Indian-origin cardiologist named White House fellow
Washington:
Kapil Parakh, an Indian-origin cardiologist working in Washington area, is
among a dozen people chosen by the White House for its prestigious fellowship
programme for 2013-14.
A Zambia University graduate, Parakh is the director of heart failure at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre and assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Behaviour and Society.
A Zambia University graduate, Parakh is the director of heart failure at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre and assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Behaviour and Society.
He
edged out two other Indian-Americans among the finalists -- Shilpen Patel,
associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Washington, and
Jay Bhatt, geriatric medicine fellow at the University of Michigan Health
System.
Starting
with Indian-American neurosurgeon and CNN`s chief medical correspondent Sanjay
Gupta, who was a 1997-98 fellow, Parakh is the latest person of Indian origin
to join the White House Fellows Programme created in 1964 by then president
Lyndon Johnson.
The programme is designed to give promising American leaders "first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs", according to the White House.
The programme is designed to give promising American leaders "first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs", according to the White House.
"This
unique opportunity to work within our nation`s government is designed to
encourage active citizenship and a lifelong commitment to service." Parakh
leads heart failure quality improvements in collaboration with the Joint
Commission`s Centre for Transforming Healthcare, using entrepreneurial
techniques to cost-effectively improve outcomes, the White House announcement
said.
Parakh`s
research focuses on understanding the increased mortality in patients with
depression after a heart attack. Passionate about teaching, Parakh is a
clinician-educator and has mentored trainees in award winning research. Parakh
is the co-founder of Health for America, a non-profit that mobilises youth to
improve the health of communities through innovation while shaping the next
generation of leaders.
In
recognition of his contributions to public health, Parakh was recently inducted
into the Delta Omega Public Health honour society. He has 27 scientific
publications and serves as a peer-reviewer for a number of journals.
Parakh
is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure
and Transplantation. Parakh received a BS and MD from the University of Zambia
with honours, as well as a MPH and PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health.
30.08.2013
Light could replace electric jolts to restore healthy
heartbeats
Washington:
When a beating heart slips into an irregular, life-threatening rhythm,
delivering a burst of electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator is the
treatment most commonly known.
But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light.
Five biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins and Stony Brook universities described their plan to use biological lab data and an intricate computer model to devise a better way to heal ailing hearts.
Other scientists are already using light-sensitive cells to control certain activities in the brain.
The Johns Hopkins-Stony Brook researchers said that they plan to give this technique a cardiac twist so that doctors in the near future will be able to use low-energy light to solve serious heart problems such as arrhythmia .
But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light.
Five biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins and Stony Brook universities described their plan to use biological lab data and an intricate computer model to devise a better way to heal ailing hearts.
Other scientists are already using light-sensitive cells to control certain activities in the brain.
The Johns Hopkins-Stony Brook researchers said that they plan to give this technique a cardiac twist so that doctors in the near future will be able to use low-energy light to solve serious heart problems such as arrhythmia .
"Applying
electricity to the heart has its drawbacks," the project`s supervisor,
Natalia Trayanova, the Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering at
Johns Hopkins, said.
"When we use a defibrillator, it`s like blasting open a door because we don`t have the key. It applies too much force and too little finesse. We want to control this treatment in a more intelligent way. We think it`s possible to use light to reshape the behavior of the heart without blasting it," she said.
"When we use a defibrillator, it`s like blasting open a door because we don`t have the key. It applies too much force and too little finesse. We want to control this treatment in a more intelligent way. We think it`s possible to use light to reshape the behavior of the heart without blasting it," she said.
The research is published online in the journal Nature Communications.
30.08.2013
Boozing in early adolescence could increase breast
cancer risk
Washington:
Researchers have linked increased breast cancer risk to drinking between early
adolescence and first full-term pregnancy.
Co-author Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said that more and more heavy drinking is occurring on college campuses and during adolescence, and not enough people are considering future risk. But, according to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13 percent.
First
author Ying Liu, MD, PhD, a School of Medicine instructor in the Division of
Public Health Sciences, said that they also found that for every bottle of
beer, glass of wine or shot of liquor consumed daily, a young woman increases
her risk of proliferative benign breast disease by 15 percent and although such
lesions are noncancerous, their presence increases breast cancer risk by as
much as 500 percent.
She said that parents should educate their daughters about the link between drinking and risk of breast cancer and breast disease, asserting that`s very important as this time period is very critical.
The findings are based on a review of the health histories of 91,005 mothers enrolled in the Nurses` Health Study II from 1989 to 2009.
The
study has been published online in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute.
30.08.2013
Accept no one’s definition of your life: Define yourself
Harvey Fierstein
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