Genealogy, Jack the Ripper, and Fish and Chips

This is just a travel album of our recent trip to England with a few captions.
  
All pictures were taken with a cell phone, in most cases my iPhone 4S

(As usual, click on any picture to enlarge it.)

The trip had two parts.  First, Barbara's genealogy research in Suffolk, followed by some time in London, long one of our favorite cities.
 
 

We flew on frequient flyer miles; lots of seats available in January.  The weather was actually pretty good.  Not cold, and only one day where we needed our umbrellas.  Pictured is the black bag with our passports and British Pounds that was transiently lost.  We were actually being deplaned when it was found.  Our trip was almost over before it began!

  

 David, our driver, met us at Heathrow arrivals, drove us to Ipswich, kept our luggage in his car, picked us back up later in the afternoon, and then drove us to Lowestoft.  He was great!  Also, his mother's name was Dickerson and from the same place where Barbara's Dickersons' had come from . . . probably a distant cousin.

 

The Victorian school building in Ipswich where the county records were maintained.  Barbara's  Dickersons, Coopers, and Paines sailed from Ipswich in 1637 on the Mary Anne (link to list of passengers.)

 

Searching the microfiche files.  Old English with strange script and quill pens that tended to grow faint at regular intervals is not easy reading!

  

  The Hotel Victoria in Lowestoft; our digs for 3 days of research.  Our room was the middle balcony on the left.

 

 View from our balcony of the hotel grounds, the prominade, and the beach.

  

Bath houses on the beach below the hotel.

   

 One afternoon we took the train from Lowestoft to Norwich to visit Rachael's grandmother and uncle.  Here, Adam is serving the fare he provided:  Scotch egg, meat pie, and an assortment of wonderful UK cheeses; served with Suffolk cider, beer, and wine.   We had a great evening of talking, even extending to politics and religion.  We got so involved we never even took a picture of granny Margaret.  Glad we didn't have to drive home.

 

 Changing trains in Norwich on the way to London

 

 Our London place was a 2 BR condo that Barbara secured (for a great price) in a charity auction.  It was located in the East End, convenient to two underground stations and a block from the huge East London Mosque.  It was an interesting part of London in which we had not spent much time previously.

 

 We were surrounded by Turkish, Pakistani, and Bangla restaurants, as well as a couple of decent pubs.  All in all this was a great "foodie" trip; lots of different, excellent, and relatively cheap meals.  Meat at a nearby restaurant, Maeda, was being cooked on wood coals.

 The first day we did a river cruise on the Thames, downriver to Greenwich, then back up to Parliament.  Big Ben is shadowed against the evening sky amongst other assorted elements near Westminster.

 

 Coming out of the Tower Bridge tube station, you are presented with 2000 years of history, starting with the Roman wall on the left and extending to the Tower of London in the center.
 

We popped into the Minaries Pub (in the arched brick rooms of an 1840 train station) just to rest our feet and get a half-pint, but when they came by with the fish and chips for the next table, we decided to join in as well.

 

On Sunday, Clive Moore traveled up to London to meet us for lunch and for a nice easy stroll from the Sloan Square area along to Knightsbridge.  Clive was our landlord when we lived in Suffolk, and has been a wonderful friend since that time.

   

We also visited more recently-made friends from Southgate one evening.  Anthony and Christine Campbell joined us for lunch during our last trip to England, and during this trip kindly entertained us at their home for dinner.  Christine is Greek, and of course the economy was much discussed.  Anthony is a renaissance man, (link to his blog here)  and we so enjoyed our evening with them that I never took a picture.

Since 1420 there has been a bell foundry outside the old city wall near the Aldgate underground station (Aldgate was the eastern most gateway through London wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the east end of London.)  This particular foundry dates from 1570, and within the relatively small confines were cast Big Ben, the original Liberty Bell, the US bicentennial bell, and the 9/11 commemorative bell, as well as many major church/cathedral bells around the world.

 

The entry to the business offices of the foundry is on the left.  The main entrance to the family house is one of the only still surviving on Whitechapel Lane.  The family still uses the upper floor as a residence.

