Parking for Jazz Fest

In case you missed it, here’s an email message from the Chancellor on parking for Jazz Fest at the Dental School:

“The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be held at the New Orleans Fairgrounds this weekend (April 26-28) and next week (May 2-5).  Dean Henry Gremillion, DDS, has kindly extended an invitation to LSUHSC New Orleans faculty, staff and students planning to attend to park at the Dental School, space permitting, with their LSUHSC ID’s and gate cards.  University Police will accommodate entering and exiting through the Tensas Street Gate (the back Walk Thru Gate) on the above-referenced dates until 7:30 PM each night.  After 7:30 PM, entering and exiting will be allowed only through the Florida Avenue drive-in.  All LSUHSC rules and regulations remain in effect regarding proper use and care of our campus properties and facilities.  Please see Chief William Joseph for any other questions.”

This Month in History: The Truth and Community Water Fluoridation

We learned from childhood that if you give a mouse a cookie he’s going to want a glass of milk. It is lesser known, however, whether an increase in milk consumption in the general rodent population is directly caused by rampant cookie consumption among mice. Correlation does not necessarily indicate causation.  A similar logical fallacy comes from one member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster who claims that there exists “a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature;” therefore, according to him, more piracy will decrease global temperature and the number of natural disasters. These examples, though silly, illustrate the importance of scientific research in drawing causation in an uncontrolled environment and in distinguishing between folklore, coincidence, and the truth.

One such truth-seeking project involves public health and is the source of long-standing controversy—the issue: community water fluoridation (CWF). Beginning in 1954 in New Orleans, a committee of health professionals convened to address CWF. The committee consisted of several area doctors including LSU Medical Center’s Dr. Russell Holman, who served as Professor and Head of the Pathology Department from 1946 until his death in 1960. An article from the New Orleans Item in 1955 describes the committee as divided and unsure with the exception of Dr. Holman, who planted his support firmly on the side of fluoridation. A final decision was made in 1957 to veto CWF due to a need for further study.

Articles within the past few years on nola.com address CWF in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina as being a lack of supply. Now it appears that fluoride has been returned to our water. A 2010 Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans report defines fluoridation as a way “to prevent tooth decay.” Later in the same report, fluoride is defined as a “contaminant”: its presence on average .8ppm on the East Bank and .81ppm on the West Bank. Likely sources are listed as “erosion of natural deposits; water additive which promotes strong teeth; discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories.”

Though the addition of fluoride to the nation’s drinking water has become common practice, the matter of its efficacy is still unresolved. In weighing the risks and benefits of CWF, the exact nature of correlation between improvements and harm to the public’s dental health remains unclear. Proponents of community health attempt to account for socioeconomic factors, access to dental care, pyorrhea and periodontal concerns in children and adults, as well as fluorosis, a cosmetic issue caused by over-fluoridation.

The CDC has called water fluoridation “one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century,” and in 2010, the center’s statistics show the percentage of the U.S. population receiving fluoridated water at 66.2%. Perhaps we ought to take a cue from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: take to sea, forget dental care, and go marauding!

Glimpse of the Past is an ongoing project to promote the Louisiana Digital Library effort. This Month in History will present for your reading pleasure a closer look into a newspaper clipping of note from our Digital Collections and articles relating to the LSU Medical School. 

LSUHSC Doctor Gives Hope for PTSD Prevention

In exciting research news, a recent study by a group of doctors including Dr. Ya-Ping Tang, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSUHSC, has linked the transgene CCKR-2 to adult-onset post-traumatic stress disorder.

This discovery provides a link between genetics and environment and opens the possibility for prevention of the disorder through “manipulation of a certain neurotransmitter system in the brain during the stage of traumatic exposure” according to articles in EurekAlert! and WWL. View the full text of the research piece, “Temporal association of the elevated cholecystokininergic tone and adolescent trauma is critical for posttraumatic stress disorder-like behavior in adult mice,”  here in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America.

Link to the pdf of the article is available to LSUHSC faculty, staff & students. It can be accessed off-campus with a valid LSUHSC library barcode & PIN. You can find more information at our remote access webpage.

This Month in History: Enjoy Rabbits Playing Piano

A brief interlude for your busy day: Harvey the virtuoso rabbit and her YouTube accompaniment, Elissa watch?v=0NzN8ksnJhA.

