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Dear everyone I completely agree with Trauti. First of all, let me introduce myself. I am a neurologist and Parkinson's specialist who is practicing in Malaysia. I started enlisting in PIEN about nine months ago. Looking at the overall contents of the articles, I don't think the discussion is too political. Most of the articles are on very interesting medical aspects on Parkinson's. Being a Parkinson's specialist, I myself also learned a lot from this network - most of the articles are indeed very relevant and highly intellectual. I am amazed by the fact that the information providers (Ray and Diane) are very familiar with medical aspects of Parkinson's even though they are not doctors. Both of them have put in a lot of efforts in providing the whole world with useful medical informations. In any country in this world, when we talk about health, discussion on politics is inevitable. For any health reforms in any country, the health policy is the most important aspect. And who makes the health policy? It is the politicians. We need politicians to help the Parkinson's care to improve - this is what I have realized one year ago. Look at me in Malaysia. I have been pursuing the Health Minister for the past one year to ask him to set up a National Parkinson's Committee (which we don't have at all right now), to make sure that Malaysian Parkinson's patients have adequate medications and brain surgery services. I want to ask for annual funding from the government on the DBS surgery - say sponsorship for DBS of a minimum of ten Parkinson's patients per year. I know that without the politicians in my country (especially the Health Minister), the Parkinson's care will never improve. Currently there is no active DBS surgery service in my country. Fortunately, our current Health Minister has been very supportive of Parkinson's patients in Malaysia. With his help, we are in the process of setting up a National Parkinson's Committee right now. In Parkinson's (or any other illness), we cannot avoid talking about politics, especially in America where many people are having a real big problem concerning health care. That's how Obama came into the scene (health reforms, stem cell treatment, etc). Therefore, a mixture of medical facts and a bit of politics is the most realistic way for Parkinson's discussion. I really find the discussion in PIEN very useful and interesting. I am grateful and thankful to both the creators and information providers for this excellent info network. I sincerely hope that more and more Parkinson's patients and specialists throughout the whole world will participate in this info network. Dr Chew, Malaysia. > Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 20:06:47 -0400 > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: ot topics > To: [log in to unmask] > > i have given this alot of thought today and will post even though it might not sit well with some. > a list like this takes a lot of work which in the past was taken on by only a few of the members. these members, by their nature, were willing to take the time to make us all aware of new developments. that occasionally a political view or interpretation would show is par for the course. i never felt there was an abundance of these posts, plus they were clearly marked and could be deleted by hitting just one button. > without these list members there would be hardly any activity. furthermore, the thread about health care, i felt, was important and the outcome will influence treatments for pd without a doubt. > having list members all over the world should provide us with a great opportunity to compare treatments and the pros and cons of the different health care systems. > unfortunately there are some who don't post much, or not at all, who feel they need to criticize at the slightest perceived provocation, without contributing to the list ever. > i, personally, am grateful for the information i got through the list. if i felt a post did not concern me or was not helpful, all i had to do was hit the delete button. not once did i feel the list had gone completely off track or was useless. > trauti > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn _________________________________________________________________ More than messages–check out the rest of the Windows Live™. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn