This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Dear friends and colleagues:

I imagine that you all have more on your minds today than professional reading, but I have updated News for Medical & Adult Educators and I thought you might want to read some of the new issues (listed below). You can link to all the publications here.

I would like to wish all of you the best for 2005.

Warm regards,

Anne

AAMC Reporter

ABMS Record

ACGME Bulletin [print]

ACP Observer

Alliance Almanac

Focus on Surgical Education

GAME Newsletter [available to members only]!

NLM Newsline

Say what you will about the pharmaceutical industry, but when it comes to helping out in the tsunami-induced crisis in Asia, it’s coming through. For example, Pfizer is donating $10 million to relief organizations, and another $25 million in healthcare products.

Merck is donating $3 million in cash. Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories are coughing up $2 million each, along with drugs and other healthcare supplies. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash. (For more, click here.)

First there was the whole Vioxx and Celebrex thing. And now there’s a new twist on an old drug: The FDA is doing a pilot study on the use of Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), better known for showing up in dance clubs than hospices, to help terminal patients. This from The Scotsman:

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally-ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones…The small four-month study is expected to begin early next spring. It will test the drug s effects on 12 cancer patients from the Lahey Clinic Medical Centre in the Boston area. The research is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit group that plans to raise 250,000 (-184,816) to fund it.

So, can we bring Timothy Leary back to teach the course on this one?

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