More than half a million Americans are treated for burn injuries every year, but many do not have the specific skills necessary to cope with the experience of living with a burn injury after they leave the hospital.

More than 850 burn survivors and their families, firefighters and specialists in burn treatment from across the country are expected to attend the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors’ 21st Annual World Burn Congress to share their experiences and practical advice about how to continue on the road to recovery after severe burn injury. This year’s conference – which has its largest attendance to date – will also include a large group of U.S. servicemen and women who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta will be on hand at the opening ceremony scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27, at 9:00 a.m. at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Ave. and 53rd St. Held for the first time in New York, the three-day conference – Aug. 27 to Aug. 29 – is sponsored by the Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the busiest burn center in the nation; and the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation, a not-for-profit organization of firefighters dedicated to the advancement of burn care, research and prevention. The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors is the largest national non-profit organization serving the burn survivor community.

“The New York City Fire Department is both a benefactor and supporter of the incredible work done by the Phoenix Society,” says Fire Commissioner Scoppetta. “Long after the fire has been extinguished, the Phoenix Society helps burn survivors recover, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.”

Survivors will participate in a wide range of workshops – from how to use cosmetics to improve the appearance of burn injuries to improving your child’s self-esteem after a burn injury. In addition, firefighters and former military personnel will discuss their personal experiences with burn injury in the line of duty. Additional speakers include CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who will discuss her recovery from injuries sustained while on assignment in Baghdad, and J.R. Martinez, an actor on the long-running ABC soap opera “All My Children” and Iraq War veteran.

“When burn patients arrive on our unit they are victims, but as they receive treatment and understand the resources and community available to them, they become survivors. We are proud to sponsor an event that supports our patients’ life-long healing process,” says Dr. Roger Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

“We are committed to ensuring that every burn survivor and their loved ones have the necessary support and resources they need to recover and live their lives,” says Amy Acton, executive director of the Phoenix Society.

World Burn Congress Speakers and Workshops

Thursday, August 27

Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report and Survive the War in Iraq
10:00 a.m. – CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier discusses being injured while reporting from the Middle East

Creative Cosmetics and Color Analysis Consultations
1:45 p.m. – Survivors with facial burns learn how to enhance their appearance with creative make-up techniques

Bringing Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves
1:45 p.m. – Parents of burn victims guide their peers to gain a better understanding of how burn injury can impact a family

In the Line of Duty: Stories of Those Who Serve
3:15 p.m. – Panel of firefighters and an American soldier will discuss the impact of their injury on career and family
o J.R. Martinez, actor on All My Children (ABC) and Iraq War veteran, shares his personal journey to recovery

Friday, August 28

The Media and Burn Community’s Voice in Prevention
9:00 a.m. – Amy Acton, executive director of the Phoenix Society, and Dr. Roger Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center, moderate a panel discussion on utilizing the media to spread fire-prevention messages (with a special appearance by Bill Ritter, WABC-7 news anchor and the host of “Operation 7: Save a Life”)

Saturday, August 29

Coming Through Fire
9:00 a.m. – Kim Phuc Phan Thai, famously photographed running down a Vietnamese street with her skin on fire during the Vietnam War, speaks out about living with a severe burn injury

Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors

The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors is the largest national non-profit serving the burn survivor community. Its mission is to empower anyone affected by a burn injury through peer support, education and advocacy. The Phoenix Society is a community committed to the vision of ensuring that every burn survivor and their loved ones have the necessary support and resources on the road to recovery. For more than 30 years the Phoenix Society has worked with survivors, families, health care professionals, burn centers, the fire industry and donors to support burn recovery, improve the quality of burn care, and prevent burn injury. The Phoenix Society’s World Burn Congress is an annual international conference for burn survivors, their families and caregivers, burn care and health care professionals, first responders and others involved in the burn recovery process. The conference includes educational and support programs that provide attendees with comprehensive information and resources to increase knowledge of burn recovery.

William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

The William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, founded in 1976, was the first full-service burn center in the New York area and is now one of the busiest burn centers in the world. The Hearst Burn Center treats more than 900 inpatients and 5,000 outpatients every year – including 1,000 children. Patients receive the most sophisticated burn treatment currently available. The 40-bed unit includes a state-of-the art hyperbaric oxygen chamber as well as the only comprehensive skin bank in New York state. The unit is staffed by a team of surgeons, therapists, dietitians, nurses and social workers, all of whom are dedicated to providing comprehensive treatment for the three phases of burn-injury care: burn shock, wound care and surgery, and rehabilitation and reconstruction. Since its inception, the unit has maintained close ties with the New York City Fire Department. The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation played an instrumental role in establishing the Hearst Burn Center and continues to work closely with the Center to educate the public on fire hazards and prevention.

