MedBr First to Know 9/21/2015

Fall is not in the air yet!

     What’s New? President Obama has nominated a cardiologist from Duke to head up the FDA! The New York Times says “he is among the most cited medical authors in academia, with more than 1,200 journal articles. Congratulations to Dr. Robert Califf and good luck with a very important position.”

     Watch our Medical Headline Videos:

•      There’s finally a breakthrough in X-ray technology. Dr Mark Rahm, MD, Orthopedic surgeon at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas tells us about the EOS scanner that is helping treat scoliosis while delivering the lowest dose of radiation possible.
•      Dr Ming-Lon Young, MD, Medical Director of Electrophysiology at Joe DeMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida tells us about a specialized 3D imaging that allows him to create a real-time view of the heart and detect the arrhythmias that require medication or surgery.
•      Neuroscientist and neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, FRCPC says there is only one drug, Riluzole, approved to treat ALS but it is ineffective. His research suggested that a heart drug, Digoxin, may slow the destruction of nerve cells in ALS patients. It has worked in mice…

     Although spinal fusion is the most common treatment for back pain, there is another technique. Dr Richard Guyer, MD, Spine Surgeon at the Texas Back Institute in Dallas and his partners pioneered the first artificial disc replacement surgery for FDA studies back in 2000. It is now approved but insurance doesn’t always cover it…

     Our second special report is about a young women who got a “Double Lung Transplant” for her cystic fibrosis. Dr Erin Lowery, MD, Transplant Pulmonologist at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, says her passion for getting her high school diploma may just have been the magic ingredient to getting her through the experience.

     In case you missed them, you may want to check our past reports, Premium Content in Archives Ring and Sling for the Heart Schizophrenia: Retinal Changes May Gives Clues. 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.

     Men are three times more likely to get bladder cancer than women are. I learned this fact and several others in our report, “Subtle Signs of Bladder Cancer.” William Isaacs, PhD, Professor of Urology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine says it is “in the top 5 cancers for men, but we really don’t hear very much about it.”

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

Marjorie Bekaert Thomas

President, Ivanhoe Broadcast News

“Read, read, read. Students ask me how to become a writer, and I ask them who is their favorite author. If they have none, they have no love of words.”
-- Gary, Wills, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, Northwestern University, 2009