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Biomedical subjects

W W Myers

Publications and source records attributed to W W Myers.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Physician manpower for rural America: summary of a WAMI region conference.

Although legislators have intermittently focused their attention on physician manpower issues, the needs of rural America for physicians remain unmet. These needs will not be met unless there is an adequate supply of physicians receptive to and appropriately trained for the challenges and opportunities of practice in a rural community. A declining interest by matriculating and graduating medical students in primary care practice makes it problematic that the needs of rural America can be met in the near future unless medical schools attempt to reverse the trends in medical students' specialty choices. In October 1989, the University of Washington School of Medicine conducted a working conference on physician manpower issues facing rural communities in Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. The discussions and conclusions of this conference about increasing the percentage of graduates entering rural practice apply to other regions of the country, and this paper summarizes the conference's recommendations.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1990

Separation and growth of human CD4+ and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells by direct positive panning on covalently attached monoclonal antibody-coated flasks.

A direct positive panning technique was developed in order to achieve highly purified CD4+ and CD8+ cells. Fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes derived from bulk cultures were applied to modified polystyrene surfaces to which anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 monoclonal antibodies were covalently attached. Adherent cells were allowed to grow in the original flask and were then harvested and cultured in IL-2-containing medium. This positive immunoselection technique resulted in CD4+ and CD8+ cell subsets with high cell viability and a high degree of purity. In several samples, the isolated cell subsets were subsequently subjected to a negative immunomagnetic bead selection in order to remove reciprocal cell subset contamination or double-positive CD4+/CD8+ cells. The isolated cells maintained their ability to proliferate, kept their phenotypic profiles, and remained functionally intact after long-term growth in culture without the further addition of mitogenic or allogeneic cell stimulation. This approach is a simple, rapid, and reproducible technique that might be useful on a large scale to isolate and to grow T-cell subsets for research and for clinical use.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1987

Geographic and specialty distributions of WAMI Program participants and nonparticipants.

In an effort to make the geographic distribution of physicians closer to the distribution of the population as a whole, in 1971 the states of Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho established the WAMI Program. In a departure from the Flexnerian model of medical education, the WAMI Program was organized to distribute the components of medical education throughout the region, both at the medical center at the University of Washington School of Medicine and at remote sites. In the present article, the authors describe the results of the first seven years of the program (1975-1981) in terms of the geographic and specialty distribution of the school's graduates before and after the establishment of the program. At the time of the study, 23 percent of the graduates with WAMI Program experience practiced in nonmetropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Only 13 percent of all U.S. physicians practiced in such areas in 1981, while 24 percent of the U.S. population lived there. In addition, 61 percent of the graduates with program experience were in primary care practice in contrast to 35 percent of all U.S. physicians. If all U.S. physicians behaved as these graduates do, the distribution of U.S. physicians would be reversed, with the proportion of physicians practicing primary care in nonmetropolitan areas being larger than the proportion of the population living in those areas.

Alaska↗
PubMed1987

In vivo and in vitro activation of natural killer cells in advanced cancer patients undergoing combined recombinant interleukin-2 and LAK cell therapy.

Patients with advanced metastatic cancer were given combined autologous lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cell and recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) therapy on a National Cancer Institute extramural phase II trial. Systemic administration of rIL-2 resulted in pronounced lymphocytopenia. Within two days after completion of in vivo rIL-2 therapy, there was a dramatic increase in absolute numbers of circulating lymphocytes, and cytotoxic activity against tumor cell targets was mediated by peripheral blood lymphocytes, indicating in vivo generation of LAK activity. Patients were leukapheresed and cells cultured for three to four days in rIL-2. rIL-2 cultured cells from all patients demonstrated cytotoxic activity. In order to characterize the effector cell, T cells and natural killer (NK) cells were isolated to greater than 95% purity by flow cytometry. Cytotoxic activity was mediated by rIL-2--activated NK cells, whereas T cells demonstrated no substantial activity. The circulating in vivo cytotoxic effectors detected after in vivo rIL-2 therapy were also shown to be rIL-2--activated NK cells. Results from these studies demonstrate that all patients were capable of generating a cytotoxic response, and that the cytotoxic effector cells were rIL-2--activated NK cells, identified by the phenotype CD3--, Leu 19+.

Cytotoxicity, Immunologic↗
PubMed1983

The changing Alaskan experience. Health care services and cultural identity.

Before Western contact, Alaskan Native populations were self-sufficient in their health practices. Slowly, the Native health care system was replaced by a Western one which was highly effective in treating infectious diseases. As infectious diseases were brought under control by the Indian Health Service, the emergent leading health problems were related to violence, attributed in part to cultural disintegration. New types of Native health providers and new Native-controlled institutions evolved to provide culturally appropriate health and mental health services and to promote a stronger cultural identity.

Alaska↗