For a UW-Madison ophthalmology professor about to enter half-time retirement, his vision for the future is clear: a world rid of avoidable blindness within his lifetime.
“It can be done,” says Dr. Suresh Chandra, quietly confident in his mission even after more than two decades spent fighting an epidemic that has only grown.
Chandra in 1984 started the Combat Blindess Foundation in 1984, and has been treating hundreds of patients across the world.
A SUSPECTED poisoning that put an internationally known anti-apartheid leader in a Madison hospital on three separate occasions nearly two decades ago is back in the news in stunning fashion, as the South African government on Monday charged two apartheid-era officials with the 1989 attempted murder of Frank Chikane.
Minorities in Wisconsin are lagging behind in both length and quality of life, as racial health disparities across all life stages reflect troubling differences, a new study by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute shows.
George Ceremuga spent the last week in June helping his father, Dr. George Ceremuga, Sr. and 10 medical students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison conduct health clinics in remote areas of Guatemala.
MADISON – Mortality rates for blacks and American Indian residents are substantially higher than for non-Hispanic whites in every age category in the state, according to a new study by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
The study released this week noted the infant mortality rate for blacks was 17.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, or more than three times the rate for whites, and the American Indian infant mortality rate was second highest among ethnic groups in the state.
College students returning to campuses this fall will see steep increases in the cost of prescription birth-control pills as a result of regulations issued last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute gives the state a B for overall health. But Dr. Patrick Remington says there are some segments of the population that get failing grades.
For example, he says the infant mortality rate for African-Americans is three times higher than it is for non-Hispanic whites.
Very old women are seen throughout Japan in the various parks and roadways tending gardens, sweeping paths and cleaning benches and statuary in public places.
…it is with great interest that I learned of an ongoing study by University of Wisconsin aging expert Carol Ryff. Ryff and a team of experts from the U.S. and Japan are examining the consequences of cultural differences on people’s emotional and physical health as they get older. The study is called Midlife in Japan, or MIDJA.
This current study builds on Ryff’s previous investigation of midlife and aging in the United States (MIDUS) that looks at psychological and social factors such as relationships with others, purpose in life and self-acceptance and how they are linked to biological markers for stress, immune function and cardiovascular risk.
It really doesn’t make any difference how well the State of Wisconsin scored in the latest health report card. The racial disparity is glaring, alarming and unacceptable. And so, Wisconsin has failed.
The UW Population Health Institute report finds Wisconsin as a whole doing better than average across al age groups with an overall grade of B-minus. But disparities due to race, gender geographic location and education lower that grade to a D.
Patrick Genn is bullish on Wisconsin’s new economy. And he’s putting money where his mouth is.
As managing director of the Middleton-based Continuum Investment Partners, Genn has been working the past two years connecting local “angel” investors with new companies in need of working capital.
MADISON, Wis. — A state program aims to help military personnel and veterans kick the smoking habit.Operation Quit Tobacco is a state effort that provides free coaching as well as nicotine patches or gum.So far more than 300 state troops and veterans have signed on.
Badger State vets can get a free two-week starter kit by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW from a Wisconsin area code. Participants also get free coaching from advisers who help them develop an individualized quit plan.
MADISON, Wis. — Almost 70 years ago Wednesday, Lou Gehrig retired from baseball and raised awareness about the neurodegenerative disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.VIDEO: Watch The ReportBut some argue that since then, ALS is out of the spotlight, leaving those suffering from it feeling forgott
One passenger in the fatal crash at a Middleton quarry Wednesday is back home, but the four other injured survivors remain at UW Hospital, with one still in critical condition.
State Street partiers know the rules: Stay in groups. Count your drinks. Walk in well-lit areas. Be alert.
But once the drinks start flowing, it’s common to feel a sense of invincibility – especially with a trusty cell phone at hand.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison added two new Med Flight helicopters.
The two “Euro-copters” replaced two 10-year-old Italian aircrafts.
“What we are gaining with the new helicopter, besides reliability, is that we are gaining a lot of safety. Features that we didn’t have, the technology, satellite radars, we can download right in flight, in cockpit,” said Gil Cowell, a Med Flight pilot.
he University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison added two new Med Flight helicopters.
The two “Euro-copters” replaced two 10-year-old Italian aircrafts.
The state Supreme Court decided today that the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority is a “political corporation” with a cap on malpractice damages far smaller than the one for other hospitals and with a much smaller window of time in which to file suit against it.
A new state study reveals that limited literacy skills can affect one’s health care.
The study, conducted with the assistance of the Winnebago County Literacy Council and other state literacy organizations, found that people with limited literacy could not take full advantage of the health care system.