  

The original wood crane was recently used to lift a 2 1/2 ton bell onto a truck.

 

The Museum of Natural History was a marvelous structure on it's own accord.  It is huge, and this entrance is a small part of the structure.

 

The size of the great hall is hard to grasp.  Numerous, very large galleries extend to both sided.

 

Close to the Natural History museum is the magnificient Victoria and Albert Museum.  Barbara is standing in the Raphael Gallery of the V&A.

 

The "Egyptian Escalator" at Harrods Department Store.

 

The memorial to Diana and Dodi at the foot of the Egyptian Escalator.

 

Matt had given us an head's up on the Neals Yard Dairy.

 

Martin seemed determined to offer us a sample of everything in the shop, and ultimately we settled on several cheeses to take with us.

 

Lunch; more fish and chips at the" Rock and Sole Plaice"

 

An evening walk with the "Eye" on the left and Parliament on the opposite bank of the Thames.

For the last three days of our stay, Brian Bruns, a young writer we have known for years crashed in our condo.  Shortly after his 20/20 interview he came to London to receive his 3rd place prize for the 2012 London Book Festival.  Brian did his own thing the day of the award dinner, but the other days he patiently explored various corners of the city with we older, slower folk.

 

We returned to the Natural History Museum to visit a special exhibit on Scott's South Pole attempt. ( That's Brian on the arched bridge with his arms extended.)

Checking out the Still and Star Pub with Brian.  Classic Brit pub with Bitters pumped from cask and darts being played in the back.

 

Ally or small lane we came across in which one of Jack the Ripper's victims was found.  Barbara was aware that the Ripper murders happened in the area of London we we staying in, so we checked out several of the notable locations during our walks that week.

 

This pub was one of our stops on our own Jack the Ripper tour.  It was a brothel at the time.  A story with some credibility is that the series of murders stemmed from a cover-up of an encounter between a noble/royal personage that resulted in a pregnancy.This site has just about all the existing reference material about the Ripper.

 

Most friendly and talkative barman in the Ten Bells.  (Everyone will willingly talk to Barbara!)

 

Across from the Ten Bells is the Spitalfield Market.

 

Just my luck!  It was the day for the antiques dealers to display in Spitalfields.

St Paul's from the Millennium bridge.  We were generally lucky with weather this trip, even though it was winter.

 

On our last night we explored the Wapping Docks area, and had a pint and snack in the Town of Ramsgate Pub on the Thames.  It has a very interesting history if you follow the link.

   

  This sampling of pictures is not comprehensive, and does not begin to cover all the places and experiences of the trip, but will hopefully give you some of the flavor of our time there.  This will save you hours of boredom as you will have an excuse not to see all of our pictures when you visit!

 

J&B

  

 

DARWIN DAY IS AROUND THE CORNER

Charles Darwin Day (Feb 13) is upon us again.  I have a previous post regarding Charles Darwin, and I have little to add to that commentary today..
 
In this country some (actually quite a few) citizens, including a few congressmen, have religious belief in divine creation, or intelligent design as it is sometimes called, (their belief is fine with me), and they would like to see creationism taught as legitimate science in our public schools (this is not so fine with me.)
 
In contrast, I was recently in London and visited the British Museum of Natural History, which is essentially a monument to Darwin.  It even has a full-sized statue of the man in a prominent position of the main hall.  The quintessential homage a country can give to a citizen however is to place his/her image on their money so that it is seen by millions every day, and that is what England did with their 10 Pound Sterling banknote (and this is fine with me.)

Darwin, seen on the stair landing at the far back of the hall, 

oversees the collections of the British Museum of Natural History (click to enlarge.)

Charles Darwin

Lost in thought?

Darwin on the Ten Pound Note

Julian Barnes: Non-Linear Novelist

Flaubert's Parrot was my fortuitous introduction to the novels of Julian Barnes.  It's unconventional structure as narrative/fictional biography with multiple voices and non-linear chronology somehow held together to illuminate Flaubert's philosophy as it relates to the protagonist's inward struggles.

