Tip #9 – Calling the Admissions Office

Sorry for the lack of entries in my blog.  I’ve been busy with a few personal matters.  With that said, I would like to offer some advice that I recently found very helpful.

Tip#9 – Calling the Admissions Office - If you call the admissions office, always ask with whom you are speaking, write down their name, the date and time of your call, and the reason

If, for example, your application was late and you called to get an extension, you must be able to verify that deadline extension was granted by someone in teh admissions office.  If you need permission to deviate from the stated policies, be sure you know to whom you are speaking and mark the date and time.  Then follow-up with an e-mail confirming you were told.

This simple advice helped me greatly.  Be sure to jot down any information that you may see pertinent when contacting the Admissions Office for any inquiry.

Best of Luck and Happy Winter Break!

-Ali

Tip # 8: Take some time off between college and medical school

Taking time off from academics before entering medical school is fairly common, and it occurs for a variety of reasons: research opportunities, clinical experiences, traveling abroad, and family and /or financial reasons, such as working to pay off undergraduate student loans.  It also may be a good time to decide if the medical profession is the right career for you.  Medical schools are seeing more and more non-traditional applicants, including students who have been out of school for a while and may be changing careers.  Many of these applicants wanted to be physicians earlier in their lives, but felt it was unattainable.  Only now are they realizing that they should have followed their hearts from the beginning.

Medical schools want you to apply when you are ready.  For some applicants that is right out of college and for others it is after years of pursuing another career, taking time to reflect, or starting a family.  Be prepared to articulate clearly why you took time off or why you decided to change careers.

Tip # 7: Find a balance in your life

You will need to balance your academics, personal life, family, personal time, and extracurricular activities.  Study hard, get involved, investigate the field of medicine, and love what you do.

Many people entering a health profession are combining their vocation and their avocation; they make their work their play.  You will need to love this job.  There will be many long and difficult days, and you must be passionate about what you are getting in to.  Having a good balance of work and play will help you find release from the stress that you may end up facing on a daily basis.

Explore the inner workings of yourself, for that will allow you to succeed.

Smile

Alzheimer’s Disease: Discovery of a Proneurogenic, Neuroprotective Chemical P7C3

Summary

An in vivo screen was performed in search of chemicals capable of enhancing neuron formation in the hippocampus of adult mice. Eight of 1000 small molecules tested enhanced neuron formation in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus. Among these was an aminopropyl carbazole, designated P7C3, endowed with favorable pharmacological properties. In vivo studies gave evidence that P7C3 exerts its proneurogenic activity by protecting newborn neurons from apoptosis. Mice missing the gene encoding neuronal PAS domain protein 3 (NPAS3) are devoid of hippocampal neurogenesis and display malformation and electrophysiological dysfunction of the dentate gyrus. Prolonged administration of P7C3 to npas3−/− mice corrected these deficits by normalizing levels of apoptosis of newborn hippocampal neurons. Prolonged administration of P7C3 to aged rats also enhanced neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus, impeded neuron death, and preserved cognitive capacity as a function of terminal aging.

Listen to the MP3 interview: Alzheimer’s Study: Interview with Researcher

Download Article Here: Article PDF

Andrew A. Pieper1, 2, , , Shanhai Xie1, Emanuela Capota2, Sandi Jo Estill1, Jeannie Zhong2, Jeffrey M. Long1, Ginger L. Becker2, Paula Huntington2, Shauna E. Goldman2, Ching-Han Shen1, Maria Capota2, Jeremiah K. Britt2, Tiina Kotti1, Kerstin Ure3, Daniel J. Brat4, Noelle S. Williams1, Karen S. MacMillan1, Jacinth Naidoo1, Lisa Melito1, Jenny Hsieh3, Jef De Brabander1, Joseph M. Ready1 and Steven L. McKnight1, ,
1 Department of Biochemistry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9152, USA
2 Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9152, USA
3 Department of Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9152, USA
4 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Received 25 April 2010; revised 4 June 2010; accepted 10 June 2010. Published: July 8, 2010. Available online 8 July 2010.

Health Care Bill – Immediate Provisions

Click Here for the Full Timeline
KEY PROVISIONS THAT TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY

UNDER SENATE BILL AS AMENDED BY RECONCILIATION BILL

Below are some of the key provisions that will take effect immediately, under the legislative package the House passed this weekend (the Senate health bill as amended by the reconciliation bill). The reconciliation bill is based largely on the improvements put forward by the President’s proposal – moving towards the House bill in certain critical areas.

