MEDIA MENTIONS : DMS & DHMC IN THE NEWS
Among the people and programs coming in for prominent
media coverage in the past few months was a DMS study
which revealed that, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Magazine, "many people whose health insurance covers preventive
screening are not taking advantage of it." For example,
"using Medicare data . . . the researchers found that only 28% of
women ages 65 to 69 received a mammogram
during 1995 and 1996, even though experts recommend
that women in that age group get
screened once every two years." Dr. Jonathan Lord,
formerly chief operating offer of the American
Hospital Association and now an adjunct professor
of community and family medicine at
DMS, was quoted as saying that "the country's
health-care system needs to develop a way to monitor preventive
care. . . . And, Lord says, patients need to take an active role."
The New York Times's Gina Kolata recently explored the ethical issues raised by embryo research: "If you can grow a mouse from a single embryo cell," she wrote, "you should in theory be able to grow a human from a single embryo cell. And if you can grow a human from a single embryo cell, is that cell the moral equivalent of an entire embryo? Where, in other words, does the potential for human life lie? There are no simple answers anymore, ethicists say." One of the ethicists she quoted was Ronald Green, director of Dartmouth's Ethics Institute. "The problem, said Green, is that people are still trying to use biology to draw moral lines in the sand, and biology just does not suffice anymore."
The incidence of bacterial meningitis on college campuses received
wide coverage recently. The Wall Street Journal explored the
meningitis vaccine's benefits, limitations, and
cost implications (since many insurance programs
don't cover its $60 cost), noting that "the
Centers for Disease Control's influential Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices will
consider recommending whether the evidence
warrants recommending the vaccine for groups
at risk. 'If parents want to provide a bit of extra
protection, and it's worth spending $60, it's a reasonable choice,'
says John Modlin of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who heads
the advisory committee. 'But I'm not sure it makes sense from a
public health standpoint.'"
In a recent op-ed essay published in the Washington Post, Patrick
Hays, the president and CEO of the national Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Association, invoked the work of the director of DMS's
Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences: "In recent
congressional testimony, Jack Wennberg, a Dartmouth College
health quality expert, said, 'When medical
science is weak, medical necessity
is commonly determined by
the opinions of local providers.
One result is that patients with
the same conditions are treated
very differently, depending on
where they live. What is medical
necessity in one community
is unnecessary care in another.'"
A feature in U.S. News & World Report on
back pain—which afflicts four out of five Americans
at some point in their lives—reported on a
patient who had found satisfaction at DHMC.
"Boston lawyer and avid runner Jonathan Fitch
fell to the floor after moving furniture and suffered
. . . pain radiating from his back
down through his leg. . . . Several
doctors told him not to run
and two physicians recommended
different surgeries. . . .
Fitch was hesitant, and so was
James Weinstein, director of the
Spine Center at Dartmouth-
Hitchcock Medical Center. 'I told him not only
that he could run but that he should run,' says Weinstein.
. . . Two years later, [Fitch] still has not felt
the need for surgery. Last March, he ran the
Boston Marathon."
"For some children, it's an after-school pressure
cooker" was the headline on a New York
Times feature about the activity-filled—even
stress-filled—lives that many school-aged children
lead. One of the experts the Times turned to
was Dr. Marcia Herrin, codirector of
Dartmouth's eating disorders
program, who "said there was a
connection between overscheduling
and the development of
eating disorders. 'I see a lot of
teenagers who have no discretionary
time,' Dr. Herrin said.
The connection between eating disorders and
activities appears to be strongest with sports."
The Pokemon craze—the toy world's latest collectible and game fad—was recently analyzed by the Boston Globe. "Dr. Steven Atkins, a child psychologist at Dartmouth Medical School, [expressed concern] about the money involved in the fad, especially for children from poor families who want to fit in. But he's not bothered by the game itself. 'From what I see, it's interactive, they're socializing, strategizing. Anything that has kids talking together is a good thing.'"
Only one-third of patients who tested positive
for colon cancer obtained two recommended follow-
up tests, according to a recent
study conducted under
DMS auspices. The Associated
Press covered the study results,
noting, "Failure to obtain proper
follow-up testing could delay
discovery of the disease, and 'the
later you find it, the more difficult
it is to cure,' warned one of the researchers,
Dr. Jon Lurie of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center
in White River Junction, Vt.," an assistant
professor of medicine at DMS.
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently profiled
Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord. The nation's first Navajo
woman surgeon, she has been at DMS since 1997
as a surgeon and the associate dean of students.
"Dr. Alvord, whose father was a
Navajo and whose mother is
white, has spent her life straddling
the two cultures. Now she
is helping to teach a new generation
of medical students about
melding the high-tech world of
Western medicine with the
holistic, spiritual approach she learned from her
tribe's elders." The story noted the importance of
role models. "She was fascinated by the human
body, but inhibited by a Navajo culture that respects
personal boundaries and disapproves of
touching. . . . With the support of an American
Indian surgeon who served as her mentor, she pursued
the career that has led her to one of the nation's
premier academic medical centers."
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