Maximus Inc.

Maximus Inc., trademarked as MAXIMUS, is an American outsourcing company that provides business process services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Maximus focuses on administering government-sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health care reform, welfare-to-work, Medicare, child support enforcement, and other government programs. The company is based in Reston, Virginia, has 34,300 employees and a reported annual revenue of $3.46 billion in fiscal year 2020.
History.
Maximus was founded in 1975 by David V. Mastran, a former employee of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. A graduate of the United States Military Academy which he states his Army father 'groomed' him for, he joined the United States Air Force, which sent him to study operations and engineering at Stanford University. He then worked analyzing the reliability of ICBM missiles and the effectiveness of bombing in the Vietnam War. After seven years in the Air Force he "went from analyzing bombs to analyzing welfare", and "automation" in government, before leaving for a private firm focused on winning government contracts. After eight months he left and started Maximus by himself in 1975. In 1987 Maximus won its first contract for social welfare, in Los Angeles, and transitioned its business focus to operating government programs and services.
In 1997, the company went public, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MMS. In 2004, Lynn Davenport became chief executive officer. Davenport was terminated in April 2006 for violating the company's code of conduct. Richard Montoni, former chief financial officer for MAXIMUS, was named CEO on April 24, 2006. Montoni has been credited with improving the company's performance In 2007, the company announced it was exploring strategic alternatives, including sale, but ultimately chose to divest several business lines and focus its business in health and human services business process management.
On April 30, 2008, the organization sold its Security Solutions division. On September 30, 2008, the company sold its Justice Solutions, Education Systems, and Asset Solutions divisions. The company also completed the sale of its ERP division in 2010. In 2010, MAXIMUS acquired DeltaWare, a developer of health administration management systems for the Canadian government health care market. In 2012, the company acquired Denver-based Policy Studies Incorporated (PSI) for $67 million. In 2013, MAXIMUS acquired UK-based Health Management Ltd.(HML). On April 6, 2015, the company completed the $300 million acquisition of Falls-Church-based technology contractor, Acentia. The deal significantly adds to the company's federal business by bringing on new customers and new contract vehicles. In 2018, MAXIMUS acquired U.S. Federal citizen engagement center assets from another government contractor for $400 million in cash.
In 2018, after twelve years as CEO, Richard Montoni announced his retirement and the company appointed President Bruce Caswell to the position of chief executive officer.
Services.
Health services.
MAXIMUS provides a services for government health programs including Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare and health insurance exchanges as required under the Affordable Care Act. MAXIMUS serves on the Enroll America advisory council.
The company is the largest provider of administrative services for Medicaid and CHIP in the United States, serving more than 50% of the market. In September 2012, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services awarded Maximus Health Services a two-year, $76.8 million contract to help the state with its Medicaid program. That same month, Maximus announced a $23.5 million contract with the State of Oklahoma to operate a customer relationship management system for SoonerCare, the state's Medicaid program, and Insure Oklahoma, a program that provides employers with subsidies to help buy private market health insurance for their low- to moderate-income employees.
Maximus is also the largest provider of privatized health insurance appeals to Medicare. In 2012 it expanded its growing Federal operations, bringing 500 local jobs to upstate New York and Pennsylvania, including more than 325 jobs in Pittsford, NY and more than 125 jobs to Scranton, PA.
The company offers services in the health insurance exchange marketplace and in July 2012, the Minnesota Department of Commerce awarded Maximus a two-year, $41 million contract to create the state's new health insurance exchange. In February 2013, Connecticut awarded Maximus a $15 million contract to run the customer contact center operations for the state's health insurance exchange, Access Health CT.
Maximus won a £500m government contract to decide whether disabled people are able to return to work after Atos abandoned their contract to perform assessments in 2014. Professor Michael O'Donnell, the former medical director of Atos now works as the medical director of Health Management Limited which is a subsidiary of Maximus. It was alleged that the removal of all reference to his previous role at Atos from his career history on the business networking site LinkedIn in November 2014 was an effort to conceal the close relationship between the two organisations.
Human services.
Maximus operates human services programs, including welfare-to-work (such as the Ticket to Work program), child support enforcement, child care, child welfare, specialized consulting, K-12 special education software and higher education consulting.
In 2011, Maximus was recognized as the top performing provider for welfare-to-work services under the United Kingdom's Flexible New Deal programme, helping job seekers into long-term sustained employment. Following the Flexible New Deal, the United Kingdom government unveiled a replacement program, called the Work Programme, that created welfare reform changes. Maximus serves as a contractor in three regions under the UK's Work Programme initiative. Its subsidiary, Centre for Health and Disability Assessments Ltd., runs Work Capability Assessments with a contract which began in 2014 and runs until July 2021.
In 2012, the company launched its first welfare-to-work program in Canada and expanded its Australia operations with a five-year contract to help people with disabilities find employment.
Maximus also provides services for child support programs. In 2009, the company won a five-year contract to collect and enforce child-support collections in Shelby County, Tennessee. Maximus launched Project NOW (Negotiating Outstanding Warrants), an initiative that collected more than $35,000 to help nearly 100 parents in Shelby County get back on track after missing child support payments.
Awards and recognitions.
In addition, Maximus was one of five companies with annual revenue greater than $300 million that were selected as finalists for the 2012 Washington, D.C. GovCon Contractor of the Year Award.
Gartner selected Maximus as the overall winner of the 2011 Business Process Management (BPM) Program of the Year. Maximus was also awarded top honors for the "Most Innovative Use" of BPM.
Several Maximus customer contact centers were recognized by BenchmarkPortal. BenchmarkPortal has recognized the Maximus Mass Health and Georgia Families Customer Contact Service Operations Centers, the California Health Care Options Call Center, the New York Medicaid Choice Call Center, and the Texas Eligibility Support Services Customer Contact Center.
DeltaWare, a subsidiary of Maximus, has been ranked one of the Top Places to Work for three consecutive years (2012, 2011 and 2010) by Atlantic Canada's Top Employers Competition.
In 2015, Maximus was recognized as one of the Top Companies to work for in the Washington, D.C. area by the Washington Post.
Sponsorships and charity.
Corporate sponsorships.
Maximus provides financial support to social initiatives, including the National Hispanic Health Foundation (NHHF) scholarship program targeted to leadership and service to underserved populations and the Urban League of Middle Tennessee.
In 2010, Maximus joined other Northern Virginia technology companies to provide pro bono work to help digitize mislabeled and unaccounted-for graves and upgrade a paper record-keeping system at Arlington National Cemetery, an effort that U.S. Senator Mark Warner called "corporate citizenship at its best."
In 2011, Maximus helped fund "No Kid Hungry Texas", a joint initiative of Share our Strength and the Texas Hunger Initiative to reduce childhood hunger through existing nutrition plans. That same year, Maximus Australia (MAX Employment) held the Great Australian Christmas Jobs Drive campaign, which exceeded its target of getting 10,000 unemployed people into work by Christmas Day. As part of the campaign, MAX Employment donated $100,000 to The Smith Family Christmas Appeal.
In June 2015, the Maximus Foundation was recognized as a Bronze sponsor of Special Olympics Connecticut's annual Summer Games. Through their sponsorship, the Foundation helped the organization welcome more than 2,300 competitors for a weekend-long athletic competition.
The Maximus Foundation.
The Maximus Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia that funds programs that help disadvantaged individuals achieve self-sufficiency and personal growth, particularly those programs serving kids. It is funded by charitable gifts from employees of Maximus and supplemented by grants from the company. As Chairman of the Foundation, Dr. John Boyer received a Medical Leadership award from the National Hispanic Medical Associations. In 2013, Boyer was also awarded the 2013 Ripple of Hope Award.
The Maximus Foundation awards grants biannually, once in the spring and once in the fall. In 2009, the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation used grant support from the Maximus Foundation to upgrade aging computer equipment and build its capacity to promote quality services and provide required reports to New York State. In 2011, EMQ FamiliesFirst, a California-based non-profit agency that helps children in crisis and their families received a grant from the Maximus Foundation. In 2012, the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO) used grant money from the Maximus Foundation to start the Greenhouse Roof Operation (GRO), a program to teach disadvantaged youth vocational skills through the construction and operation of a hydroponic farm. That same year, the Maximus Foundation awarded a $2,000 grant to United Neighborhood Centers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as well as over $100,000 in grants, which included funding for Washington D.C non-profit organizations, such as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, DEA Educational Foundation, Dreams for Kids, the Fishing School and Mary's Center for Maternal and Childcare, KEEN Greater DC, Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, A Wider Circle the Children's AIDS Fund, Herndon-Reston FISH, ROSMY, Safe Harbor and WETA-TV.
In the 2015 spring cycle, the Foundation announced that it distributed approximately $390,000 in grants to 121 nonprofit organizations in 22 states as part of the grant cycle. Grantees included CASA of Los Angeles and the Community Health Centers of Burlington.
In June 2015, the Maximus Foundation contributed more than $29,000 to Nepal Earthquake Relief through Project HOPE. The following month, Manos de Cristo, a Maximus Foundation grantee, provided back-to-school supplies to more than 2,000 low-income children in the Austin, Texas area. The agency provided the children with new clothing, socks, and a brand-new backpack with school supplies.
Maximus announced that it donated $20,000 to the Charleston Shooting victims memorial fund. Half of the proceeds came from employees and was matched by the company for $20,000 total. The fund will direct the funds toward youth development, healthcare access and economic opportunity.
Criticism.
November 1997- The "Hartford Courant" reported that Maximus "gets minimal results" when it was hired by the State of Connecticut to manage a child care program for recipients of welfare. According to the Record-Journal, Maximus "hired too few people, installed an inadequate phone system and fell weeks or months behind in making payments to day care providers." The Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) asked Maximus to meet improvement goals and by December, DSS Commissioner Joyce A. Thomas noted improvements on several fronts commenting, "The good news for Connecticut's child care providers and the families we all serve is that the situation is rapidly improving. Maximus has come a long way, and we are confident that current efforts are paving the way to long-term improvements."
December 1998- The "Sarasota Herald Tribune" reported that the State of Florida had paid Maximus $4.5 Million for a Child Support Recovery contract. Maximus was only able to collect $162,000. "On average taxpayers paid Maximus $25 for every 3 cents collected."
April 2000- A New York judge ruled that Maximus "misled" the city's Human Resources Administration about the role a former senior policy adviser to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani played in the company's proposal for a welfare contract. Six months later, in October 2000, the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court, unanimously overturned the lower court's ruling, stating, "There was no evidence of favoritism...There was no evidence that Maximus was afforded unfair access."
October 2000- Six state lawmakers in Wisconsin called for the termination of Maximus' W-2 contract, saying the firm has "broken faith with the state and poor people the agency serves in Milwaukee County."
June 2001- The "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" reported that two Maximus employees filed discrimination complaints against the company. The employees stated that Maximus is so lacking in diversity that the companies minority employees referred to it as "White Castle/"
July 2007- Maximus settled a lawsuit brought against it by the United States government for involvement in falsifying Medicaid claims for $30.5 million.
October 2010- The "Los Angeles Times" reported that 146 medical workers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists were allowed to keep working despite failing drug tests. Maximus was awarded a $2.5 Million a year contract to run California's confidential "diversion programs". Maximus contracted the work out to a subcontractor who in turn subcontracted the work to another company. The drug testing company was using the wrong standard of drug test from December 2009 to August 2010, resulting in medical workers who tested positive for drugs to continue working.
June 2011- Boston-based Fox25 news uncovered that a wanted fugitive by the name of Maureen Simonetti was working for Maximus as a manager on the MassHealth project and had access to the personal information of individuals who use MassHealth for their healthcare. Simonetti's attorney said his client disclosed pleading no contest to grand theft on her application to work at Maximus in 2005. However, the required Massachusetts background check, known as a CORI, did not uncover Simonetti's grand theft case in Florida, which is an out of state criminal record. Maximus stated that it had "no reason to believe that anyone's personal information was used inappropriately" and terminated Simonetti.
September 2011- Maximus Inc. was sued by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for disability discrimination for failure to promote a female employee because it regarded her as disabled. Maximus settled the lawsuit in August 2012.
June 2012- Through an internal privacy audit, Maximus discovered that a worker in Canada illegally viewed personal health records of 43 Canadians. The worker involved was immediately suspended and later fired. Health critic and member of the New Democratic Party Mike Farnworth said the incident was disturbing. "It's concerning, we've had concerns about Maximus in the past," he said. "I think what I would like to know - is this an isolated incident? Has it happened in the past?" Ryan Jabs, spokesman for the British Columbia Health Ministry said,"The risk is really low level because it looks like he or she was accessing the information out of curiosity but not for any fraudulent activity."
January 2013- A Maximus employee, Marilyn Beltran, based in Boston MA was indicted for allegedly stealing more than $490,000 from the Massachusetts Medicaid program. The theft had occurred over a period of nine years.
2016 the New York City Public Advocate Letitia James sued the city's Department of Education over a system built by Maximus. The system, called SESIS, was meant to help the city track services for students with disabilities, but was prone to malfunctions and did not fully answer its original defined functional scope. The system had cost the city ~$130 million to build, but also incurred at least ~$356 million more in lost Medicaid reimbursements.
February 2020- "Oxygen" reported that Netflix's new show highlights the shortcoming of Maximus's failures in the death of Gabriel Fernandez, the 8-year-old boy beaten & tortured to death by his mother and her boyfriend.
See also.
American Legislative Exchange Council


