Enabling a Child to Hear

The story of 3-year-old Amina, who traveled from war-torn Iraq to receive a cochlear implant at UM/Jackson, made headlines around the world. The connection that brought her here was through a U.S. Army colonel in Iraq whose wife knew Thomas Balkany, M.D., years ago and was familiar with his international reputation for performing cochlear implant surgery. The amazing story was carried by more than 115 media outlets in Florida, the United States, and such countries as Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

On Castro’s Malady

The Office of Medical Communications fielded more than 50 calls from the media requesting experts to discuss the health of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Jeffrey Raskin, M.D., and Howard Manten, M.D., from the Division of Gastroenterology, did many of the interviews, along with Enrique Ginzburg, M.D., and Juan Asensio, M.D., from the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery.

Diabetes Expertise

Television stories produced by two Miami stations about a new NIH trial for type 1 diabetes that featured Jennifer Marks, M.D., and Jay Skyler, M.D., were picked up by the national feeds and broadcast across the country. Virtually every NBC station in the country picked up the story, along with more than a dozen CBS stations.

Reducing Drug Abuse

José Szapocznik, Ph.D., director of the Center for Family Studies, made the rounds of Hispanic media outlets to help launch the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. He appeared on the nation’s top Hispanic morning show, Despierta America, and also did an interview with Tele-mundo network and El Nuevo Herald. The media campaign is aimed at educating Hispanic parents about the dangers of prescription drug abuse among young people. Szapocznik serves as the chair of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse.