| Choose a Story Position: | Story 3
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| Is this Story Active? | No
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| Category: | People
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| Date: | 04/19/2011
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| Title: | SGU Alumna Hosts Week of Activities on Lymphedema
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By Line
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Short Story
Dr. Iker demonstrates lymphedema treatment.
Dr. Emily Iker, a lymphologist and member of St. George’s University’s second graduating class, paid a week-long visit to SGU to host a series of activities focused on the management and care of lymphedema. Her schedule included a workshop for SGU nursing students on March 21; a workshop for massage therapists and physiotherapists and a talk with medical students titled “Choosing Physiatry as a Career in Medicine” on March 22; consultation with lymphatic patients at University Health Services and a lecture on lymphedema and its treatment to which the public was invited on March 23. Dr. Iker concluded her activities on March 24 with a visit to the General Hospital, a Clinical Tutors case based lecture at the Patrick F. Adams Hall, and a lecture to medical practitioners on lymphedema and venous insufficiency.
Despite her hectic schedule, Dr. Iker noted that her experience was wonderful and commented: “What was most fascinating for me was teaching lymphedema management to the blind therapists.” She believes that much more work can be done in the field, for example, she hopes to see a full lymphedema course organised which could benefit not only members of the SGU community but local health care providers as well. Dr. Iker says that she is looking forward to teaching physical therapists on her next visit.
This visit has been Dr. Iker’s first since her graduation in 1981. She comments: “What I see today, thirty years later, is just amazing. I do remember [that] Grenadians were always very nice people, and I think they got even nicer now. …They are a very healthy looking population, very polite, very gracious, very humble - and the food is just out of this world.”
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Full Story
At her clinic, “Lymphedemus Centre”, in Santa Monica, USA where she practices physical medicine and treats lymphatic disorders, Dr. Iker receives a number of SGU students on rotation each year. It is one such SGU Student, now alumnus, Dr. Sam Salahi, who encouraged her to visit. His rotation at the clinic was so impactful to him that he urged Dr. Iker to visit SGU to share on the topic. Dr. Iker describes Sam Salahi as an exceptional student, and was moved by the quality of professionals that St. George’s University continues to generate. She says, “I really cherish that SGU produces such brains, and young talent…it is complimentary that [it] produces such fantastic students!”
Dr. Iker, who is from former Czechoslovakia, migrated to the United States in 1971 after majoring in Kinesiology/ Biology at the University of J.A. Komensky, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. She acquired a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976 after battling and conquering an encounter with lymphoma. It was after this encounter that Dr. Iker decided to specialize in lymphology and was given the opportunity to pursue this goal at St. George’s University in 1977. She says: “I bow and express enormous gratitude to Chancellor Modica for giving me the opportunity and for having the vision.”
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