'Medicine for the Public' Enters 23rd Season
The 1999 Medicine for the Public lecture series sponsored by the Clinical Center opens Tuesday, Oct. 5. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be presented at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays during October in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10.
The series, now in its 23rd year, features physician-scientists working at the forefront of medical research. It helps people understand the latest developments in medicine — new therapies, diagnostic procedures and research.
This year's lectures include:
Oct. 5 Exercise for the Elderly:
Have We Discovered the
Fountain of Youth?
By the year 2030, the fastest growing segment
of our population will be those over 85 years of age. Seventy million
Americans will be over 65. Dr. Lynn Gerber, chief of the CC
rehabilitation medicine department, will explain how research is
showing that exercise holds an important key to staying healthy and
active as we age.
Oct. 12 New Directions for Organ and Tissue Transplantation
Dr. Allan D. Kirk, chief of NIDDK's transplantation section, will
explain how diabetes, renal failure and other end-stage organ
diseases can be treated more successfully by immunologic strategies
that make the body believe that the transplanted tissues are its own.
He will explore new methods to prevent the rejection of transplanted
organs and tissues, and the development of new drugs or techniques
that may improve the success of organ and tissue transplants.
Oct. 19 Blood Transfusion at the Millennium
Blood transfusion
has changed dramatically during the last quarter of a century. Many
of the early risks — hepatitis, incompatibility and limited
storage and supply — have been all but eliminated in
industrial societies. This is not the case in much of the developing
world. Dr. Harvey Klein, chief of the CC department of transfusion
medicine, will discuss new and interesting challenges that now
involve inactivation of infectious agents in blood, production of
substitutes for human blood, and collection of novel blood
components for the immunotherapy of cancer and infectious agents,
and for such promising new approaches as gene therapy.
Oct. 26 Heart Attack: Rapid Diagnosis Using
Magnetic
Resonance Imaging
When a heart attack is suspected, quick and
accurate diagnosis is essential so that treatment can begin
immediately. Innovations in imaging technology can significantly
speed that process in hard-to-confirm cases. Dr. Robert Balaban,
chief of the Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, NHLBI, will discuss
how scientists are using sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging to
detect heart attack and heart disease in emergency-room patients.
For more information call 496-2563. Lecture details are on the Web at http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/99mfp/series.html
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