New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation

The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation is a non-profit organization of firefighters founded in 1975, dedicated to the advancement of burn care, research, prevention, education, and the proper treatment of burns. The Foundation’s goal is to make quality burn care available to all who are seriously burned, regardless of age, race, creed or economic status. Firefighters and members of the Burn Team have a special empathy for burn victims. No other group witnesses more of the devastation that fire wreaks on the human body. During the Vietnam War, two New York City firefighters, Joe Hickey and Jack Meara, were deeply moved by a news photograph of two Vietnamese children who had been severely burned by napalm. They wanted to help these youngsters. They thought that with a little help from friends they might be able to bring these children to New York for treatment. They then discovered, to their surprise, that there were no medical facilities in the New York area devoted exclusively to the treatment of burns. While hospitals coped with burn victims as well as they could, there were none that specialized in the treatment of severe burn injuries. Alarmed by their findings, the firefighters decided to do something about the situation. As other firefighters joined in their efforts they began working with physicians and other concerned citizens, and were eventually instrumental in the establishment of the Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances – including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer; the synthesis of penicillin; the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S.; the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease; the first indication of bone marrow’s critical role in tumor growth; and, most recently, the world’s first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree overseas and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar.

Source:
Kathleen Robinson

New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College

In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky, gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit mobility.

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, wants to change that.

Newman is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather’s spacesuit-think more Spiderman, less John Glenn.

Traditional bulky spacesuits “do not afford the mobility and locomotion capability that astronauts need for partial gravity exploration missions. We really must design for greater mobility and enhanced human and robotic capability,” Newman says.

Newman, her colleague Jeff Hoffman, her students and a local design firm, Trotti and Associates, have been working on the project for about seven years. Their prototypes are not yet ready for space travel, but demonstrate what they’re trying to achieve-a lightweight, skintight suit that will allow astronauts to become truly mobile lunar and Mars explorers.

Newman anticipates that the BioSuit could be ready by the time humans are ready to launch an expedition to Mars, possibly in about 10 years. Current spacesuits could not handle the challenges of such an exploratory mission, Newman says.

A NEW APPROACH

Newman’s prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut’s body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Over the past 40 years, spacesuits have gotten progressively heavier, and they now weigh in at about 300 pounds. That bulk — much of which is due to multiple layers and the life support system coupled with the gas-pressurization — severely constrains astronauts’ movements. About 70 to 80 percent of the energy they exert while wearing the suit goes towards simply working against the suit to bend it.

“You can’t do much bending of the arms or legs in that type of suit,” Newman says.

When an astronaut is in a micro-gravity environment (for example, doing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station), working in such a massive suit is manageable, but, as Newman says, “It’s a whole different ballgame when we go to the moon or Mars, and we have to go back to walking and running, or loping.”

Another advantage to her BioSuit is safety: if a traditional spacesuit is punctured by a tiny meteorite or other object, the astronaut must return to the space station or home base immediately, before life-threatening decompression occurs. With the BioSuit, a small, isolated puncture can be wrapped much like a bandage, and the rest of the suit will be unaffected.

Newman says the finished BioSuit may be a hybrid that incorporates some elements of the traditional suits, including a gas-pressured torso section and helmet. An oxygen tank can be attached to the back.

The MIT researchers are focusing on the legs and arms, which are challenging parts to design. In the Man-Vehicle Lab at MIT, students test various wrapping techniques, based on 3D models they’ve created of the human in motion and how the skin stretches during locomotion, bending, climbing or driving a rover.

Key to their design is the pattern of lines on the suit, which correspond to lines of non-extension (lines on the skin that don’t extend when you move your leg). Those lines provide a stiff “skeleton” of structural support, while providing maximal mobility.

To be worn in space, the BioSuit must deliver close to one-third the pressure exerted by Earth’s atmosphere, or about 30 kPa (kilopascals). The current prototype suit exerts about 20 KPa consistently, and the researchers have gotten new models up to 25 to 30 KPa.

