Paduan Learners and Francis

What I always find amazing is the enthusiasm with which medical students learn genetics. My colleague came back from some of our house visits and I had some time to teach. It is as if they were never taught genetics to begin with. I just finished up an hour long lecture with the 3rd year medical students of New York Medical College. I often hear so many..."Oh Yeahs" or "Oh....I get it" answers....That is what motivates me.

After the hour long lecture....I often the tell them that they now know more genetics than their attendings (Older Physicians). This often makes them feel very empowered. I walk these students through the history of modern medical genetics and tell them about the lack of providers in the field. Often this is accompanied with several expletives about how Mendel did us wrong.....


Did you know that medical students in this new century still think that 1 gene makes 1 protein makes one phenotype? It is true....despite the evidence for alternative splicing, methylation, epigenetics...I could go on and on. There is a reason why a certain unnamed CEO at a certain unnamed genomics company said "Teaching Doctors genetics isn't hard....It's impossible"


I think you know who that company was........Unlike others that are teaching physicians through CMEs.


What I really want to know is.....how many doctors are doing what I just did? I am looking to build a Clone Army and don't have the ability to go to Kamino. So to quote Jerry....."Who's coming with me?" Please email me!


The Sherpa Says:


Congratulations to Francis Collins on his recent Ethics award. He is the George Washington of our genomic union. If we could only clone thee....methylation and all!

Check out my colleague Ogan Gurel MD Mphil

I am sitting on the Phone with the good doctor Ogan Gurel. He is an excellent blogger that always never ceases to amaze me with his posts.

From his site

"Ogan is chairman of the Aesis Group which provides consulting services in the life sciences and healthcare sectors to clients that have included biopharma/medtech companies, hospitals & health systems, private equity firms, venture capital groups and hedge funds. As a healthcare technology expert and futurist, he has been a frequent conference speaker worldwide, addressing the issue of emerging technologies and their impact on the future of healthcare with particular focus on convergent medical technologies"

He was interviewed by INTimeTV. It is an excellent example of how we often forget that there is more than genomics is personalized medicine. Let's face it.......as each day passes, so do the old technologies in how we treat medicine. Unfortunately, your PMD is not keeping up with these changes. How can they? They are too busy fighting insurance companies in order to get paid. But that's a story for a different day.

The Sherpa Says: The future is here, it just isn't evenly distributed......But Ogan has it all

Taking Appointments For August

After Much Ado, Legal Wrangling and Getting the Practice up, we are now accepting patients!!!! We have dates available in August. I have to tell you how very excited I am about this revolutionary style of medical practice. Heck, even when I talked with Dr Collins he was excited.

The biggest problem with genetic care as well as primary care is its true lack of continuity. Helix Health of Connecticut of CT will fix that problem and more. Yes, I know you may be thinking "Gosh, this is a shameless plug for his personalized medical practice"

You are correct it is completely shameless. It is a revolution. The future of health care is about to change in a big way.................