(MADISON) The Medical School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is getting eight million dollars in grants to compare five, federally-approved smoking treatments. (Third item.)
The Milwaukee Health Department and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene were among the nearly 5,000 laboratories to receive a dangerous strain of the flu virus during routine accreditation testing this winter. Also quotes Yoshihiro Kawaoka, professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine and world expert on the genetics of the flu virus.
Quoted: Sanjay Asthana, head of geriatrics at the UW Medical School.
University of Wisconsin student Tim Cordes is the first blind student to graduate with a Medical Degree from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
About 2,800 people trying to snuff their smoking habit will get close evaluation as part of an $8.1 million Wisconsin study to match smokers with more effective stop-smoking treatment.
From pedometers to placebos to palm-sized computers, study participants will get tailored attention.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are recruiting 2,800 smokers in the Madison and Milwaukee areas for what they describe as the largest smoking study ever in Wisconsin.
Most of the smokers will have access to the latest federally approved drugs, although 13 percent will be given placebos. The study will be different from past research because it will study people for longer and evaluate the entire portrait of their health, the researchers said.
The major chemical companies would like you to believe that UW-Madison Professor Warren Porter is one of those kooky alarmists who are out to make your life miserable. Indeed, to say they view him as a pest would be a colossal understatement, acknowledges Porter, a scientist in the department of zoology.
“They’ve gone to the highest officials of this university to try to get me to pull my papers after they’ve been published,” he says. “Or to get me to retract things I’ve written.”
On the eve of Spring Break, State Rep. Daniel LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said he would introduce legislation preventing organizations associated with the UW System from offering emergency contraception in the form of the morning-after pill Plan B. The pending legislation is a response to pressure from conservative groups angry at the advertisement University Health Service ran in both student newspapers that was intended to make students aware of their service. Rep. LeMahieu is out of line to propose such legislation.
Despite a fevered controversy over the reliability of the study that led to worldwide use of the AIDS drug nevirapine to protect newborns, doctors have begun testing a strategy for boosting the drug’s proven benefits.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo.
A Republican lawmaker is continuing his push to stop University Health Services from giving emergency contraception to female UW-Madison students despite a warning from the state’s attorney general Tuesday that his legislation is unconstitutional.
A drug used in organ-transplant patients could double as an effective cancer fighter, scientists announced last week.
State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager issued an advisory opinion Tuesday proclaiming new legislation aimed at banning University of Wisconsin System health services from advertising and dispensing emergency contraception is unconstitutional.
There’s a effort here in Madison to turn around the devastating health care system in Afghanistan. According to the U.S. State Department, a quarter of all afghani children will die before their 5th birthday. A local doctor is trying to change that.
Dr. Douglas Laube is just back from his second trip to Afghanistan. He’s one of about a dozen U.S. doctors using their knowledge to help the war torn country start from scratch, and rebuild a health care system currently on life support.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager’s opinion that any legislation that would ban the University of Wisconsin System from advocating the use of emergency contraception or providing it to students would be unconstitutional has, not surprisingly, touched off a controversy in the Capitol. But that doesn’t mean Lautenschlager’s opinion is off base. Or that University Health Services was wrong to advocate the use of emergency contraception for students on spring break.
A News 3 investigation finds UW Hospital broke state law by not reporting the conduct of a former nursing assistant to the state. That worker was later hired by St. Mary’s Hospital — where he allegedly sexually assaulted a female patient last month.
The state attorney general says that a proposed law that would bar the University of Wisconsin System – or anyone on UW property – from advertising, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception is unconstitutional.
But the author of the bill, Rep. Daniel LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, says he will go ahead, because Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager’s opinion is merely advisory.
A $10 million “super” research tax credit for corporations was advanced today by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. The vote was 9-6.
Action came despite the lack of a public hearing on the measure, with state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, saying it “seems odd to do outside the (regular) budget process.” The committee is expected to start voting on the budget bill by mid-April.
Legislation that would prohibit the University of Wisconsin System from advocating the use of emergency contraception or providing it to students would be unconstitutional if passed, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Tuesday in an advisory opinion.
The number of Wisconsin residents with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to triple to 348,000 within 50 years, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
University of Wisconsin researchers who think they may be able to slow that increase appeared Monday at a press conference at the State Capitol, calling for legislative support of a proposal in the governor’s budget that would provide $3 million for Alzheimer’s research during the next two-year budget period.
It has been more than 30 years since Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, an enemy that has proved far more wily and intractable than anyone thought.
The number of Wisconsin residents with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to triple to 348,000 within 50 years, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
University of Wisconsin researchers who think they may be able to slow that increase appeared at a press conference at the State Capitol today, calling for legislative support of a proposal in the governor’s budget that would provide $3 million for Alzheimer’s research during the next two-year budget period.
