By Kathy Lee,
Washington University Medical School

On April 15th-16th, the Asian Pacific American Medical Students' Associations (APAMSA) at Washington University and Saint Louis University held a Regional Conference to discuss Asian health, leadership, and culture. The conference attracted 130 students from Missouri, the Midwest, and even Colorado. It was an opportunity for medical and premedical students from a diversity of backgrounds to learn more about human health from the brightest and most accomplished scientists and physicians.

Dr. David Wong, Co-Discoverer of Prozac, delivered the plenary address on Friday. Dr. Wong retired at the rank of Lilly Research Fellow in 2000 after 32 years of service with Eli Lilly and Company. Among the most notable achievements of his distinguished career in drug research and development is his collaborative discovery of fluoxetine (Prozac) with 2 other Lily scientists. Dr. Wong was also an instrumental member of the research teams involved in the discovery and development of other monoamine reuptake inhibitors -- atomoxetine (Strattera), and duloxetine (Cymbalta) -- for the treatment of major depression and other psychiatric disorders -- as well as the pharmacological characterization of dopamine agonists for treatment of Parkinson's disease and antagonists of dopamine and serotonin receptors for the treatment of schizophrenia. Dr. Wong is one of the most accomplished Chinese Americans in history and his groundbreaking work has made a lasting impact on the treatment of mental illness and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Keynote address was delivered by Dr. Bala Manyam, member of the Advisory Council for the National Center for Complimenting Alternative Medicine at the NIH. His talk entitled, "Plant to Patients: Rediscoveries from the Traditional Asian Medicine and Its Impact on Age Related Degenerative Diseases," was one of the most brilliant keynote addresses ever delivered. Complete with Karate and Tai qi demonstrations, Dr. Manyam lead the students through the cutting edge research that is currently being conducted by himself and other scientists throughout the country to integrate traditional Asian therapeutics into Western Medicine.

Some other distinguished speakers in attendance included Dr. B Li, founder of APAMSA who spoke on educational profiling of Asian Students. Dr. Steven Shon, medical director for behavioral health of the Texas Department of State Health Services, delivered an exquisite presentation on Mental Health in Asian Americans. John Paul Liang, an expert in Chinese medicine from Texas, spoke about the use of Chinese medicine for diagnosing and treating common diseases. Dr. Chao-Hung Lee, a world-renowned Taiwanese fortune teller, gave a most remarkable and entertaining presentation on fortune telling. Also in attendance were representatives from SAWERAA who spoke about ways to improve awareness of domestic violence in the South Asian Community.

The conference was the culmination of a year's work. The motivation for planning such a conference stemmed from the fact that issues of Asian health are often ignored. It is the hope of the conference chairs that this conference will be a first step in educating ourselves and the community about Asian Pacific American Health. For more info on the conference www.apamsa-region6.org.