Medicine

Surgeon for the International Committee of the Red Cross Chris Giannou. For almost 15 years he has been a surgeon in war torn parts of the world in Burundi, Somalia, and in a Palestinian Refugee Camp. As such he has seen the devastation on human beings from land mines Giannou is currently leading the Red Cross's campaign for a ban on anti-personnel land mines worldwide, which kill or injure hundreds of civilians each week. (Giannou has been on the show a number of times.

Co-founders of Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corp. James "Rocky" Robinson and Joe Perez. They began the corp in 1988, after watching people die because the Ambulances responded too slowly to calls. (There are 39 volunteer ambulance corps in New York City). They are the focus of a new "The American Promise" PBS documentary. (The program premiered October 1).

Professor Richard Foulds. He teaches at the University of Delaware. He's the father of a child with A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) and a member of C.H.A.D.D. a non-profit organization directed by parents of children with ADD.

Broadcast journalist John Merrow. He's the anchor and Executive Editor of "The Merrow Report" a quarterly series of documentaries on PBS that examines education and surrounding issues. Their latest documentary is "Attention Deficit Disorder: A Dubious Diagnosis?" In the documentary Merrow disputes the widely held belief that Ritalin, the drug given to children with Attention Deficit Disorder, is not "dangerous and addictive." Merrow also found that the drug has been overprescribed, and that some kids have begun to abuse it.

Neurologist William Langston. His work plunged him into a medical mystery, and a hot political controversy about the ethics of medicine. In 1982 Langston was called in to examine a number of "frozen" patients, young men and women in the San Francisco Bay Area who suddenly could neither move or speak, though conscious. Langston recognized the signs of Parkinson's disease, and determined that these patients had all used the same batch of tainted heroin. Langston prescribed L-dopa, a treatment for Parkinson's which only provided short-term relief.

Nurse Christina Schmitz. She volunteers with the international medical relief organization, Doctors Without Borders. Schmitz was in Srebrenica when it fell. She has also volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Croatia, Liberia, Kurdistan, South Sudan, and Chechnya. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Dr. Andrew Weil. He is one of the world's leading authorities on health, healing and medicine. His latest book Spontaneous Healing (Knopf) explores how to discover and enhance our body's natural ability to maintain and heal itself. Dr. Weil is currently Associate Director of the Division of Social Perspectives in Medicine. He also has a private practice, based at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Tucson, where he treats patients from around the world.

Love is the founding member of the Breast Cancer Coalition and founding director of the UCLA Breast Cancer, which is one of the world's leading breast treatment facilities. Her book Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book (Addison Wesley) is said to be one of the most important books in women's health in the last decade. A new, updated edition has just been published.

Journalist Laurie Garrett has recently returned from Zaire, where many people have died due to the spread of the Ebola virus. She is the author of the new book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. She talks about how people in Zaire changed their behaviors in order to curtail the spread of the Ebola virus.

Francis has worked on the AIDS epidemic since 1981, and is currently working on developing a vaccine. He was portrayed by Matthew Modine in "The Band Played On" and was a consultant on "Outbreak." He's worked for the Centers for Disease Control, and has researched Ebola outbreaks in Africa.