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Events – Jul 2017

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U of L Medical Students Raise Funds for International Service Learning Trips

LOUISVILLE The Fourth Annual Golfing Fore Global Health outing, presented by Stock Yards Bank and the U of L School of Medicine (ULSOM) was April 10, 2017 at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Prospect, Ky. Nineteen teams played. All proceeds are used to purchase medical supplies and referrals and provide humanitarian aid for rural clinics supported by the ULSOM’s Global Health fund.

Bethany Hodge, MD, MPH, is the director of the Global Education Office at ULSOM. Hodge came to U of L in 2012 and became involved in the global health activities. Over the past five years, she recreated the curriculum surrounding the service learning trips and developed the distinction in global health track, which is one of four selective academic tracks at the university, and formed the Global Education Office for the School of Medicine. Currently there are about 40 students who travel for international health experiences every year. Many go between their first and second year of medical school as service learning groups.

According to Hodge, family medicine practitioner Dr. Steve Wheeler leads a team associated with a Louisville church to Brazil, seeing patients as they travel down the Amazon River. An elite team of students fluent in Spanish imbeds in a hospital in Nicaragua for a month, learning from local professionals. Several others set up their own learning experiences in places like Cuba and Peru. All of these students receive guidance to prepare, training on specific skills they might need, and exposure to the ethics and complications of working internationally.

“We do pop up clinics’ partnered with local non-governmental organizations in rural places in Tanzania and Ecuador,” says Hodge. Between these two trips, students will see about 2000 patients free of charge.

Hodge typically travels with one or two of the groups each summer as well. “Being on the ground, in the moment with the students, having these big experiences and new insights into medicine is my favorite part of my job. We see patients all day and then I am usually debriefing or giving lectures over dinner at night, so that these are really active learning times. We also live in close quarters and really get to know each other. I love seeing the students create relationships with each other and the local people we work with in these countries. We always have some adventures and misadventures along the way as well,” says Hodge.

Hodge’s hope is that these service learning experiences stick with the students and influence the kinds of doctors they become. Not that they all do primary care or continue to travel, she says, but that they continue to value working with every patient who comes to see them, learning about their patients’ language and cultures to better understand them, and being conscious of how things like poverty and access to care affect people’s opportunities to be healthy.

Hall of Famer Visits Saint Joseph

LEXINGTON NFL Hall of Famer and former Pittsburg Steeler Jerome Bettis made a visit to patients at Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington on April 26 to talk about arthritis of the hip and knee and his personal experience with joint pain as a result of his professional football career.

Tharun Karthikeyan, MD, orthopedic surgeon with Lexington Clinic and director of the total hip and knee replacement surgical program at Saint Joseph Hospital rounded patients with Bettis and later spoke at a seminar for patients regarding surgical and non-surgical alternatives for knee and hip replacements.

Maternity Fair Connects Patients with Doctors and Providers

LEXINGTON The Women’s Hospital at Saint Joseph East, part of KentuckyOne Health, hosted its 18th annual Maternity Fair on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at the Marriott Griffin Gate. The event included interactive panel discussions with OB/GYN physicians, pediatricians, and other maternity and pediatric providers.

“Each year, the Maternity Fair helps more and more women learn about resources that are available to them during pregnancy,” said Dana Brundon BSN, RN, director of Surgical and Women’s Services at Saint Joseph East. “We look forward to helping families prepare for the addition of a new child.”

Lexington Shriners Medical Center Opens with Dedication Ceremony

LEXINGTON A dedication ceremony for the new Lexington Shriners Medical Center was held on Sunday, May 21, at 1:00 pm. More than 1,500 patients, medical center staff, Shriners, civic leaders, and donors attended to dedicate the new facility that is home to 13,000 pediatric orthopedic children and teens. Shriners Hospital for Children Medical Center in Lexington serves a five-state area including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Lexington OB/GYN Society Hears about Female Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder Treatment

LEXINGTON Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) was first characterized in medical literature in 1977, said Lee Shulman, MD, of the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University at the monthly meeting of the Lexington OB/GYN Society on Thursday, June 8. “HSDD remains a core component of female sexual arousal disorder,” he said. Shulman presented his findings to the Society.

According to Shulman, acquired HSDD develops in women who previously had no problem in sexual desire regardless of the type of stimulation, situation, or partner. Multiple factors interact to affect female sexual response including physical health, neurobiology, endocrine function, and psychology, which manifests in depression or performance anxiety.

“Sexual function is linked to both psychological and neurobiological factors,” said Shulman. MRI studies of women with HSDD have shown “less activation in areas of the brain that normally respond to sexual cues relative to women without HSDD.”

One significant area of concern said Shulman, is that HSDD is not commonly discussed with primary care providers. Studies show that 54 percent of premenopausal women are unaware that HSDD is treatable and 73 percent of women do not talk with their PCP about their HSDD, typically because of a perceived lack of effective therapies and time constraints on the PCP.