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Showing posts from August, 2014

Happy Labor Day Everyone!


MHRI Burn and Surgical Research Lab Receives Donation from Montgomery County Fire Fighters


On Thursday, August 21, 2014, the Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters (MCCFF) visited the George Hyman Research Building at MedStar WHC to present a check to the Burn and Surgical Research Lab.  The check came from the proceeds from the MCCFF 41st Annual Golf Tournament, which was held June 2, 2014 at the Rattlewood Golf Course in Mt. Airy, MD. 

Many sponsors, charitable donors, and golfers supported this event, which in turn, allowed the MCCFF Golf Committee to support the Burn Lab with the money raised.  They have been long time supporters of the Burn Center at MWHC and the Burn and Surgical Research Program.

After the check presentation, Dr. Jeffrey Shupp conducted a tour of the Firefighters' Burn and Surgical Research Laboratory (FBSRL) in the Hyman Research Building (see pictures) and a brief reception held to thank the MCCFF for their generous donation and continued support of our research program.

Walking Meeting


Its a beautiful day today.  For many in DC and across Maryland it is the first day of school and it brought back childhood memories (growing up in the northeast) where the first day of school was often (at least in my mind) a clear blue day, 75 degrees and low humidity.

Well, today I had a day packed with back-to-back meetings at UTC in my office..... so what a wonderful surprise when Dr Aroda said 'come on, I want to show you something.'  She brought me to the 3rd floor where there is a terrace that surrounds the building and we had a 'walking meeting.'  It was great!  I logged over 4000 steps and we walked almost 2 miles - oh yes, and it was a very productive meeting too!

Thanks Vanita for getting me out of the office!






Presidential Medicine

Sometimes I hear about cool stuff our investigators are doing and am appreciative when I can share them with you.


Recently,  Munish Goyal MD, FACEP, the Research Director of Emergency Intensive Care in the Department of Emergency Medicine at MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC), Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and an active MHRI investigator, shared his 'experience' with me.

Munish recently was part of a presidential detail (in the white polo shirt) accompanying President Bill Clinton on a humanitarian visit to Central America and Haiti. He served as the president's traveling physician, which is a common practice.  While (thankfully) his services were not needed, he was able to apply his expertise in emergency medicine to prepare for a type of healthcare delivery most of us don't get to even think about.

MedStar Leaders Nationally

Last week, Joan Bardsely, MBA, BSN, RN CDE, FAADE, Assistant Vice President, Core Scientific Services for the MedStar Health Research Institute, was recognized at the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) where she holds the role of President of the association.  Joan also serves on national committees of the American Diabetes Association. 

I think it's great to see MHRI associates holding national positions in professional societies. This is a proverbial 'win-win' -  the professional organization benefits from the expertise the MedStar associate brings to the society and MedStar further advances its reputation as a healthcare leader by having people in these professional society leadership roles. As you  know from my prior posts, I serve in a key roles for the American Society of Echo, American Coll of Cardiology, CTTI, and UIDP. I encourage you  to get involved with your relevant professional society and represent MedStar with pride!

Congratulations Joan and thanks for being a great ambassador for MedStar!

The Orange City

I am writing you as I return from the 'Orange City' - want to guess where I am?  

No, not someplace in Florida.  Southern California hanging with the 'Real Housewives' of Orange County....NO, definitely not southern California!!  

I am half way across the world in the City of Oranges in Nagpur, India !!!


While I usually use this blog to share information about MedStar, I could not resist sharing a personal experience with you because it is just too cool....

As I have mentioned before in a prior post, I became the president of my cardiology professional society called the American Society of Echocardiography (more at www.ASEcho.org). As such, I get the honor to represent the organization at other national meetings.

For the last 3 days, I was in Nagpur at 'EchoNagpur' - a annual course run by their national cardiology society. Besides learning alot about diseases we don't see as much (like rheumatic heart disease and a lot of patients with mitral stenosis), I got to meet a lot of new professional friends and try new food.  The hosts took us out to dinner and not only did his wife and children come, so did his mother (very family - centric society).  One of the American woman on the faculty even got a sari and wore it for dinner (see pictures below).




The thing that really is a blast and certainly a 'first' for me is that there were newspaper reporters at this meeting and I ended up in 'The Hitavada', thelargest print newspaper in central India (see article at this link) or below:




Wearable Medical Technology


Image Courtesy of PulsoSocial/Creative Commons
A few month's ago we announced MedStar’s recent partnership with 1776, a platform that serves as a global hub for entrepreneurs and start-up companies tackling major challenges in education, energy, health care, government, and other critical industries.

In a more recent blog post I shared that as a part of the partnership, MedStar played a prominent role in 1776’s annual “Challenge Cup”, an annual global start up competition spanning 16 citites around the world to identify the most promising start-ups tackling the challenges in education, energy, health and cities. To read the full article click here.

1776 recently published a very interesting article on the “Wearable Technology” trend. In the article the CEO of angelMD, discuss the wearable medical technology trend and describe how quickly it is growing. However, they also warn that “Until wearable technology is smart enough to synthesize all of the information included in a thorough history and physical, these devices will fall short of making accurate and safe recommendations.” In other words, right now it is a consumer product but not yet connected to the medical records and doctors but when it is, I think it will be revolutionary.

I also agree with the article when it suggests that the best thing physicians can do to "adapt to this growing trend is to help patients, founders, investors, and companies learn the usefulness and limitation of the devices and their associated data outputs."  That's why I continue to wear my FitBit (and have my Fitbit Fun!)

You can read the full article here: