Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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

Friday, April 24, 2009

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).

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Animated

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.