Joseph F. Volker

Joseph F. Volker, (1913–1989) was the first chief executive of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, serving in that capacity from 1966 to 1976. Afterwards, he was the first Chancellor of the UA System, from 1976 to 1982.
Volker served as dean of the Birmingham-based Alabama School of Dentistry from 1948 to 1962, except for a one-year break in 1961 as director of the Arizona Medical School Study. He became Vice President for Health Affairs in 1962. In 1966, the University of Alabama Medical Center and the College of General Studies (formerly the Birmingham Extension Center) were merged as the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Volker became head of the merged institution as "Vice President of Birmingham Affairs," reflecting that UAB was still treated as an offsite department of the main campus in Tuscaloosa. With the creation of the University of Alabama System in 1969, UAB became a fully autonomous four-year institution, and Volker's title was changed to "president."
As the first president of UAB he is remembered for his statement "We would do Birmingham a great disservice if we dream too-little dreams.",
Volker earned his DDS degree from Indiana University and his MS and PhD degrees in biochemistry from the University of Rochester, where he conducted groundbreaking studies on the use of fluorides in the prevention of dental decay".


Hassan Damluji

Hassan Damluji (Arabic: حسن الدملوجي) is a British-Iraqi development expert who serves as Deputy Director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is the author of the Responsible Globalist, published by Penguin Allen Lane in 2019, and described by Bill Gates as "Thought provoking and well-written... a good read for people who care about solving global problems.". He is married to fashion entrepreneur Anna Jewsbury.
Biography.
Damluji was born in London. His father moved to the UK from Baghdad in 1970 and his mother is originally Irish. He is the nephew of Iraqi politician and women's rights campaigner Maysoon Al-Damluji. He is Deputy Director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he leads a global team responsible for policy and advocacy across the Middle East, Pakistan, Japan and Korea.
Damluji is a board member of the Lives & Livelihoods Fund, a $2.5 billion fund which is the "largest ever Middle-East based, fully-multilateral development initiaitve", according to Gulf News.
Published works.
His book "The Responsible Globalist: What Citizens of the World Can Learn from Nationalism" was published in 2019. Praise for the book includes from actor Riz Ahmed: "Visionary. . . A must-read for anyone who wants solutions to our most important problems"; screenwriter Richard Curtis "This is the book I would have written if I were smart enough"; and philanthropist and founder of Microsoft Bill Gates "Thought provoking and well-written... a good read for people who care about solving global problems. Damluji puts forth ideas that can help make global systems more successful."
Awards.
He has been named every year since 2015 as one of the 100 most influential Arabs under 40, by Arabian Business.


Calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe


UCL Institute of Ophthalmology

The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is an institute within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, United Kingdom. The institute conducts research and post-graduate teaching in the area of ophthalmology (the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye).
The institute has a staff of around 200, including around 45 principal investigators, and cooperates closely with Moorfields Eye Hospital, which it is located adjacent to and with which it is a partner in the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology. Together with Moorfields Eye Hospital, the institute is the oldest and largest centre for ophthalmic treatment, teaching and research in Europe.
History.
The Institute of Ophthalmology was officially opened in November 1948 as an ophthalmology training facility specialised in fundamental research. During the 1980s and 1990s the institute moved in a phased manner from its original location in Judd Street to its present site in Bath Street adjacent to Moorfields Eye Hospital. The institute merged with University College London in 1995, becoming the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. Between 1995 and 2002 the institute expanded following the award of £8.8 million from the Wellcome Trust and eye-research charity Fight for Sight and £6.5 million from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
In April 2008 the results of the world's first successful gene transplant for blindness trial, carried out by a team at the institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital, were published. In April 2009, the institute entered into a collaboration and license agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer focused on gaining understanding into how to develop stem cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration. In the same month, details were published of the world's first stell cell based procedure for age-related macular degeneration, developed by researchers at the institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital.
In September 2010 the institute entered into a three-year agreement with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to collaborate on the identification of new treatments for diabetic retinopathy using the regenerative capacity of stem cells. In August 2011 the institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital were jointly awarded a Biomedical Research Centre for Ophthalmology by the National Institute of Health Research, supported by the award of £26.5 million over five years. In September 2011 a joint team from the institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital received approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to conduct a human embryonic stem cell therapy trial on patients with the incurable eye disease Stargardt. This was the first human stem cell therapy trial to receive approval from regulators in any European country.
Research.
Research at the institute is currently focused around the following seven areas:
Education.
The institute currently offers the following postgraduate level courses:
The institute also offers three- and four-year PhD programmes.
Library.
The institute operates a joint library with Moorfields Eye Hospital, which is located at the institute. Access to the library for reference and study purposes is available to those working or studying at the institute or at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Membership of the library is available to staff and students of the institute and Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and to staff and students of UCL and affiliated NHS Trusts.


Order of the Estonian Red Cross

The Order of the Estonian Red Cross (; ) was instituted in 1920 by the Estonian Red Cross Society. The Order of the Estonian Red Cross is bestowed in order to give recognition for humanitarian services rendered in the interests of the Estonian people and for the saving of life.
Classes.
The Order of the Estonian Red Cross comprises six classes:
The crosses of all basic classes of the Order of the Estonian Red Cross have the same design.
The blue colour tone of the moiré ribands belonging to the decorations of all the classes of the Order of the Estonian Red Cross is determined according to the international PANTONE colour-table as 297 MC.


Rudolf Wertz

Rudolf Wertz (born in Vienna; died 1966) was a physician from Vienna, who received the honorary title "„Righteous among the Nations“" as Austrian.
In 1941, Werzt rescued Jews from deportation to Poland by issuing confirmations of serious diseases for them. He acted out of humanitarian reasons and only charged a flat pro-forma ordination charge of 5 German Reichsmark from his Jewish patients.
One of the rescued was the Jew Gertrude Fritz, who, by arriving at Wertz already was referenced on a deportation list. Wertz certified her an abscess in her uterus and ordered her six weeks of bed rest. There were some Gestapo-physicians who came to her, but they believed the sickness certificate would be correct. During this time Gertrude Fritz was not deported.
Later, the Gestapo discovered Wertz' relief operation and he was convicted to a punishment battalion. He was not exempted till end of war and still lived till 1966.


Georgia School of Orthodontics

Georgia School of Orthodontics (GSO) is an orthodontic school located in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 2016 and offers a three-year Advanced Specialty Education Program in Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics.
History.
GSO was founded in 2016 and is accredited by Commission on Dental Accreditation. Initially, GSO was approved to enroll 18 residents per class, but as of 2020, it can enroll 36 residents per class, which makes it the nation's largest orthodontic residency program.
GSO opened its Sandy Springs clinic in 2016, with a focus on providing braces and invisalign to patients at close to half the cost of private orthodontists.
Academics.
GSO offers a 36-month orthodontic program that is structured to provide evidence-based and collaborative learning opportunities to the residents along with offering quality orthodontic care to patients.
As a part of the curriculum, the orthodontic residents review current orthodontics-related research literature. They are also required to complete the American Board of Orthodontists written examination in the second year of their residency program. Many members of GSO have been nationally published in orthodontic and dental literature including, the American Journal of Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics, Orthotown, and Dimensions of Dental Hygiene.
Philanthropy.
GSO created its Gift of a Smile program in 2016 to commemorate its grand opening. The program pledged to give $100,000 of complimentary orthodontic treatment to children in the Atlanta area. As of late 2020, over 20 children in the Atlanta area have received complimentary orthodontic care through the Gift of a Smile program
GSO has invested over $100,000 into complimentary orthodontic care for Purple Heart recipients’ children and, and continues to provide more free care. GSO launched its Gift of a Smile Heroes initiative in 2021.
GSO also established a Books & Braces gift card giveaway, where any two teachers who received the most votes in Gwinnett County won a $200 gift card to use toward school supplies for their classrooms.
Campuses.
GSO Campuses are a culmination of both academic and clinical facilities that are equipped with the latest cutting-edge technology. GSO established its second campus in Gwinnett in 2017, apart from the main campus in Atlanta. The establishment of this new facility resulted in the expansion of GSO’s orthodontic and dentofacial orthopedics specialty education programs, as well as its orthodontic services to yet another local community.
The Gwinnett campus is over 9000 square feet and comprises classrooms, research areas, faculty offices along wide walkways, and optimized workflow.


Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is a research institute affiliated with Wake Forest School of Medicine and located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
WFIRM's goal is to apply the principles of regenerative medicine to repair or replace diseased tissues and organs. Among other goals, WFIRM scientists are looking for ways to create insulin-producing cells in the laboratory, engineered blood vessels for heart bypass surgery and treat knee injuries through regenerated meniscus tissues. WFIRM has also led two federal initiatives to regenerate tissues from battlefield injuries (AFIRM I and AFIRM II), with a combined funding of $160 million from the U.S. Department of Defense. WFIRM is working to develop more than 40 different organs and tissues in the laboratory.
Anthony Atala, M.D., is the director of the institute, which is located in Wake Forest Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem. Atala was recruited by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 2004, and brought many of his team members from the Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Cellular Therapeutics at the Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. Notable achievements announced at WFIRM have been the first lab-grown organ, a urinary bladder. The artificial urinary bladder was the first to be implanted into a human. WFIRM research also discovered stem cells harvested from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. These stems cells are pluripotent, meaning that they can be manipulated to differentiate into various types of mature cells that make up nerve, muscle, bone, and other tissues while avoiding the problems of tumor formation and ethical concerns that are associated with embryonic stem cells. Research at WFIRM was also essential towards developing the field of bioprinting. This was first accomplished by converting a Hewlett Packard paper and ink printer to deposit cells, which is now on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Later, the more advanced Integrated Tissue-Organ Printer (ITOP) was developed at the institute.
In 2019, the U.S. federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided a 5-year grant through BARDA to support further development of WFIRM technology to better understand damage to the body caused by inhaling chlorine gas. The technology is called "lung-on-a-chip" and is a part of a "miniaturized system of human organs" developed by WFIRM that can allow researchers to create models of the body's response to harmful agents.
The Institute also is involved in research on energy fields and the human biofield. This led to a retracted article on Energy Medicine.


Operation Coffee Cup

Operation Coffee Cup was a campaign conducted by the American Medical Association (AMA) during the late 1950s and early 1960s in opposition to the Democrats' plans to extend Social Security to include health insurance for the elderly, later known as Medicare. As part of the plan, doctors' wives would organize coffee meetings in an attempt to convince acquaintances to write letters to Congress opposing the program. The operation received support from Ronald Reagan, who in 1961 produced the LP record "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine" for the AMA, outlining arguments against what he called socialized medicine. This record would be played at the coffee meetings.
Background.
The AMA had long opposed any government-run or subsidized provision of health care. Dr. Morris Fishbein, the AMA's president, described the organization's attitude as early as 1939:
... all forms of security, compulsory security, even against old age and unemployment, represent a beginning invasion by the state into the personal life of the individual, represent a taking away of individual responsibility, a weakening of national caliber, a definite step toward either communism or totalitarianism.
As John F. Kennedy took the presidency, one of his priorities was reform of the American health care system. To that end he sent a health care bill to Congress, HR 4222, known as the King-Anderson legislation after its sponsors (Senator Anderson and Rep. Cecil King, of California). The bill provisioned a significant expansion of the government's role in caring for the elderly, including features of what would eventually become Medicare.
Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin quoted Ronald Reagan during the 2008 Vice-Presidential debate,
It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.


Cygnet Health Care

Cygnet Health Care is an independent provider of mental health services which operates over 150 centres with more than 2,500 beds across the UK. The company headquarters is in London. It is a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, which acquired it for £205 million in 2014. It has 15 rehabilitation sites nationwide, comprising 25 wards and 338 beds.
Some of the company's clients pay privately, but most are funded by the NHS buying extra capacity. In 2013/4 Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust spent £1.2 million with the company.
In December 2016 it bought the adult services business of Cambian Group PLC in a deal worth £377 million. The deal was referred for investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority in May 2017, which ordered the merged company to sell one of its hospitals in the East Midlands, to counter the loss of competition.
Performance.
In 2020 it established an independent advisory board. Clare Gerada joined it in March 2021.
CQC concerns.
In 2011 the company was warned by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about staffing levels at Cygnet Wing Blackheath. Improvements were still required at the CQC inspection in April 2014.
In 2013 the CQC issued a warning in respect of Cygnet Hospital Bierley because the service was failing to ensure that appropriate records were kept.
Cygnet was the subject of a BBC investigation that found that staff had been taunting, provoking and scaring vulnerable people.
Cygnet Acer Clinic in Chesterfield was placed in special measures in September 2019 and admissions to Cygnet Acer Clinic were suspended. At that point Newbus Grange hospital in Darlington (see below), Cygnet Hospital Ealing, Cygnet Hospital Wyke in Bradford, Cygnet Hospital Coventry and Cygnet Hospital Colchester were also in special measures.
After its eighth site, Cygnet Acer Clinic in Derbyshire, was rated "inadequate" in just over a year the company accused the CQC of publishing an "inaccurate picture". The CQC found three-quarters of nursing staff at the Clinic, which provides treatment for 28 female patients with personality disorders and who self-harm, were unqualified, and suspended admissions.
After an assessment of its leadership CQC inspectors said they could not find a “clear line of accountability” across the provider’s 140 locations. They said most of the company's services were rated as “good” and some as “outstanding”. They found that checks to make sure the directors and board members were ‘fit and proper’ “had not been carried out” and there was no evidence of references having been taken up during recruitment or that insolvency and bankruptcy searches were done. Cygnet commissioned a corporate governance review by an independent person and took action to make improvements. In response to the CQC review, Cygnet said in a letter published by the BMJ that, following checks verified by lawyers, it was satisfied it was fully compliant and there were no issues around directors’ capability, experience, or qualifications.
In April 2021 the company was warned by NHS England that it would not tolerate its repeated service failures in the dozen sites which are directly commissioned by NHSE.
Adolescent care.
In 2017 the CQC raised concerns about the safety and quality of the firm's hospitals in Sheffield and Woking. It ordered admissions to be suspended at Knole Ward at the Cygnet Hospital at Godden Green, near Sevenoaks, which operates a tier 4 child and adolescent mental health service because of concerns about the use of seclusion and segregation. The company announced in November 2017 that it would no longer provide children and adolescents’ mental health services in its regional psychiatric intensive care unit at Cygnet Hospital Woking. In December 2017, Cygnet Health Care was accused of failing vulnerable young patients Three warning notices and fixed penalty notices for failing to make "required notifications" of patient safety incidents were issued by the CQC after an "urgent" inspection in November 2017. The Cygnet Hospital Godden Green was restricted to eight admissions. It was said that staff were "often reliant on police intervention" to manage incidents in the hospital, and were not always competent and skilled. It was rated good after an inspection in February 2018. Plans to open 12 CAMHS eating disorder beds at Godden Green in 2019 were paused after three incidents at the hospital. The CQC issued two warning notices around safe care and treatment, and good governance. In July 2019 the CQC imposed two requirement notices – relating to safe medicines management and having a permanent registered manager - in place on the Godden Green hospital but lifted the restriction on the number of admissions. In October 2020 the child and adolescent mental health unit at Godden Green was closed down by the Care Quality Commission.
Services for people with learning difficulties and/or autism.
Cygnet Woodrow House, a care home for people with learning disabilities and autism, was rated outstanding by the CQC in March 2020. Inspectors said there was ‘an excellent understanding of seeing each person as an individual, with their own social and cultural diversity, values and beliefs’. Cygnet Sherwood House, a learning disability hospital, and Sherwood Lodge, a specialist rehabilitation mental health hospital, were rated outstanding by the CQC in May 2019, with inspectors noting that staff followed best practice and people using the service were treated with compassion and kindness.
In September 2020, Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington, visited Cygnet St Williams, a neuropsychiatric hospital, after it was awarded a Good rating on its first CQC inspection.
Newbus Grange.
A patient was found with "unexplained injuries", patients had chances to kill themselves and staff were asleep on duty, men with autism, learning disabilities and complex needs were restrained by staff through "inappropriate techniques" at Cygnet Newbus Grange hospital, in Darlington. That was the sixth time in 2019 that the CQC found a mental health unit that Cygnet runs inadequate. Sean McNulty, who worked at Newbus Grange, was imprisoned for abuse and ill-treatment of residents. Judge Peter Armstrong described McNulty as a, "sadistic bully", McNulty was found in CCTV footage punching, kicking or slapping one patient 15 times. This was one of four inpatient units which were previously operated by the Danshell Group and acquired by the company in 2018. All four were condemned by the CQC.
Yew Trees hospital.
In July 2020 the company reported staff at Yew Trees hospital in Kirby-le-Soken, which had eight women with learning disabilities, to the Care Quality Commission. They closed the hospital and reported the mistreatment to Essex Police. This included people who they believed witnessed the alleged incidents and failed to report them.


Exencephaly

Exencephaly is a type of cephalic disorder wherein the brain is located outside of the skull. This condition is usually found in embryos as an early stage of anencephaly. As an exencephalic pregnancy progresses, the neural tissue gradually degenerates.
The prognosis for infants born with exencephaly is extremely poor. It is rare to find an infant born with exencephaly, as most cases that are not early stages of anencephaly are usually stillborn. Those infants who are born with the condition usually die within hours or minutes. Caused by the failure of cranial neuropore to properly fuse, between the 3rd and 4th week post conception. The calvarium doesn't develop/fuse properly, therefore the brain extrudes from the cranium.
Pathophysiology.
Until recently, the medical literature did not indicate a connection among many genetic disorders, both genetic syndromes and genetic diseases, that are now being found to be related. As a result of new genetic research, some of these are, in fact, highly related in their root cause despite the widely varying set of medical symptoms that are clinically visible in the disorders. Exencephaly is one disease that has recently been identified as part of an emerging class of diseases called cilopathies. The underlying cause may be a dysfunctional molecular mechanism in the primary cilia structures of the cell, organelles which are present in many cell types throughout the human body. The cilia defects adversely affect "numerous critical developmental signaling pathways" essential to cellular development and thus offer a plausible hypothesis for the often multi-symptom nature of a large set of syndromes and diseases. Known ciliopathies include primary ciliary dyskinesia, Bardet–Biedl syndrome, polycystic kidney and liver disease, nephronophthisis, Alström syndrome, Meckel–Gruber syndrome and some forms of retinal degeneration.


BadgerCare

BadgerCare Plus, known informally as BadgerCare, is a public healthcare coverage program for low-income Wisconsin residents created by former governor Tommy Thompson and modified by former governor Jim Doyle. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services oversees the program's implementation.
Origins.
Before the implementation of the federally-funded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) initiative, Governor Tommy Thompson had wished to create a state-level family healthcare plan that used both Medicaid and SCHIP funds since his days in the state legislature.
BadgerCare was passed in the wake of the Clinton administration's social service overhaul (when Aid to Families with Dependent Children was replaced by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and launched in July 1999. The goal was to provide coverage to families with uninsured children who were transitioning from welfare to the workforce. The program's initial enrollment was 3,400 adolescents, but the total number of individuals covered by BadgerCare increased to 51,172 by November 2000.
Under the original conditions of BadgerCare, families could enroll if their net incomes were up to 185% of the federal poverty level (about $31,000 for a family of four in 2000) and could remain on BadgerCare as long as their incomes did not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level. Unlike Medicaid, a family applying for BadgerCare did not have to pass any sort of "asset test" to qualify.
Doyle administration (2003-2011).
In 2006, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed a bill nicknamed the "Healthy Wisconsin proposal" that would have created a near-universal health care system in Wisconsin similar to the Massachusetts health care reform of 2006 implemented by then-governor Mitt Romney. Like the Massachusetts plan and the Affordable Care Act, the Healthy Wisconsin proposal would have mandated insurance coverage for any individual not on Medicare or BadgerCare. The proposed plan would not cover dental or eye care, long-term care, nor unnecessary cosmetic surgery. The plan was to have been paid for by a $15 billion payroll tax, making it incredibly unpopular among the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly, and Democratic governor Jim Doyle.
Transition to BadgerCare+.
Since Governor Doyle opposed the Senate's mandate plan, he chose instead to expand BadgerCare, claiming that 98% of Wisconsinites would have some form of health insurance under his expansion. Doyle called the revised program BadgerCare+ and included it in his 2007-2009 biennial budget. BadgerCare+ began functioning on February 1, 2008.
According to a state document sent to healthcare providers in January 2008, BadgerCare+ expanded enrollment to:
The revised plan also covered tobacco cessation products such as nicotine gum.
Enrollment issues and BadgerCare+ Basic.
The extremely high number of applications for the BadgerCare+ Core plan put undue stress on the program's budget, and Doyle suspended enrollments for that program in October 2009 with 21,000 individuals still on the waiting list. To assuage the thousands of Wisconsinites still seeking coverage, Doyle proposed an additional plan named BadgerCare+ Basic, targeted at childless adults. The income stipulations for BadgerCare+ Basic were $21,660 a year for a single childless individual and $29,140 for a childless couple. In contrast to Badgercare+ Core, coverage would be funded by a $130 premium to be paid by the policyholder, rather than taxpayers, and would cover up to 10 doctor visits, one inpatient hospital visit, five outpatient visits, and up to five emergency room visits in addition to some generic medications and discounts on other drugs. Signing the BadgerCare+ Basic bill into law in May 2010 was one of Doyle's last major acts as governor, as he did not seek re-election in the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.
Walker and Evers administrations (2011-).
In 2013, Governor Scott Walker rejected federal money, and 92,000 people were told that their health insurance through BadgerCare Plus would end and that they would be required to buy potentially more costly commercial health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
In 2019, Governor Tony Evers wants to expand BadgerCare Plus by about 76,000 participants, which Republican opponents argue will "shift costs to the private sector."


Selective digestive decontamination

Selective digestive decontamination (SDD) is a process used on intensive care units to reduce the occurrence of infections in critically ill people. It involves the administration of antibiotics to reduce bacteria and fungi in the digestive tract to prevent them from causing illness in those at high risk. It can target both normal and abnormal flora.
A related treatment (selective oropharyngeal decontamination, SOD) consists of the same antibiotics but only to remove bacteria in the mouth and not the bowel.


Judith Craven

Judith B. Craven (born 1946) is a medical professional with a degree from Bowling Green State University. She is also involved in business, specifically as a board member of Luby's and as an Independent director of Sysco.


Revalidation

Revalidation is a mechanism used to "affirm or establish the continuing competence" of health practitioners, whilst strengthening and facilitating ethical and professional "commitment to reducing errors, adhering to best practice and improving quality of care." Medical practitioners, nurses and midwives practicing in the UK are subject to revalidation to prove their skills are up-to-date and they remain fit to practise medicine. It is intended to reassure patients, employers and other professionals, and to contribute to improving patient care and safety. The Medical Board of Australia is currently engaged in a review and trial of revalidation of medical registration in Australia.
Revalidation in the United Kingdom.
In the UK, nurses and midwives will need to revalidate every three years. A doctor will undergo revalidation every five years. A recommendation to revalidate a doctor will go to the UK medical regulator, the General Medical Council, from a local 'Responsible Officer'. The Responsible Officer will usually be a senior doctor in the healthcare organisation which employs the doctor, such as the medical director. The Responsible Officer's recommendation will usually be based on the doctor's history of annual appraisals. Doctors and nurses will need to keep a portfolio of evidence showing how they are meeting relevant standards, which will form the basis for discussion at their annual appraisals. It is not an examination process.
In the UK, Revalidation for Doctors started on 3 December 2012. Revalidation for nurses was approved and finalised on 8 October 2015, the first nurses and midwives to revalidate began to do so in April 2016.
Process of Revalidation.
The Process of revalidation will be planned by the UK Revalidation Programme Board
Appraisal Portfolio.
The portfolio for the appraisal should include the following six types of supporting information that a doctor is expected to discuss with their appraiser at least once within the five year cycle:
More information regarding these may be found from the GMC's publication "Ready for Revalidation" (March 2012).
Responsible Officers.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 created the role of the Responsible Officer. The role is a designated individual, most likely the medical director of an individuals organisation, who is tasked with making recommendations to the GMC with regards to their staffs revalidation.
Proposed Revalidation in Australia.
A range of potential revalidation models have been considered, with the Medical Board of Australia recently proposing its preferred approach for further consultation and trial. Most notably, the Medical Board of Australia proposes that revalidation integrate a formal method for proactive identification of potential practitioner competency risk.
The Medical Board of Australia proposes to achieve this by bifurcating revalidation into two separate, but related, stages:


Moses Griffith (physician)

Moses Griffith (1724–1785) was an English physician.
Griffith, son of Edward Griffith, was born at Lapidon, Shropshire, in 1724, and educated at Shrewsbury School. He entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1742, and afterwards studied medicine at Leyden, where he graduated M.D. in 1744. He practised for many years in London, but in 1768 retired to Colchester, where he died in March 1785. He wrote "Practical Observations on the Cure of the Hectic and Slow Fevers, and the Pulmonary Consumption", 1776. Griffith is credited with the invention of the useful compound iron mixture of the Pharmacopoeia.


Medical Education Number

Medical Education Number (ME Number) is an 11-digit number assigned to every physician member of the AMA in the United States by the American Medical Association for identification and recording of basic physician information and CME credits. The number is assigned when a student begins medical school and can remain unchanged throughout their career. The first 5 digits represent the Medical School Code. Digits 6 and 7 represent the 2 digit expected graduation year. The final 4 digits are uniquely assigned to the physician. The ME number is found on the physician's AMA membership card. As each physician in the United States has a ME Number assigned to them, physicians who are not members of the AMA may find out their ME number by calling the American Medical Association. It is used as a unique identifying key field to find records for a physician on the AMA Physician Masterfile.


UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. In 2020, it was the second-largest healthcare company (behind CVS Health) by revenue with $257.1 billion, and the largest insurance company by net premiums. UnitedHealthcare revenues comprise 80% of the Group's overall revenue.
The company is ranked 7th on the 2020 Fortune 500. UnitedHealth Group has a 2020 market value $332.885 billion.
History.
In 1974, Richard Taylor Burke founded Charter Med Incorporated, a Minnetonka, Minnesota-based privately held company. In 1977, the United HealthCare Corporation was created to reorganize the company and became the parent company of Charter Med. United HealthCare’s charter was to manage the newly created Physicians Health Plan of Minnesota, an early health management organization.
In 1988, United HealthCare started its first pharmacy benefit management, through its Diversified Pharmaceutical Services subsidiary. It managed pharmacy benefits delivered both through retail pharmacies and mail. The subsidiary was sold to SmithKline Beecham in 1994 for $2.3 billion.
In 1994, United HealthCare acquired Ramsey-HMO, a Florida insurer. In 1995, the company acquired The MetraHealth Companies Inc. for $1.65 billion. MetraHealth was a privately held company formed by combining the group health care operations of The Travelers Companies and MetLife. In 1996, United HealthCare acquired HealthWise of America, which operated HMOs in Arkansas, Maryland, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In 1998, the company was reorganized as the holding of independent companies UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, Uniprise, Specialized Care Services and Ingenix, and rebranded as "UnitedHealth Group". Also in 1998, United Health Group acquired HealthPartners of Arizona, operator of Arizona's largest AHCCCS provider.
In 2001, EverCare, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary merged with LifeMark Health Plans In 2002, UnitedHealth Group acquired GeoAccess and Medicaid insurance company AmeriChoice. In 2003, UnitedHealth Group acquired Mid Atlantic Medical Services, an insurer serving Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Delaware and West Virginia. Also in 2003, UnitedHealth Group acquired Golden Rule Financial, a provider of health savings accounts. On July 21, 2003, Exante Bank started operating in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a Utah state-chartered industrial loan corporation. It changed its name to OptumHealth Bank in 2008 and to Optum Bank in 2012.
In April 2004, UnitedHealth Group acquired Touchpoint Health Plan, a Wisconsin health plan. In July 2004, the company acquired Oxford Health Plans.
In December 2005, the company acquired PacifiCare Health Systems. It agreed to divest parts of PacifiCare's commercial health insurance business in Tucson, Arizona and Boulder, Colorado to satisfy antitrust regulator concerns, and also agreed to end its network access agreement with Blue Shield of California. The Tucson business was sold to Cigna. The company acquired Prescription Solutions, another pharmacy benefit manager, as part of its acquisition of PacifiCare Health Systems. This business was later rebranded OptumRx.
In February 2006, the company acquired John Deere Health Care.
In February 2008, the company acquired Sierra Health Services for $2.6 billion. As part of the transaction, to obtain regulatory approval, 25,000 customers were sold to Humana. In July 2009, UnitedHealth Group agreed to acquire Health Net's Northeast licensed subsidiaries for up to $570 million in payments spread out over two years. Through 2010 and into 2011, senior executives of the company met monthly with executives of other health insurers to limit the effect of the health care reform law.
In July 2010, Ingenix acquired Picis, a health information provider for the high-acuity areas of hospitals.
In 2011, Logistics Health, Inc. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, was acquired by OptumHealth. In September 2014, the office buildings where LHI is based were sold to UnitedHealth Group for $45 million.
In February 2012, the company acquired XLHealth, a sponsor of Medicare Advantage health plans with a primary focus on medicare recipients with special needs such as those with chronic illness and those eligible for Medicaid ("dual eligibles"). In October 2012, UnitedHealth Group and Amil Participações, one of the biggest Brazilian health insurance companies, completed the first phase of their merger.
In February 2014, Optum secured a majority stake in the Washington, D.C.-based startup Audax Health. Audax's CEO, Grant Verstandig, continued running the firm alongside COO David Ko. In October 2014, Optum Health acquired the health services unit of Alere for $600 million cash.
In March 2015, it was announced that CatamaranRx will be acquired by OptumRx.
In April 2016, the company announced it was pulling out of all but a "handful" of state healthcare exchanges provided under Affordable Care Act and will continue to sell only in three states in 2017.
In 2017, UnitedHealth's Optum unit acquired Rally Health, a company started by Audax Health's executives. Prior to acquisition, in 2015, UnitedHealth supported Rally Health as a majority investor, and through enrolling 5 million UnitedHealth policy holders in Rally Health's flagship product, RallySM. The close relations between UnitedHealth, Audax Health and Rally Health follows a close personal relationship between Grant Vrestandig (Audax and Rally) and UnitedHealth's President and CFO at the time, David Wichmann.
In June 2019, UnitedHealth's Optum division acquired Davita Medical Group from DaVita Inc. for $4.3 billion. That year, the company also agreed to acquire Equian for $3.2 billion. On June 19, 2019, UnitedHealth acquired the online patient community platform PatientsLikeMe for an undisclosed amount and it will be incorporated into UnitedHealth Group's research division.
In November 2019, Andrew Witty was named president of UnitedHealth, in addition to his role as chief executive of the company's Optum division.
Organizational structure.
Optum.
The Optum brand was created in 2011 as the company's health services business. Optum is UnitedHealth's technology-focused arm.
UnitedHealthcare.
UnitedHealthcare includes four divisions:
Products and services.
Health insurance plans.
UnitedHealthcare offers commercial group insurance plans across the United States under several product names with different offerings.
Provider networks.
UnitedHealthcare negotiates with providers in periodic contract negotiation; contracts may be discontinued from time to time. High-profile contract disputes can span provider networks across the nation, as in the case of a 2018 dispute with a major emergency room doctor group, Envision Healthcare.
Provider directory.
Maintaining up-to-date provider directories is necessary since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can fine insurers with outdated directories. As a condition of participation, UnitedHealthcare requires that providers notify them of changes, but also has a Professional Verification Outreach program to proactively request information from providers. However, providers are burdened by having to maintain their information with multiple networks (e.g., competitors to UnitedHealthcare). The total cost of maintaining these directories is estimated at $2.1b annually, and a blockchain initiative began in 2018 to share the directory.
Corporate affairs.
Finance.
For the fiscal year 2018, UnitedHealth Group reported earnings of US$11.98 billion, with an annual revenue of US$226.2 billion.
Lobbying.
In 2010, UnitedHealth Group spent more than $1.8 million on lobbying activities to work to achieve favorable legislation, and hired seven different lobbying firms to work on its behalf. In addition, its corporate political action committee or PAC, called United for Health, spent an additional $1 million on lobbying activities in 2010.
QSSI, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, is one of the 55 contractors hired by United States Department of Health and Human Services to work on the HealthCare.gov web site.
Legal issues.
In 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating the conduct of UnitedHealth Group's management and directors, for backdating of stock options. Investigations were also begun by the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, who subpoenaed documents from the company. The investigations came to light after a series of probing stories in the "Wall Street Journal" in May 2006, discussing apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options by UHC management. The backdating apparently occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, according to the "Journal". Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and UHC's other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty. On October 15, 2006, CEO William W. McGuire was forced to resign, and relinquish hundreds of millions of dollars in stock options. On December 6, 2007, the SEC announced a settlement under which McGuire will repay $468 million, as a partial settlement of the backdating prosecution.
In June 2006, the American Chiropractic Association filed a national class-action lawsuit against the American Chiropractic Network (ACN), which is owned by UnitedHealth Group and administers chiropractic benefits, and against UnitedHealth Group itself, for alleged practices in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
OptumInsight, aka Ingenix.
In February 2008, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an industry-wide investigation into a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reasonable and customary rates. The announcement included a statement that Cuomo intended "to file suit against Ingenix, Inc., its parent UnitedHealth Group, and three additional subsidiaries." Cuomo asserted that his investigation found that rates found in a database of health care charges maintained by Ingenix were lower than what he determined was the actual cost of certain medical expenses. Cuomo said this inappropriately allowed health insurance companies to deny a portion of provider claims, thereby pushing costs down to members.
On January 13, 2009, Ingenix announced an agreement with the New York State attorney settling the probe into the independence of the health pricing database. Under the settlement, UnitedHealth Group and Ingenix would pay $50 million to finance a new, non-profit entity that would develop a new health care pricing database. Ingenix would discontinue its medical pricing databases when the new entity makes its product available. The company acknowledged the appearance of a conflict of interest but admitted no wrongdoing.
On January 15, 2009, UnitedHealth Group announced a $350 million settlement of three class action lawsuits filed in Federal court by the American Medical Association, UnitedHealth Group members, healthcare providers, and state medical societies for not paying out-of-network benefits. This settlement came two days after a similar settlement with Cuomo.
On October 27, 2009, Cuomo announced the creation of FAIR Health, the independent, non-profit organization that will develop a nationwide database for consumer reimbursement, as well as a website where consumers will be able to compare prices before they choose doctors. To fund FAIR Health, the Attorney General's office secured nearly $100 million from insurers such as Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, and Anthem Inc.
Investigations and lawsuits.
In 2006, the SEC began investigating the conduct of UnitedHealth Group's management and directors, including Dr. McGuire, as did the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, who have subpoenaed documents from the company.
The investigations came to light after a series of probing stories in "The Wall Street Journal" in March 2006, discussing the apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options—in a process called options backdating—by UnitedHealth Group management.
The backdating apparently occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, according to the "Journal". Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and UnitedHealth Group's other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty.
Resignation of McGuire.
On October 15, 2006, it was announced that William W. McGuire would step down immediately as chairman and director of UnitedHealth Group, and step down as CEO on December 1, 2006, due to his involvement in the employee stock options scandal. Simultaneously, it was announced that he would be replaced as CEO by Stephen Hemsley, who has served as President and COO and is a member of the board of directors. McGuire's exit compensation from UnitedHealth, expected to be around $1.1 billion, would be the largest golden parachute in the history of corporate America.
McGuire's compensation became controversial again on May 21, 2009, when Elizabeth Edwards, speaking on "The Daily Show", used it to support her argument for a public alternative to commercial insurance. Edwards stressed the importance of restoring competition in health insurance markets noting that at one point, "the President of UnitedHealth made so much money, that one of every $700 that was spent in this country on health care went to pay him." Since estimates of McGuire's 2005 compensation range from $59,625,444 to $124.8 million, and the revenue of UnitedHealth Group was then $71 billion, it is therefore possible that Mrs. Edwards may have meant that one of every $700 that was spent on UnitedHealth Group premiums went to pay McGuire.
McGuire's settlement with SEC.
On December 6, 2007, the SEC announced a settlement under which McGuire was to repay $468 million, including a $7 million civil penalty, as a partial settlement of the backdating prosecution. He was also barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for ten years. This was the first time in which the little-used "clawback" provision under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was used against an individual by the SEC. The SEC continued its investigations even after it in 2008 settled legal actions against both UnitedHealth Group itself and its former general counsel.
Medicare overbilling lawsuit.
A whistleblower lawsuit, filed in 2011, charges UnitedHealth Group's data analytics division with assisting in defrauding Medicare by boosting risk adjustment scores from Medicare Advantage companies. The suit alleges that UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Ingenix (now OptumInsight) "defrauded the United States of hundreds of millions — and likely billions — of dollars." Former UnitedHealth executive Benjamin Poehling brought the suit under the False Claims Act. The government said it would proceed on claims against two health care companies, UnitedHealth and its Texas subsidiary WellMed Medical Management. In February 2017, a federal judge unsealed the suit after the Department of Justice announced it would join the case.
"Richard Cole, and others v. United Healthcare".
On April 29, 2019, Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a cancer survivor, recused himself from a case against United Healthcare, stating that the company's denial of treatment was "immoral and barbaric", and that his opinions regarding the company would prevent him from "deciding this case fairly and impartially."
PacifiCare fine in California.
In 2008, the California Department of Insurance took action against UnitedHealthcare's subsidiary PacifiCare Health Systems, acquired in 2005, ultimately fining UnitedHealthcare around $173 million for an estimated over 900,000 violations of the Unfair Insurance Practices Act; by 2019, the case was still being disputed in court, with the possibility of affirming $91 million in penalties.
CMS fine over Medicare Part D.
In 2017, CMS fined UnitedHealthcare after discovering issues in Medicare Part D leading to delays or denials in a 2016 audit.
New Jersey fine in 2018.
The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance fined UnitedHealthcare $2.5 million due to various compliance issues; this was the largest fine against a licensee in nine years.
Pennsylvania.
UnitedHealthcare assessed $1 million penalty for claims payment violations.
Northern California.
United Behavioral Health sued over $5 million in denied claims.
Policy Research ownership.
The Lewin Group is a policy research and consulting firm that provides an economic analysis of health care and human services issues and policies.
The organization has existed for about 40 years and has maintained a nonpartisan reputation through its many ownership changes that have occurred over that time.
The Lewin Group was purchased in 2007 by Ingenix, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, but alleges editorial and analytical "independence" from UnitedHealth Group, its parent company.
The Lewin Group discloses its ownership in its reports and on its website. While the Lewin Group does not advocate for or against any legislation, both Democratic and Republican politicians frequently cite the firm's studies to argue for and against various U.S. healthcare reform proposals. For example, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden uses Lewin Group estimates to cite the feasibility of his Healthy Americans Act. Former U.S. Representative Eric Cantor, the former House Republican Whip, has referred to the organization as "the nonpartisan Lewin Group" in arguing against government-funded health insurance proposals.
Several Lewin studies have been used to argue both for and against the inclusion of a public option in national health reform. Lewin clients who often cite its findings include The Commonwealth Fund which recently held up a Lewin study it commissioned to advocate for a public plan. The report showed that legislative proposals would achieve nearly universal coverage and "estimated that a public plan could offer small businesses insurance that is at least 9 percent cheaper than current small-business policies."
However, The Lewin Group has acknowledged that clients sometimes choose not to publicize the results of studies they have commissioned. Indeed, Lewin Group Vice President John Sheils told "The Washington Post" that "sometimes studies come out that don't show exactly what the client wants to see. And in those instances, they have [the] option to bury the study." Drug and alcohol treatment are generally covered under UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealthcare plans, but the exact benefits and coverage offered depend on your policy.
Foundations.
UnitedHealth Group has two foundations, the United Health Foundation and UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation which were formed in 1999. Since established by UnitedHealth Group in 1999 as a not for profit private foundation, the United Health Foundation has committed more than $170 million to improve health and health care.


Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course

The Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course (now called 'Operational Clinical Infectious Disease' Course ) at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is one of the many Tropical Medicine Training Courses available in the US and worldwide (see Tropical medicine). It is an intensive 5-day course and a 3-day short course, created to familiarize students with tropical diseases they may encounter overseas. The course is open to Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, ESO, 18D, or other medical personnel. The course is run by the military and designed for personnel of the US Military (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force) and several other US government agencies.
History.
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) was established in 1893 as the Army Medical School by War Department General Orders No. 51, dated 24 Jan 1893. The Tropical Medicine course began in that school in July 1941 while BG G. Russell Callendar was Commandant. At that time, the course ran for 30 days and consisted of didactic and laboratory sessions similar to today’s course. Very much like the majority of the 52 years that this course was offered at WRAIR, that first course presented continuing education to approximately 30 officers.
Over the next fifty years, the course changed names and length but remained dedicated to teaching continuing tropical medicine education to military officers. In 1954, the Institute began the “Advanced Military Preventive Medicine Course” which carried on the tropical medicine education tradition begun in 1941. This course was eventually supplanted by the “Global Medicine Course” in December 1966. During the next four and a half years, the Global Medicine course was offered on 8 separate occasions. This 12-week course was divided into 4 weeks of “Epidemiology and Applied Biostatistics”, 3 weeks of “Ecology and Disease”, and 5 weeks of “Tropical Medicine”. In February 1972, the Global Medicine course was split into a 5-week course called “Military Medical Ecology” and a 6-week course called the “Tropical Medicine Course”. The first Tropical Medicine Course was offered in July and August 1972 and was attended by 11 medical officers and 4 clinical clerks. The course endured until 1993 and was the only surviving remnant of the original Army Medical School educational offerings.
In 1991, the Institute celebrated its 50-year tradition of tropical medicine education. In memory of his significant contributions to tropical medicine education, the Institute established “The Colonel George W. Hunter III Certificate”. This award was to be presented yearly to no more than two course lecturers who embody excellence and longevity as senior lecturers in the course. The first two recipients of the award were Dr. Jay P. Sanford (former University President and Dean of the Medical School at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences) and Dr. Theodore E. Woodward (Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University Of Maryland School of Medicine). A special presentation of this award was made to Colonel Richard N. Miller, former Tropical Medicine Course Director, for his significant contributions to this course and its organization over the previous 12 years. Due to the frequency of the course changing from once a year to once a quarter, the presentation frequency of the Hunter Certificate was changed to no more than 4 per year (one per course iteration). The 50 year celebration also was particularly honored by the commencement address given by Dr. Theodore E. Woodward who attended the first course in 1941.
Due to operational needs of the Special Operations Command and the newly formed Africa Command, in 2010 it was decided to resurrect the former 6 week course at WRAIR and convert it to a targeted short course that would provide a broader spectrum of individuals with the knowledge they need to combat international infectious disease threats. Operational demands upon the U.S. military facing wars on multiple fronts in areas affected with tropical disease identified a vital need for an intensely focused short course to familiarize medical personnel at all educational levels in tropical medicine.
In 2014 the Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course was renamed 'Operational Clinical Infectious Disease' (OCID) Course.
Offshoots.
Hunter’s Tropical Medicine: "Hunter’s Tropical Medicine grew out of a World War II Army Medical School tropical and military medicine course taught at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The first edition, entitled a Manual of Tropical Medicine, was published in 1945 by three of the course instructors, Colonel Thomas T. Mackie, Major George W. Hunter III, and Captain C. Brooke Worth. A second edition was published by the same authors in 1954. Colonel Hunter was joined by co-authors from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine for the third, fourth, and fifth editions, published in 1960, 1966, and 1976, respectively. George Hunter’s contribution was acknowledged by adding his name to the book title in the sixth edition, edited in 1984."


