Focus: Hidden - Pennsylvania

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Implants are usually the first choice for breast reconstruction after mastectomy. But when implant-based reconstruction fails, autologous reconstruction – using the patient's own tissues – is a safe procedure that improves patient outcomes, reports a study in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

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With a lower risk of serious complications and improved feeding and growth outcomes, human milk is strongly preferred as the best diet for infants with congenital heart disease (CHD), according to a research review in Advances in Neonatal Care, official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Antireflection (AR) coatings on plastics have a multitude of practical applications, such as reducing the glare on eyeglasses, computer monitors or on the display on your smart phone when out of doors. Now, researchers at Penn State have developed an AR coating that improves on existing coatings to the extent that it can make transparent plastics, such as Plexiglas, virtually invisible.

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Understanding the behavior of composite materials is important to advancing their design since attempts to further strengthen or stiffen them can sometimes produce counterproductive results. A $545,000 grant over three years from the National Science Foundation (NSF) aims to answer some of the central questions about the microstructural mechanisms that lead to composite performance.

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Registration is now open for the TMS 2019 Annual Meeting & Exhibition! Make your plans now to join us at the event that the global minerals, metals, and materials community calls home.

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HIPAA ready and cyber secure, Control360 removes the headaches and constraints of fixed AV simulation control systems. Enjoy the flexibility to easily record video based medical simulation events from multiple rooms on-the-fly. Live stream and share to bring online learners right into the classroom.

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As the opioid epidemic continues to plague the United States, physician-researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia analyzed prescription patterns in children. They found that both duration of treatment and dose amounts declined between 2013 and 2017, while the rate of prescribing remained the same.

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The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has published updated resources for improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

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A significantly more effective, minimally invasive treatment for pancreatic tumors may be on the horizon, thanks to a new endoscopy tool created in the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering.

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The type of saturated fats we eat can affect our risk of a heart attack, according to a study published in the International Journal of Cardiology. People whose diets contain relatively little palmitic and stearic acid - saturated fats composed of 16 or more carbon atoms (longer-chain saturated fats) that are typically found in meats - and eat plant-based proteins instead have decreased chances of myocardial infarction.

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Many complex systems in biology can be conceptualized as networks. This perspective helps researchers understand how biological systems work on a fundamental level, and can be used to answer key questions in biology, medicine, and engineering.

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MEDIASHAREiQ drives learner engagement with easy to manage immersive content. Organize and edit media content with robust search, tag, and comment capabilities plus in-video quizzing, scoring, and polling. Featuring turnkey integration with Blackboard®, Canvas® and D2L® for seamless host, capture, and delivery of interactive media content.

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Telemedicine mitigates clinical staff shortfalls, particularly in remote areas. SIMULATIONiQ is a web based LMS supporting the entire scope of virtual, live, and didactic education. Train as you practice, host, practice and share live telemedicine patient training sessions and measure outcomes all in one consolidated platform.

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“Be prepared.” This famous mantra isn’t just for the Boy Scouts of America. The need to build durable infrastructure on other planets is coming, and we must be ready. To prepare, Penn State researchers have teamed up with NASA to explore how cement solidifies in microgravity environments.

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A novel “Enhanced Recovery After Surgery” (ERAS) protocol developed by Penn Medicine for patients undergoing spinal and peripheral nerve surgery significantly reduced opioid use. The new study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine showed that when an ERAS protocol was employed fewer patients needed pain medications one month after surgery.

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The Materials Research Society (MRS) announces two new three-year appointments to its Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2019.

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– Based on limited research, there's no strong evidence that selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – the most widely used class of antidepressants – have an adverse impact on fertility, according to a paper in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Wistar scientists and collaborators demonstrated the utility of an optimized synthetic DNA vaccine platform for rapidly inducing immunity against unique combinations of tumor neoantigens.

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Implementing a new recovery pathway speeds time to next treatment for pancreatic cancer patients by 15 days, without increasing complication rates.

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Over a year and a half after the successful separation of two infant twins joined at the top of their heads, surgical team leaders report on this dramatic case. The surgeons describe the innovative devices, elaborate planning and precisely orchestrated teamwork needed to perform the complex separation surgery.

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In an effort to modernize and reimagine the United States' power grid, Penn State researchers have qualified for a highly selective, innovative competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Everyone gets hiccups. And nearly everyone has a theory about the cause and the cure.

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If a patient has private insurance, doctors can get prior approval to prescribe a drug “off-label” to make sure the medication will be covered, but these lists are incomplete, outdated, and frequently in conflict with each other.

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Researchers from Yale School of Public Health find that genetic profiling for cancer tumors is cost-effective for high- and medium-risk patients with breast cancer, but is unlikely to make a meaningful impact on treatment for low-risk patients, in study published in January 2019 issue of JNCCN-Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

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Philadelphia, January 22, 2019 - Nearly a quarter of employed adults obtain foods and beverages at work at least once a week, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Foods obtained at work are often high in calories, refined grains, added sugars, and sodium.

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Positive interactions on social media are not making young adults feel more connected, whereas negative experiences increase the likelihood of them reporting loneliness.

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Researchers identified the brain circuits that form memories associating environmental cues with cocaine use and used optogenetics to specifically target those memories and reduce relapse-like behavior.

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An approved drug that blocks an integrated stress response shows promise in preliminary tests against ALS and frontotemporal dementia.

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Researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania say they’ve identified how to fuel macrophages with the energy needed to attack and eat cancer cells.

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To address the unique challenges that emergency evacuation scenarios present, Alan Wagner, assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State, and a team of researchers propose to use a coordinated collection of mobile robots as authority figures to direct evacuees for rapid, orderly and safe evacuations, thanks to a $1.5M National Science Foundation grant.

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An automated text messaging system increases patient engagement with home-based exercise and promotes faster recovery after total knee or hip replacement surgery, reports a study in the January 16, 2019 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

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The marketing of direct-to-consumer “neurotechnologies” can be enticing: apps that diagnose a mental state, and brain devices that improve cognition or “read” one’s emotional state. However, many of these increasingly popular products aren’t fully supported by science and have little to no regulatory oversight, which poses potential health risks to the public. In a new piece published in the journal Science this week, two bioethicists from Penn Medicine and the University of British Columbia suggest the creation of a working group that would further study, monitor, and provide guidance for this growing industry – which is expected to top $3 billion by 2020.

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An invited article in the December online edition of the journal 2D Materials provides a roadmap for the synthesis of electronic-grade two-dimensional materials for future electronic and sensing applications.

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Opioid drugs prescribed to children for pain relief after a typical pediatric orthopaedic procedure may be significantly overprescribed, according to a new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The patients used less than 25 percent of the drugs, suggesting a potential risk of opioid diversion.

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Nearly half of adults habitually snore when they sleep. For some, it’s not a problem. For others, it may affect the quality of their bed partner’s rest. It can also be associated with sleep apnea.

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The Pennsylvania Pediatric Medical Device Consortium announces a partnership with two programs at the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly the Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Device Consortium, the PPDC’s new name reflects its statewide reach. The expansion follows a five-year $6 million grant renewal from the FDA.

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The use of antibiotics to treat inflammatory skin conditions like acne and rosacea is decreasing over time, but there has been an increase in prescriptions associated with dermatologic surgical procedures.

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The Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania announced today that Richard S. Schiffrin, Esq., has been appointed chair of the Center Director’s Leadership Council.

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The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) announced that the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) were downloaded more than 10 million times in 2018; marking a 26% increase over 2017.

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As US rates of marijuana use continue to rise, workers who use marijuana may be at higher risk of losing their jobs, suggests a study in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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Bullying in the workplace increases employees' psychological distress and plans to quit their job—even for workers who aren't personally being bullied, reports a study in the December Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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Total Worker Health (TWH) is a holistic approach to improving well-being in the American workforce. Recommendations from an expert workshop seeking to strengthen the evidence supporting TWH interventions are presented in a special article in the November Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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People with cancer are more than four times more likely to commit suicide than people without cancer, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

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The collaborative research between the Kornberg School of Dentistry and the College of Engineering uses stem cells to regrow the pulp-dentin complex that makes up the center of a tooth.

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Groundbreaking innovations on antenna technology, based on a collaboration between Lockheed Martin Space and Penn State, are now under consideration for use in the next generation of GPS satellite payloads.

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The increase in opioid prescriptions for people over the past decade may have been paralleled by an increase in opioid prescriptions for pets, according to a study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine. The findings, in this first-ever study of veterinary opioid prescriptions, suggest that there is also an increased demand for veterinary opioids, driven by complex procedures performed in veterinary medicine, as well as a heightened awareness of the importance of pain management. Given that opioid prescribing in veterinary medicine is not as heavily regulated as medical prescriptions for humans, it is possible that misused veterinary prescriptions could contribute to the ongoing opioid epidemic. The results are published today in JAMA Network Open.

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Credit: iStock

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Researchers have demonstrated—using fat cells derived from human stem cells—that individual genetic variation can be used to predict whether the TZD rosiglitazone will produce the unwanted side effect of increasing cholesterol levels in certain individuals.

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Maria A. Oquendo, MD, PhD, is probing the human mind and brain to prevent more lives from being lost to the tenth leading cause of death in the United States.