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The Ministry of Health has published a series of changes in medical equipment imports to Israel. The main changes will shorten registration times for most medical equipment already approved for sale overseas. The Ministry of Health and its Department of Medical Device (MDM) will focus on registration, regulation, and licensing of new equipment, to encourage the registration of medical equipment developed by Israelis, with the Ministry of Health as the primary regulator, thus encouraging R&D innovation in Israel.
This is the third significant step announced by the Ministry of Health this month, in addition to significant changes in cannabis and food import regulation. Here too, the approach is to lower regulatory barriers and transfer responsibility to the companies as much as possible.
In Israel’s biomed sector, there were calls for similar treatment for medical equipment, and generic and innovative drugs, seeking similar registration procedures based on Declarations of Foreign Manufacture for products already approved for marketing by respected regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US or the European Medicines Agency. For the time being, the change only applies to medical equipment.
Products will be divided into categories. Category 1 products can now be marketed in Israel with only a Declaration of Foreign Manufacture. Among these are wheelchairs, rehabilitation equipment, medical pads, and syringes. These products make up about 40% of all the medical equipment registered and marketed in Israel.
Category 2 comprises low-to-medium risk products. These will be registered partly on the basis of a Declaration, and partly through a shortened 60-day licensing procedure, provided they are registered with the FDA and marketed in the US. They are mainly minimally invasive, not implantable products.
Category 3 products are those defined as high-risk, for example stents or other implants. These will be approved using the same procedure that has been in effect until now.
Changes to a product will automatically be accepted in the Declaration after having received approval in Europe and the US, unless the changes are material. The question of what constitutes a material change will be determined in accordance with EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) guidance.
Implementation of these new criteria is dependent on processes at the Ministry of Health, such as a computer system upgrade, and outsourcing of services to provide a comprehensive solution for the registration procedure and a marketing monitoring mechanism that will include supervision and enforcement.
About NIS 90 million in savings
The Ministry of Health estimates that, as a result of these changes, prices of medical equipment will decrease and save Israel’s economy approximately NIS 90 million, and that the entry of the new devices into Israel will be faster. Israel’s medical equipment market is estimated at approximately NIS 9 billion per year, and the estimate of savings assumes that regulatory expenses constitute approximately 5% of total costs, and that the changes will offer a saving of 20% on these expenses.
Minister of Health Moshe Arbel said: "The MDM reform will facilitate the import of medical equipment, help increase supply for consumers, and lower costs. The Ministry of Health will continue to work to reduce regulation in every area where it is possible to do so."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 21, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.
SEATTLE, Wash. (WNDU) - Studies have shown that organ transplant candidates and recipients have up to four times increased risk of developing cancer.
Those patients typically face multiple doctors and diagnoses, which sometimes conflict with one another. However, one clinic in the world has developed a new, unified approach to treating patients.
Doctor Christopher Blosser, a transplant nephrologist, is on a mission to redefine healthcare for transplant patients diagnosed with cancer.
“People have a much higher risk of cancer in the setting of organ failure or organ transplant, and oftentimes, their care is fragmented or siloed,” Dr. Blosser explained.
Siloed is referring to the different doctors a patient will see for each diagnosis. Typically, the physicians don’t consult with one another, which can lead to conflicting treatments.
“That doesn’t provide the best chance for them to do well,” Dr. Blosser continued.
And that is why Blosser created the cancer and organ clinic, a collaboration between the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre and the University of Washington in Seattle.
“The Cancer and Organ Transplant Clinic is the first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary clinic that provides personalized care for people who have cancers before or after an organ transplant,” Dr. Blosser said.
Both a cancer specialist and transplant doctor meet with the patient to determine together the best course of treatment. The results have been transformational for patients. Blosser also created, in conjunction with the clinic, the Center for Innovations in Cancer Transplant, which has...
“The only patient-level national registry to address why people develop cancers to a greater extent in the midst of organ failure,” Dr. Blosser said.
Bringing us one step closer to the next medical breakthrough.
The Cancer and Organ Transplant Clinic aims to reach as many patients as possible outside of its Seattle area through telemedicine. To learn more about the facility, click here.
Copyright 2023 WNDU. All rights reserved.
I am, no surprise, a big fan of reality. I think I have a reasonable approximation of what reality is, mostly understood through the lens of the sciences. I learned early in my edumacation the key word is approximation. Always approaching a complete picture of life, the universe, and everything asymptotically. Zeno’s paradox is the best representation of to how I acquire understanding.
