Contributing Writer Emeritus
Northeast Ohio Medical University
Meena Thatikunta is a Class of 2015 medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University in the 6-year accelerated BS/MD program. Meena enjoys writing about health policy, advocacy, and humanism in medicine--with a bit of humor. Pending her survival of medical school, she hopes to pursue neurosurgery or orthopedic surgery and found a media company which delivers health policy and advocacy content through innovative means. Meena's media experience includes television host, radio co-host, producer, writer, and web designer.
Meena is a recipient of the AMA Foundation's Leadership Award. She served as a Health Policy Fellow with the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) and currently serves as Vice Chair of the AMA Medical Student Section Committee on Legislation and Advocacy and Medical Student Representative to the OSMA's Focused Task Force on State Legislation.
While this is a serious essay and I should probably first allude to a great literary work, I’ll just keep it real and reference Inception. There’s a fantastic scene in which Ellen Page has her first go at building a dream. She builds a cityscape with ease and is quickly bored. With a spark in her eye she remarks: “What happens when you start messing with the physics of it all?” Likewise, we are questioning …
Organ shortage is a serious problem in the United States. About 20,000 organ transplants occur every year in the U.S., and 116,689 Americans are currently on a waiting list for an organ, with kidneys being the most needed. The obesity epidemic is contributing to the shortage; a quarter of prospective donors are too obese to donate their kidneys. People typically wait 3-5 years for an organ, and thousands die every year (an average of 18 …
This morning at a free medical clinic on the East Side of Detroit, I was able to take care of a great man caught in limbo with his health and the health care system. The Robert R. Frank, M.D. Student Run Free Clinic takes care of patients who are living without health insurance. Many of the clinic’s patients have jobs that do not provide health insurance and they generally do not make enough money to purchase …
Over time, the concept of healthcare has changed dramatically as we discover more about our limits and increase our understanding of how the body works. This understanding has led to longer lives, the ability to live with disease, and increasing the price of healthcare. Healthcare has been a changing dynamic form of care since President Johnson became president, and with the installment of the Medicare and Medicaid program. This program was designed to help those …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
MBA in Health Organization and MD
