PM&R’s Earthquake Aid

October’s Kashmir/Northern Pakistan earthquake left in its wake 500 new spinal cord injuries and 500 people with amputations. How can Pakistan’s medical system best respond to the massive rehab needs with its relatively limited resources?

A group from the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation—physiatrist Charles Knoll, physical therapist Mark Hopkins, and Judy Coho, director of rehab services at Good Samaritan—traveled to Pakistan in December to help answer that question.

“We made a really good team because we have different perspectives, and we could feed off each other’s ideas,” says Knoll. Their weeklong, whirlwind tour of rehab facilities included a trip up into the mountains near the quake’s epicenter. “I met some of the nicest people I have ever met,” says Knoll. “I would love to go back so that I could do more to help out.” The group is putting together a report for Pakistan’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

Following the latest trend in customer service, a new system-wide hospital bill payment program allows patients to pay their hospital bills online. Hopkins Hospital has recently joined Bayview and Howard County General in providing the service. Patients receive a hard-copy invoice with instructions about paying electronically. They can manage their accounts, view payment history and update insurance information online. Credit cards are accepted on the secure sites.

Urban Health Journal

The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute has launched a new journal dedicated to the work of community health partnerships. Called Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, it focuses on the growing field of community-based, participatory research. Funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and published four times a year by the JHU Press, the journal will be edited by Eric Bass, a professor of medicine and senior faculty research fellow at the Urban Health Institute.

Doctors of Photography