With experts warning that an influenza pandemic is overdue, governments, health departments, health-care professionals, and many others have been working to develop response plans for such a crisis. The Indiana State Board of Health, the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials are hosting a summit July 14 and 15, at which many of the nation’s top public health officers will gather to discuss the ethical issues that arise in dealing with the prospect of a flu pandemic. Host Barbara Lewis will examine the summit’s goals and possible “hot buttons” with one of the summit’s co-chairs, Eric Meslin, Ph.D., director of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics.
Understanding the “hunger hormone,” which tells the stomach when it’s time to eat, is a tantalizing conquest that many scientists aspire to understand. Jesus Gutierrez, a research advisor in integrative biology at Eli Lilly, and Mark Heiman, a Lilly researcher, will speak about their discovery of how to manipulate a stomach enzyme in its interaction with the hormone, called GOAT, in ways that could lead to new treatments for obesity.
Author, teacher and columnist Allen Zadoff, who wrote Hungry: A Male Food Addict, will discuss his battle with food addiction, what he did to change his eating and how he continues to maintain a healthy weight and eating habits.
The frightening gap between first- and third-world health care is a major global issue. Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service, an international development organization, discusses with Sound Medicine’s Ora Pescovitz, M.D., her organization’s work, providing support to grassroots healthcare and social change projects around the world.
In this week’s Sound Medicine Checkup, Jeremy Shere explores how music may help patients recover after surgery.
Archived editions of Sound Medicine as well as other helpful information can be found at http://www.soundmedicine.iu.edu.
Sound Medicine is underwritten by the Lilly Center for Medical Science, Clarian Health, and IU Medical Group; Jeremy Shere’s “Check-Up” is underwritten by IUPUI.