Surgical Family Medicine OB CME

 

The Labor2011 Surgical Family Medicine Obstetrics Conference was the most ambitious of the Medicos teaching projects, and it happened at a time when administrative support was thin. I am exhausted, but thankful for the prayers and guidance. Next Year I think we should make this happen two weeks after the UT US course.
 
Medicos successfully built an ultrasound experience separate from, but synergistic with, the UT STF presentation. This was designed in 1992 as a discipleship course. It was a good feeling to see our former students, faculty, and fellows leading the St F faculty development ultrasound course 20 years later. 2012 August 23-25.
 
2011 allowed the Camellia foundation and Medicos to go a step further, and continue His work. Among ten model patients Labor2011 had 3 abdominal exercises, three gyn cases, 3 OB cases, and the twin gyn case simulator with knobology on an unknown machine. The Esaote Bio-sound advanced knobology by Carl Barton was real step forward.
 
Three August 2011 Medicos fellows have received 36 hours of structured ultrasound experience, and performed at least 50 ultrasound examinations in their first 6 weeks. In addition Labor2011 provided an ultrasound textbook, and references.
 
There were several tests with feedback given ([Thanks Ike). Medicos-mundial is preparing to certify, as ultrasound assistants, the residency prep group. This process helped validate several of our testing instruments. Thank you.
 
Labor2011 was a prototype, and next year we must build in more admin support.
Should we consider submitting a manuscript describing this as an educational innovation for presentation at STFM and AAFP 2012? It will have possibilities as we suggest curriculum for projects in Ecuador, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Nigeria.
 
I especially want to thank Coleman Arnold, Manoj Mazumder, and Ravi Singh for their previous and continuing contributions to this project. Dr. Arnold flew in from Chattanooga.
 
Suggestions for next year are appreciated. Thus far we have---pre-ship the articles and assigned readings. Build in time for a longitudinal curriculum using the Wednesday conferences. Reviewed the EM ultrasound disc. Faculty 2012--Ike, Singh, Arnold, JRMR, Manoj, Gonzalez, Jairo ?
With best wishes for your professional success

Wm. MacMillan Rodney MD
Private Practice, Clinical Professor and Chair
Medicos para la Familia
Memphis, Nashville, and International

May 18, 2012 09:26AM

House Appropriations Committee Approves FY13 State, Foreign Operations Spending Bill

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill (.pdf), which would provide $40.1 billion in regular discretionary funding and an additional $8.2 billion in funding for ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, The Hill's "On the Money" blog reports (Wasson, 5/17). Taken together, the bill would provide about $5 billion, or nine percent, less than FY 2012 funding levels, a committee press release notes (5/17). "The bill contains tough new limitations on aid," including cutting all funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstating the Mexico City policy, also known as the "global gag rule," which prohibits foreign aid from going to any organization that performs abortions or provides information about or referral for the procedure as a method of family planning, according to The Hill.

May 17, 2012 10:00PM

Obama To Announce New Initiative Aimed At Boosting African Agriculture In Advance Of G8 Summit This Weekend

On Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to announce "new investments in African agriculture in a speech in Washington ... as a precursor to the weekend Group of Eight [G8] summit at Camp David, Maryland," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Bjerga, 5/18). "The president is scheduled to speak to African leaders at a summit on food security Friday," VOA News writes, adding, "[The] new initiative is expected to target 50 million food-insecure people by boosting agricultural investments" (5/17). According to NPR's "Morning Edition," "The leaders of Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana are among those in Washington to launch the new food security initiative, which [USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah] says will include several billion dollars in investments from private companies" (Kelemen, 5/18). "We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment," Shah said, the New York Times writes (Strom, 5/17).

May 18, 2012 08:03AM

Afghanistan Breaks Ground On $30M Hospital For Treatment Of TB, AIDS, Malaria

"Afghanistan has begun work on a $30 million hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis [TB], a disease that health officials say kills more than 10,000 Afghans every year," VOA's "Breaking News" blog reports. "The Japanese government is paying for the 80-bed center in the Afghan capital, which will also treat malaria and AIDS patients," the news service writes, noting, "Japan is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan, after the United States." VOA adds, "During Thursday's groundbreaking in Kabul, Afghan Health Minister Suraya Dalil said Afghanistan ranks in the top 20 worldwide for the most TB patients," and she noted the country has 2,000 centers nationwide that can diagnose and treat the disease (5/17).

May 18, 2012 08:18AM

PRI Examines Challenges Of Hospital's Charitable Legacy In Gabon

PRI's "The World" profiles Gabon's Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which "is struggling to achieve the goals of its founder while adapting to a new century and a different Africa." The story recaps the hospital's history and its board's recent efforts to address what one board member described as locals' "dependency" on historically European directors. However, Lachlan Forrow, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the only American on the hospital's board, recently became president of the board, and he has worked to establish "a new relationship between locals and outsiders -- blacks and whites," PRI reports. Forrow "found an experienced Gabonese hospital administrator -- Antoine Nziengui --" who is now the Schweitzer Hospital director, an African "for the first time since the hospital was founded 99 years ago," the news service writes, adding that the hospital "still faces huge obstacles: a million-dollar budget deficit, antiquated facilities, a rising burden of HIV and tuberculosis" (Baron, 5/17).

May 18, 2012 08:03AM

Loss Of U.S. Funding For UNFPA 'Would Be Devastating' To Family Planning Services In Developing Countries

"By voting to ban any U.S. contribution to UNFPA" in the FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday "made a judgment call that saving the lives of women and girls around the world is simply not a U.S. priority," Valerie DeFillipo, president of Friends of UNFPA, writes in a Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece. She notes that "[c]ommittee members voted against amendments that would permit funding to UNFPA for preventing and treating obstetric fistula, ending female genital mutilation, and providing family planning services and contraceptive supplies in nine sub-Saharan African countries with high rates of poverty and maternal mortality where USAID does not provide family planning assistance."

May 18, 2012 08:28AM

Opinion Pieces, Editorial Published In Anticipation Of G8 Summit At Camp David

Below are summaries of two opinion pieces and an editorial published in anticipation of the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19.

May 18, 2012 08:25AM

International Community Must Organize, Commit Financial Resources To Win War On Polio

In this editorial in the International Herald Tribune's "Express Tribune," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon examines the global push to eradicate polio, highlighting progress in the "world's war on polio" since it was declared nearly a quarter century ago but warning that "we are in danger of falling victim to our own success," as "the world is now populated by a generation which has either never been exposed to polio or has been inadequately vaccinated." However, "[w]ith a determined push, the international community can wipe out polio once and for all," Ban continues, adding, "To do so, ... it must organize and commit the required financial resources." Ban highlights two upcoming meetings -- the G8 summit at Camp David this week, and a meeting of World Health Assembly in Geneva the following week -- as opportunities for world leaders to push for polio eradication on the international agenda.

May 18, 2012 08:12AM

Opinion Pieces Recognize World AIDS Vaccine Day

May 18 is World AIDS Vaccine Day, also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, and the following summarizes two opinion pieces recognizing the event.

May 18, 2012 08:39AM

Opinion Piece, Editorial Respond To Parliamentary Report On India's Drug Regulatory Agency

Below are summaries of an opinion piece and an editorial responding to a report (.pdf) from the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare on India's drug regulatory agency, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

May 18, 2012 08:58AM

Blogs Address Food Security, African Agriculture In Anticipation Of High-Level Meetings In Washington

Several blogs recently have published posts in anticipation of a symposium on food security taking place in Washington on Friday, at which President Barack Obama is expected to speak, and the G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland on Friday and Saturday, both of which will focus on food security and agriculture in Africa.