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) — The young medical student was nervous as he slid the soft, thin tube down into the patient’s windpipe. It was a delicate maneuver — and he knew he had to get it right.
After five years of exhaustive research and experimentation, doctors at University Hospital here announced that they can now cure, with a surgical procedure, the bane of most golfers — the cursed slice.
“We can guarantee that after we perform this surgery, which usually can be done lapriscopically, the golfer will hit the ball straight and almost always the yardage lost to a slice will be restored to the end of the drive, making it longer,” said Dr. Schott Schank, one of the team of surgeons who developed the new procedure.
(HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!!!)
St. Mary’s Hospital recently fired Michael Reveles after an internal investigation.
Area hospitals say they should share more information between each other about former employees.
That decision comes after the state filed charges against a recently fired nursing aide, Michael Reveles, for second degree sexual assault. It was later that St. Mary’s administrations learned that Reveles was accused of improperly touching patients when he worked at UW Hospital.
Can the Legislature restrict what prescriptions are written by medical personnel at University of Wisconsin student health clinics?
Two Democratic leaders are asking Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager’s advice on that issue in the wake of a Republican-sponsored bill on birth control pills.
Stem cell pioneer and University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson is opening a business at the UW Research Park.
Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. will work on cellular tissue regeneration involving the heart; the research there will involve stem cell research, but will not be limited to that, according to an industry insider familiar with the business who wished not to be identified.
The group that runs the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is not part of state government and therefore can be sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The ruling by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reinstates a lawsuit filed by Joyce Takle, a former nurse at the Madison hospital who claims she was fired in 2000 for being diabetic.
A press release issued Wednesday by the State Joint Committee on Finance stated the committee will not include domestic partner benefits for UW System faculty in the state budget, potentially resulting in lower recruitment and retention of UW-Madison faculty, according to university officials.
MADISON ââ?¬â? The group that runs the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics can be sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The ruling by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reinstates a lawsuit filed by Joyce Takle, a former nurse at the Madison hospital who claims she was fired in 2000 for being diabetic.
The Terri Schiavo controversy centered on two conflicting observations. Physicians said neurological tests indicated she was in a persistent vegetative state, or PVS, in which the higher functions of her brain had clinically ceased. Opponents argued that video clips of Schiavo smiling at her mother with recognition, clearly proved otherwise. But doctors say even a brain-dead person can exhibit reactions normally associated with sentient people.
Although not every patient would jump at the chance, several doctors across the country are warming up to the notion of treating hard-to-heal infections with an age-old nemesis: maggots.
This treatment has been used, perhaps unintentionally, for thousands of years. During wartimes, soldiers have sometimes been left for days with infected wounds that became infested with maggots. Doctors would later be surprised to learn that the patients remained healthy despite a lack of medical attention.
WASHINGTON – The House leadership has agreed to allow a floor vote on a bill that would loosen the restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research imposed by President Bush in 2001, according to members of Congress and others privy to the arrangement.
The vote, expected to take place within the next two to three months, would be the first of its kind on the politically charged topic since Bush declared much of the research off-limits to federal funding.
(Reprinted in the 3/25/05 Capital Times)
The choice of Flad and Associates to design UW-Madison’s 750,000 square foot Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, unveiled by Gov. Jim Doyle last week, wasn’t surprising. Flad and Associates has designed many of the city’s landmark buildings, such as the 1.3 million square foot American Family Insurance headquarters and UW-Madison’s chemistry and biochemistry buildings.
A state lawmaker wants to prohibit clinics serving University of Wisconsin campuses from providing students with birth control pills and devices, contending such services promote promiscuity. Rep Daniel LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said he was outraged when he learned University Health Services, the clinic serving UW-Madison students, had taken out ads in the two campus newspapers suggesting students get advance emergency contraceptive prescriptions before leaving town for spring break.
The state Building Commission Friday voted 7-1 to finance a proposed $381 million biotechnology research institute at UW-Madison.
The 450,000-square-foot Wisconsin Institute for Discovery would be built on a wedge of land bordered by University and North Randall avenues and West Johnson and North Charter streets, just north of Union South.
The commission also approved $137.5 million in new bonds for the project that will become available over the next 10 years and reallocated to the institute $50 million of previously approved bonding, said Rob Kramer, secretary of the commission.
For some students, the winter blues can signal a larger problem than just longing for warmer weather. Seasonal Affective Disorder, depression sparked by fewer daylight hours, can interfere with a student’s ability to function academically and socially.