Kyphoscoliosis

Kyphoscoliosis describes an abnormal curvature of the spine in both a coronal and sagittal plane. It is a combination of kyphosis and scoliosis. This musculoskeletal disorder often leads to other issues in patients, such as under-ventilation of lungs, pulmonary hypertension, difficulty in performing day-to-day activities, psychological issues emanating from anxiety about acceptance among peers, especially in young patients. It can also be seen in syringomyelia, Friedreich's ataxia, spina bifida, kyphoscoliotic Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (kEDS), and Duchenne muscular dystrophy due to asymmetric weakening of the paraspinal muscles.
Signs and symptoms.
The following are clear signs of Kyphoscoliosis:
Kyphosis.
Kyphosis by itself refers to an excessive convex curvature of spine occurring in the thoracic and sacral regions. A normal thoracic curvature from the 1st to the 12th spine has a naturally occurring convex shape with angles ranging from 20 degrees to 45 degrees. When the curvature goes past 45 degrees, the condition is termed as Kyphosis.
Kyphosis, depending on the extent of curvature can result in many discomforts including breathing and digestion difficulties, cardiovascular issues, and even neurological deformities. The greater the extent of deformity, the more pressing the need becomes for a surgery.
Kyphosis by itself is of several types, including postural kyphosis caused by slouching. Such forms of kyphosis can be reversed to a certain extent by correcting muscular imbalances. The more debilitating version of kyphosis is Scheuermann’s kyphosis, found mostly in teenagers. There are few other causes of Kyphosis as well, such as congenital, nutritional or osteoporosis induced and post-traumatic.
Depending on the type of Kyphosis, the extent of curvature, the age of the patient, various treatment modalities can be suggested including the provision for posture correction, braces, physiotherapy for correcting the muscular imbalance, and finally the surgery. Surgery can be most useful in patients who have an extensive deformity. The rate of post-surgery complications may be higher in elderly patients.
Scoliosis.
Scoliosis refers to yet another form of abnormal curvature in which the person’s spine takes an "S" or "C" shape. Scoliosis has forms of treatments available similar to those for kyphosis including bracing, physical therapy and various types of surgeries. Typically, a human spine is straight laterally, but in scoliosis patients, there may be a curve of ten degrees in either direction, left or right.
Cause.
Kyphoscoliosis may manifest in an individual at different stages of life and for various causes. When present at a young age ranging from childhood to teenage, kyphoscoliosis may be present from birth due to congenital abnormalities including spina bifida.
Certain infections can also lead to the development of kyphoscoliosis such as vertebral tuberculosis or general tuberculosis. Osteochondrodysplasia, a disorder related to the development of bone and cartilage, can also cause this disease.
In later ages, kyphoscoliosis can occur in patients suffering from chronic degenerative diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. This type of incidence is usually seen in patients above 50 years of age and is mainly attributed to structural changes in the spine and adjoining tissues. Sometimes, a traumatic injury can also lead to its development.
Further, there are many idiopathic occurrences of kyphoscoliosis where the exact cause is not very well known but is suspected to be caused by genetic factors.
Diagnosis.
Kyphoscoliosis is one of the main criteria in kyphoscoliotic Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. It is caused by mutation in the PLOD1 gene and/or FKBP14 gene. The diagnosis is confirmed by molecular testing and suggested when a patient meets criteria 1 and criteria 2: congenital muscle hypotonia and congenital or early onset kyphoscoliosis (progressive or non-progressive), respectively.
Treatments.
The decision to choose a particular treatment approach very much depends on multiple factors such as the age of the patient, understanding the root cause of the condition i.e. postural, congenital, etc., risks involved in surgery for the patient, etc.
Surgery.
Surgery is usually indicated when the extent of deformity is large, causes issues in physiological functions such as breathing, interferes with the daily activities or is cosmetically unacceptable to the adult. It is also advised when the patient has passed the age where other therapies such as braces are no longer effective. Kyphoscoliosis implies that the patient has both types of curvature deformity.
The decision to undergo surgery or not is always a complex one, but sometimes, it becomes inevitable such as when the deformity begins to interface with crucial physiological functions like breathing or makes every day normal activities extremely painful. Sometimes, patients in their early adulthood may choose to have surgery because the presence of such deformity causes social issues such as acceptability among their peers, a disability that comes in the way of working, etc. In the case of elderly patients who suffer from such deformity triggered at a later age, other factors are to be considered such as the presence of underlying disease that caused it, whether a progressive decline is expected, and if conservative treatments using physiotherapy or drugs have failed to give relief from debilitating pain.
Surgical correction is attempted in some to fix the spine and arrest progression of the deformity. Surgical operations may include the use of spinal implants like the Harrington Rod, or the VEPTR.
Risks of corrective spine surgery: studies.
A study measured outcome from surgery of 49 cases of scoliosis and kyphoscoliosis. Of this sample, 36 patients were monitored for a period of 8 years.
'Bad' refers to cases where the surgery failed to address the disease and the patient either had to undergo a revision surgery or continues to suffer from a poor quality of life as before surgery.
Typically post-surgery complications range up to 5% involving all major and minor complications when measured within one year of surgery. However, there may be a progressive decline in patient's condition after a few years.
In another study that evaluated surgical treatment of kyphoscoliosis and scoliosis due to congenital reasons, 91% of surgeries were found to be successful and met their intended objectives for the two-year follow-up period after surgery. The sample consisted of 23 patients of whom 17 were male and 6 were female, with an average age of 27 years, ranging from 13 to 61 years. The most popular type of surgeries for spinal correction includes pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO) and posterior vertebral column resection (pVCR).
Another study which focused on elderly patients found that the rate of complications was much higher for a sample population of 72 cases with mean age of 60.7 years. The rate of complications was as high as 22% in the entire sample. The study points that in the case of elderly patients, surgery should only be considered when there is no other option left; the disease is in progression stage, and the quality of life has degraded to an extent where conservative treatments can no longer help with pain.
While there are many surgical approaches for spinal deformity correction including anterior only, posterior only, anterior-posterior, the techniques that are most popular nowadays include the posterior only VCR or pVCR. One of the studies which analyze pVCR technique also noted the benefit of using a technique called NMEP monitoring in assisting the surgeon avoid any neurological complications while performing a spine surgery.


Mycobacteria growth indicator tube

Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) is intended for the detection and recovery of mycobacteria. The MGIT Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube contains 7 mL of modified Middlebrook 7H9 Broth base. The complete medium, with OADC enrichment and PANTA antibiotic mixture, is one of the most commonly used liquid media for the cultivation of mycobacteria.
All types of clinical specimens, pulmonary as well as extra-pulmonary (except blood and urine), can be processed for primary isolation in the MGIT tube using conventional methods. After processed specimen is inoculated, MGIT tube must be continuously monitored either manually or by automated instruments until positive or the end of the testing protocol.
Principles of the Procedure.
A fluorescent compound is embedded in silicone on the bottom of 16 × 100 mm round bottom tubes. The fluorescent compound is sensitive to the presence of oxygen dissolved in the broth. Initially, the large amount of dissolved oxygen quenches emissions from the compound and little fluorescence can be detected. Later, actively respiring microorganisms consume the oxygen and allow the fluorescence to be detected.
Tubes are filled with samples in the broth and continuously incubated at 37°C. The tubes are monitored for increasing fluorescence to determine if the tube is instrument positive; i.e., the test sample contains viable organisms. Fluorescence can be recorded by automated instruments such as Becton Dickinson's BACTEC MGIT 960 System, or manually using the BD BACTEC microMGIT fluorescence reader or a Wood's lamp or other long-wave UV light source.
Instruments.
BACTEC MGIT 960 System.
This instrument is produced by Becton Dickinson (BD). It is specially designed to accommodate Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) and incubate them at 37°C. The instrument scans the MGIT every 60 minutes for increased fluorescence. Analysis of the fluorescence is used to determine if the tube is instrument positive; i.e., the test sample contains viable organisms. An instrument-positive tube contains approximately 105 to 106 colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL). Culture tubes which remain negative for a minimum of 42 days (up to 56 days) and which show no visible signs of positivity are removed from the instrument as negatives and discarded. Its usefulness has been evaluated in the scientific literature.


