N E W Sx I T E M S

THIRD WORLD OUTREACH

Faculty surgeon Rochelle Dicker presides at a medical clinic in a displaced persons camp for tsunami victims in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, but physician involvement in the Third World can also be accomplished locally. Yasodha Natkunam, a faculty pathologist and Sri Lanka native, writes in a Letter to the Editor [See story] how her colleagues might provide crucial support to people of the world without leaving their offices or clinics - or even writing a check.

Photo: UCSF Surgeon Doruk Ozgediz

SUMMER SCHEDULE:
The next Medical Staff Update will be a combined August / September issue. Please submit your news and announcements (goodkind@stanford.edu) by July 22. Monthly publication will resume in October!

LET THE DIALOGUE BEGIN . . .
This month we feature two provocative columns urging medical staff members to become involved in organized medicine. The discussion includes your Stanford colleagues [See column 2] as well the president of the CMA. [See column 1].

COP DOC NORRIS MAY NOW CARRY GLOCK
- Lessons in handling a 40-caliber automatic Glock handgun, along with frisking of suspects and hot pursuit driving techniques, were part of six months and 880 hours of training that Deputy Robert L. Norris completed during a sabbatical. Norris, aka director of emergency medicine at SHC and associate professor of surgery, said he became a reserve deputy after the 911 terrorism incidents and then saw that attending a full-time academy might foster relationships between emergency responders and the ED. He graduated from the interagency police academy in San Mateo in March and is now trying to carve out time from his "day job" at Stanford to complete the practical field training (analogous to a medical residency) that would allow him to work "solo" as a deputy. Meanwhile, he is applying some of his academy lessons to clinical research on emergency care, including ways to provide emergency care safely at crime scene. [See story]

Photo/Text: courtesy of Bob Norris and the Stanford Medical Center Office of Communications and Public Affairs