Oxford educated Julian Barnes was raised by academic parents (French Professors) and his brother, Jonathan, is a widely respected academic in ancient philosophies, so the introspective nature of Julian's prime characters follows in a natural, almost family sense.

Critics are generally effusive, and his novels have garnered big-time awards, but some might wince at the occasional vivid inclusion of some of the baser human language, thoughts, and acts which Barnes occasionally presents seamlessly, if bluntly, and more in some books than others.  ("Filth" and "disgusting" have been used in some of the individual Amazon reviews of his books.)  Women in his novels are mostly present as a foil for the male character, and while these women are complex and challenging, they are not often treated with great sympathy (but then neither is the central character).

Two of his more recent novels (Nothing to be Frightened of, and The Sense of an Ending) deal with a protagonist that is aging and unavoidably ponders the changing nature of life, and reflecting on how he (Julian himself?) came to be what he is.  This might seem to be morbid, but comes across, at least to myself, as a process that we all tend to endure as our past life becomes longer than our future life.   Julian and I are roughly the same age, so it is natural that I find some comradeship when he writes of being old, and how your thinking changes; "It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different past for others."

Nothing to be Frightened of is not really about dying, nor is The Sense of an Ending about death, but I do think you need to be approaching or past Medicare age, as am I, to really appreciate either.

J & B - a 2011 Review

John & Barbara

Christmas 2011

Hint - click on any picture to enlarge it 
 

Rather Sporadic, like our life, but here is a note of the clan happenings lately. It would be easy if we could just say we worked, hung around the home, and read a few books, but fortunately we were able to get around a bit again this year.

In January Barbara left ahead of John for Palm springs, doing a “ricochet” road trip with Joanne, one of her girl friends. We departed the desert early this year for purpose; a March wedding! Karen and Brian were wed in a beautiful ceremony (and rocking reception) in Tucson in late March. It was a formal wedding, but with a notable lack of stress and abundance of fun. After the honeymoon, Karen, now a board-certified psychiatrist, is back in her practice and Brian has taken advantage of an opportunity to expand his law practice. They have all the paperwork in place for adoption and hope to be parents very soon.

 

June found us on the way to England, Norway, and Denmark with Dale and Ann Roberson to see the fjords and Some of Dale's family. We started in London, where Barbara And John had lunches with English friends, both old and recent. Barbara, as usual, uncovered things off the beaten path, this time a Victorian operating theater (pre-anesthesia and pre-antisepsis) for the Guys Hospital women's wards that had been closed off for construction, forgotten about, and then discovered as a veritable time capsule more than a hundred years later. 

We then embarked for a cruise along Scotland , the Norwegian fjords, Bergen, and Oslo, winding up with a few days in Copenhagen.  Barbara again searched the side streets, leading us to a Leper Hospital in Bergen from the 1700's and an old medical school and hospital in Copenhagen that contained a remarkable collection of the very earliest X-ray equipment.

On the shore day in Flam, the Floyds and Robersons rented a car and spent the day visiting with Dale's family and touring the family farm and homes and the wonderful, old church. To add a bit of excitement, we left the family at the last minute, drove like mad ( including a ferry connection and the longest automobile tunnel in the world), and made it back to the ship just as they were raising the gangplank. Participating in Dale's family connection was the highlight of the trip.

In July, John drove our motorhome as the support vehicle for Matt (John) and two of his friends on RAGBRAI as the boys (and 10 or 20 thousand others) did the annual bike ride across Iowa from the Missouri to the Mississippi. Fun (and air conditioning) for all. While Matt was conditioning for RAGBRAI, Rachael was in Portland training for half-marathons (challenged by her mom, who travels to Portland for the races.) M & R seem to be thriving in Portland (great city!)

 

Anne is back in School in Phoenix and will soon join her siblings as college graduates. She is on the Dean's List! RC continues to work in what in Phoenix is a very challenging real estate business. They drove to Estes Park in August, joining Matt, Rachael, Karen, and Brian so all could celebrate with us our 40^th wedding anniversary . . . the best present we could have.