As you might have guessed, rabbits are not particularly adept at playing the piano (certainly not as well-attuned as a famous piano-playing cat, Nora: most-outrageous-piano-playing-cat.htm). In an attempt to challenge unfair bunny stereotypes, Dr. Waid H. Dean, Instructor of Physiology at LSU Medical School, chose Harvey to prove the musical worth of her species.

Though Dr. Dean openly admits “there is no scientific purpose to this demonstration”  in a 1958 Times-Picayune article, he says the rabbit’s performance “is merely to demonstrate that animals can be trained to respond to signals.” As with many high-achieving parents, Dr. Dean is not easy to please and expects the best from his tiny Leporidaean maestro. Harvey cannot live up to expectations, however–quickly tiring out after a couple of notes and anxious for her next treat. Though she may not be 6 feet 3 inches tall like another famous Harvey, she is decidedly more cuddly.

On that note, Happy Spring from the staff at John P. Ische Library!

LSUHSC Hosts Asthma Study for Adults

LSUHSC is hosting a free study for adults with well-controlled asthma as part of the American Lung Association’s Long-acting Beta Agonist Step-Down Study (LASST). People 18 years of age and older who have controlled asthma are encouraged to call 504-568-3450 for more information.

With the high cost of medicine, patients have been known to lower their own dosages as their health improves in order to save money. LASST seeks to study various treatment plans as a way to safely decrease dosages of asthma medication over time. Below is the description of LASST as presented on the American Lung Association website:

“Current asthma guidelines recommend stepping down therapy once asthma is controlled for at least three months. For patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) alone, a dose reduction of 25–50 percent to a minimal dose that controls disease is established. However, the optimal approach to reducing treatment in patients with asthma that is well controlled on fixed dose combination ICS/LABA (long-acting beta agonists) is not clear. The study will compare three approaches of care to patients with asthma well controlled for three months on combination ICS/LABA therapy: reduction of ICS dose and maintenance of LABA, initial discontinuation of LABA with continuation of ICS and continuation of stable dose ICS/LABA. The data will allow the determination of the optimal treatment strategy defined as that which results in the lowest rate of treatment failure over 48 weeks of follow up. Additional exploratory analyses will include assessing risk factors for step-down failure and assessing the optimal duration of time that asthma control should be maintained before therapy is reduced.”

This Month in History: The Alligator Men

As a Louisiana native or even an adventurous visitor, you’ve probably fed an alligator a marshmallow or two. What’s the allure of marshmallows to a wild swamp creature? We may never truly know, but for an animal that will scarf down turtle shells, rocks, lures, beer cans, and shoes, marshmallows are probably the least of its worries.

Profiled in the Times-Picayune for their project in 1951, the self-proclaimed LSU “alligator men” studied the production of acid gastric juice and self-induced hibernation in alligators, as compared to iguanas and chameleons. The stars of this “zoo” were Dr. Roland Coulson, LSUMC faculty (1944-2004), Dr. Thomas Hernandez, LSUMC faculty (1960-1977) and Chair of Pharmacology, Dr. Fred G. Brazda, LSUMC faculty (1939-1977) and Chair of Biochemistry, and their graduate student, Dr. Herbert C. Dessauer. In the preface of a later work, Alligator Metabolism, Coulson and Hernandez speak to the origin of their honorary titles”: “It is not possible to have done research on alligators for many years without having gained a reputation for eccentricity as a consequence of the choice of experimental animal. One accepts this and learns to live with it. [...] By some, an alligator man is tolerated (as a harmless eccentric should be), and by others he is admired for the fearless manner in which he confronts such a ‘terrifying’ beast.”

Though certainly fearless, these doctors chose smaller gators to reduce the risk of injury, and by the time the animals reached a rowdy 20 pounds, they were returned to the swamp. Because alligators produce a large amount of hydrochloric acid during digestion, they perform a more dramatic and more readily observable process of digestion. Alligators are also tougher physically and less prone to blood poisoning, making them easier to study. In addition to their excellent acid production, the test gators self-induced a sort of hibernation in winter despite the fact that researchers kept them in windowless rooms with automatic lights; by abstaining from food and decreasing sugar in the bloodstream, the test subjects did not grow.

