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Latest Posts

Considering The Miracle Of Birth During This Holiday Season

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When I think about Christmas, I instinctively think about the miracle of birth. Four million miracles (aka births) happen in our country each year and many more occur globally. On a hot summer night in the urban community of Harlem almost 30 years ago, I witnessed my first miracle as a volunteer and was never the same again.  The mother was a young teen who had been pushing for approximately forty-five minutes. She suddenly let out a piercing scream and out popped the hairy head of baby who started to wail. The mother sat straight up and peered down at the baby whose body had yet to be delivered. The delivery nurse admonished her to lie back down so that the baby could be delivered properly. Oh what a humorous and miraculous sight. I was in complete awe. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Apps Allow Viewer To Study 3-D Details Of Human Anatomy

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I remember when I had to study all the details of human anatomy from textbooks and some old books with many pictures, but I didn’t have a chance to see things in 3D (which would have made it much easier to understand, learn and memorize). After medical school, I started to discover new apps and solutions for this problem.

I’ve been using the Biodigital app on Google Chrome, it’s free but a bit hard to use.

And recently, Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Where’s The Safest Place To Have A Baby: Article Breaks Down Infant Mortality By Zip Code

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A recent article about the shameful infant mortality rate in the U.S. caught my attention. Certainly the statistics quoted are nothing new but still remains alarming.  However, the Op Ed by CNN contributor Deborah Klein Walker gave the subject matter a new spin. Walker wrote “This is one of the greatest injustices in our country: that a baby’s chance of having a healthy life is largely dependent on where he or she is born. States and local communities vary widely in what care their leaders choose to provide to women and children.”  If Dr. Walker were present, I’d give her a great big hug for her courage to say what no one else dared. A baby can die based on a hospital zip code.

Every pregnant mother needs to take a mini course in hospital politics because they are directly affected. A hospital is no longer a place of healing. It is a business and at times, ruthless.  I have witnessed a colleague forced out of business because she said no when a hospital wanted to buy her practice so they withdrew her admitting privileges instead. I recall bitter battles with my former employer because I would not encourage my patients to deliver at a hospital that was notorious for Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

The Benefits Of Optimism For Maintaining Good Health

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An athletic lifestyle offers many health benefits. This is hardly news. Exercise, attention to good eating and getting adequate rest makes everything better: lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, higher heart rate turbulence and better survival in the event of heart attack and Cancer, just to name a few. The list of positives approaches infinity. We athletes do a lot that is healthy.

But tonight, I want to muse about yet another benefit of being a competitive athlete—you know, the kind of person that signs up for a challenge and then sees it through. No, it’s not just about bike racing, it could be anything that involves pinning a number and seeing results published on the word wide web.

What extra benefit? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*

History In The Making: Can Womb Transplant Be Successful?

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Infertility or the inability to have a baby can be devastating and affects approximately 10 percent of the female population. There are many conditions that prevent women from having children including Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser syndrome (or MKHS). MKHS is a rare disorder that affects a woman’s ability to conceive. At present, for every 10,000 women, only 1 to 2 will be affected. Both Sara Ottoson of Sweden and Melina Arnold of Australia have this condition. MKHS is characterized by the absence of a vagina and part of the cervix. Patients with this condition have normal breast development and functioning ovaries. Genetically, they also have female or double X-chromosomes and look like normal women. The problem comes to light during adolescence when a teen fails to have a period. The condition is also known as Vaginal Agenesis because they are born without a true vagina, a problem that can be corrected through surgical and non-surgical procedures. Unfortunately, they are unable to have children and usually Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Latest Interviews

Rock Stars Want To Franchise Specialty Teen Cancer Centers Across America

Rock superstars Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who have a new cause sparking a franchise of teen-oriented cancer treatment centers across America. To kick off the launch of Teen Cancer America Daltrey amp Townshend were featured at a conference held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C….

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Paul Ryan’s Take On Healthcare Reform

Now that Mitt Romney has announced that Paul Ryan is his VP pick I thought it would be helpful to repost some video and transcripts from a healthcare reform conference that I organized in Paul Ryan was our keynote speaker at the National Press Club and I found him to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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Unaccountable: A Book About The Underbelly Of Hospital Care

I met Dr. Marty Makary over lunch at Founding Farmers restaurant in DC about three years ago. We had an animated conversation about hospital safety the potential contribution of checklists to reducing medical errors and his upcoming book about the need for more transparency in the healthcare system. Marty was…

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The Thrifty Patient: A Doctor’s Guide To More Affordable Healthcare

No matter the outcome of the presidential election this year it s likely that Americans will be spending more of their money on healthcare going forward. Dr. Davis Liu a family physician at the Permanente Medical Group in California and a contributor to this blog has written a primer on…

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