“They can’t understand doctor’s instructions and prescriptions and have challenges filling out medical forms,” said Paul Smith, Associate Professor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine.
Some high-profile scientists have jumped into the fight over the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s stem cell patents, supporting the effort to have them revoked.
The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and others are challenging patents that cover discoveries by UW researcher Jamie Thomson, who was the first to grow and isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998….Competing scientists have jumped into the fray.
Untreated runoff from a coal pile at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Charter Street Power Plant may be draining into the stormwater system — and then directly into Lake Monona — instead of into the sanitary sewer system.
If the untreated coal wash is draining into the lake — which the state Department of Administration has warned the state Department of Natural Resources may be the case — environmentalists say the pollutants could be significant, including arsenic and other heavy metals.
Drug technology being developed by local biotech start-up Centrose has received favorable coverage in the prestigious journal Nature.
Centrose is developing technology to combat the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as well as anti-cancer compounds.
….A study of the issue led by Centrose co-founder and UW-Madison Professor Jon Thorson was published last week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl is exploring a national registry to require public disclosure of drug company payments to physicians.
“We need transparency,” said the Wisconsin Democrat at the first of a series of hearings on Wednesday as chairman of the Special Committee on Aging. The hearings are to explore the financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors, which critics say create the appearance of inappropriate influence on patient treatment and the drugs prescribed.
University of Wisconsin-Madison medical researchers are looking for approximately 75 volunteers to help test a new patch to help you quit smoking.
The drug, called selegeline, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat depression. This is the first time it would be used to treat smoking.
MADISON, Wis. — The group Friends of University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics presented a $1 million check on Tuesday for the new American Family Children’s Hospital.
The nonprofit organization raised the money to pay for several rooms and upgrades at the state-of-the-art hospital.
Substance abuse is the fourth-leading cause of death in Wisconsin, and a relatively new clinic assessment program is attempting to fight it.
Alcohol and drug abuse follows only heart disease, cancer and stroke as the underlying cause of death in the state, according to official reports.
However, only 10 to 20 percent of state residents in need of help for substance abuse receive that assistance, according to Richard Brown, director of the Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles.
Dear Editor:
….There are different types of stem cells — embryonic, adult, and umbilical. I have no problem with, and in fact have supported, research efforts utilizing adult and umbilical stem cells. But embryonic stem cell research kills human life.
The successes of adult and umbilical stem cell research are widespread and well known and, as a result, I believe this is where we should focus our research — on proven, successful methods.
People with type 1 diabetes who smoke are more than twice as likely to have an episode of severe hypoglycemia, or very low blood sugar, as those who have never smoked, according to a new study.
Hypoglycemia can cause mental confusion, or even coma or seizures in severe instances. “Smoking, through its effect on hormone regulation and insulin clearance, has been hypothesized to result in severe hypoglycemia,” Dr. Ronald Klein, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues write in the journal Diabetes Care.
Local companies that haven’t even formed yet could be among the biggest beneficiaries of the startling financial success of two local high-tech companies in the past two months, experts say.
TomoTherapy, which makes targeted radiation systems for cancer treatment, last month enjoyed a $223 million initial public offering of stock, while gene chip maker NimbleGen Systems this week passed on the IPO it had filed for in favor of a $272.5 million acquisition by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG.
….Years ago, TomoTherapy and NimbleGen were merely ideas in the brains of talented UW-Madison researchers. Developing such ideas into products and, ultimately, profitable companies requires funding — typically large amounts of funding.
Dan Chavas and Eli Persky just want to chew the fat, not ban it.
The two UW-Madison grads on Wednesday unveiled an awards system that seeks to “start a dialogue” about trans fat, not outlaw it as other cities, like Philadelphia, have done. The “Low Trans Fat Awards” honor local restaurants that serve a no or low trans fat menu.
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vetoing a stem cell bill for the second time, President Bush on Wednesday sought to placate those who disagree with him by signing an executive order urging scientists toward what he termed “ethically responsible” research in the field.
Bush announced no new federal dollars for stem cell research, which supporters say holds the promise of disease cures, and his order would not allow researchers to do anything they couldn’t do under existing restrictions.
Announcing his veto to a roomful of supporters, Bush said, “If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers for the first time in our history to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. I made it clear to Congress and to the American people that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line.”
Madison-based gene chip maker NimbleGen Systems, which in March filed for an initial public offering of stock, instead has been acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG in a $272.5 million deal announced today.
NimbleGen, a UW-Madison spin-off founded in 1999, had filed for a proposed IPO of up to $75 million in common stock.
Quoted: Dr. Jon C. Gould and colleagues of the University of Wisconsin in Madison in a report to the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.
Despite pressure from supporters of a bill that would require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch says he is reluctant to move the bill forward because of constitutional concerns.
“There’s no protection for those who would not do this and who are exercising their constitutional right to not do this on religious and moral grounds,” Huebsch told The Capital Times.
Huebsch, R-West Salem, said the bill, if passed, would usher in a “radical change” in state policy.
Stem cell research holds out so much promise for addressing devastating diseases and conditions that support for it extends beyond lines of party and ideology.
Indeed, it can safely be said that opposition to federal research for embryonic stem cell research is now limited to an extremist fringe and the politically cynical.
Quoted: Dr. A.C. Evans in the division of gynecological oncology at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
When Jerry Kelly isn’t busy trying to win tournaments on the PGA Tour, he may be busy over the next several months raising money for a Nationwide Tour event being touted for Madison.
….It is expected that the new American Family Children’s Hospital at the UW Hospital and Clinics will be the major benefactor of the tournament’s charities.
It seems absurd that walking and other forms of exercise may be helpful to lessen pain, but that’s the generally accepted — and now proven — notion.In studies of older adults entering assisted care, Dr. Kelli Koltyn of the University of Wisconsin surveyed adults in their 80s who participated in various exercises, with some using a cane, walker or wheelchair.
….More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies, and the numbers continue to grow despite advances in antihistamines and other drugs. So why have we failed to reverse this trend?
“It’s time to look at the underlying causes of asthma and hay fever instead of only treating the symptoms,” says Gregg Mitman, a professor of medical history and history of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Following his own advice, Mitman wrote the book “Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes.” In it, he traces the impact allergic disease has had on American life, culture and landscape since the 19th century.
Wisconsin lawmakers took a big step toward addressing the state’s nursing shortage this week with committee approval of a funding proposal to expand nursing education in Wisconsin.
The University of Wisconsin has requested $3.1 million in funding to expand its nursing education programs, which would increase the potential number of nursing students and nursing faculty.
MADISON, Wis. — The push to bring a “Gilda’s Club” to Madison continued Thursday night with the Magic 98 Radiothon raising more than $25,000 so far.
It is part of a final fundraising drive to raise $1.5 million before this fall’s groundbreaking.
Gilda’s Club will be a meeting place for cancer patients and their families and friends. It’s a connection that researchers said is badly needed.
“Often we see with people we call caregivers, people don’t identify themselves that way — they think, ‘I’m just a wife caring for my husband or a daughter caring for my dad,'” said Lori Dubenske, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cancer psychology fellow and caregiver support group leader.
By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — In a leap forward for stem cell research, three independent teams of scientists reported Wednesday that they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without the controversial destruction of embryos.
They got ordinary skin cells to behave like stem cells. If the same could be done with human cells – a big if – the procedure could lead to breakthrough medical treatments without the contentious ethical and political debates surrounding the use of embryos.
Experts were impressed by the achievement.
Quoted (in 6/6/07 Capital Times): UW-Madison stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen)
Jared Campbell, 2, flailed his little arms at the iridescent soap bubbles floating around his head in the hall outside a University of Wisconsin research lab in Madison.
“Pow! Pow!” he said as he swiped them out of the air. Then his mom called his name, and he did something extraordinary. For a split-second, he turned his head and looked at her.
There were plenty of smiling faces around town after Madison-based medical equipment maker TomoTherapy made its initial public stock offering.
Not only was it a home run for the local tech economy, it was a grand slam for those lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.
Among the early investors was UW Board of Regents president and private attorney David Walsh….
A university professor who usually writes for highly specialized journals explodes all sorts of myths about allergies in this fascinating book â?? and does so while avoiding jargon and passive-voice sentences that too frequently infect the prose of academics.
Gregg Mitman teaches medical history and science/technology courses at the University of Wisconsin. His interest in allergies is both professional and personal. He suffered terribly from bronchial asthma as a child, and his son is a sufferer, too.
Summer time for kids means school is out, it’s time to play. Under the sun. In the heat. Running and jumping.
Or, at least it used to.
A new study out of the UW, published in the newly-released June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that overweight middle school kids who’d seen progress in school-based curriculum for physical education, actually got less healthy over the summer.
â??We expected that summer vacation would actually promote more physical activity for kids, and that on their own, cardiovascular levels would actually increase. And what we found was cardiovascular went down,â? says Dr. Aaron Carrel, one of the five local researchers.
UW-Madison researchers are working on a medication that will revolutionize the battle against osteoporosis.
The short name for it is 2MD. A compound discovered in a UW-Madison lab.
Dr. Neil Binkley with the UW Health Osteoporosis Study says the Vitamin D molecule has been modified or tweaked so it actually can help bones grow. At least it has in animals.