The practical application of the research of the “alligator men” may not seem readily apparent, but as Dr. Coulson explains in the newspaper article, “The scientist doesn’t have to be working toward the cure of any specific malady […] but often he stumbles upon it by accident, through just a study as ours.” They developed enough material to write numerous journal articles (PubMed author search results hyperlinked above) and monographs. Two books co-authored by Dr. Coulson and Dr. Hernandez are available in the Library: Alligator Metabolism: Studies on Chemical Reactions in Vivo and Biochemistry of the Alligator: A Study of Metabolism in Slow Motion.

Dr. Herbert Dessauer, who began as a humble graduate student and would go on to become Professor Emeritus of molecular biology at LSU Medical Center, passed away earlier this month after a brief illness. We would like to recognize his contributions to not only the scientific community, but also to LSU.  For more information on the contributions of each of the renowned doctors mentioned in this post, please consult A History of LSU School of Medicine New Orleans, which is available in the Library. When you stop by, be sure to check out our display cases, which are home to various medical artifacts including an analytical balance used by Coulson, Hernandez, and Dessauer.

Glimpse of the Past is an ongoing project to promote the Louisiana Digital Library effort. This Month in History will present for your reading pleasure a closer look into a newspaper clipping of note from our Digital Collections and articles relating to the LSU Medical School.

This Month in History: A Nation of Neurotics

In America, methods of care for our mentally ill have become intertwined with the politics of universal healthcare, hospital administration, and prevention of violent crime, all of which suffer under an increasingly budget-cut government. This issue is not a new one, however. The Newspaper Clippings Digital Collection of the Isché Library shows an emerging pattern: a pattern of need. Hospitals and treatment centers need enough beds for psychiatric patients; hospitals need staff to treat those patients; police officers, clergy, and even the general public need training to assess and assist the mentally ill.

Linkages of mental illness and criminal tendencies also surface. In recent news, LSU psychiatrist Dr. Jose Calderon-Abbo joined the vice president’s task force on gun violence; he has also partnered up with Tulane public health criminology expert Dr. Peter Scarf to present a paper of similar topic to the House Subcommittee on Crime, terrorism, and Homeland Security at a hearing on The Youth Promise act.

Not only do mental illness and crime sometimes occur simultaneously, but those charged with apprehending the mentally ill are often the same people who apprehend criminals.  One of our newspaper clippings from 1961, entitled “How Police Can Help Mentally Ill,” addresses the need for officers of the law to be properly trained on how to interact with, assess urgency of treatment for, and detain suspects who appear to be suffering from illness, loss of competency, or loss of sanity.

The clergy are often called upon to assist the mentally ill; one article, “Help of Clergy Asked by Many: Role of Churchmen for Mentally Ill Cited,” explains how the clergy ought to be well versed in tactics to understand and aid their congregations. Examples of tactics used to interact with those in need in the include: a manual from 1954 “How to Recognize and Handle Abnormal People” by Robert A. Matthews and Loyd W. Rowland, former director of the Louisiana Association for mental health and former Head of the department of psychiatry and neurology,  in addition to a 1960 New Orleans officer training film, “Booked for Safekeeping,” produced by George C. Stoney.

In 1961, the name of the game was “expedite”: complex legislature required the approval of a hospital director, an order of commitment signed by the coroner, a psychiatrist, and a responsible party, and approval from a civil judge. Convoluted commitment laws and lack of funding for psychiatric facilities and staff were concerns at this time, but these concerns continue today as the Greater New Orleans area loses beds at Charity Hospital and Mandeville’s Southeast Louisiana Hospital.

In the words of Dr. Robert A. Matthews, former head of the department of neuropsychiatry at LSUHSC from 1950-1957, “While we are passing the hat around for money to fight polio, heart disease, cancer, tuberculosis and other maladies, we ought also to be financing some exploration in to the cause and cure of emotional storms and mental defectiveness. We are fast becoming a nation of neurotic people.”

Glimpse of the Past is an ongoing project to promote the Louisiana Digital Library effort. This Month in History will present for your reading pleasure a closer look into a newspaper clipping of note from our Digital Collections and articles relating to the LSU Medical School.

Free Dental Work

The LSU School of Dentistry is currently screening for patients willing to participate in clinical board exams for graduating seniors.  The dental screenings are free and IF CHOSEN to be a patient for the board exams there will be $50 in compensation. They are looking for people with good overall oral hygiene who may need a small cavity filled or just a general cleaning. In short, if you have a common type of dental needs, nothing fancy or overly involved, feel free to attend one of the screening sessions

For more information, please consult the flyer.

