Feature Channels: Public Health

• share
• favorite_border

A late summer increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and the emergence of new coronavirus variants raises concerns about how best to counter infection and who should receive the newly-approved vaccines.

• share
• favorite_border

A few weeks from now, Lizbeth Sanchez will say goodbye to her job in a Smidt Heart Institute laboratory and walk about 200 steps to a Cedars-Sinai classroom, where she will begin working on her doctorate in biomedical and translational research.

• share
• favorite_border

More than 90% of the active members of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) believe the organization should pursue racial equity work, and many have specific suggestions for a strategic plan.

• share
• favorite_border

Combination immunotherapy with the anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody durvalumab and other novel agents outperforms durvalumab alone in the neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) setting for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

A study led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) in partnership with Vanderbilt University found no symptomatic or clinical benefit to taking the antidepressant fluvoxamine at a dosage of 100 mg twice daily for 13 days for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

A five-year, $3.3 million grant to develop a molecular diagnostic test for congenital syphilis has been awarded to researchers from UTHealth Houston by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

• share
• favorite_border

The Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai has earned a prestigious designation for its excellence in adult and pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO—an often lifesaving treatment where blood is pumped outside of a patient’s body to a portable heart-lung machine, giving the patient’s own organs a rest.

• share
• favorite_border

New UC Riverside research has revealed COVID’s Achilles heel — its dependence on key human proteins for its replication — which can be used to prevent the virus from making people sick.

• share
• favorite_border

During National Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Awareness Month throughout September and Aortic Disease Awareness Week, Sept.19-26, Smidt Heart Institute cardiologists and surgeons are available to speak with journalists about these common heart conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered an intracellular mechanism that converts protective intestinal cells into disease-driving pathogenic cells, a finding that could lead to improved treatments for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

• share
• favorite_border

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) today announced a transformative gift from the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research to benefit the Center for Experimental Therapeutics, a multidisciplinary research and drug development group at MSK.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

High performance computing resources, advanced epidemiological models, and powerful algorithms will make dealing with future crises much easier, thanks to research led by Argonne National Laboratory.

• share
• favorite_border

It still feels like summer outside, but it’s time to prepare for the 2023-24 flu season.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—an alliance of leading cancer centers—presented new recommendations for screening and addressing health-related social needs (HRSN) in people with cancer during a policy summit in Washington, D.C.

• share
• favorite_border

Knowing every abnormality in your body is tempting, but experts say ignorance may be bliss

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

In a major hospital system in Atlanta, less than one-fourth of employees were able to define either equity or health equity, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management (JHM).

• share
• favorite_border

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center will serve as the national coordinating center for a new epidemiological cohort study among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AsA-NHPI). Fred Hutch was awarded a seven-year, $38.7 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to coordinate the effort to gather important health information on these populations, which are underrepresented in biomedical research.

• share
• favorite_border

The newly renamed Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) has been awarded comprehensive designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health, the ultimate standard achieved by only 55 other NCI cancer centers in the U.S.

• share
• favorite_border

As researchers increasingly recognize that causes for health issues are structural and interrelated, real-world, innovative case studies demonstrate the value of applying systems science to evaluate health interventions and address health inequities as seen in a special supplement, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in the October/December issue of Family & Community Health. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation to Host Annual 2023 Urology Research and Education Symposium

• share
• favorite_border

Over the years, dedicated sickle cell disease programs and research initiatives have greatly improved patient care and life expectancy. But, giving these patients the care they require still presents a number of challenges, including inadequate funding for sickle cell programs, lack of research, and limited access to healthcare.

• share
• favorite_border

The Richmond, Virginia-based Red Gates Foundation recently committed $50 million to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC to accelerate health sciences research at Virginia Tech. The gift is among the largest ever made to the university.

• share
• favorite_border

GPs from across the UK are experiencing concerningly high levels of burnout, a new Loughborough University study has found.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and University of Nebraska Medical Center, with guidance and administration from the National Strategic Research Institute, are advancing development of a first-of-its-kind prophylactic to help protect U.S. troops from the effects of acute radiation syndrome.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that living in an area with high levels of particulate air pollution was associated with an increased incidence of breast cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

A UW research team conducted a limited-scope, first-of-its-kind assessment and detected fentanyl and methamphetamine on board numerous transit vehicles, both in the air and on surfaces.

• share
• favorite_border

El Paso's journey began in March 2020 with its first confirmed case of COVID-19. By fall 2020, the city became the nation’s hotspot.

• share
• favorite_border

Nearly half of Texas youths being treated for depression or suicidal thoughts reported at least one suicide attempt, and 90% had experienced suicidal ideation, according to a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Johns Hopkins Medicine experts who specialize in sickle cell disease are available to speak with reporters about health equity issues related to sickle cell disease.

• share
• favorite_border

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is hosting an expert briefing for the media September 14 on the impacts climate change is having on people’s health due to the wide array of current issues, including flooding, drought, extreme heat, increased incidents of vector-borne illnesses, access to safe drinking water, and smoke from wildfires.

• share
• favorite_border

Cosimo Commisso, Ph.D., has received a grant from the Department of Defense for $1 million to advance the research of a small molecule that kills pancreatic cancer cells by disrupting their pH equilibrium.

• share
• favorite_border

Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news.Reporting on wildfire smoke? Fred Hutch clinicians and researchers are available to their expertise.

• share
• favorite_border

In new findings led by researchers at the American Cancer Society, Martin-Luther University in Germany, and many other institutes worldwide, fewer than one in 20 patients diagnosed with potentially curable colorectal cancer received standard of care in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

Cannabis therapy also linked to improvements in anxiety, depression, and pain levels—though no changes in sleep disturbance levels reported.

• share
• favorite_border

Global, population-weighted PM2.5 exposure -- related to both pollution levels and population size -- increased from 1998 to a peak in 2011, then decreased steadily from 2011 to 2019, largely driven by exposure reduction in China and slower growth in other regions, new research shows.

• share
• favorite_border

Do you know what pharmacogenomics is? You might not, but you should, and all patients should.

• share
• favorite_border

The treadmill exercise test with electrocardiogram (ECG), also known as an exercise stress test, is one of the most familiar tests in medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

By improving hospital care pathways, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center successfully reduced inpatient opioid use by 50% after pancreatic cancer surgery and cut the median opioid prescription volumes at discharge to zero.

• share
• favorite_border

Although hundreds of thousands of patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) are eligible for high-intensity statin therapy, most are not using the drugs, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report.