Many of you have probably heard the good news regarding University of Michigan ending its live dog lab. This good news has also been verified via the UM Medical School site at http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1057
In a letter sent by PCRM, it seems that the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is still caught in the past via its use of live animals - vivisection. If you read the email I pasted below you’ll see how you can help this school step into current non-animal teaching methods.
For those of you who would like to learn more about alternatives to animal testing and vivisection, including what non-animal methods are available, please visit our page on alternatives to animal testing and vivisection at – http://www.geari.org/alternatives-to-animal-testing.html
One such method mentioned below and used extensively is the TraumaMan System from Simulab. You can learn more about this at http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/gm06spring/life_or_death.html
Please read on below about the use of live animals at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of
New Jersey (UMDNJ) and how you can help end such archaic practices.
You have sent more than 20,000 e-mails to University of Michigan (U-M) administrators, asking them to use nonanimal training methods in their Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. The school’s Graduate Medical Education Committee recently met and decided that it agrees with you. No dogs or other animals will be killed in the school’s ATLS course, according to a university statement.
Your hard work helped end animal suffering and improve medical education in Michigan. Now we need your help to do the same thing in New Jersey. While more than 90 percent of United States and Canadian facilities no longer use animals for ATLS training, University Hospital in Newark, part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), continues to use live pigs for its course, despite the availability of nonanimal alternatives like the TraumaMan System from Simulab. The hospital’s next ATLS course is scheduled for March 13.
Please e-mail, call, or write to UMDNJ president William Owen Jr., M.D., and politely ask him to end animal use in University Hospital’s ATLS course. Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals. Send an automatic e-mail.
William Owen Jr., M.D.
President
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
65 Bergen St., Room 1535
University Heights
Newark, NJ 07107-3007
Phone: 973-972-4400
E-mail: wfowenmd@umdnj.edu
Showing posts with label live animal labs in medical schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live animal labs in medical schools. Show all posts
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, July 10, 2008
PCRM Asks for Your Help Ending Live Animal Labs at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), the Only Military Medical School
As you’ll read below, the military (not surprisingly) uses live animals in labs in the medical school. As you’ll also read at http://www.pcrm.org/resch/meded/index.html many of the top medical schools in the country have long abandoned live animal labs. Please read on and see how you can easily make voice against the practice of live animal labs.
Ask the Military to End Live Animal Use in Medical Student Courses
We need your help to end the use of live animals for medical student training at U.S. military facilities. Live animals are used and killed in medical student courses at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md., and Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. PCRM filed a petition for enforcement with the Department of Defense (DOD) on July 2, 2008, asking for an end to this animal use. The Washington Post recently covered PCRM’s campaign.
USUHS is the country’s only military medical school. The teaching methods it uses impact medical student training at military facilities across the country. There are at least five live animal labs at USUHS. According to the school’s Web site and other documents obtained by PCRM, they include:
* A live pig lab offered to third-year medical students as part of a surgery rotation (this lab also takes place at Wilford Hall). At the end of this lab, the pigs are killed.
* A physiology lab using live pigs, offered to first-year medical students. At the end of this lab, the pigs are killed.
* An intubation lab using live ferrets offered to third-year medical students (also offered at Wilford Hall). Ferrets can suffer fatal injuries during these labs.
* A parasitology lab using live gerbils, offered to students as a means of studying the disease filariasis. For this lab, the gerbils are killed.
* A medical zoology lab using live snakes.
Please call, e-mail, fax, or write a letter to USUHS president Charles L. Rice, M.D., and the dean of the medical school Larry W. Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D., and politely ask them to end the school’s live animal lab program. Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals. Send an automatic e-mail>
Charles L. Rice, M.D.
President
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20814-4799
Phone: 301-295-3013
Fax: 301-295-1960
president@usuhs.mil
Larry W. Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean
F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20814-4799
Phone: 301-295-3017
Fax: 301-295-3542
llaughlin@usuhs.mil
A DOD directive renewed in 2005 mandates that nonanimal alternatives be used if they exist. There are nonanimal teaching methods that achieve the educational goals for all five animal labs mentioned above. Many of these alternatives are currently in use at the National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center, a state-of-the-art simulation center operated by USUHS.
More than 90 percent of U.S. medical schools have eliminated live animal labs from their curricula altogether. Innovations in medical simulation technology, availability of alternatives, increased awareness of ethical concerns, and a growing acknowledgement that medical training must be human-focused have all facilitated this shift. Only eight out of 154 allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the United States still use live animals in their curricula.
Learn more about live animal labs and what you can do to help end them. If you have any questions, please contact me at rmerkley@pcrm.org or 202-686-2210, ext. 336. Thanks so much for your help!