There were many important people at the unveiling Wednesday of the proposed $375 million Institute of Discovery, from college deans to a beaming governor.
But few in attendance may have more to gain from the ambitious research center than three children who stood quietly next to the architectural drawings as the important people spoke.
Gov. Jim Doyle will seek $187.5 million in state funds to build a research institute that could keep Wisconsin on the leading edge of biotechnology and biomedical research.
In December, Doyle proposed the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, which would bring together biochemists, nanotechnologists and computer engineers at UW-Madison. Doyle said today he would call on the state Building Commission to approve the first phase of funding for the institute at its meeting Friday. The project will also require legislative approval.
Several health care professionals joined Rep. Jean Hundertmark Tuesday to support the introduction of her 2005 “Conscience Protection Act.”
The bill from the Clintonville Republican is aimed at protecting doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers from being discriminated against or sued because they follow their consciences in refusing to take part in procedures “that are a planned, calculated destruction of human life,” Hundertmark said.
A Republican legislator says he is “outraged” that the University of Wisconsin student health service provides prescription birth control, especially the so-called morning-after pill.
State Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said he is drafting a bill to stop all UW student health services from either advertising or providing students with the morning-after pill.
Two UW-Madison newspapers have been publishing ads encouraging students to have emergency contraception on hand during spring break, prompting criticism from abortion opponents.
The state Medical Examining Board has ordered Dr. William (Jerry) Hisgen, a former internist with UW Health, to pay $4,000 in costs and to complete a course on drug prescribing.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s health services division has been publishing newspaper ads encouraging students to have emergency contraception – the so-called morning-after pill – on hand during spring break, a move that is rankling abortion critics in the state.
Quoted: James Sosman, associate director of the HIV care program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been publishing newspaper ads encouraging students to have emergency contraception on hand during spring break, prompting criticism from abortion opponents.
It’s known as the morning after pill, but UW students are being encouraged to get it days in advance.
With spring break around the corner, University Health Services has taken out ads in campus newspapers urging women to get emergency contraception before going on vacation.
Madison’s three hospitals are all expanding, and those who speak for them say that the busy market here justifies that growth. Not only is the total Dane County population booming, but the older population – which needs more hospital care – will be expanding at a frightening rate as the Baby Boom population ages.
Autistic youngsters may shy away from eye contact because they see even familiar faces as uncomfortable threats, according to brain tests at the University of Wisconsin.
The research deepens understanding of an autistic brain’s function and may lead to new treatment and teaching approaches.
Today sex is everywhere, and with it follow methods of disease protection and birth control. Turning on the television, one can “Talk Sex” with an old, but perky, Sue Johanson. Walk into a local store and one might find a bowl of free condoms on the counter. On the radio are depressing advertisements from girls who unwisely relied on the pull-out method.
State legislators presented a bill Wednesday requiring hospitals to provide information on emergency contraception to rape victims.
Autistic children and adults are typically reluctant to make and keep eye contact with others — part of their general lack of social or emotional connection. A new study suggests a basic reason for this: The eye contact overstimulates a part of the brain that processes fear and emotion, and people with autism learn to limit their eye- and face-tracking as a result.
(This article from The Washington Post is about research done by professor Richard Davidson. It was published in the 3/9/05 Capital Times print edition.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Good relationships and a sense of purpose may help women over age 60 fend off heart disease, arthritis and other illnesses by reducing the inflammation that promotes them, according to a new study conducted by psychologist Elliot Friedman of the University of Wisconsin.
Researchers in Wisconsin have come a step closer to developing a culture for human embryonic stem (ES) cells that is free of animal products–a recipe that is essential for growing any cells that would be used for therapy in humans.
A Wisconsin physician said doctors might soon add a skin cholesterol test to the routine checks they make during an office visit.
Dr. James Stein with the University of Wisconsin Medical School said the five-minute test accurately detected early-stage heart disease in a pilot study of 81 people. The test, which simply involves putting droplets of solution on a person’s hand, measures the cholesterol content of the skin. (Login required.)
Quoted: Frank Greer, a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
University of Wisconsin researchers have confirmed the usefulness of a non-invasive test that identifies people at increased risk for heart disease.
James M. Stein, co-director of UW Health Preventive Cardiology, presented the study results Sunday at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla.
A quick, inexpensive test that measures cholesterol in the skin without the need for drawing blood can detect heart disease in middle-aged people, according to a study presented Sunday by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
Quoted: James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive a $15 million donation to help build a research complex on campus. The donation is the single-largest grant from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation of Madison.
The Oscar Rennebohm Foundation is giving $15 million to help build a research complex on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Gov. Jim Doyle was planning to announce the donation today at the university.
