Ram Roth

Automatic update of the departmental faculty database using PUBMED's PMID

We have developed a computer system which allows the automatic updating of the list of publications in a faculty database using PUBMEDs PMID. The system utilizes a ColdFusion application development platform for the Internet/intranet and Microsoft Access with Visual Basic for desktop applications. SQL Server is used as a common database. This allows simultaneous access to the departmental database for both desktop and Internet/intranet-based systems.

Building a Global Health Education Program in an Urban School of Medicine

This chapter describes the development of a multidisciplinary global health program in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Key features were (1) a deliberate early decision to focus scarce resources on education in global health; (2) creation of a three-tiered educational program that offered introductory training in global health to all medical students, in-depth education to students interested in global health careers, and postgraduate education in global health tracks to selected residents in Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry; (3) the creation of a strong global health track in the MPH program; and (4) creation of a post-residency teaching fellowship in global health. Two external factors strongly assisted program growth: (1) consistent fiscal and intellectual support from the Dean of the Medical School and the Dean for Medical Education which culminated in the introduction of a stand-alone course in global health to the mandatory core curriculum of the medical school, and (2) the building of a strong base of philanthropic support with support from the Medical School’s office of Development that culminated in formation of the recently endowed Arnhold Global Health Institute at Mount Sinai. Program evaluation and continuous improvement were essential at every stage.

Letters from Around the World

It is Monday morning, warm even at this early hour. By midday it will be a scorcher. I hope the air conditioner in the OR is working, but you never know. I was given a brief description of this OR by a colleague who had worked there; “they have everything you need… you will be fine.” The space is cramped with lots of equipment, some of it older than I am. I look for the capnograph on the monitor and realize it appears to be missing one. The anesthesia machine is a Drager Narkomed®; there is circuit, a bag, and an isoflurane vaporizer but no ventilator. It is like a dinosaur but without a heart. I rifle through the drawers of the cart and scavenge a few items so I can set up for a case. A woman I have never seen before hands me a liter of normal saline and asks if there is anything else I will need, “and the first patient is waiting to see you,” she says. Who among us has not experienced the stress and excitement of working in a new environment?

Anesthesia in Action at a Global Health Site

Guadalupe is a 72-year-old Honduran woman with a long history of right lower abdominal pain that has worsened over the past 4 months. Her past medical history is significant for diet-controlled diabetes and high blood pressure for which she takes hydrochlorothiazide and atenolol. She has never had surgery and has no family history of problems with anesthesia.