Sunday, July 25, 2010

Kids, Parents and Drugs

What do you do if your child asks you a direct question like “have you ever used drugs?” and your truthful answer is “yes”? Pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass recently addressed this issue. Honesty is important for our children even if we still want to prevent them from taking their own risks. As a pediatric resident, Klass was asked this question herself so knows it is likely to arise. One way of dealing with this is that we know much more about substance abuse now than we did then. So we can explain that we had no way of knowing what the damage would be back then. Things are different now, for our children. For example, today, scientists understand way more about the neurobiology of the brain of a teenager and the impact of drug and alcohol abuse this has on it. We now know that it is not until 20 that the brain ceases development so such experiments at 16 for example, could be extremely detrimental. The best way to stay healthy is to maintain health through preventive measures. In addition, one never knows what they are going to be negatively affected by before trying it so the education we should be giving to our children is that the risk is just too high.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Advances in US Health Care Reform and New York-Presbyterian Hospital


There have been some tremendous advances in America’s health care reform which have led to the country’s 70 million children receiving coverage to meet their specific needs. Timely access is what will often save lives. This has resulted in “two patients from NewYork-Presbyterian/Phyllis and David Komansky Center for Children's Health and NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and their families went to Washington, D.C., to discuss their personal health care stories with lawmakers who are carefully monitoring how health reform implementation rolls out.” These families are Castro and McKiever (along with 30 other families from America). The obstacles that still remain include: inadequate amount of pediatric doctors; insufficient reimbursement from Medicaid for pediatric care; lack of consistency for quality measures and incentives across states; threat of more state-level Medicaid cuts.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Beware of Outdoor Accidents This Summer


The sun is shining, your kids are desperate to go out and you love sitting outdoors. But you should be aware that there are many little mishaps that could potentially ruin your carefree summer activity. While there is no doubt (and studies have proven this) that kids do better in the classroom when they’ve had time outdoors, one should always remember to take special care when kids are outdoors. Ensure that you take a few tips into consideration as a preventive measure of going to the ER. Let your kids have a great summer, but make sure they do it safely and if something does happen untoward, be in the know about the best and fastest way to react. If necessary, don’t hesitate, just go straight to the ER.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Josyann Abisaab and the American University of Beirut


Josyann Abisaab studied at the American University of Beirut, from where she graduated with a BS (Distinction) in 1984. Recent news from the university is that Dr. Fuad N. Ziyadeh (chair of the Department of Internal Medicine) was appointed a member of the International Foundations of Medicine (IFOM) Oversight Committee. For the university this appointment means that it is now part of “an international assessment of medical students.” For Ziyadeh, this is quite an honor since he is the only individual on this committee selected from outside North America and Europe. And for the university it’s great, as, according to AUB Faculty of Medicine’s Dean, Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh, Raja N. Khuri, it “makes AUB a key player in international medical education.”