personalized dementia risk assessment. He then discusses diet, exercise, cholesterol and blood pressure, all considered to be factors that can slow dementia’s progression. By the way, Katherine Amy Lin, the Wrenn Clinical Scholar at Duke who worked with Dr Murali Doraiswamy on an alzheimer’s project, was selected by the Alzheimer’s Association to present her research findings at their press conference last Tuesday and was covered in the New York Timesalso.

     Our full length doctor’s interview this week is with Anthony Delitto, PT, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. He discusses non-surgical options to treat lumbar stenosis.

     In case you missed them, you may want to check our past reports, Premium Content in Archives New Blood Vessels Not Essential to Metastases Personalized Melanoma Vaccine. Premium Content in the Archives may be purchased for as little as $9 for 24-hour, unlimited access. If you would like to access Premium Content for the first time click here.

     Finally, Jay McClennen, Chief Certified Clinical Anaplastologist at The Anaplastology Clinic in Durham, NC has moved from the big screen to real life and is making prosthetics that are more art than what other people make. He has invented his own custom silicone breast prosthesis and Diane Stokes is so happy that she is even putting on a bathing suit again.

And there's more where that came from...

Marjorie Bekaert Thomas

President, Ivanhoe Broadcast News