HEALTHNothing plain about it: High-tech medicine in a low-tech worldThe Amish people are known for shunning technology. But because their closed community has high rates of genetic disorders, they sometimes find themselves tied to sophisticated medical science.By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Feb. 16, 2004. Middlefield, Ohio -- This setting is a most unlikely one for the cutting edge of genetic medicine. The plain white house sits down the street from a blacksmith. It may be a mere 90-minute drive from Cleveland, but in some ways, it seems hundreds of years away. Yellow road signs warn of horses and buggies. Some houses aren't wired for electricity or telephones, and cable television and the Internet are even less of a reality. People wear clothes held together not with buttons or zippers but safety pins. But inside this white structure, the home of the Das Deutsch Center Clinic for Special Needs Children, the past, represented by the thousands of Amish who live in the area, and the future, symbolized by modern genetic medicine with all its trappings, come together. The clinic was opened by the community six months ago to cope with the high rate of genetic conditions inherent to groups of people who do not marry outsiders. Yet its benefits will likely serve a much wider world. On this snowy day in January, the waiting room plays host to Ruth Hostetler and four of her 10 children. With an infant on her lap and two children quietly sitting in rocking chairs at her side, she talks to Heng Wang, MD, PhD, about her 4-year-old son Jonathan. He has Down syndrome and a lung condition. "We're really lucky to have Dr. Wang," Hostetler said. "We never realized how much we needed him until we got him. Jonathan's made a lot more progress." [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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