Dear WA State Smart Parents:

I receive a weekly wrap-up of national and regional health news stories. I’ve known for some time that Washington state parents represent the highest rate in the nation for requesting an alternate vaccination schedule for their young children. Basically, these parents are making the point that they disagree with the collective judgement of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current vaccination schedule. Perhaps you already know where I’m headed with this.

One of my recent work projects involved researching and fully describing the most controversial immunizations today–for both children and adults–to be used as part of a national medical school’s training curriculum.  I read every report, for and against pediatric immunization schedules, that I could get my hands on to do this assignment justice. I carefully documented and referenced all related clinical and research data on the subject.

Yes, WA state parents–you are a well-educated bunch. That’s true.  Except when it comes to vaccinating your babies and toddlers. Take a moment to scan this article . It points out the WA parent-instructed exemption rate has more than doubled in the past 10 years; the highest exemption rate in the nation.

For the health and safety of ALL our children, especially for our pre-school and kindergarten age children, please follow the CDC protocol. If you disagree with me, ask me for my research. Thank you!

“Roasting” Nick Magnotti’s Rare Cancer

Tonight, our thinkspace team (where I lease my office) and lots of supporters/volunteers will host an event at the Marriott Redmond to help save a life. It’s called the Seattle Geek Roast and the event and Nick’s story was covered by Seattle’s KING-TV and Fox Q13 news. The back story for the event:

Cancer discovered the hard way.

About a month ago Alyssa Magnotti rushed out the office at thinkspace to meet her husband Nick over at the ER because of a ruptured
appendix. The appendix ruptured from a tumor.  After getting the results back from pathology, Nick was diagnosed with Mucinous Adenocarcinoma of the appendix, a very rare type of cancerous tumor (typically found in patients in their 60’s and older) that can release cells into other areas of the abdomen.  Nick just celebrated his 25th birthday a few weeks ago.

Stage 4 cancer and emergency surgery.

This is a Stage IV cancer.  Normally Stage IV means that a cancer has spread to the lymphatic system or blood stream. But, that’s not what it means
in Nick’s case. The only thing it means is that the cancer is not contained within one organ and that it is technically not operable (meaning that a surgeon can’t go in and ever promise to get all the cancer out).

There are a handful of promising cancer treatment centers in the United States but none of them are local. Alyssa and Nick are evaluating
between Nebraska and North Carolina to have a procedure called HIPEC, or hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, an aggressive procedure that uses heated chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells much faster than traditional chemotherapy by enabling specially trained surgeons to apply heated chemotherapy directly within and throughout the peritoneal cavity, to kill any hidden tumor cells that may not have been removed during CRS (cytoreductive surgery). Basically, they go in and scrape all of your organs and your abdominal area and remove any unneeded organs, then flush the entire area with chemotherapy medication that has been heated to kill cancer cells faster.

This is a couple in their 20’s who could never have planned for this.

In life you plan for lots of things: saving for a house, family, children’s education, retirement. But, this is definitely not something Nick and Alyssa could have planned for. While they have insurance, the surgery may not be covered.  If it is covered, it may only be covered up to 40-60%. The cost of the procedure is between $200K and $300K. The recovery period can also take between one to three months. They will both be missing work for a period of time as they go through this.

We’ve created an event in less than two weeks to benefit Nick and Alyssa. I’ll report results on my next blog.

Update! More than $50,000 raised to support Nick and Alyssa. A GREAT evening. Nick’s surgery was successful and he is recovering.

Baby and Toddler Teeth: Please Look

“Physician and Dentist: Together Managing Early Childhood Oral Health”, held July 28-29 at the Hotel Deca, launched a national dialogue and working partnership among pediatricians, family physicians and pediatric dentists. The initiative’s goal is to effectively manage early childhood caries (ECC) disease in at-risk patients ages birth to 3 years.

“This problem clearly calls for fresh approaches,” said Dr. Joel Berg, Chair of Pediatric Dentistry at the UW, which jointly sponsored the symposium with Seattle Children’s hospital. “We’re spending more than $2 billion each year in the United States to fix children’s decayed teeth. On top of that, nearly three of 10 toddlers and preschoolers are thought to be affected by ECC, and our kids lose more than 51 million school hours annually to dental issues.”

Dental disease can also carry significant health risks for children with diabetes and those born prematurely, Berg noted, and he added that dental emergencies are the second-leading reason for outpatient surgery at children’s hospitals nationally.

“This is our most prevalent childhood disease,” said Berg, who is also president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD). “And its most frustrating aspect is that the disease is almost entirely preventable.” He said that more physician involvement is especially critical in light of the fact that many children do not see a dentist until age 3, when they may already have had 12 to 15 well-child physician visits.

More than 70 leaders in medicine and dentistry gathered for the symposium, co-moderated by Berg and Dr. F. Bruder Stapleton, associate dean of the UW School of Medicine and chief academic officer and senior vice president at Seattle Children’s. Speakers included administrator Marcia Brand of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the UW School of Medicine’s Dr. Frederick Rivara, who recently chaired the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on oral health.

Agreement was reached that ECC disease demands a collaborative medical/dental approach including private industry as a working partner. Yet there remains sober agreement that the medical and dental industries—as well as society in general—still do not view oral health as part of overall health. Symposium attendees agreed to move away from developing disparate project and IT industry solutions (as exist
today), and replace with more broad-reaching, best practice models that can be
quickly and cost-effectively deployed nationally and internationally.

Near term, the group will launch two pilot development projects to meet discussed
objectives. Long term, the group plans to develop a comprehensive medical and
dental solution to serve as the industry recognized “backbone” standard for
successfully fighting ECC in at-risk child populations. Symposia on this
subject will be held annually with published goals and benchmarks.