1. SMALL BUSINESS TAX CREDITS—Offers tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable. Tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums will be immediately available to firms that choose to offer coverage. Effective beginning for calendar year 2010. (Beginning in 2014, the small business tax credits will cover 50 percent of premiums.)

2. BEGINS TO CLOSE THE MEDICARE PART D DONUT HOLE—Provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010. Effective for calendar year 2010. (Beginning in 2011, institutes a 50% discount on brand‐name drugs in the donut hole; also completely closes the donut hole by 2020.)

3. FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER MEDICARE—Eliminates co‐payments for preventive services and exempts preventive services from deductibles under the Medicare program. Effective beginning January 1, 2011.

4. HELP FOR EARLY RETIREES—Creates a temporary re‐insurance program (until the Exchanges are available) to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55‐64. Effective 90 days after enactment

5. ENDS RESCISSIONS—Bans health plans from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Effective 6 months after enactment.

6. NO DISCRIMINATON AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS—Prohibits health plans from denying coverage to children with pre‐existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, this prohibition would apply to all persons.)

7. BANS LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Prohibits health plans from placing lifetime caps on coverage. Effective 6 months after enactment.

8. BANS RESTRICTIVE ANNUAL LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Tightly restricts new plans’ use of annual limits to ensure access to needed care. These tight restrictions will be defined by HHS. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, the use of any annual limits would be prohibited for all plans.)9. FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER NEW PRIVATE PLANS—Requires new private plans to cover preventive services with no co‐payments and with preventive services being exempt from deductibles. Effective 6 months after enactment.

10. NEW, INDEPENDENT APPEALS PROCESS—Ensures consumers in new plans have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal decisions by their health insurance plan. Effective 6 months after enactment.

11. ENSURING VALUE FOR PREMIUM PAYMENTS—Requires plans in the individual and small group market to spend 80 percent of premium dollars on medical services, and plans in the large group market to spend 85 percent. Insurers that do not meet these thresholds must provide rebates to policyholders. Effective on January 1, 2011.

12. IMMEDIATE HELP FOR THE UNINSURED UNTIL EXCHANGE IS AVAILABLE (INTERIM HIGH‐RISK POOL)— Provides immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre‐existing condition ‐ through a temporary high‐risk pool. Effective 90 days after enactment.

13. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 26TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENTS’ INSURANCE – Requires health plans to allow young people up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents’ insurance policy, at the parents’ choice. Effective 6 months after enactment.

14. COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS—Increases funding for Community Health Centers to allow for nearly a doubling of the number of patients seen by the centers over the next 5 years. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.

15. INCREASING NUMBER OF PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS—Provides new investment in training programs to increase the number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.

16. PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SALARY—Prohibits new group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees. Effective 6 months after enactment.

17. HEALTH INSURANCE CONSUMER INFORMATION—Provides aid to states in establishing offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals with the filing of complaints and appeals. Effective beginning in FY 2010.

18. CREATES NEW, VOLUNTARY, PUBLIC LONG‐TERM CARE INSURANCE PROGRAM—Creates a long‐term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions to provide benefits to adults who become functionally disabled. Effective on January 1, 2011.

OFFICE OF SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI MARCH 22, 2010

What’s in the Health Care Bill?

COST: $940 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
HOW MANY COVERED: 32 million uninsured. Major coverage expansion begins in 2014. When fully phased in, 95 percent of eligible Americans would have coverage, compared with 83 percent today.

INSURANCE MANDATE: Almost everyone is required to be insured or else pay a fine. There is an exemption for low-income people. Mandate takes effect in 2014.

INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS: Major consumer safeguards take effect in 2014. Insurers prohibited from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. Higher premiums for women would be banned. Starting this year, insurers would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies and from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing medical problems. Parents would be able to keep older kids on their policies up to age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion goes into high gear.

MEDICAID: Expands the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor to cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $29,327 a year for a family of four. Childless adults would be covered for the first time, starting in 2014. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the tab for covering newly eligible individuals through 2016. A special deal that would have given Nebraska 100 percent federal financing for newly eligible Medicaid recipients in perpetuity is eliminated. A different, one-time deal negotiated by Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu for her state, Louisiana, worth as much as $300 million, remains.