STAYING IN SHAPE

The suits could also help astronauts stay fit during the six-month journey to Mars. Studies have shown that astronauts lose up to 40 percent of their muscle strength in space, but the new outfits could be designed to offer varying resistance levels, allowing the astronauts to exercise against the suits during a long flight to Mars.

Although getting the suits into space is the ultimate goal, Newman is also focusing on Earth-bound applications in the short term, such as athletic training or helping people walk.

The new BioSuit builds on ideas developed in the 1960s and 1970s by Paul Webb, who first came up with the concept for a “space activity suit,” and Saul Iberall, who postulated the lines of non-extension. However, neither the technology nor the materials were available then.

“Dr. Webb had a great idea, before its time. We’re building on that work to try to make it feasible,” says Newman.

###

The project was initially funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.

Anne Trafton, MIT News Office

Source: Elizabeth Thomson

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A six-person relay team from the physical therapy department at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in St. Augustine, FL, successfully swam the English Channel on Friday, August 14, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

Led and coached by APTA member and physical therapy student Teresa Sebastian of Pineville, LA, the team completed the swim in 15 hours and 22 minutes. Others on the team were faculty members Jeff Rot, PT, DHSc, OCS, FAAOMPT, from Oswego, IL, and Rob Stanborough, PT, DPT, MHSc, MTC, from St. Augustine, FL; University alumni, Dennis Conlon, PT, MPT, of Ann Arbor, MI, and Linda Kuligowski, PT, of Lockport, NY; and University Advisory Board member Rex Painter, DDS, of St. Augustine, FL. Sebastian, who is pursuing her doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree, said the Channel swim has brought the school closer together. “I never went one day without someone asking me how training was going,” she said.

A competitive swimmer and coach, Sebastian said, “I started swimming competitively when I was seven years old and organized our swim team for a fundraiser in which we pretended to swim the English Channel. I never imagined that I would actually live that dream twenty years later.”

University founder and physical therapist Stanley V. Paris PT, PhD, FAPTA, served as the team’s manager. Paris, age 72, successfully swam the Channel a week earlier on August 6 as part of a four-person relay team. He also attempted a solo swim on August 18, but was forced to end his attempt due to severe leg cramps. Paris completed two successful solo Channel swims and one successful relay swim in the 1980s.

The team credits Paris with their success. “Dr. Paris’ knowledge as a physical therapist and his expertise in cold-water/channel training has made the difference between our success and failure,” Sebastian said. According to Paris, “They all return home as heroes having completed an outstanding performance for the team, the University, and for themselves.”

Team training has included swimming in cold water springs, open ocean swims, and cold showers and baths. “We tried to simulate Channel conditions as best we could,” Sebastian explained. “But I have to say that I’m really looking forward to taking a hot shower again.”

Sebastian, who expects to graduate in May 2011, says her education as a physical therapist helped her become a more efficient swimmer. “I now have a better understanding of how the muscles and joints in my body work and am able to engage my muscles in specific ways to make my stroke more efficient,” she explained.

Physical therapists are highly educated, licensed health care professionals who can help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility – in many cases without expensive surgery or the side effects of prescription medications. APTA represents more than 72,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students of physical therapy nationwide. Its purpose is to improve the health and quality of life of individuals through the advancement of physical therapist practice, education, and research. In most states, patients can make an appointment directly with a physical therapist, without a physician referral. Learn more about conditions physical therapists can treat and find a physical therapist in your area at moveforwardpt.

Source
American Physical Therapy Association

A torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is among an athlete’s most-dreaded injuries, often requiring surgery and months of rehab, as has been the case with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

While being tackled in football or hurtling into an embankment on an icy ski course can tear this major knee ligament, most athletes actually “do themselves in”–they don’t collide with a person or object, they end up injuring themselves when they land off-balance during a jump or run.

But why?

In a first-ever study of its kind, University of Delaware scientists have shown that differences in brain function may be to blame, predisposing some of us to “noncontact” knee injuries.

The research, which involved scientists from UD, Michigan State University, West Chester University and St. Joseph’s University, is reported in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

“We had some data from previous research which suggested that these noncontact knee injuries occur when a person gets distracted or is ‘caught off guard,’” Charles Buz Swanik, the UD assistant professor of health sciences who led the study, said. These awkward movements have the biomechanical appearance of a knee buckling, but can be reproduced safely in the lab to study how people mentally prepare and react to unanticipated events.

“This made me wonder if we could measure whether these individuals had different mental characteristics that made them injury-prone,” Swanik said.

