Learning from those with less In
places like India, young physicians learn quickly how to do a lot with
a little. A group of Emory faculty and residents in rehabilitation medicine
recently witnessed firsthand how Indian physicians produce good outcomes
in a low-cost environment. Rao and others
observed doctors at a medical college and hospital in Bombay as they treated
polio, cerebral palsy, gait abnormalities, and congenital orthopedic deformities.
The trip was part of an Emory pilot program called Global Perspec-tives
in Human Care. Alaric
Van Dam, (above, far right) chief resident in physical medicine and
rehabilitation, says the trip was eye-opening. The people of India
dont have many resources or high-tech equipment, yet they have low
infection rates, he says. International
rotations, funded by public and private donations, should help medical
residents learn to communicate with and understand patients of many backgrounds.
Besides offering medical education, the program also functions as an academic
exchange. An Indian physician who helped lead the recent trip plans to
visit Emory to lecture and demonstrate surgical techniques, says Rao. We want to put Emory on the map as producing global physicians, he says. Its a great opportunity to broaden the experience of our young physicians. (BACK TO TOP) Emorys
Vaccine Research Center, which has one of the largest preclinical vaccine
research programs at any university worldwide, recently dedicated the
Hope Clinic in downtown Decatur for community-based clinical trials. Outfitted
with three examination rooms, several offices, a conference room, and
a laboratory for preparing blood samples, the clinic is conducting Phase
I trials of several AIDS vaccines in collaboration with Merck & Co.
Medical director
Mark Feinberg, who helped create the clinic, believes an effective AIDS
vaccine is on the horizon and that work at Emory is central to the effort.
Atlanta seems to be a receptive place to do HIV vaccine trials,
he says. The community here really wants to make a difference. In human
studies coordinated at the clinic, subjects are HIV-negative and are at
low risk for acquiring the virus. They are not challenged with HIV but
are given vaccine, and their reactions and immune response are measured. In addition
to the Merck vaccines, the clinic will be testing a multiprotein AIDS
vaccine developed by Emory researcher Harriet Robinson and colleagues
that has achieved better protection in primate studies than any other
HIV vaccine to date. In primates,
this vaccine was given in three stepstwo DNA priming vaccines followed
by a modified pox virus booster. This regimen stimulated a strong immune
response that allowed monkeys later infected with a highly virulent hybrid
of simian and human immunodeficiency viruses to maintain a low level of
infection while remaining healthy. Infections were controlled even among
groups receiving a low-dose vaccine. This vaccines greatest strengths
are its abilities to induce immune responses to the three major proteins
expressed by HIV and to provide memory immune responses months after inoculation.
Feinberg says the Hope Clinic is crucial to Emorys vaccine development efforts. We have tremendous potential to be the most productive place in the country for conducting clinical trials of vaccines, he says. (BACK TO TOP)
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