Not everyone is a fan of reality. I remember being amused back in the day by Adam Savage’s tag line of,”I reject your reality and substitute my own.” As a sci-fi guy who read a lot of alternative (complementary? integrative?) history, I thought it funny. But to a rather worrisome degree, it defines many people, except for the obvious (to me) fact that there are no other realities that can be slotted in at will.
I have often thought it should be reality-based medicine. In part, because the SCAM proponents use science, albeit, with a more Dr. Science kind of ineptness, to justify their practices, and in part it offers an easy opposite. What is the opposite of science-based medicine? The antonyms of science do not roll trippingly off the tongue, although I do kind of like witlessness-based medicine as an alternative to alternative medicine. But the opposite of reality? Fantasy-based, delusion-based, or fiction-based medicine sum the not-so-distinguished competition up so much better.
Denying reality has consequences. Few, rock climbers excepted, deny, say, the existence of gravity. Planes and bridges are not built using alternative ideas as to what constitutes gravity. The earth sucks, as an example, is not a workable construct for keeping a plane aloft.
Medicine seems particularly prone to people denying reality and substituting their own. It often doesn’t work out well. I saw many examples in my long and storied career. The first case was as a medical student doing my ER rotation. Guy came in weak with a low blood pressure and a very low hemoglobin (a measurement of how much red blood cells are in the circulation). A slow bleed, from a gastrointestinal cancer, was on the list of reasons, but taking off his shirt to listen to his lungs revealed a huge, mushroom-shaped melanoma that was oozing blood. He denied its existence. He was not the only patient I saw over the years who presented with huge, necrotic tumors whose presence were denied by the patient. Some were the size of dinner plates and the patient would say, nope, hadn’t noticed.
I have mentioned in the past the case that got me involved in SCAMs. I was called for a consult for a leg infection. Rather than an infection, it was a young female with a dead, rotting leg from a progressive sarcoma being very unsuccessfully treated by a naturopath. The tumor eroded that night into an artery and she died. ND. Not a Doctor.
I also saw many a patient who denied their AIDS diagnosis, refused care, progressed and died.
Note a pattern: reject medical reality and die.
There were no end of deaths from COVID in those who denied COVID, its prevention, appropriate treatment or the benefits of the vaccine. Reality substitution seemed to have a particular predilection for conservative talk show hosts
no less than five conservative radio talk show hosts who urged their audiences to avoid vaccines for COVID-19 have died from the virus.
Far be it for me to suggest any schadenfreude. Those COVID deaths from reality substitution were mostly anecdotes, not a careful evaluation of the epidemiology of the consequences of ignoring reality.
The epidemiology of COVID changed as the virus washed back and forth over the US. It started in the blue NW and took its time to reach the red South. The disease evolved and along with it our understanding of its spread, its treatment and prevention. So early on it was difficult to make hard-and-fast rules about who gets COVID and why, given all the flux and variation.
This was noted in early studies as COVID wandered from blue to red states.
From March 2020 to early June 2020, Republican-led states had lower COVID-19 incidence rates than Democratic-led states. On June 3, 2020, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had a higher incidence (risk ratio=1.10, 95% posterior interval=1.01, 1.18). This trend persisted through early December 2020. For death rates, Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic but higher rates from July 4, 2020 (risk ratio=1.18, 95% posterior interval=1.02, 1.31) through mid-December 2020.
And while the death rates/100,000 were higher in states with Republican Governors, the comparisons were not at a steady state for the disease in the country.
Substituting reality by ignoring masking and social distancing before the vaccine was variable and direct comparisons of red or blue were problematic. The trend towards more reality substitution in red areas and subsequent suboptimal consequences appeared real and was plausible from basic infection control practice. Reality substitution is a bad idea in the hospital for infection control, there would be no reason to suspect the same principals would not apply in the real world.
So, when did we reach steady state with COVID? Got me. Sometime after the vaccine was released and after the entire country had seen the first wave would be one reasonable, or arbitrary, point. And that brings us to the most exact reality denial paper, Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2021, there were 538 159 individuals in Ohio and Florida who died at age 25 years or older in the study sample. The median age at death was 78 years (IQR, 71-89 years). Overall, the excess death rate for Republican voters was 2.8 percentage points, or 15%, higher than the excess death rate for Democratic voters (95% prediction interval [PI], 1.6-3.7 percentage points). After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from -0.9 percentage point (95% PI, -2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The gap in excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates and was primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.
How widely applicable the results are is uncertain, but it is in agreement with the general trend that denying reality and substituting your own can be fatal, at least in medicine. It still worked well as a concept in MythBusters.
But consider the close election of 2024.
Arizona had 6400 COVID deaths as of November 2020 on their way to 30,000 as of this month.
Biden won by 10,000 votes in 2020.
Georgia had 8500 deaths on the way to 35,000.
Biden won by 12,000 votes.
Wisconsin had 3000 deaths on the way to 16000.
Biden won by 20,000.
Republicans had a 43% higher death rate since the vaccine was introduced and a 15% higher death rate before the vaccine.
Ballpark calculations, and there are all sorts of ways to crunch the numbers depending on the breakdown of party affiliation, age, etc., suggests that reality denial may have helped prevent the re-election of Donald Trump. Odd to think about, but the Red Cult of Death’s reality substitution may have helped swing the election to Biden, what with the electoral college and all. Trump still would have lost the popular vote.
And for 2024 there will be more red dead than blue dead. Supporting policies that kill your constituents may be counterproductive to electoral victory. If a similarly close race happens in 2024, it may not be the dead who vote that make a difference, but the COVID dead who can no longer vote. Red Dead and no Redemption My son played that game during COVID; I particularly liked that the main character caught TB and died of it. Didn’t wear a mask or socially distance when it may have helped.
Someone with a more sophisticated understanding of the numbers should do the calculations across the US as of November 2022 and see how reality denial affected the election and might alter future elections.
In the meantime, I will continue to voice my support for reality in all its approximations, regardless of the electoral consequences.
SAN FRANCISCO, August 16, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tivic Health® Systems, Inc. ("Tivic", Nasdaq: TIVC), a health tech company that develops and commercializes bioelectronic medicine, announced today that the research study that the company is funding at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research has received study approval from the Institutional Review Board ("IRB") and has initiated study recruitment and enrollment for its novel non-invasive bioelectronic device approach to vagus nerve stimulation.
An IRB is an FDA-registered group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. In accordance with FDA regulations, an IRB has the authority to approve, require modifications (to secure approval), or disapprove research. This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects.
In collaboration with Tivic Health, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research has initiated the recruitment and completed the first patient enrollment of subjects in the study. The pilot study will utilize a new neurostimulation approach with 20 individuals, along with data analysis and algorithm development performed by researchers at Feinstein Institutes’ Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine. This study may provide greater targeting strategies of stimulation and more control over the types of physiologic effects that result from stimulation.
"We’re excited for the proprietary value this work has the potential to deliver, as we continue to explore expanding Tivic’s non-invasive bioelectronic solutions to vagus nerve pathways and other clinical uses," said Jennifer Ernst, CEO at Tivic.
About Tivic
Tivic is a commercial health tech company advancing the field of bioelectronic medicine. Tivic’s patented technology platform leverages stimulation on the trigeminal, sympathetic, and vagus nerve structures. Tivic’s non-invasive and targeted approach to the treatment of inflammatory chronic health conditions gives consumers and providers drug-free therapeutic solutions with high safety profiles, low risk, and broad applications. Tivic’s first commercial product ClearUP is an FDA approved, award-winning, handheld bioelectronic sinus device. ClearUP is clinically proven, doctor-recommended, and is available through online retailers and commercial distributors. For more information visit http://tivichealth.com @TivicHealth
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "seek," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "target," "aim," "should," "will" "would," or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on Tivic Health Systems, Inc.’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors, including, without limitation: the recruitment and enrollment efforts of The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research; results of the study, once commenced; clinical trial results; market and other conditions; supply chain constraints; macroeconomic factors, including inflation; and unexpected costs, charges or expenses that reduce Tivic’s capital resources. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause Tivic’s actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see Tivic’s filings with the SEC, including, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2023, under the heading "Risk Factors"; as well as the company’s subsequent filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and Tivic Health Systems, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required by applicable law.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230816427397/en/
Contacts
Media Contact:
Kayleigh Westerfield
Kayleigh.Westerfield@tivichealth.com
Investor Contact:
Hanover International, Inc.
ir@tivichealth.com
The monkeypox outbreak has drawn the attention of scientists, as the virus can spread rapidly through close contact, respiratory droplets, and, perhaps, sexual fluids. In a exact JAAD Case Reports study, scientists present their dermatological approach to a suspected monkeypox case in New York City, along with associated histopathologic and clinical findings.