The University of Wisconsin’s research arm challenged the federal government’s rejection of its patents covering human embryonic stem cell research on Thursday, defending researcher Jamie Thomson’s work as a “landmark invention.”
The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and others are challenging patents that covr discoveries by Thomson, who was the first to grow and isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998.
(Appears in 6/1/07 Capital Times)
MADISON, Wis. — Research started at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could offer a breakthrough in the fight against osteoporosis.
Current drugs can only slow the effects of osteoporosis, but a clinical trial being done at UW-Madison could bring something completely different.
A drug developed by biochemistry professor Hector Deluca, 2MD, is a Vitamin-D derivative drug that would work as a “road-patching” agent that would regenerate aging bones. The drug has been successful in rats and is now being tested in a clinical trial being run by Dr. Neil Binkley, who said the drug is at least potentially one of the most, if not the most, promising agents in the osteoporosis research pipeline.
A new study at UW-Madison will try to find answers to some of the most important questions women approaching menopause may have about hormone replacement therapy.
While inhaled corticosteroid medications are a mainstay of effective asthma treatment, they can’t prevent the disease from occurring or recurring in high-risk children, new research found.
Two presentations Wednesday at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference in San Francisco included an additional year of information from previous research. The studies confirmed that youngsters given inhaled corticosteroids may do well while they’re taking the medications. But the drugs’ beneficial effects wear off soon after they’re stopped, and they don’t appear to have any long-term effects on the progression of asthmatic disease.
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) – When someone has all the signs of acute appendicitis, waiting to get a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis is not a good idea, researchers report. Compared with a straight-to-surgery approach, the CT strategy is linked to delayed surgery and increased risk of a burst appendix.
“There has been a somewhat reflexive use of CT since it has become widely available,” Dr. Herbert Chen of the University of Wisconsin at Madison said during a presentation at Digestive Disease Week 2007, which is underway here.
Sleep remains one of the brain’s biggest mysteries. No one really knows exactly why we need it.
But in an unusual experiment, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were able to induce what appears to be deep sleep by sending bursts of magnetic energy through the skulls and into the brains of napping volunteers.
Jennifer Eddy vividly remembers the 79-year-old old man with foot ulcers so severely infected that his dried and deteriorated skin caused the loss of two toes.
Two surgeons urged amputation of the man’s lower legs to save his life, but the man opted to go home, and he then lost a third toe. Eddy, a family physician taught to never give up on a patient, approached the man with an idea she’d first heard about during medical school.
She told him that honey had been used since the early days to treat wounds and asked if he’d be willing to try it. The man agreed and placed a thick application of honey he’d purchased at a supermarket on his sore each day.
Within three weeks, Eddy says, the man’s foot began creating nice, healthy tissue. It took about a year for the ulcer to clear up.
The inaugural Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Award competition for students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison yielded devices designed for the use of radiologists, audiologists and those treating sports-related injuries.
All of the devices were designed by UW-Madison biomedical engineering students. The competition earlier this month at UW-Madison involved nearly 150 biomedical engineering students. First-place awards were given to teams from the sophomore, junior and senior classes.
THURSDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) — The first national survey in a generation to look at Americans’ feelings on cancer prevention finds widespread confusion about the disease.
“We found that almost half of the American public believes that ‘it seems that almost everything causes cancer,’ about one in four feel there’s not much one can do to lower the chances of getting cancer, and three out of four felt there were so many recommendations, it’s hard to know which ones to follow,” said study author Jeff Niederdeppe, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Mary Troestler is excited and proud to be working with stem cells at Madison Area Technical College.
….MATC’s 20-year-old biotechnology program recently received human embryonic stem cells from WiCell through an agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation so students can learn lab techniques relating to the culture of stem cells.
UW-Madison may be known worldwide for stem-cell research, but the campus has lacked an organized way to get its stem-cell scientists to share lab equipment, train new researchers, educate the public and garner federal grants, campus authorities say.
Dear Editor:
….I have seen firsthand how for-profit business infiltrates academic medicine, to the point where many faculty at the medical school receive tens of thousands of dollars in “consulting” fees from medical industry, for a few hours of time each year. Our new medical school even has corporate names and logos at the entrances to our lecture halls.
….It is time that the UW, with a rich history of integrity and commitment to the public good, follows other universities and bans such compromising industrial ties. Wisconsin deserves more, and we need to lead by setting a more socially responsible example.
Quoted: Dr. Everett Smith, a biogerontologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dear Editor: In his May 12 letter to the editor, Dr. James W. Tracy asserts that Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka has not worked with “live, infectious” 1918 Spanish flu virus on the Madison campus.
….In the spirit of transparency, the university should make available on its Web site all research protocols involving deadly airborne agents and explain the methods being used to contain them and safeguard the public’s health.
