medicine - Woodruff Health Sciences Center - Emory University

6
In Brief
Capitol rotation
J student had done before.
Jackie Green 09M requested what some might think
of as an unusual site to complete a rotation—the
Georgia state Capitol—something no Emory medical
“It was great for me because I was
invested in the policy decisions,” says
Green, who is now an internal medicine
resident at Emory.
Green served her rotation under
Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta),
who chairs the Georgia House Health
and Human Services Committee. A
former psychiatric nurse and college
professor, Cooper wanted Green to
become immersed in the political
process at the General Assembly.
“Jackie was the first person with
the insight to ask for a rotation at the
Capitol,” Cooper says. “I tried
to make sure Jackie went with me,
from meeting with the governor’s
lawyer to one-on-one negotiations
with others.” The hands-on guidance gave Green a chance
to work on several health policy bills and helped with the
successful passage of the Medical Practice Act, which clarifies
the roles and responsibilities of medical professionals.
While working with legislators on health policy was
Bottlenecking HIV
One of the greatest challenges in fighting
HIV is how fast it mutates. One who is infected
with HIV usually has a vast library of different
viruses that could vary in their sensitivity to
drugs or vaccines.
HIV faces a genetic “bottleneck” when the virus
is transmitted from one person to another. Because
of the bottleneck, most of the time during heterosexual
transmission, only one virus or virus-infected
cell makes it through to establish the new infection.
Emory researchers have found that the bottleneck
is disrupted when the at-risk partner has an inflammatory
genital infection. The infection compromises
normally protective mucosal barriers, allow-
EMORY MEDICINE
While in medical school at Emory,
Jackie Green (left) worked as a health
policy intern at the Capitol, guided by
Representative Sharon Cooper, who
herself holds a master’s in nursing.
new to Green, working to influence policy was not. She
previously served as an officer in Health Students Taking
Action Together (HealthSTAT), a student-run, not-forprofit
dedicated to influencing health legislation. When
HealthSTAT took an active role in an
effort to keep Grady Hospital open,
Green helped organize students for a
campaign that drew attention to the
hospital’s plight.
Green’s precedent has paved the
way for other Emory medical students
to complete a health policy
rotation with the legislature, underscored
by a request from Rep.
Cooper to work with additional
Emory students.
Arthur Kellermann, the medical
school’s associate dean for health
policy, considers these opportunities
crucial to medical professionals seeking
a greater understanding of how
politics and medicine interact. He
worked with the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, as part of a health policy fellowship
offered by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. “It’s the
difference between watching a play and participating in the
play as both a stage hand and member of the cast.”
ing multiple viral varieties through the bottleneck.
The results, published in the January 2009 issue
of the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens,
explain why other sexually transmitted diseases make
people more susceptible to HIV infection. They also
identify a window of time when a still-elusive HIV
vaccine could control the virus, says team leader
Eric Hunter (pathology).
“Very early on after initial infection, the virus is
almost homogenous,” Hunter says. “If the immune system
could contain the virus at that point, there might
be a better chance to eliminate it.
The more we know about the early stages
of infection, the more likely it is we could identify
ways to intervene at that critical time.”