Black cloud

Second Peds overnight call, almost just as crazy as the first. The residents, for good reason, don't want to look me in the eye. I'm a black cloud. Take that for sending me out to Riverside County for peds. Ha.

But the learnin' and "stick with you for a long time" type of experiences are plentiful during the wee hours, so I ain't complainin'.

No Joke

5 admissions, after midnight, that's a call night, ladies and 'gents.

Tom Cruise for leishmaniasis?

Today the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) hosted its 46^th annual telethon, the first without its poster boy, Jerry Lewis. The broadcast raised 61.5 million dollars for its array of services related to neuromusuclar disorders like muscular dystrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The MDA is vague about its origins. The website states that the association “was created in 1950 by a group of adults with muscular dystrophy, parents of children with muscular dystrophy and a physician-scientist studying the disorder.” Whoever helped jump-start and manage the organization did an excellent job. The MDA is incredibly visible and vocal. The website lists abundant corporate sponsors: 7-Eleven, Taco Bell, 7UP, Harley Davidson, etc.. The telethon attracts the public eye with its celebrity hosts: this year alone Celine Dion, Boyz II Men, Jennifer Lopez, Barbra Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, and Dwight Howard donated some face-time.

I want to know how the MDA is so successful and how this success can be transferred to other conditions.

Physician scientists in-training learn how to do science: research, generating data; write grants, acquiring funding; write papers, publicizing our findings. Physician scientists, for the most part, stick within that system, writing grants and papers. I want to know how things work outside of the system; how the government and private institutions obtain funding; and how they fund the research that interests them.

A recent and interesting example of organization-driven research is the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). CIRM, California State-funded research initiative, was passed in 2004 as Prop 71. Over ten years, CIRM will distribute three billion dollars worth of grants to human embryonic stem cell researchers. While CIRM has not provided any immediate cures, it has driven a lot of fascinating basic research that would have not been funded in past years due to the controversial Dickey Amendment.

How did CIRM come into existence? With a lot of hard work, money, and star power. See Robert Klein, Bill Gates, Micheal J. Fox. Maybe it's time for me to start networking... I do live in LA.