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| Vol. 22, No. 4 |
| March 1, 2000 |
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Third Annual Mexico City Conference Explores "Cycle of Life" by KRISTINA VAN ARSDEL Texas Medical Center News
A delegation of experts from several Texas Medical Center institutions shared perspectives on topics ranging from cancer to gene therapy at the third annual Mexico City conference February 2. This year's one-day conference "Cycle of Life in the New Millennium," hosted by the Texas Medical Center International Affairs Advisory Council, featured presentations and panel discussions addressing health problems that affect pediatric and older adult populations. Eleven presenters from Texas Medical Center institutions were joined by four speakers from Mexico, marking the first time the conference has included panelists from both sides of the border. "This conference was designed to create an exchange between medical professionals from the Texas Medical Center institutions and those in Mexico," said Linda Winter, conference organizer and vice president with Texas Medical Center. "Including speakers from Mexico in the program was yet another way of facilitating this goal and working toward an important dialogue." "In developing rapport with Mexico, we deal with the same kind of health issues and difficulties in making diagnosis and getting awareness out about things that are needed," said Dr. Howard P. Monsour, Jr., associate with the St. Luke's Texas Liver Institute, a part of St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. "The difference in Mexico is the availability of health care and the ability to pay for a lot of these new techniques is more limited than what is available in the United States. "What I found in talking to the doctors there is that they have to deal with that more basic problem more often than we do. If a patient comes to my office, I can order a genetic test to see if they have a metabolic disease. There, they can't do that in a lot of cases because that patient can't afford it. We talked about ways to do other less expensive, cost-effective things in which you can still deliver good health care to the people in Mexico," he said. Dr. Monsour spoke to the participants about liver disease in people over the age of 50, which sparked questions from the participants about vaccinations for the prevention of viral hepatitis and the cost and applicability of various new genetic tests for some of the metabolic diseases. Dr. J. Timothy Bricker, chief of cardiology at Texas Children's Hospital, said he felt the conference was very productive, not just for the participants in Mexico City but also for the panelists that travelled from the Texas Medical Center. Leaders of programs at Texas Medical Center institutions who are often unable to see one another due to hectic schedules were able to get together to discuss what is going on in their programs, said Dr. Bricker, also professor and chief of the Lillie Frank Abercrombie Section of Cardiology in the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of the pediatric cardiology department at Texas Heart Institute. (The contingent was joined by representatives from the Houston Image Group and Continental Airlines.) Dr. Bricker was one of several presenters to participate in a press conference which followed the morning sessions. The formal question-and-answer session with media, another first for the conference, was well attended. According to Linda Winter, the conference garnered much coverage in the Mexico City press both during and following the event. Dr. Helen Heslop, director of the adult bone marrow and stem cell transplant program at The Methodist Hospital, said she received several questions from members of the media and participants about the cost of cell and gene therapy and the potential for its use in Mexico. "I think at the moment it is very expensive and they don't have the resources to do it," said Dr. Heslop, also professor of pediatrics and medicine, hematology-oncology section, at Baylor College of Medicine. "A longer term goal would be to show that it is efficacious and then hopefully, in the future, it will end up being more cost-effective for treatment of chronic diseases. But that is obviously not the case at present." Dr. Heslop is also a member of the team at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, a collaborative effort between Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital. Transplantation also seemed to be a topic of interest among the press and those from Mexico attending the conference. Dr. Monsour said that liver transplantations in Mexico are performed in Mexico City and through a small program in Guadalajara. According to Winter, the conference was videotaped and is scheduled to be shown in segments at hospitals and schools for health professions throughout Mexico.
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