Study: It’s Here, Monkeypox: A Case Report. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com
Background
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that monkeypox infection can be suspected when individual reports a rash of “deep-seated and well-circumscribed lesions, often with central umbilication; and lesion progression through specific sequential stages: macules, papules, vesicles, pustules, and scabs.”
Monkeypox can also be suspected when a patient meets one of four criteria within 21 days of symptom onset. These include men who have sex with men (MSM), history of travel to a country where monkeypox is endemic, contact with a person suspected of having monkeypox, and/or contact with dead or alive animals that are African endemic species.
Knowledge of the CDC criteria is crucial, as it could quickly alert dermatologists of a suspicious exanthem. This will help clinicians quickly prescribe self-isolation instructions to patients to limit the further spread of the virus.
The case report
The subject was a 31-year-old male who had recently returned from a vacation in Miami, Florida. He complained of fatigue and fever and, after several days, developed blisters on his body.
As the blisters were uncomfortable, he sought urgent care, which is when healthcare professionals sent the lesion swabs for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing.
Importantly, no specific isolation instructions were given; therefore, the individual continued engaging in normal daily activities. Four days later, the patient presented at the authors’ dermatology practice, as the lesions had not resolved.
Dermatological examination
The patient was otherwise healthy and self-identified himself as gay; however, a detailed sexual history could not be obtained. When the patient presented at the dermatology practice, he was afebrile, and his vitals were stable.
About 20 two to eight millimeter (mm) umbilicated and pink papules were found across the entire body, all of which were at the same stage of development. The palms and soles also had five to six mm deep-seated pink vesicles with erosion.
Lesions were absent in the genitals and mouth. The patient also had bilateral inguinal lymphadenopathy.
Diagnosis
During the examination, proper protective care was taken, including the use of N95 masks and gloves. The possible diagnosis outcomes were herpes, simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), syphilis, and monkeypox.
HSV and VZV were ruled out because, in these cases, the lesions are smaller and confined to a particular anatomical region. The painful nature, morphology, and distribution of the lesions made primary and secondary syphilis less likely.
The CDC criteria and exact travel history suggested “suspected monkeypox.” The patient was immediately forwarded to the NYC Health Department’s CDC Emergency Operations Center. Subsequently, the patient was advised a minimum of three weeks of quarantine to prevent the further spread of the virus.
Histological examination
Many multi-nucleated keratinocytes, as well as focal, full-thickness epidermal necrosis, were observed on histological examination. Consistent with a viral infection, lymphocytes, neutrophils, and red blood cells made up the dense dermal inflammatory infiltrate.
RT-PCR confirmed monkeypox DNA within the lesion samples. Within the next several weeks, skin lesions and fatigue self-resolved, and evidence of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation was absent.
Conclusions
The monkeypox virus outbreak has placed a significant epidemiological burden on the MSM community. Appropriate public health strategies must be undertaken to protect the well-being of this community without perpetuating stigma. As demonstrated in this case report, dermatologists can have a crucial role in reducing the further spread of this virus.
The Mütter Museum, a 19th-century repository of medical oddments and arcana at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, attracts as many as 160,000 visitors a year. Among the anatomical and pathological specimens exhibited are skulls corroded by syphilis; spines twisted by rickets; skeletons deformed by corsets; microcephalic fetuses; a two-headed baby; a bound foot from China; an ovarian cyst the size of a Jack Russell terrier; Grover Cleveland’s jaw tumor; the liver that joined the original “Siamese twins,” Cheng and Eng Bunker; and the pickled corpse of the Soap Lady, whose fatty tissues decomposed into a congealed asphalt-colored substance called adipocere.
“People are just intrinsically more interested in the unusual,” said Dean Richardson, a professor of equine surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center. “Who could look at a two-headed calf without wanting to know how that happened? Biology is a marvel and better understood if you recognize that its complexities must inevitably lead to some ‘errors.’”
The celebrity magician Teller, a Philadelphia native, called the Mütter a place of electrifying frankness. “We are permitted to confront real, not simulated, artifacts of human suffering, and are, at a gut level, able to appreciate the epic achievements of medicine,” he said.
But, like museums everywhere, the Mütter is reassessing what it has and why it has it. Recently, the institution enlisted a public-relations consultant with expertise in crisis management to contain criticism from within and without.