TAXES: Dramatically scales back a Senate-passed tax on high-cost insurance plans that was opposed by House Democrats and labor unions. The tax would be delayed until 2018, and the thresholds at which it is imposed would be $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. To make up for the lost revenue, the bill applies an increased Medicare payroll tax to investment income as well as wages for individuals making more than $200,000, or married couples above $250,000. The tax on investment income would be 3.8 percent.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: Gradually closes the “doughnut hole” coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug benefit that seniors fall into once they have spent $2,830. Seniors who hit the gap this year will receive a $250 rebate. Beginning in 2011, seniors in the gap receive a discount on brand name drugs, initially 50 percent off. When the gap is completely eliminated in 2020, seniors will still be responsible for 25 percent of the cost of their medications until Medicare’s catastrophic coverage kicks in.

EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY: As in the Senate bill, businesses are not required to offer coverage. Instead, employers are hit with a fee if the government subsidizes their workers’ coverage. The $2,000-per-employee fee would be assessed on the company’s entire work force, minus an allowance. Companies with 50 or fewer workers are exempt from the requirement. Part-time workers are included in the calculations, counting two part-timers as one full-time worker.

SUBSIDIES: The proposal provides more generous tax credits for purchasing insurance than the original Senate bill did. The aid is available on a sliding scale for households making up to four times the federal poverty level, $88,200 for a family of four. Premiums for a family of four making $44,000 would be capped at around 6 percent of income.

HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Small businesses, the self-employed and the uninsured could pick a plan offered through new state-based purchasing pools called exchanges, opening for business in 2014. The exchanges would offer the same kind of purchasing power that employees of big companies benefit from. People working for medium-to-large firms would not see major changes. But if they lose their jobs or strike out on their own, they may be eligible for subsidized coverage through the exchange.

GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: No government-run insurance plan. People purchasing coverage through the new insurance exchanges would have the option of signing up for national plans overseen by the federal office that manages the health plans available to members of Congress. Those plans would be private, but one would have to be nonprofit.

ABORTION: The proposal keeps the abortion provision in the Senate bill. Abortion opponents disagree on whether restrictions on taxpayer funding go far enough. The bill tries to maintain a strict separation between taxpayer dollars and private premiums that would pay for abortion coverage. No health plan would be required to offer coverage for abortion. In plans that do cover abortion, policyholders would have to pay for it separately, and that money would have to be kept in a separate account from taxpayer money. States could ban abortion coverage in plans offered through the exchange. Exceptions would be made for cases of rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother.

GOP HEALTH CARE SUMMIT IDEAS: Following a bipartisan health care summit last month, Mr. Obama announced he was open to incorporating several Republican ideas into his legislation. But two of the principle ones – hiring investigators to pose as patients and search for fraud at hospitals and increasing spending for medical malpractice reform initiatives – did not make it into the legislation released Thursday. The legislation incorporates only one, an increase in payments to primary care physicians under Medicaid, an idea mentioned by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

per CBS NEWS

Tip # 6 – Choose a Major that you enjoy

TIP # 6

While it is true that the majority of applicants to medical school are or were science majors, you do not have to majorin biology or chemistry.  There are many other fascinating fields of study available: psychology, history, computer science, English, etc.  If there is a particular program that you really enjoy, do it.

Other majors will provide you with a different perspective on the field of medicine and could be looked upon ver favorably by an admissions committee.  Be careful about trying to impress medical schools by choosing programs of study that are viewed as more “difficult,” such as neuroscience or biophysics.  If the result is a much lower GPA, the admissions committee may doubt your ability to be successful in the basic science years of your medical school education.

Tip # 5: Be Different!

Tip # 5: Be Different.  Stand out in the application process!

There are far too many “cookie cutter” applicants who all look the same on paper and in black interview suits.  You need to set yourself apart from all of the other applicants.

Figure out what is special about you and what you have to offer the field of medicine that is different from all of the other applicants.  Get involved in a variety of activities and when you find something that you love, stick with it.

Participate in activities because you really want to do them and enjoy them, not because they will look good on your resume.

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Tip #4: Prepare: Applying to Medical School Can Be Expensive

Tip # 4:

Be prepared for the fact that applying to medical school can be a very expensive process.