To identify subjects for their study, the researchers administered neurocognitive tests to nearly 1,500 athletes at 18 universities during the preseason. This testing also provided baseline data for athletes who might sustain a concussion after the season started, Swanik said.

Visual memory, verbal memory, processing speed, and reaction time all were assessed.

For example, a color-matching test was used to measure reaction time and processing speed. Each athlete was asked to click in a box as quickly as possible only if the word “red” was displayed on the computer screen in a red color, not if the word appeared in the color green or blue.

After the season started, a number of the tested athletes ended up sustaining noncontact ACL injuries. These athletes were identified, and 80 of them were matched up to a control group of 80 noninjured athletes according to height, weight, age, gender, sport, position and years of experience at the college level.

Male and female athletes in 10 intercollegiate sports were represented, including football, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, field hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, fencing and softball.

Then the preseason test results from the two groups of athletes were compared.

In analyzing the data, the scientists found that the athletes who ended up with noncontact ACL injuries demonstrated significantly slower reaction time and processing speed and performed worse on visual and verbal memory tests when compared to the control group.

“These results suggest that slower processing speed and reaction time, as well as lower visual and verbal memory performance may predispose certain individuals to errors in coordination during physical activity that can lead to injury,” Swanik said.

But can we do anything to improve our brain function and protect ourselves from injury”

“This study means that there may be an alternative application for neurocognitive testing in the area of injury prevention,” Swanik noted. “It’s hard to say at this point how much we can alter these characteristics with training, but certainly the brain has great potential for learning and adaptation. Controlling stress and anxiety must be considered, as both cause changes in muscle tone and concentration and the narrowing of our attentional field,” he said.

“There is likely an optimal state of arousal for each individual to maximize performance and injury avoidance, but future studies will have to determine the relationship between our results and anxiety,” Swanik added.

A follow-up study is now under way in UD’s state-of-the-art Human Performance Laboratory with support from the University of Delaware Research Foundation.

“We’re trying to identify people who are or are not ‘caught off guard’ during different landing tasks,” Swanik said. “Then we’d like to match the neurocognitive characteristics of people who are easily distracted or have awkward landings. This would allow us to search for injury-prone or perhaps accident-resistant people.”

So what light might this study shed on Donovan McNabb’s ACL injury in that ill-fated game with the Tennessee Titans last November”

“It’s a challenge to explain how such a highly conditioned, muscular and coordinated athlete is injured, unless we consider that he was momentarily distracted the instant before his foot contacted the ground, resulting in an awkward landing,” Swanik said.

But McNabb is not alone. An estimated 200,000 anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur annually in the United States, mostly in young, healthy, active individuals.

According to Swanik, it is not uncommon to have one or two ACL injuries every season on a football team, and the incidence is likely even greater on women’s sports teams.

“Young women are actually at the highest risk for these injuries, particularly in soccer and basketball,” Swanik said.

###

Source: Tracey Bryant

University of Delaware

The American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Board of Directors and senior staff teamed up today with Rebuilding Together Alexandria, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates the homes of low-income homeowners, to conduct home repairs for a 92-year-old resident in Old Town.

“This is a great opportunity for our organization to give back to the community,” said APTA CEO John D. Barnes. “Though Old Town is recognized for its historic architecture, unique shops, and plentiful restaurants, there are many residents who cannot afford to perform basic home repairs.”

Repairs scheduled to be completed include securing an inside stair railing; leveling front and back doors; painting a bedroom; installing a grab bar, tub seat, toilet seat, smoke detectors/COВІ detector, and a window air conditioning unit; and removing trash.

Rebuilding Together Alexandria will donate supplies and gloves. APTA will make a donation to the organization to cover the cost of supplies that will be used during the project.

The effort is being done in conjunction with the annual retreat of APTA’s Board and senior staff, during which current issues in the physical therapy profession are discussed.

Physical therapists are highly-educated, licensed health care professionals who can help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility – in many cases without expensive surgery or the side effects of prescription medications. APTA represents more than 72,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students of physical therapy nationwide. Its purpose is to improve the health and quality of life of individuals through the advancement of physical therapist practice, education, and research. In most states, patients can make an appointment directly with a physical therapist, without a physician referral. Learn more about conditions physical therapists can treat and find a physical therapist in your area at moveforwardpt.