The problems began in February when devoted fans of the Mütter’s website and YouTube channel noticed that all but 12 of the museum’s 450 or so images and videos had been removed. (In one jokey video, staff members pretended to brush the teeth of skulls; in another, they feigned drinking from one.) Rumors quickly circulated, and three months later Kate Quinn, who was hired last September as the Mütter’s executive director, posted an explanation. The clips, which had amassed more than 13 million views, were being re-evaluated, she wrote, “to Boost the visitor experience.”
Ms. Quinn had tasked 13 unnamed people — medical historians, bioethicists, disability advocates, members of the community — with providing feedback on the digital collection. “Folks from a wide background,” Ms. Quinn said in an interview. The purpose of what she called the Mütter’s “post-mortem,” set to finish by Labor Day, was to ensure that the online presence of the museum was appropriate and that its 6,500 specimens of human remains on display were being treated respectfully.
Blowback to Ms. Quinn’s ethical review was ferocious. An online petition garnered the signatures of nearly 33,000 Mütter enthusiasts who insisted that they loved the museum and its websites as they were. The petition criticized Ms. Quinn and her boss, Dr. Mira Irons, the president and chief executive of the College of Physicians, for decisions predicated on “outright disdain of the museum.” The complaint called for the reinstatement of all web content and urged the college’s board of trustees to fire the two women immediately. (To date, about one-quarter of the videos have been reinstated.)
Moreover, in June, The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece entitled “Cancel Culture Comes for Philly’s Weirdest Museum,” in which Stanley Goldfarb, a former director of the college, wrote that the museum’s new “woke leaders” appeared eager to cleanse the institution of anything uncomfortable. Robert Hicks, director of the Mütter from 2008 to 2019, voiced similar sentiments this spring when he quit as a museum consultant. His embittered resignation letter, which he released to the press, stated that Dr. Irons “has said before staff that she ‘can’t stand to walk through the museum,’” and it advised the trustees to investigate her and Ms. Quinn, both of whom Dr. Hicks believed held “elitist and exclusionary” views of the Mütter.
Neither Dr. Goldfarb nor Dr. Hicks had tried to reach out to Ms. Quinn or Dr. Irons to discuss their concerns directly.
Amid the professional grumbling, 13 employees left and panicky rumors surfaced on social media: that Dr. Irons planned to turn the Mütter into a research museum closed to the public; that Ms. Quinn had been quietly removing “permanent” exhibits featuring malformed fetuses; that administrators wanted to deter “freaky Goths” and subvert the organization’s mission, which is to help the public “understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body and to appreciate the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.”
In an email, Dr. Irons insisted that the hearsay was just that. “I categorically deny any intention, as Dr. Hicks asserts, that I hate the museum or that my purpose is anything other than to ensure that the materials we display meet professional standards and serve the mission of the college and the museum,” she wrote. “In my view, much of this controversy is being fueled by resistance to any changes in the status quo to the point where we can’t even engage in a discussion without triggering recriminations and accusations.”
The museum was established in 1859 by Thomas Dent Mütter, a surgery professor, as a teaching tool to show doctors-to-be what they might encounter. Dr. Mütter, who was the first surgeon in Philadelphia to use ether anesthesia, endowed the museum with $30,000 and a trove of 1,700 anatomical oddities and medical curiosa that he had used in his classes.
The collection expanded by subsequent donations and acquisitions, some of which, such as the saponified corpse of Soap Lady, were obtained through subterfuge and bribes to grave diggers. In an age before medical consent was codified, the unclaimed corpses of inmates, paupers, suicide victims and Native Americans were often made available to medical schools as cadavers for dissection and anatomy lessons.
The Mütter opened to the public in 1863 and was initially intended only for “medical practitioners”; by the 1970s it was drawing 5,000 visitors annually. “Many people have their first interest in something because it’s weird or edgy or titillating, but that sometimes leads to investigation of more substantive matters,” Dr. Richardson said. “I’d wager there have been plenty of young people whose first impetus to think about the human body was provided by the Mütter.”
In 1986, Gretchen Worden, who was then the curator, had the Mütter renovated in the theatrical aesthetic of a Victorian-era cabinet of curiosities, with red carpets and red velvet drapes. “The displays are jarring reminders of mortality, proof that a human being is truly no more than a sum of its parts,” she said at the time. She increased attendance with a popular if somewhat ghoulish museum calendar and mischievous appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman” in which she menaced the host with lobotomy picks and tonsil guillotines and grossed him out with hairballs and human horns.
