Keeping In Touch

Longtime watchers of our Telethon know the winning formula that MDA has developed for keeping tens of millions of viewers tuned in each Labor Day weekend — a dazzling variety of entertainment, profiles of families whose lives are bettered by MDA services and research news, all punctuated by pleas for pledges.

The 2007 Telethon will stick to this tried-and-true formula, with perhaps a few surprises. See “It’s That Time Again,” page 40, for a sneak peek.

Many of you will recall the MDA research reports delivered on the Telethon by Dr. R. Rodney Howell, longtime chairman of our Scientific Advisory Committee. His gentle Southern voice has announced many of the forward steps in research that MDA has made thanks to Telethon pledges and contributions. Last year, it was Dr. Howell who presented one of the most exciting pieces of research news in our history: the development of a lifesaving treatment for Pompe’s disease, a condition that’s usually fatal in infants.

“Now young children no longer need to die from this disease,”

Howell said in explaining the finding.

Rod Howell has been a guiding force in our research program since 1980, and I’m happy to announce that MDA’s Board of Directors has chosen him as its new chairman. Rod’s credentials are sterling: He earned his medical degree at Duke University, and he’s chaired pediatrics departments at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the University of Miami School of Medicine, where he remains a professor. He’s published more than 150 scientific articles and is a leading consultant on newborn genetic testing with the National Institutes of Health. As a physician-scientist, Rod has the right priorities — putting patients first in all considerations.

So, it’s obvious that Dr. Howell has more than one reason to be gratified by the Pompe’s finding, as well as by the rapid research advances we’re making in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other childhood diseases in our program: He’s a pediatrician who’s treated small children with serious conditions; he’s one of the world’s leading scientific experts on genetic diseases in children, and researched Pompe’s disease early in his career; and he was the first chairman of MDA’s Task Force on Genetics. His life’s work has been directed toward being able to say: “Children no longer have to die of this disease.”

For those same reasons, Rod will make an ideal chairman for our Board, as we forge further into the 21st century with its promise of remarkable research progress in genetic diseases. Congratulations, Dr. Howell!

On this year’s Telethon, you’ll see Rod Howell and other leaders of MDA’s research program announce to the world the many exciting steps forward that we’ve reported in Quest over the past year. I know you’ll feel as much pride, and as much hope, as I do in these announcements — a culmination of decades of work.

Tell your friends and neighbors to tune in! It’s THE Telethon.

Gerald C. Weinberg President & CEO

MDA was founded in 1950 by adults with neuromuscular diseases and parents of children with these disorders. It’s a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through worldwide research, comprehensive services, and professional and public health education.

NatioNal ChairmaN

PresideNt & Ceo ChairmaN of the Board ChairmaN, exeCutive Committee seCretary treasurer

Jerry Lewis

Gerald C. Weinberg

R. Rodney Howell, M.D.

Olin F. Morris

Timmi Masters

Suzanne Lowden

maNagiNg editor art direCtor

mediCal aNd sCieNCe editor assistaNt maNagiNg editor advertisiNg sales maNager desigNers

Christina Medvescek

David Saint John

Margaret Wahl

Richard Senti

Maureen Tuncer

Libby Rogers

Robin Blakely

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Muscular Dystrophy Association Inc.,
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Quest was honored in the 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 Communicator Awards; the 2007 and 2006 Apex Awards for Publication Excellence; the 2006, 2005 and 2004 National Health Information Awards; the 2006 Society of National Association Publications awards; and the 2004 and 2003 Unity Awards in Media.

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