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Dee, Sorry for the delayed response. I've been in St. Pete (FL) visiting the in-laws. I'm prone to not have much faith in any institution these days, after the national gov't went haywire, the state, county, and town where I live have massive $$ problems and stupidness problems, Amgen, even Hwang and his dog let me (us) down. I'd say the main problems with the database idea are money, how to fund such a database, and Qualters does have a point about skittish doctors (malpractice insurance) and verification of 'stories' for scientific purposes. I read in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times about a project where this team from NPR is going around the country in an Airstream trailer, recording people close to each other in an interview set-up, i. e., the wife would interview the husband, you know, some pair that was close to each other, so that they could impart their special story. The 'studio' in the trailer has a highly private, 'confessional' sort of atmosphere. I'd love to do that. I think this kind of plain talk between two people close to each other, about not only events but interperetations of those events, is one of the best ways to catch a whiff of what really went on in the past. Sort of like what we have going on here. But what we have here is lots of people going thru similar events, with each person's interperetations lending balance to conclusions drawn from the whole. I don't know what scientific value this would have, if any. What scientific value is there in the tales of a tribal shaman, or the memoirs of a general, or the memories of a grandmother? These stories, I think, aid in the general survival and welfare of the tribe. How can this be quantified or studied? Maybe from an anthropologist's or historian's point of view. I think there's at least one such person among us on the list... I wonder how much data could be compiled from the archives of this list. Plowing through mountains of old emails could be informative, as well as tedious. But you could probably compile quite a list of, for example, people who have had good and bad results from the different medications prescribed to PWP. I've never explored the archives. How is it managed? Are all historical messages saved? Edited? Perhaps the mgrs will enlighten us. Dee, you are a real asset to this list. Thanks for your contribution, and your caring, yet level-headed approach. Enjoy winter! Rick McGirr Email: [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dolores Buente" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 10:28 AM Subject: Re: chemicals/Dee > Dear Rick, > > This is a follow up in regard to one of the national agencies that I > listed > in my previous post: "The National Environmental Public Health > Tracking > Program." > > Since learning about this new program several months ago, I had > been trying > to get in touch with a representative of the CDC who is connected > with it to > learn more about their basic goals ( if you've had a chance to read > their > "strategy document", you might have concluded the jargon a bit > difficult to > interpret...a typical example of bureaucratic doublespeak.) > > I had lofty expectations that this program's ultimate goal and > purpose was > to function as a central point to which doctors/neurologists would > submit > background information (toxic exposures, heredity connections,etc.) > on current > and newly diagnosed Parkinson's patients. I was disappointed, to > say the > least, when I was informed otherwise. In my conversation with Judy > Qualters, an > associate director of Science at the CDC, I learned that this is > not the > direction they are working toward. Their objective will be in > electronically > coordination/linking the agencies that are now in place. They plan > to have the > program implemented by 2008. Part of their program will include an > informational website for public access. > > Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that the program falls so > short of > my expectations that they were in the process of the development of > a > national database. In fact, Ms. Qualters > seems to question the effectiveness of such a database and outlined > the > obstacles that would prevent its establishment. Those obstacles > being: privacy > issues, reliability of accurate input information, the unlikelihood > that > physicians would desire to participate, etc. > She said that the CDC is just now making efforts to implement an > electronic > consolidation of medical records/information and it will be some > time before > this will be in force. > > I am now beginning to doubt the possibility of even a small hope > that we > will have a database in place in the forseeable future and unless > someone has > information that shows otherwise, I feel that expectations are not > realistic. > > Dee > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn