Fight Childhood Cancer with Chili's and St. Jude!

During the month of Septemeber, you can purchase and color a pepper at any Chili's Bar and Grill and make a donation to St. Jude Children's Hospital, a hospital in Memphis, TN specializing in all types of childhood cancers. So, visit Chili's in Septemeber and help a great cause!

Canadian court rules transfusions can be forced on teens

What are your thoughts on this? Should the Canadian court be allowed to force transfusions on individuals determined by psychiatrists to fully understand what their refusal of the transfusion means? Ethics anyone?

Canadian court rules transfusions can be forced on teens

Fri Jun 26, 2009 1:24pm EDT

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Manitoba social workers were right to force a Jehovah's Witness teenager to get a blood transfusion even though she said she felt it was like being raped, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday.

The girl, known as A.C., was almost 15 -- the law stipulates 16 as the age when independent decisions are allowed -- and argued that she knew what she was doing when she said she wanted to follow her religion and not take the blood.

http://bit.ly/Kx1xj

New shot aims to head off Type 1 diabetes

Shot is one of a handful of new immune therapies being tested around U.S.

By Lauran Neergaard

updated 48 minutes ago

PITTSBURGH - The doctor had barely pulled away the needle when a blister appeared on Tracey Berg-Fulton's abdomen: An experimental shot was revving up the 24-year-old's immune system — part of a bold quest to create a vaccine-like therapy for diabetes.

http://bit.ly/Vr2GU

Make Our Voices Heard Regarding Healthcare Reform!

The health care reform movement is speeding along without the voice of a key stakeholder group: future physicians! As the future doctors who will practice in a reformed health care system, we must ensure that reform efforts recognize our vision for a more perfect system, one that provides quality, affordable, health care for all.

Click here to sign the letter, and add your ideas for health care reform to the debate

Insured immigrants have lower medical costs than U.S.-born citizens, study finds

"Insured immigrants have lower medical expenses than insured U.S.-born citizens after taking into account their health status and other characteristics, according to a study released on Thursday and published in the American Journal of Public Health, Reuters Health reports."


http://www.news-medical.net/news/2009/05/15/Insured-immigrants-have-lower-medical-costs-than-US-born-citizens-study-finds.aspx

Public health crusader Paul Farmer could join Obama team

"Dr. Paul Farmer, the global health crusader who has crafted life-saving projects from Haiti to Rwanda, has told colleagues privately that he is mulling a possible appointment by the Obama administration to coordinate growing US overseas health initiatives."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/05/public_health_c.html

How Hospitals Treat Same-Sex Couples

This article addresses discrimination that same-sex couples face when their partners are in the hospital. Many are denied 'family status' in making important treatment decisions. When this right is upheld, couples are often asked for paperwork to verify their relationship, a formality absent for heterosexual couples and for other family members.

Check out the article for more:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/how-hospitals-treat-same-sex-couples/?src=twr

Write to Your Representative to Support Loan Deferment for Residents

Last summer, the College Cost Reduction Act eliminated loan deferment for residents. However, as you know, Congress is currently drafting a bill to reform healthcare. It is imperative that we make our voices heard on this issue so that people from all walks of life can train to become physicians.Congress needs to hear from you that reinstating the economic hardship deferral pathway is a good thing, and that including comprehensive measures to decrease the cost of medical education in this month's health reform legislation will be even better.

To Take Action: http://capwiz.com/ams/issues/alert/?alertid=13255531&type=CO

Institute of Medicine Calls for Doctors to Stop Taking Gifts From Drug Makers

AMSA has long urged Medical Students, Residents, Physicians, and Hospitals to go 'PharmFree' by not accepting gifts from pharmaceutical reps. This move from the IOM puts us one step closer in minimizing conflicts-of-interest in the practice of medicine.

Check out the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/health/policy/29drug.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimeshealth

Learn more about AMSA's PharmFree campaign at:
http://amsa.org/prof/pharmFAQ.cfm

Why Your Zip Code May Be More Important to Your Health Than Your Genetic Code

"An apple a day may help keep the doctor away but that assumes you can find an apple in your neighborhood."

How you see a problem drives how you create the solution.

We are not a healthy country. And while health reform focuses on coverage, cost, access and care, this is simply triage to a system that fails to ask the question "Why aren't we healthier in the first place?" Our health reform debate is focusing on where health ends (with medical care) and not on where our health begins (where we live, learn, work and play).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Animated

Experts identify compound that may fight bird flu

Experts identify compound that may fight bird flu

April 15, 2009 05:56 AM ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have identified a synthetic compound which appears to be able to stop the replication of influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus. Full Article

How will you die?

Top causes of death in Knox are cancer, heart disease

Link: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/apr/12/041209webhlthmain/

By Kristi L. Nelson (Contact)
Sunday, April 12, 2009

Adam Brimer

How are you going to die?

That may depend on, among other things, where you live.

Welcome to the AMSA@UTK Blog!

Post any interesting articles, updates, legislature, etc. that you come across!

Comment on posts-- start some debates!

Did you hear that they found HIV resistant individuals in Uganda?

Uganda: HIV-Resistant Citizens Found

http://allafrica.com/stories/200904040009.html

And this morning there was an article in the New York Times that said neuroscientists had found a way to erase memory!

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06brain.html?_r

=1&ref=health