by Cora Christian (NNPA)—January 1 brought more than the New Year. It also brought a new law making it easier for low-income beneficiaries to qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help program. The program offers significant savings on prescription drugs to enrollees in Medicare Part D. Grammy Award winning legend Chubby Checker is helping the government to get the word out. An ad campaign features the veteran singer in several radio and television spots singing and dancing to “The Twist.” With the chart-topping hit as a backdrop, Checker tells older Americans and people with disabilities about the new twist in the law—the extra help they might be eligible to receive when they apply.
by Darlene Superville WASHINGTON (AP)—Michelle Obama on Feb. 9 unveiled “Let’s Move”—her public awareness campaign against childhood obesity in the U.S., a problem she says concerns her both as first lady and as a mother. LET’S MOVE—First lady Michelle Obama points out some student athletes as she announces a campaign to combat the rapidly growing problem of childhood obesity, Feb. 9, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. One in three American children is overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other illnesses. And public health experts say today’s kids are on track to have shorter lifespans than their parents. “None of us wants this future for our kids,” Mrs. Obama said at the White House. “We have to act, so let’s move.”
1950—The 1950 United States Census produced a figure of over 15 million African-Americans living in the United States. This figure represented 10 percent of the total U.S. population. 1950—Pfizer announces the discovery of antibiotic Terramycin, Science, Volume 111, Issue 2874, pp. 85. Drs. Louis and Jane Wright performed the clinical trials on both Terramycin and Aureomycin. DR. DONNA CHRISTIAN-CHRISTENSON 1950—Dr. Charles Drew (1904-1950), the founder of the American blood banks, died April 1. 1950—American and British researchers publish papers presenting evidence that smoking causes lung cancer. 1950—Dr. Helen O. Dickens becomes the first African-American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Velma Scantlebury-White, the nation’s first African American female transplant surgeon and associate director of the Kidney Transplant Program in Delaware at Christiana Care Health System, has performed more than 800 transplants in children and adults. Scantlebury-White was a transplant surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine from 1988 to 2002. Her research interests include outcomes of organ donations and transplantations in African-Americans, and she was recently honored with the National Kidney Foundation’s Gift of Life Award for her work in transplantation among minorities. DR. VELMA SCANTLEBURY-WHITE Her hands, once deemed “too small for a surgeon,” have cut and stitched their way through more than 200 living donor kidney transplants, four times as many cadaveric donor transplants, and many other complicated organ transplants.
A healer beyond the operating room Dr. Benjamin Carson is professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Pediatrics; director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery; and co-director, The Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center. His work focuses on traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy and trigeminal neuralgia. He is also interested in maximizing the intellectual potential of every child. DR. BENJAMIN CARSON An internationally renowned physician, Carson has authored over more than neurosurgical publications, along with three best-selling books, and has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations. He is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, and by the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
As the accomplishments and sacrifices of African- Americans in Pennsylvania are celebrated during Black History Month, more than 2,550 individuals from the Black community in need of organ or tissue transplantation face an uncertain future. A shortage of organ and tissue donors means nearly 60 percent of those needing a transplant will wait for more than a year. Many can expect to wait for more than five years. Waiting for matched organs may mean a recipient will be sicker at the time of transplant1on, worse, die waiting.
Forward: Few persons, perhaps, recall that among the opposing points of view held by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois was an approach to the problem of the health of the Negro. Early in this century, while still at Atlanta University, Dr. DuBois made the first significant scientific approach to the health problems and biological study of the Negro. He found a Negro public unprepared for it, and White public hostile to it. In 1915, Washington approached the problem of health from a different viewpoint by crystallizing sentiment for a National Negro Health Week. This is but part of the story which Dr. Montague Cobb, professor of anatomy in the Howard University School of Medicine, tells as he points out how the difference in the life expectancy of Whites and Negroes has been reduced fifty percent in the last fifty years.
CYPRESS, Calif.–UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, has named Dr. Sandra Bruce Nichols chief medical officer, West Region. DR. SANDRA BRUCE NICHOLS Dr. Bruce Nichols will focus on helping ensure access to and use of appropriate medical services for UnitedHealthcare plan participants, promoting quality clinical care and positive patient outcomes, and effectively managing health care costs. She will also maintain relationships with contracted physicians and physician organizations throughout the region and collaborate with other staff physicians to achieve quality objectives.
As part of its commitment to ensure access to primary care and enhance key community-based services, UPMC announced the expansion of a number of health and wellness initiatives for the greater Braddock community. Expanded evening and Saturday office hours at the Braddock Family Health Center, 404 Braddock Ave., are being made possible through a new partnership with UPMC Health Plan. The expanded services include Tuesday and Thursday evenings until 9 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
(AP)—At least a half-dozen states are considering measures that would toughen restrictions on young athletes returning to play after head injuries, inspired by individual cases and the attention the issue has received in the NFL. The state of Washington led the way last year, passing what is considered the nation’s strongest return-to-play statute. Athletes under 18 who show concussion symptoms can’t take the field again without a licensed health care provider’s written approval. Several other states, including California and Pennsylvania, have similar bills pending.