 

We were in Estes Park for much of the Fall (with John commuting of course.) It remains a remarkable place. This year we had a mother bobcat park her 3 kittens in a tree next to our deck for the afternoon and evening; pictures ended up in the local paper. We had a visit from Barbara's cousin Steve and wife Janet and a couple of visits with John”s cousin John and wife Donnice who live in Fort Collins. It was a great opportunity to stay in touch with our many friends in Estes Park, many whom are neighbors on our street.

 

In early November, we combined taking the RV to California with a trip to Green Valley, AZ for

a weekend celebrating Tom and Elaine Ferguson's 50^th wedding anniversary – what a party! It was also a chance to see friends from our old gourmet club.

 

We did a slight twist on our annual visit to Chicago for the big radiology meeting the week after Thanksgiving by not using an hotel, but staying in a condo (owned by a friend of a friend) a block from Water Tower. Chicago has long been our favorite city for downtown living/visiting, though we must say that now we are getting to know Portland, OR, it too has a great downtown.

 

We will be heading back to Estes Park for Christmas and New Years, and be joined there by Matt/Rachael and Karen/Brian. Ann and RC might or might not be there because of medical issues with his family in Cedar Rapids.

 

Barbara keeps adding to the family history, with research here and there across the country. In addition to working in the Newberry library in Chicago, she “discovered” one of the best genealogy libraries in the country in Fort Wayne, IN, and combined a visit there with a trip to attend a memorial for Bill Wilson, her aunt's husband, in Princeton, IN. Barbara also continues to hone her jewelry making skills. This year she moved from student to teacher, leading two classes in chain maille at a local shop here in Cedar Rapids.

 

John still enjoys his practice, and has committed to working through 2012. Next summer he will decide about 2013. He relishes those days without the alarm clock going off, and could learn to live that way all the time.

 

We wish all of our friends and family the best for the coming year. We cherish each and all of you and we are thankful we have you in our lives.

  

(Winter Holidays in Estes Park
from our bedroom window. )

John & Barbara

 

 ***

Rationing Health Care: good or bad it's necessary

Book Cover 

"Pricing Life" by Peter Ubel

The USA is going to have to decide what to do about the rampant acceleration in the cost of health care on a national basis, and I am fearful that, lacking the knowledge and courage to do it correctly, the government will simply continue cutting payments across the board to doctors and hospitals, encourage the use of cheaper but less effective care, and continue to ignore the growing tens of millions of citizens without health care insurance.  

  

PRICING LIFE is one of the few books to use the "R" word (rationing) even though we are already  rationing care in this country; just doing it irrationally.  My daughter, K put me onto this book almost a decade ago, and it is every bit as valid today as when it was published in 2001.

Ubel reviews the many ways rationing has been attempted (with noteworthy experiments in Oregon that were well conceived but still unsuccessful), including prioritizing with cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as means to determine the utility of different medical treatments in adding a quality year of life (QALY.)  He comes to the conclusion that these efforts have failed because they don't reflect all community values and only address the average patient.  He contends that only by primary physicians limiting use of and access to marginally beneficial care can substantial reductions in medical utilization and cost be achieved.  He discusses the way physicians are already rationing care by the use of situational examples.

Ubel also talks about the "Moral Hazard" of insurance, even when individually purchased.  This is a phenomena well known by waiters in high priced restaurants.  When there is no splitting of the check, the overall bill will invariably be higher than if individual checks are given.  When Bill is dining with 5 other friends at an expensive restaurant, he is more likely to order his third expensive scotch after dinner since he will be responsible only for $10 (1/6) of the actual $60 cost of his three drinks, while Mary may have the fancy desert she thinks is overpriced and would not otherwise order, but because she sees Bill having all that expensive Scotch she also wants to get her own "fair share."  

This same process acts with insurance, especially when employer or government provided.  If your doctor says there is a test that cost $500 to detect a rare disease that you have only a 1 in 10,000 chance of having, you will probably decline to have the test if you have to pay the $500 out of your own pocket.  However, if covered by insurance and you only have to pay $10 to have the test, you are far more likely to ask you doctor to go ahead with the test.  Thus the "moral hazard" of medical insurance works just like the expensive dinner with a single check.

