This week Kitty and Dr. Fallon will host an “open forum.” Listener’s are invited to call in with their questions and comments. Tuesday Evening 8:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm (EST) Cruisin 92.1 FM~WVLT, streaming live on the web at www.wvlt.com Call In: 856-696-0092.
Photo Above: Kitty Castellini & Dr. Joseph J. Fallon, Jr.
This week Kitty and Dr. Fallon welcome back Dr. Stephen Sinclair, Retina Specialist. Listener’s are invited to call in with their questions and comments. Tuesday Evening 8:00PM ~ 9:00PM (EST) Cruisin 92.1 FM~WVLT, streaming live on the web at www.wvlt.com Call In: 856-696-0092
Stephen H. Sinclair, MD has served as the Chief Medical Officer and member of the Management Committee since the inception of Vimetrics, LLC in 2005. The technology of the Company represents more than 25 years of his basic and clinical research in retinal vascular disease and the vision that results. The current technology that is the basis for the patent portfolio encompasses unique vision measuring devices for children and adults and image processing algorithms for screening and following retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. He is an ophthalmologist in private practice specializing in diseases and surgery of the retina and since 1993 has remained adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology at Drexel University School of Medicine. Dr. Sinclair has received the Honor and Senior Achievement Awards for from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and has published more than 70 original scientific papers as well as lecturing for numerous organizations and universities throughout the world.
Photo Above: Dr. Stephen Sinclair
This week Kitty and Dr. Fallon will interview Dr.Christine Mitchell and Dr. Vincent Savarse from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Listener’s are invited to call in with their questions and comments. Tuesday Evening 8:00PM ~ 9:00PM (EST) Cruisin 92.1 FM~WVLT, streaming live on the web at www.wvlt.com Call In: 856-696-0092
Christina Mitchell, MD
Christina Mitchell was born and raised in South Jersey, growing up in Merchantville, NJ and attending St. Peter School. She then went to Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Pennsauken, NJ. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Princeton University in 2001. She was awarded her MD from Jefferson Medical College in 2005. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in June 2008. She is currently a Clinical Fellow in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Christina lives with her husband, Greg, and Golden Retriever, Kona, in Abington, PA.
Photo Above: Dr. Christine Mitchell
Vincent Savarese, MD
Vincent Savarese, MD completed his undergraduate training at Boston College and received his medical degree in 2004 from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Dr. Savarese is currently a fellow in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolic Diseases at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he has participated in research in continuous glucose monitoring and inpatient blood glucose control. He will complete his fellowship in June 2009, and will be practicing endocrinology in South Jersey.
Dr. Savarese lives in Philadelphia with his wife and 1-year old daughter.
Photo Above: Dr. Vincent Savarse
This week Kitty and Dr. Fallon welcome back Joe Martinez, Pharmacist and Type 1 diabetic. Listener’s are invited to call in with their questions and comments. Tuesday Evening 8:00PM ~ 9:00PM (EST) Cruisin 92.1 FM~WVLT, streaming live on the web at www.wvlt.com Call In: 856-696-0092
Joe Martinez has had diabetes for over 16 years. He is a pharmacist, diabetic educator and insulin-pump using diabetic. The first two years he was on varying oral medications. He then progressed to injectable glargine insulin and quickly added rapid-acting insulin injections to his therapy regimen.
He considers himself in good control now using an insulin-pump with rapid-acting insulin and meal-time injections of pramlintide. Joe’s A1C numbers usually range from 6.3 to 6.7 depending on the time on year and how much traveling he does for work.
Joe and his wife Michele have three sons and live in the Princeton area of New Jersey. He enjoys coaching his son’s basketball team. Joe feels that he’s in better shape now with diabetes, than he was 25 years ago without diabetes. He takes the time to eat better, exercise more (he can do better here) and maintains a positive outlook on life.
Diabetes runs in Joe’s family. Both his grandmother’s were diabetic, as well as, his father is a Type 2 diabetic. One day he brought a glucose monitor home to show his father how to use it. After a Sunday meal of ravioli, broccoli and garlic bread, his father’s sugar level was 144 and Joe’s was 253. A quick trip to the doctors office and it was confirmed - diabetes.
At first, Joe couldn’t believe it. The reality of it slowly sank in. He then wanted to know as much about the disease as possible. His motivation was that someday, he wanted to run around with his grandchildren, with his own two legs and not in a wheel chair. Joe often says that he’s in better shape now, than he was 25 years ago - just making lemonade when you’re given lemons!
“It’s not what happens to you but how you respond that the key”. Joe is constantly talking to doctors and other health care professionals about the need for “appropriate therapy for the appropriate patient” in diabetes management.
In addition, he tries to personalize the diabetes patient to people who may not have an awareness of what the challenges of diabetes therapy are and how the disease will progress. Joe believes that one day their will be a cure for diabetes and he works to be part of the solution.