Best regards,
sig_ryan_merkley
Ryan Merkley
Research Program Coordinator
Friday, March 28, 2008
Group Calls for Johns Hopkins University Medical School to Join Majority of Medical Schools and End Live Animal Labs: Calls for End to Live Pig Labs
As the article points out below, “…Hopkins will be the lone holdout among medical schools in U.S. News & World Report's annual Top 20 ranking….Overall, just 10 of the nation's 126 M.D.-granting medical schools use live animals during surgical rotations, according to the physicians' group.”
This by itself proves that live animal labs aren’t necessary in medical training. If it was, the majority of schools would use them. Yet, they don’t. As stated below, "The ethical argument is that you should not use sentient creatures to our purposes unnecessarily," said Dr. John J. Pippin, a Dallas cardiologist affiliated with group. "The reasons to use live animals, whatever they were, are no longer valid."
Article:
Medical use of live pigs criticized
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pigs27mar27,1,3004653.story
A physicians' group takes aim at Johns Hopkins University for using the animals to train its surgical students.
By Jonathan Bor, The Baltimore Sun
March 27, 2008
BALTIMORE -- Taking aim at one of the last bastions of live-animal training for medical students, a physicians' group that champions animal rights renewed its call Wednesday for Johns Hopkins University to stop using live pigs to teach operating-room techniques.
Calling the practice inhumane and unnecessary, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine noted that Hopkins is one of just two top-tier medical schools still convening live-animal labs.
"The ethical argument is that you should not use sentient creatures to our purposes unnecessarily," said Dr. John J. Pippin, a Dallas cardiologist affiliated with group. "The reasons to use live animals, whatever they were, are no longer valid."
With Case Western University's decision to hold its last live-pig labs this semester, Hopkins will be the lone holdout among medical schools in U.S. News & World Report's annual Top 20 ranking.
Overall, just 10 of the nation's 126 M.D.-granting medical schools use live animals during surgical rotations, according to the physicians' group. A larger number of teaching hospitals use animals to train postgraduate surgical residents, and animals are widely used to test medical devices and surgical techniques.
Hopkins said it had no plans to end the use of live pigs, despite a flood of e-mails from animal rights activists and an editorial in the undergraduate student newspaper.
This by itself proves that live animal labs aren’t necessary in medical training. If it was, the majority of schools would use them. Yet, they don’t. As stated below, "The ethical argument is that you should not use sentient creatures to our purposes unnecessarily," said Dr. John J. Pippin, a Dallas cardiologist affiliated with group. "The reasons to use live animals, whatever they were, are no longer valid."
Article:
Medical use of live pigs criticized
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pigs27mar27,1,3004653.story
A physicians' group takes aim at Johns Hopkins University for using the animals to train its surgical students.
By Jonathan Bor, The Baltimore Sun
March 27, 2008
BALTIMORE -- Taking aim at one of the last bastions of live-animal training for medical students, a physicians' group that champions animal rights renewed its call Wednesday for Johns Hopkins University to stop using live pigs to teach operating-room techniques.
Calling the practice inhumane and unnecessary, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine noted that Hopkins is one of just two top-tier medical schools still convening live-animal labs.
"The ethical argument is that you should not use sentient creatures to our purposes unnecessarily," said Dr. John J. Pippin, a Dallas cardiologist affiliated with group. "The reasons to use live animals, whatever they were, are no longer valid."
With Case Western University's decision to hold its last live-pig labs this semester, Hopkins will be the lone holdout among medical schools in U.S. News & World Report's annual Top 20 ranking.
Overall, just 10 of the nation's 126 M.D.-granting medical schools use live animals during surgical rotations, according to the physicians' group. A larger number of teaching hospitals use animals to train postgraduate surgical residents, and animals are widely used to test medical devices and surgical techniques.
Hopkins said it had no plans to end the use of live pigs, despite a flood of e-mails from animal rights activists and an editorial in the undergraduate student newspaper.
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Medical College of Wisconsin Continues To Use Live Pigs in Teaching: Group Calls To End of Unnecessary and Cruel Practice
According to the article below, here are some key points:
Thirty-six pigs are to be opened, examined and killed at the Medical College at the end of February.
According to the physicians committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., the American College of Surgeons and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education support elimination of live animal laboratories and stress the use of alternatives, including human simulators.
More than 100 other medical schools, including Harvard, Yale and Cornell, have discontinued use of live laboratory animals.
Article:
Medical College urged to stop using live pigs in labs
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20080128/GPG0101/80128041/1206/GPGnews
By SUSANNE RUST
srust@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 27, 2008
Not satisfied with the decision by the Medical College of Wisconsin to stop using dogs as live teaching tools, an animal rights group is now calling on the school to stop using pigs.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is calling on the Medical College, as well as eight other U.S. medical schools, to get live animals out of the teaching curriculum.
