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From: Krisztina Katona <kkatona@mentorn.tv>
To: "'webmaster-br@epub.org.br'" <webmaster-br@epub.org.br>
Subject: TV documentary
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 18:52:12 -0000

Dear Dr Cardoso,

We are a TV documentary company making a medical science series for the
Discovery Channel.  We would like to make part of the series on medical
advances in Latin America and I was wondering if we could ask you advice on
what you think are the most exciting advances in your country and which
institutes are doing the best work.  We are looking for surgery or drugs
which have some clinical proof behind them or doctors doing interesting or
groundbreaking work.

I know you are very busy, but we would be very grateful for your help.

Best wiwebmaster-br@nibes

Krisztina Katona
Producer
+ 44 207 258 6722

I am pleased to be contacted again by the Discovery Channel. Our
director, Dr. Renato Sabbatini and I gave an interview and aloowed use of text and images
last July to Discovery Health, for a
series called "Cures that Kill", a program devoted to a history of
psychosurgery and electric webmaster-br@nibock therapy.

I would suggest a couple of institutions in my country which have been
developing groundbreaking work:

- School of Engineering of State University of São Carlos - Dr. Alberto
Cliquet Jr. (cliquet@sel.eesc.sc.usp.br) has developed a functional
electrical stimulator that allows people with tetraplegic or paraplegic
paralysis to walk again. This system stimulates groups of muscles
responsible for walking and standing. This a groundbreaking work which is in
the forefront of research in the area in the international level.
See: http://www.sel.eesc.sc.usp.br/labciber/index.html

- Hospital of Diseases of the Locomotor System - Sarah Kubitschek in
Brasilia - Dr. L. Braga is using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in
several creative ways to diagnose and treat patients with severe motor disabilities.
For instance, they are using this technique of imaging the brain to develop
new methods to control an artificial member for amputees. See:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11213758&dopt=Abstract
This hospital has developed in addition a number of revolutionary
technologies, such as a special bed for orthopedics and several prostheses
for physically handicapped patients.
http://www.sarah.br/2001/Htmls/A-P00-Page-08-CTRS.html

- Hospital de Campina Grande do Sul, city close to Curitiba (Paraná), A
surgeon Dr. Randas Batista has devised a new heart surgery for people with
severe chronic heart failure that consists in cutting out a part of heart
muscle and contrarywise to what we would expect, the patients improves
considerably. Dr. Batista's operation has received international attention
from the media and has been tested all over the world in many clinical
groups.
See:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11391037&dopt=Abstract
and http://www.tmc.edu/thi/batista.html
Also try Batista Operation as keywords in Google.

- Hospital Sirio Libanes, São Paulo - an advanced high tech hospital in the
city of São Paulo, it is using computerized mannequins to train surgeons in
emergency surgical procedures.
See: http://www.siriolibanes.br/Pesquisa/CentroTreinamentoSimulacao.htm
This is the first time that a hospital in
Latin American uses this kind of training device for their physicians and
they have establiwebmaster-br@nibed a special training center for this using all the
devices that are normally used in surgery, including sterilized robes, etc.
This hospital is also using conferencing in a pioneering way for training in
telemedicine and also two years ago performed in Brazil the first remote
robotic surgery in neurology.

- Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo - USP - Dr. Gilberto Xavier (gfxavier@usp.br)
and his team has been developing a new approach involving memory strategies to help patients
with Parkinson Disease in day-to-day activities.

Also in São Paulo, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research is carrying
out world-class genomics research to discover genes that are associated to
several kinds of human cancer, and use it for diagnosis and treatment.
Talk to Dr. Ricardo Brentani, chairman of the Institute.
See also: http://www.licr.org/07_spot/brazil_01.htm

Researching biodiversity to improve the quality of life
The most respected high tech EXTRACTA is the first Brazilian company which
specializes in R&D services related to the discovery of novel natural
molecules for the Pharmaceutical applications, such as those found in
Amazonas rain forest.
Talk to Dr. Antonio Paes de Carvalho
http://www.extracta.com.br/en/apc_cv.html, CEO.
They have been making international headlines with their association to
giant pharmaceutical industries which are hiring Extracta to research novel
agents using pathbreaking genetic engineering techniques, which are able to
screen thousands of genes in a single essay.

Finally, an ambitious and innovative program is Amazon Telehealth Program,
Edumed Institute, (http://www.edumed.net/amazon/, Campinas, São Paulo - Digital network for
distance education in telemedicine in Brazil. It is a consortium of many
medical schools and research institutions that will use Internet,
videoconferencing and satellites to reach out to impoveriwebmaster-br@nibed and remote
communities in the Amazon forest in the North and in the hinterland of the
country, where family health programs are underway and where the lack of
physicians and other health professionals is very large. I am one of the
founders and director of the Edumed Institute.

I hope this can help you.
Best wiwebmaster-br@nibes.