Focus: Hidden - LA Metro

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As people sheltered in place at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, sightings of wildlife in urban areas helped spawn a meme, “Nature is healing,” that reflected an intuitive belief: Carnivores were stretching their legs, and their ranges, by expanding into long-lost territory.

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A month after the governor eased pandemic restrictions, it feels almost like a normal summer in Southern California's crowded restaurants, airplanes and beaches.

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A new novel computational social science tool detects similarities/differences of topics in online conversation

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UCLA Research Suggests COVID-19-related Evictions Will put Californians’ Healthcare at Risk The team, made up of researchers from across UCLA and Cedars-Sinai, including Frederick Zimmerman, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of health policy and management, found those who move, even if voluntarily, face reduced access to prescribed drugs and medical services

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As the surge of COVID-19 cases increase exponentially across the U.S., the hospitals in the Los Angeles metro area have been particularly hit hard. There are now more than 7,600 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. Ambulance crews in the area have been advised to cut back on their use of oxygen and to not bring to hospitals patients who have virtually no chance of survival in order to increase capacity and triage care to focus on the sickest patients.

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To help slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives, UCLA public health and urban planning experts have developed a predictive model that pinpoints which populations in which neighborhoods of Los Angeles County are most at risk of becoming infected.

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More than 3,300 people in the mental health population of the Los Angeles County jail are appropriate candidates for diversion into programs where they would receive community-based clinical services rather than incarceration, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

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The Clinical Research Forum recognized the Cedars-Sinai's Smidt Heart Institute with a 2019 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award today for its study aimed at developing a blood pressure control program for African-American men in the comfortable and convenient environments of their barbershops. In just six short months, the study improved the outcomes and control of high blood pressure in more than 60 percent of participants.

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Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) recently performed its first dextrocardia heart transplant. The child, known as Baby Ruben, was born with dextrocardia and complex heterotaxy syndrome—including a single ventricle and discontinuous pulmonary arteries, along with other defects. The child received a heart transplant at CHLA at 2 years of age.

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Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC), Queen’s University (Ontario) and Duke University have developed a new tool that can screen children for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) quickly and affordably, making it accessible to more children in remote locations worldwide.

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FINDINGS Researchers found that more than 97 percent of the surgeries for appendicitis were laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, and most patients were discharged the same day or the next day. Only 3 percent of the procedures resulted in complications. Rates of unnecessary surgery — removing a “normal” appendix — were low (less than 4 percent), but were much higher in people without imaging studies before their operation (nearly 20 percent).

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UCLA scientists have developed a new method to quickly screen hundreds of drugs in order to identify treatments that can target specific tumors.

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A pilot program underway in more than 100 patient rooms at Cedars-Sinai is allowing patients to use an Alexa-powered platform known as Aiva to interact hands-free with nurses and control their entertainment. Aiva is the world's first patient-centered voice assistant platform for hospitals. In the pilot project, patient rooms are equipped with Amazon Echos and patients simply tell the device what they need.

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Recognizing the persistence of health inequities in the Americas, an emerging Health Equity Network of the Americas (HENA) describes its approach to promoting health equity through intersectoral partnerships in a newly released issue of Ethnicity & Disease.