During a one-year application cycle, you could spend $3,500 – $5,000 just to apply to medical school

  • Initial AMCAS application fees
  • AMCAS application fee for each medical school you apply to. (Students typically apply to around 15-20 school.)
  • Secondary application fees ($45 – $100 a piece)
  • Travel expenses (airfare, bus or train, taxis, parking, metro)
  • Hotel/Motel costs (one or two nights depending on distance and length of interview day).
  • Interview clothes
  • Food
  • Miscellaneous items (gifts, incidentals, etc)

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Racing for the Cure: Heart Disease

Everyday, many people die of heart disease.  Everyday, families suffer loss.  Everyday, people are diagnosed with heart disease.  And everyday, there is heartache. Through our gain in the knowledge of human development and genetics, and our advancements in medical technology, further comprehension of this critical information brings us closer to understanding disease and preventing it.  The process of human development allows for the genetic information, carried by DNA from the mother and father, to code for every individual person.  Everyone arose from cells multiplying and differentiating into cells that specify different tissue layers.  These tissue layers formed into specialized organs, and those organs formed into organ systems to make what we call a human.  Arguably, the most important organ in the human body is the heart.  The heart pumps blood through the circulatory system by auto rhythmic contraction and dilation of its muscles.  Without blood pumping through circulation, the cells in our body would have no oxygen to make energy and would therefore die.  The heart is thus the pinnacle source of life, yet heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and the world.  What is current technology doing to cure heart disease?

Modern treatments for heart disease range from stents to angioplasties, vasculature resurfacing to ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers to even open heart surgery and transplants.  All these technologies have come about because of increased knowledge in the respective fields of medicine.  The issue at hand is that these medicinal and invasive protocols are highly artificial.  The human body does not normally function with ACE inhibitors in its system, or physical support beams (stents) inside a blood vessel.  Much of our technology is artificial and does not hold up to the innate behavior of each individual cell.

Cells undergoing development have the potential of becoming any specific cell in the human body.  A cell with the potential of becoming any cell in the human body is called a stem cell.  In recent years, there has been a push for stem cell research for its wide applicability.  Specifically, the focus has been in stem cell research for curing disease.

The benefit of using stem cells for cure is that stem cells are what every germ layer in our body formed from.  Specifically, stem cells give rise to our nerves, muscle, immune system and any other cell, depending on the various environmental queues given to the cell through signaling pathways.  The only issue with stem cells for clinical use is where to find a suitable cell source. There are several different types of stem cells used in clinical settings. However, embryonic stem cells are the most natural form of stem cell of the various types because they arise directly through human development and not through induced mutation.

Currently, the United States has approved 13 new embryonic stem cell lines along with 96 embryonic stem cells lines awaiting approval (Wade 2009).  The increase in embryonic stem cell research shows that embryonic stem cells are the way to go for treatment.  In heart disease, researchers are discovering various ways to ameliorate the disease through various mechanisms of action.  One big issue in heart disease is myocardial infarction, heart attacks.  Heart attacks cause damage to the heart muscle and leads to eventual scar tissue formation and necrosis (destructive cell death) due to a lack of long lasting support mechanisms in the regeneration of heart tissue.  The lack of a native repair mechanism leads researchers in a search to incorporate novel therapies to restore health in damaged cardiac tissue.

Research has increased in areas that are geared toward the induction of gene expressions in stem cells to ameliorate and regenerate heart tissue in damaged areas.  There are growth factors found during embryonic development, which are characteristically used in the formation of new blood vessels.  The formation of new blood vessels is important in areas with reduced blood flow in order to prevent necrosis and scar tissue formation.  Other scientists are working with biochemists to produce enzymes, which allow embryonic stem cells to home into damaged areas of the heart.  There are even some scientists creating organ printers, which literally take everyday dot printers, and modify them to print organs cell by cell (Fisher 2006).  Though such technology is years in the making, it shows the versatility and potential of stem cell research.

Stem cell research allows scientists to show creative solutions on the potential for embryonic stem cell research in curing heart disease.  Together, the advancements in computer technology and medical research will allow ‘the race for the cure’ to become a reality today.  On that day, no longer will families and individuals have to suffer with heart disease; simply inject the cure, fueled by the magnificent power of the cell.

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