Category: Health

Wisconsin’s youngest hospital patients have a shiny new place for treatment — a 250-thousand square foot UW hospital.

Saris Cycling Group is selling new pink colored bike racks to raise awareness and funds for the UW Cancer Center.

UW Children’s Hospital treats thousands of children every year. And every year, those children are invited to celebrate their health at a local park.

Sunday afternoon hundreds of former patients enjoyed a picnic at Madison’s Elver Park.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.