Nevada Cancer Institute

Nevada Cancer Institute (NVCI), founded in 2002, was the official cancer institute for the state of Nevada from 2003 to 2013, located in Summerlin, Nevada. The Institute became part of UC San Diego Health in February, 2012.
A non-profit organization, NVCI served patients throughout the greater Las Vegas area, offering full-service clinics in Summerlin, Nevada, and at University Medical Center, in the downtown medical district. The Institute provided inpatient treatment services such as chemotherapy, radiation and diagnostic imaging services, as well as an array of clinical trials. The Institute’s mobile screening unit, the Hope Coach, has provided mammography services throughout the state.
NVCI has served more than 17,000 patients since opening in 2005. The Institute was dedicated to providing innovative and collaborative cancer care, clinical trials and community education.
The Institute became part of UC San Diego Health in February, 2012. In November 2013, Roseman University completed a merger with the former Nevada Cancer Institute Foundation that expedited Roseman's planning for a premier community-based medical school, the first allopathic medical school in Nevada. NVCI’s Ralph and Betty Engelstad Research Building provided the home for Roseman’s College of Medicine in Summerlin, which then continued to house NVCI researchers.
Background.
As part of UC San Diego Health, Nevada Cancer Institute offered current and advanced cancer treatment options, with patient and family support services, to residents of Nevada. The Institute provided inpatient treatment services such as chemotherapy, radiation and diagnostic imaging services, as well as an array of clinical trials, many of which would not otherwise have been available in the state of Nevada. The Institute also provided assistance to help patients find the information and non-medical resources they needed to support themselves during treatment - including support groups, an on-site meditation room, yoga and other activities.
Facilities.
The Institute’s four-story treatment facility occupied 142000 sqft. The lobby had a blown-glass chandelier designed by Dale Chihuly.


Keith L. Moore

Keith Leon Moore (5 October 1925-5 December 2019) was a professor in the division of anatomy, in the faculty of Surgery, at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Moore was associate dean for Basic Medical Sciences in the university's faculty of Medicine and was Chair of Anatomy from 1976 to 1984. He is a founding member of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) and was President of the AACA between 1989 and 1991.
Moore has co-written (with Professor Arthur F. Dalley and Professor Anne M. R. Agur) "Clinically Oriented Anatomy", an English-language anatomy textbook. He also co-wrote (with Professor Anne M. R. Agur and Professor Arthur F. Dalley) "Essential Clinical Anatomy".
Awards.
The American Association of Clinical Anatomists awarded Dr. Moore, the previous president, with their Honored Member Award (in 1994). The American Association of Anatomists awarded him the Henry Gray/Elsevier Distinguished Educator Award in 2007 for human anatomy education in the anatomical sciences.
Further awards, appointments and honors include:
Embryology in The Qur'an.
In 1980, Dr. Moore was invited to Saudi Arabia to lecture on anatomy and embryology at King Abdulaziz University. While he was there, Moore was approached by the Embryology Committee of King Abdulaziz University for his assistance in interpreting certain verses in the Qur’an and some sayings in the Hadiths which referred to human reproduction and embryological development. Moore said that he was amazed at the scientific accuracy of some of the statements which were made in the 7th century AD:
For the past three years, I have worked with the Embryology Committee of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, helping them interpret the many statements in the Qur’an and Sunnah referring to human reproduction and prenatal development. At first, I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was established.
Moore worked with the Embryology Committee on a comparative study of the Qur’an, the Hadith and modern embryology. The Committee presented and published several papers with Moore and others co-authoring a number of papers.
Islam Papers writes that the electron microscope reveals that:
For instance, the Holy book claims that at one point the embryo looks like a small piece of meat which can be chewed, or "mudghah", and Moore consents, "by golly, it does, sorta", agreeing and signaling to the knowledge we have about the structure and appearance of the actual embryo, which actually comes into a stage where it resembles the size of a small thing which can be chewed by teeth i.e. it is approximately of 1.0cm meanwhile in Alaqah stage embryo is forming and only 3.5mm which can't be chewed.
A special edition of Moore's medical school textbook, "The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology", was published for the Muslim world in 1983. "The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology with Islamic Additions", included "pages with embryology-related Quranic verse and hadith" by co-author Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, "interspersed" with Moore's text.
In 2002, Moore declined to be interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on the subject of his work on Islam, stating that "it's been ten or eleven years since I was involved in the Qur'an." In 2004 the US Treasury Department labelled al-Zindani, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. But the UN and the American administration failed to answer the several requests of the Yemeni Government to provide them with proofs that show the involvement of Zindani in terrorist actions.


Modality Partnership

The Modality Partnership is a large GP partnership formed in 2009. Such large practices are often described as a "super partnership". According to the King's Fund in 2016 it was one of England’s largest super-practices. In 2018 it had about 400,000 patients and was thought to be the largest practice in England.
Recognition.
The partnership is given a favourable mention in the NHS Five Year Forward View. It already conducts 80% of consultations remotely using phone or Skype.
Sarb Basi, the managing director, said in response to the NHS Five Year Forward View that it would be a “natural, logical progression” to manage capitated budgets for health and social care budgets through an integrated care organisation, building a "coherent strategic partnership" with an acute hospital and working with community health trusts to incorporate nursing and therapy services. This appeared to connect with comments made by Simon Stevens to the House of Commons health select committee in October 2014 that he envisaged in Birmingham two large groupings of GPs - the Vitality Partnership and another which would employ geriatricians.
It is suggested that under Simon Stevens' plan large primary care organisations like Modality could be in a position to challenge the dominance of NHS hospital trusts It has extended the primary care services to include urology, dermatology, rheumatology and x-rays.
David Cameron cited the partnership in May 2015 when he praised Birmingham's transformation of primary care.
It signed an agreement with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust in November 2017 which was a “commitment to work collaboratively over the next three to five years with a view to forming a much more vertically integrated relationship”.
Nick Harding, one of the co-founders, and chair of Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group was reckoned by the Health Service Journal to be the 47th most influential person in the English NHS in 2015.
Expansion.
In April 2017 it took over four more GP practices in Hull, with 48,000 patients, bringing its total list to 150,000. In June 2017 it took on Wokingham Medical Centre, its 27th practice, with 20,000 patients. In September 2017 it took over six GP practices in Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven, bringing its list to more than 200,000 patients. It took over three practices based in Lewisham in July 2018.
The partnership started to offer online consultations using Push Doctor to more than 99,000 patients across six of the Modality practices in September 2018. If this is successful it will be extended to all their 400,000 patients.
It proposes to run the bank and back office services for new primary care networks in England which include its practices, and is already doing so in Walsall.
It had the largest pay gap between male and female employees (60.7%) of 154 companies based in Birmingham in 2018/19.
In July 2019 it announced it would have to close one of the five GP surgeries it runs in Hull because of staffing difficulties.


Roque Pinto

Roque Pinto, also known as Roque Gabriel Wiseman Pinto, is a prominent Indian doctor. He was the president of the Indian Academy of Cytologists and professor and head of the pathology dept in Goa Medical College, professor in charge of the Medical Education Cell, President of the Goa Association of Pathologists. He is also the president of the Saint Luke's medical guild in Goa. He is invited nationally and internationally for conferences. He is also examiner for the national board and other universities, and an inspector of the MCI. Dr. Pinto organised the international CME (Continuing Medical Education) program in pathology at the Goa Medical College on from 14 to 16 March 2008.


Ramachandra Datatraya Lele

Ramachandra Dattatraya Lele (born 16 January 1928) is a physician from India.
He established the department of Nuclear Medicine at Jaslok Hospital.
 He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian honour of India by the President of India, in 1992.


Claude Couinaud

Claude Couinaud (16 February 1922, Neuilly-sur-Seine - 4 May 2008, Paris) was a French surgeon and anatomist who made significant contributions in the field of hepatobiliary surgery. He is best known for his detailed anatomic studies of the liver and was the first to describe its segmental anatomy. These anatomic facts permitted the development of hepatectomies.
His book "Le Foie: Études anatomiques et chirurgicales"
stands as the seminal work on hepatobiliary surgery and anatomy of the 20th century.


Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) is a private nonprofit professional organization based in Arlington, VA for healthcare practitioners dedicated to the principles of infection control. APIC has more than 15,000 members. APIC concentrates its efforts in the hospital, nursing home and home health settings.
Overview.
APIC strives to limit the cause and spread of hospital-acquired (HAIs) infections by:
APIC has a central office governed by an elected board of directors comprising four officers and nine to 12 directors.
In addition, APIC has 124 regional chapters across the United States. Each chapter has their own elected officers and volunteers.
Moreover, APIC offers a selection of areas of infection control concentration called sections. APIC also offers awards every year to healthcare practitioners who have been recognized as leaders in infection control advancement.
APIC publishes magazines, journals (including "American Journal of Infection Control"), articles, and case studies.


American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists

The American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists (AAPB) was an American national professional association established in 1901, devoted to fundamental science and academic medicine as distinct from clinical medicine. In 1976, they joined with the American Society for Experimental Pathology (ASEP) to form the American Association of Pathologists (AAP), which in 1992 became the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP).
The AAPB took over the "Journal of the Boston Society of Medical Sciences", and renamed it the "Journal of Medical Research". The first issue was published in July 1901.
In 1924 the Council voted to end the "Journal of Medical Research" and with a grant from the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, the AAPB started the "American Journal of Pathology" on January 1, 1925, noting on the cover that it was a continuation of the "Journal of Medical Research".