Thirty-six pigs are to be opened, examined and killed at the Medical College at the end of February.
The group, which says the use of live animals is unnecessary and cruel, has erected a billboard on Highway 45 that calls on the school to stop.
More than 100 other medical schools, including Harvard, Yale and Cornell, have discontinued use of live laboratory animals.
This is the first year the Medical College has used pigs instead of dogs in its introductory physiology laboratory - a course designed for first-year medical students.
Although the physiology course began in January, the animal laboratory isn't scheduled until the end of February.
Richard Katschke, the associate vice president of public affairs at the Medical College, said the pigs come from local farmers and were not bred as laboratory animals.
He also said the American Physiological Society, the governing body for physiology education nationwide, endorses the use of animals in medical education.
"The definition of 'physiology' is 'the study of living systems,' " Allen Cowley, professor and chairman of physiology, said in an internal Medical College memo. "The Medical College's cardiovascular laboratory provides students with an exceptional learning experience."
He said it was the "only opportunity that students will have in their medical education to experience the cardiovascular function of a large animal with similar responses as humans before they begin clinical work with patients."
Katschke said the college has received 600 to 700 letters of protest about the pigs. About 50 of those letters came from residents of Wisconsin.
Other colleges still using live animals include the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the University of Minnesota Medical School and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Human simulators
According to the physicians committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., the American College of Surgeons and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education support elimination of live animal laboratories and stress the use of alternatives, including human simulators.
In 2005, the Medical College unveiled a $2.5 million high-tech clinical training and teaching center, which includes three human simulators - a man, woman and child.
Katschke said the simulators are also used in the course, and students uncomfortable with the live-animal laboratory are not required to participate.
As for the letter to the USDA, Katschke said he wasn't worried.
He said the USDA was at the school this month on a surprise inspection and the agency "gave us a clean bill of health."
Thirty-six pigs are to be opened, examined and killed at the Medical College at the end of February.
According to the physicians committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., the American College of Surgeons and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education support elimination of live animal laboratories and stress the use of alternatives, including human simulators.
More than 100 other medical schools, including Harvard, Yale and Cornell, have discontinued use of live laboratory animals.
Article:
Medical College urged to stop using live pigs in labs
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20080128/GPG0101/80128041/1206/GPGnews
By SUSANNE RUST
srust@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 27, 2008
Not satisfied with the decision by the Medical College of Wisconsin to stop using dogs as live teaching tools, an animal rights group is now calling on the school to stop using pigs.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is calling on the Medical College, as well as eight other U.S. medical schools, to get live animals out of the teaching curriculum.
Thirty-six pigs are to be opened, examined and killed at the Medical College at the end of February.
The group, which says the use of live animals is unnecessary and cruel, has erected a billboard on Highway 45 that calls on the school to stop.
More than 100 other medical schools, including Harvard, Yale and Cornell, have discontinued use of live laboratory animals.
This is the first year the Medical College has used pigs instead of dogs in its introductory physiology laboratory - a course designed for first-year medical students.
Although the physiology course began in January, the animal laboratory isn't scheduled until the end of February.
Richard Katschke, the associate vice president of public affairs at the Medical College, said the pigs come from local farmers and were not bred as laboratory animals.
He also said the American Physiological Society, the governing body for physiology education nationwide, endorses the use of animals in medical education.
"The definition of 'physiology' is 'the study of living systems,' " Allen Cowley, professor and chairman of physiology, said in an internal Medical College memo. "The Medical College's cardiovascular laboratory provides students with an exceptional learning experience."
He said it was the "only opportunity that students will have in their medical education to experience the cardiovascular function of a large animal with similar responses as humans before they begin clinical work with patients."
Katschke said the college has received 600 to 700 letters of protest about the pigs. About 50 of those letters came from residents of Wisconsin.
Other colleges still using live animals include the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the University of Minnesota Medical School and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Human simulators
According to the physicians committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., the American College of Surgeons and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education support elimination of live animal laboratories and stress the use of alternatives, including human simulators.
In 2005, the Medical College unveiled a $2.5 million high-tech clinical training and teaching center, which includes three human simulators - a man, woman and child.
Katschke said the simulators are also used in the course, and students uncomfortable with the live-animal laboratory are not required to participate.
As for the letter to the USDA, Katschke said he wasn't worried.
He said the USDA was at the school this month on a surprise inspection and the agency "gave us a clean bill of health."
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Duke University Stops Using Live Pigs in Third Year Surgery Course: Five Other Medical Schools Continue to Use Live Animals in Surgery Courses
This was passed onto me. As you will read, a large majority of medical schools do not use live animal labs. You will also see below a list of those who do in their surgery courses. Contact information is posted with them for you to contact.