I do think there is an important component missing in Ubel's book, and it is perhaps because his experience is as a government-employed VA doctor, and because the "business" of medicine has increased in dominance since the '90s when he wrote the book.  I know of no hospital that does not operate on a profit basis; especially a "non-profit" hospital that is in competition with another non-profit in the same community.  

As I have commented earlier, medical groups are also operating on the profit model.  Urologists buy a complete radiation therapy installation, since there is much more to be made from the technical fee for a course of radiation therapy for prostate cancer than from a surgical fee for a prostatectomy.  Orthopedic surgeons install MR scanners in their office and make more money from sending patients to the MR than they would ever make from consultations and examinations in their clinic.  Ditto for Cardiologist, oncologists, etc. etc.  The financial incentives for over-utilization are tremendous.

I see nothing in the behavior of our government members to suggest that they possess the moral fiber to tackle and solve the health care cost and availability problem anytime in the near future.  Only when a crisis brings a consensus in the citizenry that we must accept some degree of rational rationing, and we make it clear to congress and the President that we are willing to accept a fair and rational national health care policy for all our citizens will there be any chance at all to alter the path we are currently on to a complete implosion of  health care in the USA.

THE REVIVAL OF ANCIENT MATERIALISM

  

Epicurism: The pursuit of sensory pleasure.

Epicureanism:  The natural and moral philosophy of Epicurus.

The Nature of Things:  The magnificent poem by Lucretius presenting the philosophy of Epicurus

It has been my intention over the past 10-15 years to become better informed in the Greek Philosophers.  Naively, I started with the names with which I was most familiar; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.  It was difficult reading, and I tended to lay the books aside, because I just wasn't getting much satisfaction.


I had another chance to try some heavy, but in this case wonderfully rewarding, reading over the past two months after listening to an NPR talk show discussing a poem by Lucretius, The Nature of Things.  It seemed this poem described things made of atoms flying around largely empty space and a world in which the pursuit of happiness occurred within a moral philosophy of humanistic concern.

 -  De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) by Titus Lucretius Carus - Translated by A. E. Stallings

 

 -  Epicureanism at the Origins of Modernity by Catherine Wilson

 -  The Swerve: How the World became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

There are no primary documents left to us by Epicurus (Greek, 341-270 B.C.E).  Most of the contemporary writing from his time is that of other philosophers,and most were critical of Epicureanism.  Diogenes did summarize Epicureanism in his review of Greek philosophers.  Epicureanism was incompatible with any of the cults of the Greek or Roman gods, and was later considered by the Christians to be heretical.
  
There is a singular record of his teaching written around 60-50 B.C.E. by an Epicurean student and Roman Citizen, Lucretius,  in the form of a poem.  Oh, but what a poem.  More than 7,000 lines, no characters and no story, but perhaps the most beautiful presentation of thought ever recorded. (Try the poem's 4th book  for maybe the most intense description of human physical love you will ever read.)  Lucretius said by placing a rim of honey (his poetry) around the rim of the glass, one would be more likely to drink the contents which otherwise seemed strange or even unpalatable.


However, it is not the shear beauty of the poetry that overwhelms me, but the incredible insight into nature provided by the Epicurean philosophy.  His prescient concept of a world made of atoms and empty space preceded "modern" science by almost two thousand years, and was the basis for the science of Newton, Galileo, and others.  He suggested the basis for evolution long before Darwin and even discussed a "probability" of particle movement and location, hinting at the "new" science of quantum physics.  There is an excellent summary (and drawing of Lucretius) in this New Yorker article.

In Epicurean morals, pain is an unqualified evil.  Because death is the end for each sentient being, we should enjoy ourselves to the extent that our enjoyment of present pleasures does not diminish the quantity of pleasure we can enjoy in the future, to the extent that our present enjoyments do not destroy health, bring down the wrath or contempt of others upon us, or subject us to the torments of guilt and regret.  Moral wisdom consists not in ascetic practice, but in prudence and foresight, for experience of mankind assures us that moderation and avoidance of dissipation tend to make for a less painful life.


