Family Medicine

Doctor, author wins alumni award Harford County resident Dr. Omar A. Khan has received the University of Vermont College of Medicine's Recent Alumni Award at a reunion awards ceremony. The Recent Alumni Award is presented to an alumnus who has graduated within the past 15 years in recognition of his/her outstanding community or college service; and scientific or academic achievement. A 2003 graduate of the school, Khan is affiliated with Christiana Care Health System and A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington; is a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at University of Vermont; and serves on the clinical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Independent University (Bangladesh)

Sometimes the fear of triggering emotion prevents people from trying to help friends or acquaintances who have suffered the death of someone close."If you don't know the person very well, your reluctance to ask about their grief is justified," says Peter Hartman, a psychiatrist and instructor in the department of family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. But there are ways to express condolences that aren't intrusive:* Acquaintances can make concrete offers of help, such as bringing over a casserole or taking the kids to school for a week.

Baltimore's new NFL team has tapped the University of Maryland Medical Center to provide medical care for its players. The center was one of several Baltimore area health care providers that submitted proposals to the Ravens.The medical center has recruited two sports medicine specialists experienced in sports and family medicine, including a doctor who worked with the team for the past five years in Cleveland.Claude T. Moorman III, an orthopedic surgeon with special training in sports medicine, was hired as director of sports medicine by the university's medical system.

WESTMINSTER - Carroll County General Hospital has announced the newly appointed officers of this year's medical staff and the chiefs of the various clinical departments.Dr. Edward Carter, specialist in radiology, has been appointed president. He assumes the position from Dr. Vincent Fiocco Jr., specialist in internal medicine.Carter has been on the hospital staff since 1977. A 1969 graduate of the University of Maryland, he completed his internship at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C., and his residency at the University of Maryland Medical Systems.

While scientists puzzle over what causes some people but not others to get migraines, there's no mystery about hangovers.There's only one cause: excessive drinking.And one sure prevention: not drinking."Alcohol is a toxic substance to many tissues of the body, and in hangovers, it's toxic to the brain and the lining of the stomach," said Dr. Kevin Ferentz, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.That, he said, explains the pounding headache and nausea that can strike a New Year's reveler just hours after putting down his or her last drink.

Americans are asking for drugs they don't need based on vague TV commercial promises that are heavy on emotions but light on facts, according to a study published yesterday in the Annals of Family Medicine. The charge, based on 30-month-old advertisements, has some pharmaceutical companies questioning the study's validity. AstraZeneca PLC, for example, acknowledges criticism of past advertising practices but said it has introduced new, more responsible campaigns. "That was an old ad," AstraZeneca spokeswoman Michele B. Pelkowski said, referring to a summer 2004 commercial for its cholesterol medication Crestor, which the medical journal featured online.

Alexis Blight , of Columbia, has been named to the dean's list for the spring 2011 semester at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Va. Kathleen Marie Langan , of Columbia, graduated in May from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She will begin family medicine residency at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System-Falls Church in June. Langan is a 2002 graduate of Hammond High School and a 2006 graduate of The Catholic University of America, in Washington.

A local doctor and author will have a book signing at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington June 9.Joseph Taler's book, "In Search of Heroes," chronicles his struggle to survive the Holocaust in Poland by getting rid of his Star of David armband, taking a Christian surname and hiding in a village far from his home.The 260-page autobiography is sprinkled with black and white photos of his family, copies of his false identification papers and hand-drawn maps. The book was published last year by Gateway Press in Baltimore.

President Clinton's call to increase the supply of family doctors could force hospitals such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland into a battle to preserve their roles as specialty centers.For Mr. Clinton's reform to work, teaching hospitals would have to train more than double the current number of physicians planning careers in primary care, a field that has been derided as low-paying and lacking the intellectual allure of the medical specialties.The administration wants to reverse that perception, recognizing that specialists order more tests and perform costlier procedures than do generalists.

* Dr. William G. Nelson, a member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty since 1992, has been selected to lead the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Hopkins. Nelson, who specializes in prostate cancer genetics and treatment, is nationally known as a leader in translational cancer research who, with fellow Hopkins colleagues, discovered the most common genome alteration in prostate cancer. The discovery led to new diagnostic tests for the disease and has fueled interest in new drug discovery and other treatment options, now continuing at Hopkins.