Feb 01 2010

Military Health System, New Leader?

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Taking bets on who will place a hold on this nomination. Will it be the usual suspects, especially as to the Veterans Administration and National Security, or will it be another rising star of the “Strong on National Defense” group {just say ‘no’}?

Stay tuned!

White House eyes Army Reservist, surgeon for Defense top doc job

The White House is considering naming Dr. Jonathan Woodson, a vascular surgeon and an associate dean at Boston University, to be the next assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Nextgov has learned.

Woodson, who also is a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, will fill a slot left vacant for nearly 10 months since Dr. S. Ward Casscells resigned in April 2009.

Snip

The Military Health System, which Woodson would lead if nominated and confirmed, has an enviable rate of success in its primary combat medical mission but has lacked solid leadership for years in other core missions, such as providing stateside care to 9.5 million active and retired military personnel and their families, and development of a full-scale medical record, sources who declined to be identified told Nextgov.

Snip

“I’d rate him a 10 out of 10 as an administrator,” he said.

Casscells said he did not know Woodson but said, “He sounds well-prepared for the job. He is a clinician, educator, innovative administrator and served in {Operation} Desert Storm.”….>>>>>

Sounds like another Great pick from this innovative executive branch administration, especially with a statement coming from someone who says he doesn’t know him personally but has looked at Woodson’s qualifications, across the board, and really needed in this position. If confirmed it will be also good to watch who he brings in to help in his administration.

2009 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award

Jonathan Woodson, M.D. Boston University School of Medicine

When the twin towers fell in New York, he was there to treat the victims. During Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, he was there to care for patients in an evacuation hospital. And, now, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, M.D., is there for medical students, underserved minorities, and the communities he calls home. The seemingly ubiquitous Dr. Woodson is not only a highly regarded vascular surgeon, but a decorated military leader, service-oriented academician, and esteemed mentor.

When not overseas treating critically wounded American soldiers, Dr. Woodson can be found stateside at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) where he has been a faculty member for more than 20 years. Today, he is an associate professor of surgery and associate dean for students, diversity, and multicultural affairs. He is also a senior attending vascular surgeon at the Boston Medical Center and serves on BUMC’s institutional research board. Additionally, he is an adjunct assistant professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

In the words of his students, Dr. Woodson has “served in so many countries around the world, yet recognizes and responds to the needs of his home communities in New York and Massachusetts.”…>>>>>

Read the rest of this bio above, he’s a keeper!

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    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 13:10
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    The ‘Burn Pits’ Of Iraq And Afghanistan

    January 31, 2010

    At bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military disposes of trash in about 80 giant “burn pits.” During the early days of the wars, everything was tossed into these burn pits – including batteries and even amputated limbs – creating a toxic smoke that soldiers and health officials say leads to respiratory problems. Guy Raz talks to reporter Kelly Kennedy, who’s been covering the story for the Military Times.

    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 13:10
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    Fort Hood Report Reveals Deeper Dilemma

    Pentagon review focuses on the need for more military psychiatrists

    There were a couple of points that immediately stood out in the Pentagon’s report on the shooting that left 13 dead and 43 wounded at Fort Hood in November. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton made note of them this month in the first of two congressional hearings on what went wrong. The most glaring detail was the disconnect between the glowing performance reports written by the supervisors of the alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, and the records of his actual performance, which described him as unprofessional, erratic, and disturbing to both his colleagues and his patients. Equally alarming, Skelton noted, was that in cases where Hasan’s troubling behavior was cited in his files, that information wasn’t shared interdepartmentally. This, in turn, “leads to the bottom-line question,” Skelton said. “Was a great deal overlooked because this was a medical person in a specialty in which there is a shortage?”….>>>>>

    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 13:10
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    Iraq Mends a System to Treat Trauma

    Mohammed Ziara, 11, is taking part in therapy sessions at the Sara Center for Trauma in Basra, Iraq’s first multidisciplinary clinic for post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Iraq’s mental health care system was once advanced for the region, but by 2006 fewer than 100 psychiatrists remained in a population of about 30 million, and almost no psychologists. Patients were isolated in understaffed institutions, apart from their families and communities.

    But now the government has embarked on an ambitious program to rebuild its ruined mental health care system in a country experiencing more than its share of traumas and stress…..>>>>>

    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 13:34
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    Reid files cloture motions on two blocked nominees

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Thursday filed cloture on the nomination of Martha Johnson to head the General Services Administration, in hopes of getting action on the highest-ranking and one of the longest-stalled nominees on the Senate calendar.

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    Reid also filed cloture on the nomination of M. Patricia Smith….>>>>>

    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 14:12
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    On This Day In History

    The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement

    On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch.

    But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own – to maintain the lunch counter’s strict whites-only policy…..>>>>>

    As reported from that time:

    Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear Of Wider Unrest in South

    Special to The New York Times

    Charlotte, N. C., Feb. 14 — Negro student demonstrations against segregated eating facilities have raised grave questions in the South over the future of the region’s race relations. A sounding of opinion in the affected areas showed that much more might be involved than the matter of the Negro’s right to sit at a lunch counter for a coffee break.

    The demonstrations were generally dismissed at first as another college fad of the ‘panty-raid’ variety. This opinion lost adherents, however, as the movement spread from North Carolina to Virginia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee and involved fifteen cities…..>>>>>

    • jimstaro on February 1, 2010 at 14:25
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    Tough old soldier battles new enemy: Suicide epidemic

    Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Rhodes keeps pictures of the dead in his pockets.

    They’re the faces of young soldiers whose eyes stare out resolutely from photocopied pages worn and creased by the ritual of unfolding them, smoothing them flat and refolding them.

    They’re the faces of men who, haunted by problems at home or memories of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – the dead children, the fallen comrades and the lingering smell of burnt flesh – pressed guns to their heads and pulled the triggers or tied ropes with military precision and hanged themselves.

    The pictures remind Rhodes of how close he came to joining them and how, sometimes when the sadness presses in dark and suffocating, he still mentally pens suicide notes…..>>>>>

    • TMC on February 2, 2010 at 05:14
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    the Republicans will put a hold on his nomination, he is eminently qualified.

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