Tag: samadani

Our 400th radio show!

DRH 400This Sunday morning, September 4, at 7:30, Denny Long and I will take to the veranda at the WCCO Radio booth at the Minnesota State Fair.  It will be our 16th time doing a show live from beneath the shadow of the Giant Slide and sandwiched between Sweet Martha’s cookies and the Ye Olde Mill.  But more significantly, it will be the 400th Healthy Matters radio broadcast.

That’s right.  Since our first broadcast in January 2009, we have done 399 one-hour shows and I tell you what – we’re going to keep doing it until we get the hang of it!  The 400th attempt will be on Sunday which just so happens to be one of our popular State Fair shows.

So consider this your invitation to join Denny and me on Sunday morning!  Last week we had a pretty good crowd at the radio booth around the corner of Underwood and Carnes, and that was only for the 399th show, small potatoes compared to the awesome-ness of the 400th show.

Love this Tweet from my awesome friends at HCMC (hint – hit the play button on the picture):

 

So come to the fair on Sunday, Minnesota (and Wisconsin, and Iowa, and North Dakota, and South Dakota, or where ever you are from . . . last week we had a wonderful woman from San Diego . . .).  If you ask a medical question live on the air, I just may have a special gift for you, one never knows . . . !  

As life-changing and memorable as it will be to be in the audience for the 400th show on Sunday, there is LOTS more to do at the Fair.  Here’s a recap of some cool activities related to medicine. Continue reading “Our 400th radio show!” →

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Every 8 seconds: the science of brain injury with Dr. Uzma Samadani

There’s big news from HCMC this week.  Many know that HCMC is the largest provider of TBI care in the state of Minnesota.  But many don’t know that we are also a major research institution and in no area is this more true than TBI.

The big news is that our researchers are launching the largest single-center study of brain injury in the United States.  It’s been all over the news – check out the buzz this is getting in the national media.


But I don’t have to go to the national media, I just have to walk down the hall to talk with people who are quite literally the country’s leading researchers.  So I dropped by the laboratory of Dr. Uzma Samadani (<–click for her bio) here at HCMC.  She’s super cool even when I gave her only 10 minutes notice before showing up in her office!  Check out the short video clip above – and be sure to listen to the end to hear Dr. Samadani’s important advice about protecting kids from concussion/TBI.  For a more in-depth perspective from Dr. Samadani, click on the TedMed video below (it’s only 6 minutes long).

Eye tracking

Every 8 seconds someone has a traumatic brain injury.  But you may be surprised to learn that doctors really don’t have great answers to the most basic questions like:

Do I have a brain injury?  How bad is it?  Where is it in my brain?

That is what the researchers hope to answer.

Shakira’s hips

Shakira’s hips?  Huh?  Rather than have me try to explain it – watch this brief talk by Dr. Samadani herself.  It is fascinating.

So Dr. Samadani and her team are doing research based on the knowledge that you can actually track the movements of a patient’s eyes to help answer these questions.  As it is now, doctors wave their finger in front of a patient like we have been doing for centuries.  The researchers are hoping to change that by studying all sorts of ways to diagnose brain injury – using blood tests, eye tracking, and imaging (x-rays and pictures and the like) . The eye tracking technology in particular could be game-changing in the way we diagnose and treat brain injury.  For more on eye tracking, click here.

I am convinced that some day the research being done right here at Hennepin County Medical Center and the University of Minnesota will change the lives of millions of people.

That excites me!

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