2004 Medicine for the Public Lectures Cover Latest Developments in Medicine
- Dietary Supplements: What Do You Know? What Should You Know?
- Through the Looking Glass: The Future of Medicine and the Building
of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center
- Evidence-Based Education: Preventing Reading Failure in America
- The Biomechanics of Human Movement: Could Leonardo da Vinci Fly?
- Addiction to Medications: What Are the Risks and Who Is Vulnerable?
- Viruses, Vaccines, and Emerging Health Threats
Medicine for the Public features physician-researchers working
on the frontiers of medical discovery at the National Institutes
of Health. The lecture series, now in its 28th year, helps people
understand the latest developments in medicine with an emphasis
on topics of current relevance presented by speakers who can relate
stories of science to the lay public. The above topics will be covered
in the 2004 series. Sponsored by the NIH Clinical Center, the lectures
are held at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays in the Clinical Center’s Masur
Auditorium, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike,
Building 10, in Bethesda, Maryland. All lectures are free and open
to the public.
October 5, 2004
Dietary Supplements: What Do You Know? What Should You Know?
Paul M. Coates, Ph.D., Director, Office of Dietary Supplements,
National Institutes of Health
Dietary supplements are widely used by the public with more than
100 million Americans taking them. Current knowledge about these
supplements is incomplete. More needs to be done to determine what
they can do and to dispel common misconceptions. Dietary supplements
offer fertile ground for answering such questions as how to assess
the health effects of supplements and whether extracts of biologically-active
substances marketed as supplements like isoflavones and antioxidants
work the same way they do in food. NIH researchers are studying
the many and varied aspects of dietary supplements. Through examples
of dietary supplements such as substances derived from plants, nutrient
ingredients like vitamins, or food components like omega-3 fatty
acids derived from fish, learn what a dietary supplement is, how
it is different from a food or a drug, and who takes them and why.
The regulation and evaluation of diet supplements will be presented.
Hear what is really known about these supplements and equally important,
what is not known about them.
October 12, 2004
Through the Looking Glass: The Future of Medicine and the Building
of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center
John I. Gallin, M.D., Director, Clinical Center, National Institutes
of Health
Robert Frasca, Partner-in-Charge of Design, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca
Partnership
This lecture will explore medical research at the NIH Clinical Center,
the largest clinical research hospital in the world, and the first
to situate research laboratories in close proximity to patient beds.
It will examine how clinical research has changed since the Clinical
Center was built in the 1950s and how those changes led to the building
of the new Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center. Hear, from
the architect's perspective, about the importance of the patient
environment in medical research and how this led to the innovative
design of NIH’s new hospital.
October 19, 2004
Evidence-Based Education: Preventing Reading Failure in America
G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D., Research Psychologist and Chief Child Development
and Behavioral Branch, Center for Research for Mothers and Children,
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Reading proficiency is critical to academic learning and success
in school. Studies show that children who learn to read in the early
grades are more likely to become better students. In the United
States, about 40 percent of children are left behind in reading.
Scientists are researching how children learn to read and why some
children have difficulty reading. Learn about the progress to date
of a comprehensive study that examines children’s reading
abilities during the early years, including the efforts to understand
how to prevent reading failure.
October 26, 2004
The Biomechanics of Human Movement: Could Leonardo da Vinci Fly?
Steven Stanhope, Ph.D., Director, Physical Disabilities Branch,
Rehabilitation Medicine Department, NIH Clinical Center and National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The human body can be thought of as a biolocomotion or living machine
with the power to move from place to place. This movement requires
more than 150 moving parts simultaneously controlled by more than
200 drive systems. If you can walk, you are exerting the force of
those tools. An estimated 35-to-49 million Americans have a disability
that limits their everyday activities and disability-related costs
for healthcare exceed $170 billion. With 23 million of those Americans
mobility-impaired, doctors and therapists are working to grasp the
complex yet elegant process that converts muscular effort into graceful
and highly functional movements. In recent years, the basic principles
of biomechanics — the application of physics and mechanics
to biological problems — have merged with powerful new clinical
movement analysis techniques to provide better ways to assess and
treat children with cerebral palsy, patients suffering the effects
of stroke or traumatic brain injuries, and a host of orthopedic,
arthritic and neurological conditions. Learn about the history of
science and engineering underlying biomechanics and clinical movement
analysis methods. Their value to medicine will be demonstrated through
a series of lively demonstrations and intriguing patient case studies.
November 9, 2004
Addition to Medications: What Are the Risks and Who Is Vulnerable?
Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Most people who take prescriptions medications take them responsibly,
but the non-medical use of these drugs can be dangerous. Non-medical
use of certain prescription drugs can lead to abuse and dependence,
characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and use. According to the
National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 6.2 million
people used prescription medications non-medically in 2002. The
National Institute on Drug Abuse’s annual Monitoring the Future
survey found a staggeringly high increase in reported rates of non-medical
use of two pain medications among 12th graders. One-in-ten high
school seniors took Vicodin® last year, making it the second-most
commonly reported illicit drug used by high school seniors, after
marijuana. This is of great concern because of both the addictive
potential and the serious medical consequences that can result from
overdose with oxycodone- and hydrocodone-based medications, which
include OxyContin® and Vicodin®. Continued research will
help to better understand how these drugs affect the brain and body.
The development of new medications to treat pain with less potential
for abuse and addiction is an area of great promise thanks to recent
scientific advances in the understanding of how drugs of abuse exert
their effects. Hear the latest research findings and learn about
the risks of misusing and abusing prescription drugs, how to better
assist physicians in treatment decisions and in talking with patients
about responsible use of these drugs.
November 16, 2004
Viruses, Vaccines, and Emerging Health Threats
Gary J. Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Vaccine Research Center, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases caused by lethal viruses pose a significant
threat to human health. News about emerging diseases such as the
West Nile virus (WNV), the SARS-associated corona virus and the
Ebola virus is ever present in the media. At the same time, HIV/AIDS
remains a worldwide health threat, with more than 14,000 people
becoming infected each day. Vaccines have the potential to save
millions of lives jeopardized by such deadly microbes. Remarkable
progress is being made in the acceleration of vaccine development
for HIV/AIDS, SARS, smallpox, WNV, and Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic
fevers. Learn about the new technologies for vaccine development,
and how vaccines can be used to protect against emerging infectious
diseases and biodefense threats.
For further information on specific topics or speakers, call 301-496-2563,
or visit the Medicine for the Public website at: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/news/mfp.shtml.
The Clinical Center is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Through clinical research, physicians and scientists translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health. The Clinical Center's new hospital, the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, was dedicated on September 22.
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