Source
American Physical Therapy Association

Patients are leaving hospitals quicker these days, continuing treatment and recovery — often with the aid of medical devices — at home. As a result, the government and home care industry together must work toward providing a safe environment for the use of medical devices in the home.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the University of Houston are addressing this issue at an FDA conference — “Home Health Care Technology: Promoting the Safe Migration of Medical Devices into the Home” — cosponsored by UH Sept. 17-18 at the Hilton UH Hotel and Conference Center. Those wishing to attend should register at uh.edu/pharmacy/hht/. The fee is $99 for the two-day event, featuring a variety of presentations, panels and breakout sessions. Continuing Education Units are expected to be offered and are currently under consideration.

Both prescription and over-the-counter medical devices are regulated by the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). Much of the challenge lies in safely operating medical devices in the home that were initially approved for use in a clinical setting by health care professionals.

“As the U.S. population ages, home health care will grow by leaps and bounds. The technology, entertainment, communication and finance sectors are combining their efforts to create products that allow elders to continue living in their homes,” said Isaac D. Montoya, clinical professor in the UH College of Pharmacy and the conference moderator. “Home health care and the medical devices needed to sustain it provide a welcome respite for patients and their care providers who want to benefit from safe medical treatment in a home environment. As this phenomenon continues to grow, however, the FDA, industry and home care interest groups may need to better collaborate to assure the safety of products for home use.”

Another area examined will be ‘vulnerable populations,’ such as the very young and the elderly, as well as those patients with complex birth defects, chronic diseases and terminal illnesses. Included in these various subgroups are disabled children with multi-symptom diseases (i.e. cerebral palsy) who require a multidisciplinary approach; elderly people with problems such as poor vision, hearing loss, physical weakness and cognitive impairments that limit their independence and ability to properly use devices; patients from different ethnic backgrounds who may have communication problems or cultural blocks to understanding device technology; and the chronically ill from rural areas, low-income families or foster care with few outreach services and transportation options.

“Attendees will be able to talk directly with government officials, affording participants an opportunity to influence government policy,” said Mary Brady, CDRH Home Healthcare Committee and conference chair. “This conference is a unique opportunity and should not be missed.”

Additional topics to be covered include respiratory therapy for patients with disorders such as sleep apnea and chronic lung problems; risk management in the home of issues that address human error (i.e. misuse of equipment) and environmental (i.e. electromagnetic interference) factors; the need for updating durable medical equipment (i.e. walkers, wheel chairs, hospital beds) that do not require FDA regulation; creating a device-labeling repository that would provide easy online access to device instructions; and the evolution of over-the-counter devices such as cholesterol meters and continuous glucose monitors that were once “for professional use only” and now approved for home consumer use. Accreditation, reimbursement, nursing practices, infusion therapy and governmental roles also will be discussed.

The conference is designed to benefit institutional officials, medical personnel with an interest in home health care and patient advocates, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. Home health care technology experts will give presentations in multiple plenary and general sessions that will follow a technology, governmental or clinical track for specific device groups.

###

For conference information, including agenda, registration materials and hotel information, visit uh.edu/pharmacy/hht/.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

About the Food and Drug Administration

FDA is an agency with the Department of Health and Human Services and consists of eight centers/offices. These are the, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Office of Regulatory Affairs, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the National Center for Toxicological Research and the Office of the Commissioner.

About the UH College of Pharmacy

For more than 50 years, the University of Houston College of Pharmacy has shaped aspiring pharmacists, scientists and teachers. The college offers a Pharm. D. degree, a master’s in pharmacy administration, a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics or pharmacology and combined Pharm.D./Ph.D. degrees. As one of nearly 90 pharmacy colleges in the United States recognized by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the college consists of more than 45 basic science and clinical faculty, nearly 610 adjunct faculty and preceptors and 900 current pre-pharmacy and professional students. The college has facilities both on the UH campus and in the Texas Medical Center. At TMC, students have the opportunity to train with physicians, medical students and members of UH clinical faculty. In addition to faculty and staff offices, the TMC facility also houses research laboratories, classrooms and the Contemporary Pharmacy Practice Laboratory.

For more information about UH, visit the university’s Newsroom at uh.edu/newsroom.

Source: Lisa Merkl

University of Houston

More than half a million Americans are treated for burn injuries every year, but many do not have the specific skills necessary to cope with the experience of living with a burn injury after they leave the hospital.

More than 850 burn survivors and their families, firefighters and specialists in burn treatment from across the country are expected to attend the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors’ 21st Annual World Burn Congress to share their experiences and practical advice about how to continue on the road to recovery after severe burn injury. This year’s conference — which has its largest attendance to date — will also include a large group of U.S. servicemen and women who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta will be on hand at the opening ceremony scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27, at 9:00 a.m. at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Ave. and 53rd St. Held for the first time in New York, the three-day conference — Aug. 27 to Aug. 29 — is sponsored by the Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the busiest burn center in the nation; and the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation, a not-for-profit organization of firefighters dedicated to the advancement of burn care, research and prevention. The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors is the largest national non-profit organization serving the burn survivor community.

“The New York City Fire Department is both a benefactor and supporter of the incredible work done by the Phoenix Society,” says Fire Commissioner Scoppetta. “Long after the fire has been extinguished, the Phoenix Society helps burn survivors recover, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.”

Survivors will participate in a wide range of workshops — from how to use cosmetics to improve the appearance of burn injuries to improving your child’s self-esteem after a burn injury. In addition, firefighters and former military personnel will discuss their personal experiences with burn injury in the line of duty. Additional speakers include CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who will discuss her recovery from injuries sustained while on assignment in Baghdad, and J.R. Martinez, an actor on the long-running ABC soap opera “All My Children” and Iraq War veteran.

“When burn patients arrive on our unit they are victims, but as they receive treatment and understand the resources and community available to them, they become survivors. We are proud to sponsor an event that supports our patients’ life-long healing process,” says Dr. Roger Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

“We are committed to ensuring that every burn survivor and their loved ones have the necessary support and resources they need to recover and live their lives,” says Amy Acton, executive director of the Phoenix Society.

World Burn Congress Speakers and Workshops

Thursday, August 27
* Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report and Survive the War in Iraq
10:00 a.m. — CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier discusses being injured while reporting from the Middle East

* Creative Cosmetics and Color Analysis Consultations
1:45 p.m. — Survivors with facial burns learn how to enhance their appearance with creative make-up techniques

* Bringing Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves
1:45 p.m. — Parents of burn victims guide their peers to gain a better understanding of how burn injury can impact a family

* In the Line of Duty: Stories of Those Who Serve
3:15 p.m. — Panel of firefighters and an American soldier will discuss the impact of their injury on career and family
o J.R. Martinez, actor on All My Children (ABC) and Iraq War veteran, shares his personal journey to recovery

Friday, August 28
* The Media and Burn Community’s Voice in Prevention
9:00 a.m. — Amy Acton, executive director of the Phoenix Society, and Dr. Roger Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center, moderate a panel discussion on utilizing the media to spread fire-prevention messages (with a special appearance by Bill Ritter, WABC-7 news anchor and the host of “Operation 7: Save a Life”)

Saturday, August 29
* Coming Through Fire
9:00 a.m. – Kim Phuc Phan Thai, famously photographed running down a Vietnamese street with her skin on fire during the Vietnam War, speaks out about living with a severe burn injury

Source
Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors

Disability pay for injured veterans varies widely from state to state, according to a new study conducted by the Institute for Defense Analysis, the AP/Arizona Daily Star reports. The 50-page report, which is the first to examine scientifically the cause of variance in veteran disability pay, was made available to the Associated Press. The examination was launched after reports in 2005 showed wide disparities in payments to veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study was conducted over a period of about 18 months.

The study found that average annual disability payments varied from $7,556 in Ohio to $12,395 in New Mexico. The nationwide average was $8,890, according to the study. The study found that about one-third of disparities in disability payments could be attributed to poor agency standards and inadequate training. The VA has in the past mostly attributed the problems to factors outside of its control, such as the number of Vietman veterans in a state — who on average receive higher payments — and whether a veteran had legal assistance while making a claim. As a result of poor standards and training, VA regional offices often had too much authority and discretion over how much pay a veteran received, the study found. The study also reached several other conclusions:
Post-traumatic stress disorder claims accounted for the highest disability pay, averaging $20,000 annually to more than 200,000 veterans;

Veterans who receive legal help or aid from advocacy groups received on average $11,162, compared with $4,728 for those who had none;

About two-thirds of veterans received advocacy help, with the highest representation in North Dakota, at 81.9%, and the lowest in Maryland, with 44.8%;

Vietnam veterans received annual compensation of $11,670, compared with $7,410 for veterans of other wars; and

Veterans of the Gulf War received the lowest average payments of $6,506 per year (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 7/20).

“Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

UroToday – Myofascial Physical Therapy Shows Promise in Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndromes (UCPPS). Estimates of the national prevalence of the urologic chronic pelvic pain syndromes (bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis and chronic prostatitis NIH type IIIA/IIIB) vary between 0.2% and 3.4% of the population.

On examination, tension and tenderness of the pelvic floor musculature and other somatic tissues are commonly present. It is thought that these myofascial abnormalities contribute significantly to the pain of UCPPS. It is not known whether these musculoskeletal abnormalities are a consequence of lower urinary tract symptoms or are a primary disorder which gives rise to secondary urinary symptoms.

Frequently found abnormalities include myofascial trigger points defined as taut bands or tender nodules that evoke twitch responses or reproduce the character and location of symptoms during careful physical palpation.

Mary Pat FitzGerald and the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network (UPPCRN) of the National Institute of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Disorders designed a randomized, single-blind clinical trial in which 8 participants each were to be recruited by a subset of 6 of the UPPCRN clinical centers for a total sample size of 48. Eligible patients were randomized to myofascial physical therapy or global therapeutic massage and were scheduled to receive up to 10 weekly treatments of 1 hour each. Criteria to assess feasibility included adherence of therapists to prescribed therapeutic protocol as determined by records of treatment, adverse events, and rate of response to therapy as determined by the patient global response assessment (GRA).

The overall GRA response – moderately or markedly improved – was 57% in the physical therapy group and 21% in the massage group. Of interest, a difference between treatment arms was present only in the interstitial cystitis subjects. Global massage was effective for both groups of patients, but only myofascial physical therapy was effective for BPS/IC.

This is the first published randomized trial comparing myofascial physical therapy with global therapeutic massage for urologic chronic pelvic pain. The centers succeeded in showing that such a trial is feasible and worthy of repeating on a larger scale to better define possible benefits of these therapies. Such a study is now in its final stages in 11 UPPCRN centers and should yield important data in the next year.

Fitzgerald MP, Anderson RU, Potts J, Payne CK, Peters KM, Clemens JQ, Kotarinos R, Fraser L, Cosby A, Fortman C, Neville C, Badillo S, Odabachian L, Sanfield A, O’Dougherty B, Halle-Podell R, Cen L, Chuai S, Landis JR, Mickelberg K, Barrell T, Kusek JW, Nyberg LM
J Urol. 2009 Aug;182(2):570-80
doi:10.1016/j.juro.2009.04.022

UroToday Contributing Editor Philip M. Hanno, MD, MPH

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The American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has awarded specialist certification to 828 physical therapists this year. To date 7,573 physical therapists have achieved board certification since 1985. Those who were recognized recently completed the requirements to become Board-certified specialists in one or more of the following specialty areas: Cardiovascular & Pulmonary, Clinical Electrophysiology, Geriatrics, Neurology, Orthopaedics, Pediatrics, and Sports Physical Therapy.

“Clinical specialists, as a community of practice, are a vital resource and have a critical leadership role in identifying the profession’s public mission and moral responsibility for improved health care in the United States,” said Gail Jensen, PT, PhD, keynote speaker at the Opening Ceremony for the Recognition of Clinical Specialists at the APTA 2007 Combined Sections Meeting. According to Jensen, “Clinical specialists have a vital role leading the way for the profession. They are responsible for shaping the next generation of clinicians who learn much about physical therapist practice from their clinical instructors and clinical specialists, who provide the important social and clinical context for practice.”

To obtain Board certification, candidates must submit evidence of required clinical practice in a specialty area. In addition, candidates must successfully complete a rigorous written examination, demonstrating specialized knowledge and advanced clinical proficiency in a specialty area of physical therapist practice.

Physical therapists are health care professionals who diagnose and manage individuals of all ages, from newborns to elders, who have medical problems or other health-related conditions that limit their abilities to move and perform functional activities in their daily lives. Physical therapists examine each individual and develop a plan of care using treatment techniques to promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability. Physical therapists also work with individuals to prevent the loss of mobility by developing fitness- and wellness-oriented programs for healthier and more active lifestyles.

The American Physical Therapy Association is a national organization representing nearly 70,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and students nationwide. Its goal is to foster advancements in physical therapist education, practice, and research. Consumers can access the Online Directory of Certified Clinical Specialists in Physical Therapy to locate a board-certified clinical specialist. Additional consumer information is available at apta/consumer

American Physical Therapy Association