The Poetry of Dr. George William Cooper

Dr. Cooper, a one-time anatomy Professor at the LSU Medical School, was also well-renowned for his poetry.  Recognized for his “consistently good work in poetry” by a forum of the National Writers Club in 1951 and awarded the position of Louisiana Poet Laureate from 1973-1976, Dr. Cooper is a common subject of our Newspaper Clippings Digital Collection. Though the Isché Library does not own any of his poetry collections, they are available through InterLibrary Loan.

Excerpted below  is a poem from one of his collections dedicated to a previous “Glimpse of the Past” honoree, Dr. Frank N. Low. I would like to share this poem with our new and returning students, who will surely feel the “grind” immediately upon returning to classes:

Updated Library Brochure

For the new year, we have updated our Library BROCHURE with current information about loan periods, borrowing privileges, Library and Reference hours, Reserve and electronic materials, Interlibrary loan, Library layout, and our available technology.

The brochure includes hyperlinks that will direct you to different areas of our website and will also connect to your Outlook, making it easier for you to contact us.

This Month in History: The Remedies of Mr. William D. Postell

Do you ever drink water from the opposite side of the glass to cure hiccups or apply duct tape to a wart or spray Windex on a zit? These are just a few examples of therapeutic home remedies, but where do they originate? A collector of “weird-looking” medicinal gadgets and medical historian, Mr. William Dosite Postell, is the star of our highlighted article this month.

Former Librarian of the LSU Medical School, Mr. Postell was a Will of all trades: as he believed, “There is a little bit of the clinician, the research worker, the medical historian, the medical philosopher, the bibliophile, as well as the custodian and the library technician, in each successful librarian.” Though his career at LSUMS was principally one of librarianship, Postell was able to branch out from that role, becoming a scholar of wacky medical wares like cholera baths and mad dag stones.

One outdated cure is the “vapor bath,” invention of a Louisianan, Dr. Louis H. Lefebrve. Depicted in the drawing here, Postell found an early bath in the possession of the Prudhomme family of Natchitoches, Louisiana on one of his excursions to area antebellum plantations. The bath utilized sulphuric acid to assuage the effects of cholera. The story of the madstones or “bezoars” comes from the frontier. These stony hairball-like concretions were taken from the stomachs of deer, cows, or goats and placed on a bleeding wound to draw out poisons like those from the rabies virus or snake venom. In modern medicinal practice, the bezoar is considered a serious health risk in gastrointestinal tracts of humans and has lost its curative mythos (unless, of course, you live in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where the bezoar cure is alive and well).

Postell was quite the adventurous and successful librarian no stranger to going above and beyond his position in pursuit of knowledge. Having served as President of the Medical Library Association (MLA) in 1952 and 1959, he was awarded the prestigious Marcia C. Noyes award for his outstanding contributions to medical librarianship. In a memorable article of the Bulletin of the MLA, Postell wrote, “The best publicity a library can secure is by way of service given. The circulation and reference desk is the best place at which good will can best be cultivated. It is here that the public is met and served. It is the here that new patrons obtain their first impression of the library. If they are met graciously and served competently, they will return.”

Stop by the Isché Library sometime and let us graciously and competently show you the wonderful resources at your fingertips! If you are interested in reading Postell’s work, the Library’s holdings include: Applied Medical Bibliography for Students, The Development of Medical Literature, and The Health of Slaves on Southern Plantations.

Glimpse of the Past is an ongoing project to promote the Louisiana Digital Library effort. This Month in History will present for your reading pleasure a closer look into a newspaper clipping of note from our Digital Collections and articles relating to the LSU Medical School.

NOPL Hosts U.S. Poet Laureate

This Thursday, December 6^th, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will grace us with a reading and book signing at the Main Branch of the New Orleans Public Library.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and native of Mississippi, Trethewey is known for her portrayal of the Gulf South through powerful, natural imagery and historical narrative. The Librarian of Congress James Billington  lauds, “Her poems dig beneath the surface of history—personal or communal, from childhood or from a century ago—to explore the human struggles that we all face.”  You can read examples of Trethewey’s work at poets.org.

The reading  will begin at 7pm and is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Physician Assistant Degree Program Arrives at LSUHSC

This January, the LSU Health Sciences Center jumps on the health education bandwagon as it inaugurates a brand-new ARC-PA accredited physician assistant training program. LSUHSC’s 29-month program of study in evidence-based medicine will instruct its students in patient examination, diagnosis, and treatment.