Thomas Jefferson had 5 Latin editions of The Nature of Things, and one each in French, Italian, and English.  He wrote to a friend "I too am an Epicurean."  It is no surprise that the Declaration of Independence speaks of the right to "the pursuit of happiness."  In a letter to William Short Jefferson writes: 

"I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that "that indulgence which prevents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided." Your love of repose will lead, in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know is one of his four cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road."


Some proposals within The Nature of Things:


* Invisible particles constitute everything in the world, and all things are made of indivisable "atomes" or "Seeds" and empty space.
* These atoms are limited in shape and size, but each shape and size is infinite in number.
* These particles are always in motion within an infinite void.
* The particles do not travel straight, but "swerve," collide, hook together, come apart.
* Aggregation of atoms produces visible objects, plants or animals.
* When these things die or undergo dissolution, these atoms are dispersed back into the world, available for construction of new things.
* Nature continuously experiments.  Things better adapted increase in number while things less well adapted disappear.
* The universe has no creator or designer.
* The universe was not about nor created for humans.
* Humans are not unique nor fundamentally different from other animals.
* The soul is inherent to the physical body and dies with the body.
* There is no afterlife
* Death is nothing to us, neither pleasure nor pain nor longing nor fear.
* Organized religions are superstitious delusions.
* Religions are always cruel.
* There are no angles, demons, or ghosts.
* The highest goal of human life is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
* The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain, but delusion and anxiety.
* Awe and wonder come from understanding nature.


 "The Swerve" is a shorter, more readable text, most concerned with how the poem survived the sac of Rome and and the Catholic inquisition, to be discovered just in time for the evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Wilson's lengthier text is more comprehensive, academic, and therefore a bit more of a challenge as a weekend read.  A.E. Stallings' translation of "The Nature of Things" is touted as excellent and  probably the best available english edition.

  

"Unlike social and financial status, which are unlimited,

Peace of mind can be wholly secured"

.

-

The Word "Lucrative" Should Have no Place in Healthcare

 

First, you should precede this discussion by reading OVERDIAGNOSED  by Welch, et al in which he discusses in depth the various test, diagnoses, and treatments which they feel do significantly more overall harm than good.  As one of many, many examples, he discusses at length the use of the PSA test for prostate cancer, which is currently under intense public debate.


I have recently received an unsolicited email invitation to enlist a company which will allow me to directly refer patients for sleep apnea testing, and with no further effort on my part they will send the patient a home test kit and, if they test positive, suggest I then arrange for the company to send the patient a CPAP machine from Philips.  This was sent specifically to me as a radiologists!  They will bill Medicare of the insurers on my behalf and send the the checks.  One of their user endorsements suggest “It’s elegant and lucrative.”  They suggest that tens of millions have asymptomatic sleep apnea, so everyone is a candidate for testing. They are not targeting specialists who deal with sleep disturbances, but anyone and everyone who has contacts with patients - "The MD Home Sleep Program is ideal for physicians and dentists regardless of specialty. Primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, and others have joined the program."


I have no doubt that many health care providers will take them up on this as a means to "enhance" their practice revenue.  No question, sleep apnea is a real disease, with real consequences, and patients needing appropriate diagnosis and management is important.  However, this proposal seems geared primarily for profit.


I have seen similar offers for simple audiometry machines (for which insurance can be billed for the same amount as if the test were done in a full audiology suite with a sound-insulated room and sophisticated electronics)  with the pitch that "everyone" could have some hearing loss, and therefore you can justify testing every single patient that walks through your door.


And you wonder why healthcare cost are out of control?


The email I found in my inbox this morning:

Dear Doctor,

Radiologists are becoming an integral part of identifying patients with obstructive sleep apnea. (a physician recruiting company) is pleased to offer doctors of ANY specialty a new and innovative way to provide convenient care to patients who may have sleep apnea while capturing additional revenue. Doctors are provided with everything they need--including education--to diagnose and treat sleep apnea. Here is a recent press release about the program.

