Category: Health

When the call came, the Rev. Tom Winslow did not hesitate. Terrorists had destroyed the World Trade Center, and rescue workers needed the spiritual support of clergy.

So for one week in November of 2001, Winslow, an Episcopal priest and the chaplain for the Wisconsin FBI, ministered to rescue workers in an area of ground zero dubbed â??the pit.â?

Quoted: Dr. Keith Meyer, medical director of lung transplantation at UW Hospital

The University of Wisconsinâ??s medical school and its supporting foundation are violating the stateâ??s public records law by refusing to release faculty comments about a proposed conflict-of-interest policy, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

The suit was filed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reporter John Fauber, who has written extensively about the relationships between drug companies, medical-device makers, doctors and medical schools. It seeks a court order to make the comments public.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has filed a lawsuit against the University of Wisconsinâ??s medical school and its supporting foundation.

A study done by UW Madison researchers shows combining certain anti-smoking medications works better than just the nicotine patch or lozenge. The Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention tracked 1,300 people who had told their doctor theyâ??d like to try and quit. The Centerâ??s Megan Piper says relying solely on primary care doctors for referrals to the study was a new twist.

Nearly one in five smokers offered help in kicking the habit while visiting their doctorâ??s office for a check-up will make a serious attempt to quit, a new study shows. And in this “real world” setting, the most effective smoking cessation drug therapy was a combination of bupropion SR (a sustained-release form of Zyban) and nicotine lozenges, Dr. Stevens S. Smith of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison and colleagues found.

A disease that many think has died out is actually on the rise. Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men. Weight is not always an indicator of gout but the disease occurs more frequently in obese people which is on the rise says a clinical professor of family medicine at UW-Madison. â??As our waists have expanded our gout has also expanded,â? says Dr. Zorba Paster.

The librarians of the University of Wisconsin-Madison took particular notice when the Archives of Ophthalmology was named as a “Top 100” biomedical and life sciences journal.1 We have long been aware of the quality of the journal and its association with our university. Still, it was especially gratifying that our peers in the Special Library Association voted the Archives of Ophthalmology into the distinguished company of the “Top 100 Journals in Biology and Medicine.”

Noted: The company also paid $12 million to sponsor continuing medical education programs from 2002 through 2006 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The programs, including an assertion that the Womenâ??s Health Initiative and another heart-risk study â??miss the mark on quality of life,â? reached thousands of doctors.

Image that supports the story is credited to the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Caption: “A “virtual colonoscopy” 3-D image is generated by a computer from a series of X-rays taken by a CT scanner.”

Medical experts have attributed a recent decline in breast cancer rates among U.S. women to a slide in the popularity of hormone replacement therapy. But not so fast, says one researcher. The 7% drop in rates between 2002 and 2003 appears to be due to less use of hormone therapy and at least one other, unknown factor, said Bryan Sprague of the University of Wisconsin.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is asking a state agency to dismiss a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint filed by a former employee of its fertility clinic. University lawyer John Dowling said the school took appropriate action to investigate inappropriate language and behavior at the clinic after Julia Landrum complained. He told the Equal Rights Division in a filing Friday her June firing was for performance reasons.

A unique procedure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is helping one infant regain his sight.

A doctor and a scientist hired to rebuild the University of Wisconsinâ??s fertility clinic after a workplace misconduct scandal are facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in their first year on the job. A former employee has claimed that in vitro fertilization lab supervisor Charles Bormann and clinic director Dan Lebovic routinely used offensive language, insulted staff members and joked about masturbation.

The portion of the “Aids Memorial Quilt” was on display at the Overture Center Wednesday. It was hosted by the UW Hospitalâ??s HIV clinic. The 21 panels of the quilt are on display in the main lobby. Among the hundreds of people represented on this portion, 13 panels are in honor of people from Wisconsin, many of whom received treatment from UW Hospital.

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is one of the top 100 hospitals in the country when it comes to cardiovascular care, according to Thomson Reuters Healthcare. The 2009 list of the best heart care hospitals came out last week. This is the sixth time UW Hospital has been included in the 11-year history of the list.

Four years ago on these pages, we launched a crusade to create a school of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Then as now, we argued that the public health challenges in our city are so severe, the need so great, that only a research institution located in the heart of the city has a chance to battle them.

That school is a reality now. Its first seven students are studying for doctorates; the first six faculty have been hired or soon will be.

But UWMâ??s new School of Public Health requires another investment from state and private donors if it is to take flight and serve students, the community at large and the state of Wisconsin. Important decisions await.

Senator Charles E. Grassley wrote to 10 top medical schools Tuesday to ask what they are doing about professors who put their names on ghostwritten articles in medical journals â?? and why that practice was any different from plagiarism by students.

John Nelson knows how an organ donation can prolong a personâ??s life.

In 2001, Nelson donated part of his liver to a cousin, who had Hepatitis C. The disease destroyed her liver. The transplant, conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, prolonged her life, even though she ultimately did die a year and a half later.

The UW hospital honored some of itâ??s own for their military service over seas.The color guard was at a special ceremony honoring employees and family members in the military.

Health officials in Wisconsin have won a $9 million federal grant to study the best ways to help people stop smoking. The grant from the National Institutes of Health will recruit 2,300 smokers at several clinics in southern Wisconsin, including Aurora Health Care, UW Health, Dean Health System and Mercy Health System. (Last item in briefs package)

Researchers plan to study Wisconsin high school basketball players this season. UW Sports Medicine staff want to find out if ankle braces reduce injury rates. (Third item.)

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison needs help. Katie Meacham, who was diagnosed with Hodgkinâ??s Lymphoma one week after her 25th birthday in the spring of 2008, needs a stem cell transplant to save her life. But before this will be possible, a donor must be found who closely matches Meacham on a molecular level to reduce the risk of her body rejecting the donated cells.

For a second consecutive year, randomly selected central Wisconsin residents will have the opportunity to participate in a multiyear survey of state residentsâ?? health, which could affect future policy. Starting later this month, researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will visit 100 households in the Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point areas, said Phoebe Frenette, a project spokeswoman.

Pam Thompsonâ??s February 2006 breast cancer diagnosis had been the shock of her life. But after a year of treatment, she thought the worst was over. The 50-year-old Sun Prairie woman had no idea a fight remained, on a front she never expected.”I thought I had good insurance,” says Thompson, who now realizes the commonness of her mistake. “Everybody thinks they have good insurance until they try to use it.”