Dr. Charles L. Hudson first proposed the creation of a physician’s assistant position at a 1961 meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) as a way to mitigate the decline in primary care providers. Ranked second in CNN Money Magazine’s “Best Jobs in America 2010,” this career’s “average annual pay was $86,410 in 2010 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal labor officials projected a 30 percent growth rate in the occupation between 2010 and 2020.”

The John P. Isché Library would like to take this opportunity to welcome LSUHSC’s 30 new students to the School of Allied Health Professionals! We look forward to introducing you to all our Library has to offer.

This Month in History: Dr. Rowena Spencer and Her Little Chickens

Despite the resemblance, Dr. Rowena Spencer explains, children are not tiny adults; indeed, “Children are like little chickens. They like to know their way around.” As one of the first women in the country to specialize in pediatric surgery as well as the first woman appointed to the surgical staff at the LSU Medical Center and the first female surgeon in the state of Louisiana, Dr. Spencer proved a wonderful asset to any hospital. Her bedside manner set her apart as a surgeon of unparalleled worth.

Dr. Spencer preferred to take a lighter approach to her smaller patients—being a friend instead of a threat; as a 1960 Times-Picayune article describes, “She is not above bribing a youthful patient with a nickel or a piece of candy.” And when asked in a recent interview about the most satisfying part of her work, she answered, “Holding the babies. I love babies more that a mule can kick.”

A forerunner for females in the surgical arena, Dr. Spencer faced some adversity, though she did not appear to dwell on this issue. She persevered to become a respected member of the medical community at a point in history rife with tension over not only the presence of women in the medical field but also African-Americans. At Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her M.D. in 1947, Spencer was in good company. She studied under Dr. Alfred Blalock and his laboratory technician, Vivien Thomas. Thomas, an African-American with little formal education, played an integral role in helping save those suffering from “blue baby syndrome.” Another partner in this discovery was Helen Taussig, founder of the field of pediatric cardiology and first female president of the American Heart Association. The work of Blalock, Thomas, and Taussig on the heart is immortalized in a PBS production, “American Experience: Partners of the Heart”(2002), and in a Hollywood production, Something the Lord Made (2004). Dr. Spencer would continue their work on infant patients, making a name for herself as an authority on conjoined twins.

Examples of her work include many articles such as: “Parasitic Conjoined Twins: External, Internal, and Detached” and “Congential Heart Defects in Conjoined Twins.” An autographed copy of her text, Conjoined Twins: Developmental Malformations and Clinical Implications, is available for checkout at the Library. Dr. Spencer has also had the honor of being featured in a publication entitled, Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times. Her chapter, “A Study of Changing Gender Roles in Twentieth-Century Louisiana Medicine” by Bambi L. Ray Cochran, appears alongside essays on Marie Therese Coincoin, Oretha Castle Haley, and many others in a fitting tribute to their contributions. Dr. Spencer recently celebrated her 90th birthday.

Glimpse of the Past is an ongoing project to promote the Louisiana Digital Library effort. This Month in History will present for your reading pleasure a closer look into a newspaper clipping of note from our Digital Collections and articles relating to the LSU Medical School.

Greater New Orleans Census Data Results

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) recently released an examination of U.S. census data: “Who Lives in New Orleans and the Metro Area Now?”. In this report, the GNOCDC compares New Orleans census data from 2000 to data from 2011 in juxtaposition with national averages. Results are graphed according to changes in race/ethnicity, changes in educational attainment and income, changes in poverty and access to vehicles, changes in foreign-born population, and changes in homeownership and household types. The brief focuses on Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, St. Tammany Parish, and the Metro area, each of which are the most populous areas with the most readily available data.

According the census data, several shifts took place in New Orleans demographics with more pronounced changes occurring in the growth of the Hispanic community, the growth of single-person households, and corresponding decreases in adults with less than a high school degree and increase in adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher. In comparison with national averages, however, the Hispanic population here is still low, the median household income in Orleans is only $35,041 versus the national $50,502 (though St. Tammany’s is $56,536). New Orleans poverty rate is up to 13% higher in Orleans Parish than the U.S., amount of children in poverty almost 20% higher in Orleans than the U.S, households without access to a vehicle 10% higher, and homeownership rates 20% lower in Orleans, but 12% higher than the U.S in St. Tammany.

You can check out the results for yourself here.