Dr. Worden’s antics were considered undignified by some trustees and counter to the health-oriented image they wanted to encourage, but she prevailed. Almost one-third of the college’s revenue now derives from the Mütter’s admissions, store and library services.
But museums that display human remains increasingly face public reckoning and scrutiny. Some museums have scrapped the term “mummy” to describe preserved corpses from ancient Egypt, deeming it dehumanizing. In 2021, Jo Anderson, a curator at Great North Museum in Newcastle, England, said, “A significant number of visitors question whether mummified people on display are real.”
“What was respectful 100 years ago, or even five years ago, may not be so today,” Dr. Irons said. At the Mütter, she said, the challenge is to make visitors see damaged body parts for what they really are — not objects or curiosities, but real humans who were once alive.
Dr. Irons, a physician who treats children with rare genetic diseases, acknowledged that she had difficulty viewing certain exhibits, particularly fetal specimens presented as medical novelties. She wants such displays to provide a fuller picture of the individual, the condition in question and the therapeutic advances that would affect today’s afflicted.
Ms. Quinn was hired after a dozen years as director of exhibitions and public programs at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. “I see my role as getting us back to what we were prior to taking that left-hand turn with regard to the mission,” she said, referring to the era of Dr. Worden. “We’re actively moving away from any possible perception of spectacle, oddities or disrespect for the collections in our care.”
On arriving, Ms. Quinn was surprised to learn that the Mütter had no ethics policy, let alone a human-remains policy. What’s more, the museum had only fragmentary data about how many residents — as the staff refers to the human specimens — came to the Mütter or the circumstances of their lives. “We owe it to the remains to learn as much as we can about each individual who’s here,” Ms. Quinn said. “And yes, it matters to a lot of people.”
The museum has arranged to return the remains of seven Native Americans to communities in New Jersey and California, as required by federal law. Ms. Quinn is trying to keep ahead of the rapidly changing legal and ethical landscape by conducting the first comprehensive audit of the museum’s objects since the 1940s. She expects this process to take at least four years to complete given the record-keeping and the complexities of the Mütter’s 35,000-object collection, most of which is in storage in the basement.
Dr. Hicks remains unhappy with the new perspective. “Dr. Mütter would have been confused at the dictum that the museum should be about health, not death,” he lamented in his resignation letter. “The principle emblazoned at the entrance of many anatomy theaters, ‘This is where the dead serve the living,’ is readily understood by museum visitors without special guidance by Dr. Irons.”
Ms. Quinn said: “Robert Hicks? Someone once said, ‘Some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.’”
Kozhikode: Though a board of medical experts rejected the police findings in the medical negligence case of Harshina, the police are to go ahead with the course of investigation.
The jurisdictional cops are to approach the court seeking permission to replace the accused persons named in the First Information Report, a source said.
Initially the police had named the then medical superintendent Dr Sreekumar alongside head of department Dr Vinayachandran, and another doctor at the Kozhikode medical college hospital as the accused acting on Harshina's complaint.
Further on, investigations traced the doctors and nurses on duty at the time of the third C Section on Harshina conducted at the government medical college hospital, Kozhikode in 2017. A pair of forceps were reportedly found in Harshina's stomach after the procedure.
Police are to request the court to replace those named at present with two doctors and two nurses on duty at the time of the third C Section.
Once an FIR registered, it cannot be changed without the permission of the court concerned. So, the medical college police decided to approach the court to replace the accused persons, commissioner of police K Sudarsan told the press.
According to the police, it was at the medical college that the surgical scissors were left inside Harshina's stomach. Police arrived at the conclusion 'based on the fact' that Harshina began to suffer physical ailments after the third C Section at the medical college, and based on the MRI scan prior to the third caesarian, which reportedly revealed no forceps in the stomach at the time.
Meanwhile, the medical board led by district medical officer rejected the report submitted by medical college police citing it was not sure the forceps belonged to the medical college and that there was a possibility that these were left behind during the second C Section at government taluk hospital, Thamarassery.
The MRI scan done after the second C Section might not have shown the forceps in the stomach as it was done focussing on the patient's head, the board argued, even as board members, the assistant commissioner of police, medical college station and government pleader turned in their rejection notes on this view.
Harshina is now on an indefinite sit in in front of the medical college hospital in Kozhikode. On August 16, she staged a hunger strike in front of the secretariat at the state capital. She has lodged a complaint at the office of the Kozhikode city police chief a few days ago. She shall also approach state medical board headed by the the director of health department.