Article:
We have wonderful news from North Carolina: I am happy to report that Duke University School of Medicine recently confirmed that it has stopped using live pigs in its third-year surgery course. This means that only 13 medical schools (of 125) continue to use live animals in medical student courses. PCRM physicians worked hard to explain the educational and ethical advantages of non-animal alternatives to the school, and Duke deserves praise for this wise and compassionate decision.
But we still need your help. Five medical schools continue to use live animals in surgery courses. Please send a polite e-mail to these schools and ask them to follow Duke's lead and stop using live animals to teach surgery. You can send an e-mail or write to the five medical schools that use live animals for surgery courses at the addresses below:
TAKE ACTION: http://support.pcrm.org/site/R?i=9XhW1ZZgPEBRUYmjzuNPHQ..
Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
Richard Fine, M.D., Dean
The Health Sciences Level 4
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8430
T: 631-444-1785
Richard.Fine@stonybrook.edu
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean School of Medicine
733 North Broadway
Baltimore, MD, 21205
T: 410-955-3180
emiller@jhmi.edu
University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Steve J. Schwab, M.D., Executive Dean
62 South Dunlap St., Room 405
Memphis, TN 38163
T: 901-448-5529
sschwab@utmem.edu
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., Interim Dean
10900 Euclid Ave, BRB 113
Cleveland, OH 44106
T: 216-368-2825
pbd@case.edu
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine
Larry Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D., Dean
4301 Jones Bridge Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20814
T: 301-295-3016
llaughlin@usuhs.mil
Please forward the e-mail to your friends and family and ask them to contact the schools as well.
Tell a friend: http://support.pcrm.org/site/R?i=zabpJXjt2PsEuJAHLzeN2w..
Medical faculty and practicing physicians know that students do not need to train on live animals to become successful physicians or surgeons. In fact, last year the American College of Surgeons (ACS) stopped using live animals in any of its own surgery educational and training programs. It also established a new certification program, the Accredited Education Institutes, which does not include live animal use in its surgery training guidelines. In addition, the American Medical Student Association recently took a major step toward modernizing medical education by passing a resolution strongly encouraging the replacement of live animal laboratories with non-animal alternatives in undergraduate medical education.
Learn more about the use of animals in medical education. Thank you so much for your support and for your compassion for animals. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at rmerkley@pcrm.org.
Best regards,
Ryan Merkley
Research Program Coordinator
Article:
We have wonderful news from North Carolina: I am happy to report that Duke University School of Medicine recently confirmed that it has stopped using live pigs in its third-year surgery course. This means that only 13 medical schools (of 125) continue to use live animals in medical student courses. PCRM physicians worked hard to explain the educational and ethical advantages of non-animal alternatives to the school, and Duke deserves praise for this wise and compassionate decision.
But we still need your help. Five medical schools continue to use live animals in surgery courses. Please send a polite e-mail to these schools and ask them to follow Duke's lead and stop using live animals to teach surgery. You can send an e-mail or write to the five medical schools that use live animals for surgery courses at the addresses below:
TAKE ACTION: http://support.pcrm.org/site/R?i=9XhW1ZZgPEBRUYmjzuNPHQ..
Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
Richard Fine, M.D., Dean
The Health Sciences Level 4
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8430
T: 631-444-1785
Richard.Fine@stonybrook.edu
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean School of Medicine
733 North Broadway
Baltimore, MD, 21205
T: 410-955-3180
emiller@jhmi.edu
University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Steve J. Schwab, M.D., Executive Dean
62 South Dunlap St., Room 405
Memphis, TN 38163
T: 901-448-5529
sschwab@utmem.edu
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., Interim Dean
10900 Euclid Ave, BRB 113
Cleveland, OH 44106
T: 216-368-2825
pbd@case.edu
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine
Larry Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D., Dean
4301 Jones Bridge Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20814
T: 301-295-3016
llaughlin@usuhs.mil
Please forward the e-mail to your friends and family and ask them to contact the schools as well.
Tell a friend: http://support.pcrm.org/site/R?i=zabpJXjt2PsEuJAHLzeN2w..
Medical faculty and practicing physicians know that students do not need to train on live animals to become successful physicians or surgeons. In fact, last year the American College of Surgeons (ACS) stopped using live animals in any of its own surgery educational and training programs. It also established a new certification program, the Accredited Education Institutes, which does not include live animal use in its surgery training guidelines. In addition, the American Medical Student Association recently took a major step toward modernizing medical education by passing a resolution strongly encouraging the replacement of live animal laboratories with non-animal alternatives in undergraduate medical education.
Learn more about the use of animals in medical education. Thank you so much for your support and for your compassion for animals. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at rmerkley@pcrm.org.
Best regards,
Ryan Merkley
Research Program Coordinator
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