Category: Health

A study from UW-Madison suggests it takes a combination of products to help someone quit smoking.There are patches, lozenges and gum to help kick the habit, but the UW study says its takes pairing the patch and lozenges to get the best result.

Noted: At UW-Madisonâ??s School of Nursing alone, 68-percent of the faculty will be eligible for retirement in the next five years. Katharyn May, dean of UW-Madisonâ??s School of Nursing, says if the legislation passes, individual schools would no longer have to administer the loan and play the unwelcome role of “lender.” (Second item.)

While most University of Wisconsin studentsâ?? health care is covered under their parentsâ?? insurance plan, some students find themselves uninsured with limited options.

More than 65 percent of U.S. mothers with depression donâ??t receive adequate treatment, a new study has found.

Black, Hispanic and other minority mothers are least likely to receive adequate treatment. Mothers with health insurance are three times more likely to receive adequate treatment than those without insurance, wrote the researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

SysLogic Inc., the BloodCenter of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have received a federal grant of $1.4 million to advance a patient safety project using radio-frequency identification to manage collection, production and transfusion of blood products.

Those with asthma are four-times more likely than those without the respiratory disease to end up hospitalized if they contract H1N1, and Dr. William Busse of the UW School of Medicine says thatâ??s raising concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine among that population.

UW Madison is one of seven sites around the country where researchers will try to determine the right dose of H1N1 vaccine to protect asthma sufferers.

A UW-Madison Professor is one of two physicians in the country to receive the 2009 Physician Advocacy Merit Award. The non-profit group – The Institute of Medicine as a Profession is honoring Dr. Michael Fiore with the award.

Bella’s Salon and Spa in Madison is hosting a month-long Cut-A-Thon to raise money for breast cancer treatment.

Stylists will give all their earnings, including tips, to the UW Paul Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Noted: Dr. Paul Smith, associate professor in the UW-Madison Department of Family Medicine, received the Sally Sunde Family Advocate Award for his work promoting health literacy.

A former UW Hospital pain and rehabilitation doctor, Frank Salvi, accused by four female patients of sexual fondling as far back as 2004, will need at least five years of close supervision if he hopes to practice in the state, and then only if he passes a psychological evaluation, the Medical Examining Board has decided.

When she became pregnant in 2006, Cassaundra Edwards, a senior research engineer in product development at Kraft Foods, took a leave of absence for two years so that she could devote her attention to her son. And to fight the isolation of being a stay-at-home mom, Edwards founded the Madison chapter of Mocha Moms, which provides support to moms of color in several ways.

Doctors should not be paid to promote drugs or medical devices by the makers of those products. When they accept such payments, they risk their credibility with patients, risk clouding their judgment, risk overusing a treatment and risk driving up the cost of medicine.

For months, Journal Sentinel reporters have uncovered blatant conflicts of interest involving drug and device makers at the University of Wisconsin. UW has tightened guidelines in recent months and plans to ban doctors from giving talks for drug companies about medications, the Journal Sentinelâ??s John Fauber reports. But despite all the revelations, UW officials risk doing too little.

Tony Cunning, infected with HIV for at least 20 years, has lived long enough to encounter another serious medical problem: kidney failure. Now the 48-year-old Milwaukee man is showing how much many doctors consider HIV, the AIDS virus, a chronic disease and no longer a death sentence. He received a kidney transplant last month at University of Wisconsin Hospital, becoming one of the stateâ??s first HIV-positive patients to get a life-saving resource once thought too scarce for them.

UW-Madison received two major donations worth a combined $1.3 million to help build a new nursing science center, according to a university news release.

Connie Curran, a 1969 nursing graduate who is the editor of Nursing Economics, donated $300,000. The Oscar Rennebohm Foundation made a $1 million donation.

University of Wisconsin officials have watered down proposed conflict of interest rules, allowing orthopedic surgeons and other doctors who implant devices to earn large sums of money making presentations for medical device companies.

The new policy would keep in place a ban on UW doctors giving talks about medications for drug companies.

Mental health workers will offer free depression screenings Oct. 8 at UW Hospital as part of National Depression Screening Day.

A team from UW-Madison’s Department of Psychiatry will have a table set up from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the H elevator lobby on the first floor of the hospital, 600 Highland Ave.

Overall smoking rates in Indiana and across the nation are on the decline, but not for people with psychiatric illnesses.

â??Twenty-two percent of adults have a psychiatric disorder, yet they consume 45 percent of cigarettes smoked in the U.S.,â? said Dr. Eric Heiligenstein, clinical director of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsinâ??s University Health Services in Madison.

Two men are recovering this week at UW Hospital after surgeons there performed the state’s first domino transplant, an organ-switching procedure that has only been done 100 times since 1996.

Joe Stoikes, a Madison cabinet maker, needed a new liver because he was suffering from familial amyloid polyneuropathy, or FAP, a potentially fatal rare genetic condition in which amyloid protein builds up in the liver, intestines, nerves and heart.

As flu season approaches, Madison residents continue to combat the H1N1 virus, with over 600 already confirmed cases in Dane County.