Category: Health

Can TV news be hazardous to your health?

While health and medical news is a popular topic on local television newscasts, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan found that the typical story was only 33 seconds long, lacked specifics and, in a few cases, contained egregious and sometimes potentially deadly errors, according to an exhaustive analysis of 1,799 TV health stories.

The study, which was led by Michigan’s James Pribble and Ken Goldstein, a UW political scientist, examined 2,795 news broadcasts during October 2002. Nearly 1,800 of those broadcasts featured health stories, accounting for 11% of the news portion of late evening newscasts analyzed. The report was published in the March issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.

Bowlers across Madison lined up to strike out colon cancer at the annual Bowlin For Colons fundraiser. Colon cancer is the second highest cause of cancer deaths in the state.

Assistant Professor of Medicine at the U.W, Dan Mulaerin says the high participation shows a shift against the stigma of talking about colon cancer. “I think it’s a topic that people can talk about now, where five or ten years ago it was much harder to talk about, so awareness is much higher and rates of screening are improving,” says Mulaerin.

Money raised through the event goes to fund colon cancer research at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center in Madison.

Concentrating on the avian influenza that has been spreading across the globe, a world acclaimed journalist addressed the issue of global health during a speech at the University of Wisconsin Wednesday.

Last spring, Joel and Anne Zucker got a call from their son’s nursery school teacher. The 5-year-old was unable to go to the bathroom.

They were instructed to go to University Hospital.

“The next thing we knew we had three doctors telling us he had stage 3 cancer,” said Joel Zucker, now 35 weeks into his son Andy’s 39-week chemotherapy odyssey.

The state-run health plan that initially wouldn’t pay for a third lung transplant for Joan McCarville, whose story was in the Wisconsin State Journal on Wednesday, has agreed to cover it.

Dr. Robert Golden, a psychiatrist from the University of North Carolina, has been named dean of the UW Medical School.

When Joan McCarville had her first lung transplant in 1997, her insurance paid. When she had another lung transplant the same year, the plan paid again.

Now that the 44-year-old Iowa County dairy farmer and mother of two needs a third lung transplant, the same plan – the state’s Health Insurance Risk Sharing Plan – won’t cover it.

UW Health says McCarville must prepay $330,000 or provide a letter of guarantee from a bank for that amount in order to have the procedure.

A supervisor at University Health Services has stepped down amid complaints about his management of a clinical unit.

Scott Spear, director of clinical services, has moved to a job as a staff doctor at UHS, making his same annual salary of $167,724 and keeping his same one-year renewable appointment, said Kathleen Poi, executive director. He will be the highest paid physician at UHS, Poi confirmed.

Robert N. Golden, vice dean of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and former chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry, was named dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. (Last item in brief package)

A top clinic director at University Health Services who was investigated and cleared of sexually harassing medical students last year resigned Monday amid ongoing efforts to improve poor morale and workplace climate problems reported by employees.

The drill at the tip of the long, green hose is so loud it sounds like a chorus of dentists blasting at cavities.
But this drill is piercing the top of Gabby Mahan’s head.

As Mahan lies awake on a UW Hospital operating table, the drill bores two holes the size of nickels in her skull.

Doug Wubben’s part-time job comes with some unusual duties: undergoing frequent genital and prostate exams.
It’s not that the 35-year-old organic vegetable grower from Madison enjoys having his private parts poked and prodded. Rather, he likes training tomorrow’s doctors to perform some of their most sensitive – and important – work.

Wubben is one of about 100 people who get paid to help students at the UW Medical School learn how to examine, interview, listen to and respect their future patients.

In 1998, Thomas Zdeblick, a prominent surgeon and professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, took on a second job as a consultant to one of the world’s largest makers of medical technology.

MADISON � Some Northeastern Wisconsin physicians are angered over a discrepancy their Madison colleagues have known for years: University of Wisconsin doctors have a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering awards for victims of medical malpractice while private physicians do not.

A group of more than 100 specialty physicians at Aurora BayCare Medical Center say UW doctors have an unfair advantage over private physicians in Wisconsin who are without similar protection since the state Supreme Court last July struck down the state’s previous cap of $445,000, ruling it unconstitutional.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In certain patients with diabetes-related kidney disease, performing a transplant before the need for dialysis arises seems to be advantageous, researchers report.

“Preemptive transplantation remains an optimal form of kidney replacement therapy for individuals with diabetes when they receive a living donor kidney — or when they receive a simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant, in the case of individuals with type 1 diabetes,” said Dr. Bryan N. Becker of the University of Wisconsin.

Becker, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

UW researchers recently gave 144 breast cancer patients access to a computer and an online support group for cancer patients.

Researcher Doctor Bret Shaw says they expected those with little family or emotional support to turn more often to the internet.

One in 10 people in Dane county suffer from asthma, and doctors say, with a little work, a lot of those cases can be prevented.

The UW is teaming up with Dane County and several private businesses to cut down on air pollution in southern Wisconsin.

To help clean up the air, a $450,000 grant is being given to the Dane County Clean Air Coalition from the UW’s school of medicine.

Quoted: James Stein, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.