Photo Above: Joe Martinez
This week Kitty and Dr. Fallon will host an “open forum.” NY Times best author Brenda Novak will be calling in to talk about her 5th. Annual Mother’s Day Gift of Hope to diabetic son and others. Listener’s are invited to call in with their questions and comments. Tuesday Evening 8:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm (EST) Cruisin 92.1 FM~WVLT, streaming live on the web at www.wvlt.com Call In: 856-696-0092.
NY TIMES BEST SELLING Author gives annual MOTHER’S DAY gift of hope to diabetic son and others
Novelist Brenda Novak’s 5th Annual Online Auction Benefits the Diabetes Research Institute
(Hollywood, FL), March 2009 - For New York Times best selling author and mother of five Brenda Novak, Mother’s Day isn’t about breakfast in bed or a special family gathering to celebrate her status as a mom. Instead, it’s the culmination of a year’s worth of planning, phone calls, seeking favors and just plain hard work. Novak’s 5th Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research (www.brendanavak.com) held each May as a labor of love for her son who has lived with the disease for most of his life, is a month-long online event featuring lunches, dinners and personal meetings with celebrity authors, world-class getaway vacations and state-of-the-art gizmos and gadgets. This year, the Diabetes Research Institute is the sole beneficiary of the event.
This Herculean effort has grown from a one-person show, raising just over $10,000 in its first year to an all-out effort aiming to break the $300,000 mark this year. In all, Brenda’s online auction effort has rasied a grand total of more than $500,000 in its first four years.
“Each year of the auction brings new excitement and with the array of items we have this year I’m looking forward to substantial interest and plenty of bidding,” said Novak. “I’m particularly proud to have partnered with the Diabetes Research Institute whose work helps inspire me to do what I can to help raise critical research dollars, especially in these most difficult times.”
In the previous four years the auction has generated tremendous interest due in large part to the participation of some of the most prolific authors in the country today. In 2008, the auction site saw tens of thousands of hits and visitors and with this year’s collection of prized offerings, even more are expected. Among the most exciting auction items available are lunch with international bestseller Barry Eisler, tea with New York Times Bestseller Debbie Macomber and a stay at famed author Nora Robert’s Inn.
Beyond rubbing elbows with famous authors, the auction offers unique vacation getaways and exciting technology packages including the all new, “Kindle” reader. And for aspiring writers, the auction offers a chance to bid on evaluation opportunities with some of the most powerful and well-connected agents and editors in publishing, and possibly face-to-face interaction with these A-list publishing industry giants which have been among the most popular items in previous years.
“We are proud to be working with Brenda and honored to be the only beneficiary of her Online Auction. Bu,t most of all we are moved by the enormity of what Brenda’s done on her own and the talent she’s brought to the effort to find a cure for diabetes,” said Robert A. Pearlman, president and CEO of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation. “In just a few short years, Brenda Novak has turned a wonderful idea into a well anticipated annual event.”
About Brenda Novak
It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career. “I caught my day-care provider drugging my children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep while I was away,” Brenda says. “It was then that I decided I needed to do something from home.”
However, writing was the last profession she expected to undertake. In fact, Brenda swears she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. In school, math and science were her best subjects, and when it came time to pick a major in college, she chose business. Abandoning her academic scholarship to Brigham Young University at the age of 20 in order to get married and start a family, Brenda dabbled in commercial real estate, then became a loan officer.
“When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda admits. “I learned how to write by reading what others have written. The best advice for any would-be author: read, read, read….”
Brenda sold her first book, and the rest is history. She’s hit various national bestseller lists, including Borders/Waldenbooks and The New York Times, and many of her novels have won or placed in contests such as the National Reader’s Choice and the Bookseller’s Best.
Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are the proud parents of five children-three girls and two boys. She juggles her writing career with her children’s basketball and soccer games, field trips, carpool runs and homework sessions.
When she’s not spending time with her family or writing, Brenda is usually working on her annual fund-raiser for diabetes research-an online auction held at her Web site (www.brendanovak.com) May 1 - May 31. Her youngest son, Thad, has diabetes, and Brenda is determined to help him and others like him. She also enjoys traveling, watching sporting events and biking-she rides an amazing 20 miles every day!
Photo Above: Brenda Novak with her son.
About the Diabetes Research Institute
The mission of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation is to provide the Diabetes Research Institute with the funding necessary to cure diabetes now. The Diabetes Research Institute, a center of excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is a recognized world leader in cure-focused research. Since its inception in the early 1970s, the DRI has made significant contributions to the field of diabetes research, pioneering many of the techniques used in islet transplantation. The DRI is now building upon these achievements by bridging cell-based therapies with emerging technologies to restore insulin production. For the millions of families already affected by diabetes, the Diabetes Research Institute is the best hope for a cure.