Please take a few moments to review this website. You can directly sign up for the program by clicking here. There is no fee to join or participate and doctors are not required to buy equipment or invest money at any time. 

What are physicians saying about the program? “The administrators are courteous and helpful and the program is easy to use. I'm not a sleep doctor, but I feel equipped to treat sleep apnea now. I was initially worried about billing and reimbursement, but that worked out wonderfully too and I received my checks on time, as promised.” -MAM, Internal Medicine from New York

If you have questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please contact me.

Thank you,

(a physician recruiting company)

The Pitch:

Aviisha’s MD Home Sleep Program continues its rapid growth as physicians and dentists join to diagnose and treat obstructive sleep apnea.

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) July 19, 2011

Sleep physicians and non-sleep physicians are gathering to diagnose and treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) via the MD Home Sleep Program (MDHSP). Spearheaded by its Medical Director, Dr. Abraham (Avi) Ishaaya, the program was designed for the convenience of both patient and physician.

MDHSP is the creation of the Aviisha Medical Institute, LLC. Started in 2009, the program is part of a full-scale effort to fight the national sleep apnea epidemic. MDHSP simplifies the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea while helping patients avoid expensive lab testing.

Physicians who join the program are given a variety of screening tools to identify patients at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea. “It’s estimated that one out of every five Americans has sleep apnea,” explained Dr. Avi. The disease leads to countless serious complications including stroke, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, weight-gain, depression, anxiety, and even death. Dr. Avi continued, “The consensus in the medical community is that patients who snore, have daytime sleepiness, or suffer from diabetes, hypertension or heart failure should be screened for OSA immediately.”

Cutting-Edge Home Sleep Testing and APAP

Using Aviisha’s revolutionary technology (patent pending) physicians can prescribe home sleep tests with the click of a button. Aviisha takes over by verifying insurance and shipping the patient a home sleep test. All patients are tested using the Philips Alice PDx portable diagnostic device, an unsurpassed, state-of-the-art device that meets the standards of Type II, III and IV diagnostic tests with up to 21 channels. The test is simple to administer and produces highly accurate results.

Aviisha scores the test and sends the physician a straightforward report with diagnostic and treatment recommendations. Physicians can prescribe Auto-CPAP therapy (APAP) just as easily as they prescribe the home sleep test. The device, a Philips System One REMstar Auto-CPAP machine with A-Flex ships directly to the patient. The device automatically adjusts its air pressure according to the patient’s individual needs, reducing unnecessary air pressure by up to 40%.

Aviisha also manages treatment compliance and generates periodic reports for physicians. “We’ve designed the program in such a way that the physician’s main responsibility is identifying patients at risk for sleep apnea,” said Alazar Yinbal, Aviisha’s Chief Executive Officer. “We do the rest.”

New Website Empowering Physicians

Physician need not be sleep specialists to participate in MDHSP. A battery of newly published webinars, articles, tools, and resources empower physicians to evaluate patients and prescribe diagnostic tests and treatment. “The program does a wonderful job of giving me the information and tools I need to feel informed and prepared to treat sleep disorders,” said Dr. A.M. Mirza, a physician specializing in Internal Medicine from New York. “It’s elegant and lucrative.”

The website features a brand new Sleep Apnea Education section containing free articles, videos, slideshows, diagnostic tools, and resources about sleep apnea. Monthly webinars hosted by Dr. Avi highlight different aspects of sleep apnea and are open to all medical professionals. Dr. Avi explains, “We wanted to educate doctors about sleep apnea and ensure that they felt not only comfortable but confident in their medical decisions.”

The hard work seems to be paying off. MDHSP physicians have reached an impressive 85% conversion ratio from home sleep test to positive diagnosis. Not only that, its current treatment compliance rate is over 74%, almost twice the industry’s average.

The MD Home Sleep Program is ideal for physicians and dentists regardless of specialty. Primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, and others have joined the program. There is no fee to join or participate and physicians are not required to buy equipment or invest money at any time. The program serves in-network, out-of-network, and Medicare patients.