Seeking to put Alzheimer’s disease on the same footing as cancer and heart disease, health officials are embarking on a landmark initiative that regularly will scan the brains and analyze the bodily fluids of 800 people. With at least $60 million to spend over the next five years, the undertaking will involve 45 universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Details from a large-scale survey focusing on treatment goals for schizophrenia shed new light on what physicians and people with schizophrenia feel is important for long-term quality care, according to Ronald J. Diamond, M.D, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
MADISON, Wis. — The shortage of flu shots is forcing UW Hospital to use its triage system.
Quoted: Douglas Dulli, a professor of neurology and public health medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Is keeping your children off drugs as simple as an at-home test kit? A national drugstore chain is promoting just that. But a Dane County doctor and others are cautioning parents that the tests don’t always work and that talking to children about drugs is still the most effective way to prevent abuse.
Centers for Disease Control officials announced last week the supply of influenza vaccine will be cut in half this 2004-05 flu season due to contamination in a British plant, inducing a shortage of the medicine to many low-risk individuals.
Quoted: UW psychiatry professor Dr. Hugh Johnson.
Kevin Granger sees a challenge not only from the Lou Gehrig’s disease that is slowly eroding his muscular control, but also from his government.
Like some of the people at a recent benefit for him, he questions why the United States government is not solidly behind embryonic stem cell research because of the hope it offers to people like himself.
Researchers from University of Wisconsin�s National Primate Research Center have received a $6.5 million contract from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases to characterize primate genes.
Quoted: Gary Lyons, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
Some six years ago, a bright scientist at the University of Wisconsin introduced his work to the public through the prestigious journal Science. He reported the first case of isolating human embryonic stem cells. The ground breaking announcement made the scientific, and particularly the medical community, sit up and take notice; the possibilities appeared astonishing.
Years or decades from now Wayne Geurink, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a car crash, might benefit from the work of pioneering stem cell researchers like professor Ian Duncan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On Tuesday night, Geurink, of the town of Stettin, had to settle for a front row seat in the theater at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County as Duncan talked about the reality versus the promise of stem cell research. But for Geurink, the potential benefits are what make stem cell research so important.
One of Madison’s most popular television news anchors, WISC-TV’s (Ch. 3) Carleen Wild, will leave the station in early December to work as UW Foundation’s director of development for the Comprehensive Cancer Center.
It doesn’t take much to turn a mild strain of flu deadly, according to a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his international team of researchers. Indeed, it appears it took just one gene to make the 1918 Spanish influenza virus into one of the most lethal and pernicious pandemics in history.
MILWAUKEE – First lady Laura Bush defended her husband’s policy on stem cell research Tuesday in a state known for advances in that area, and indirectly criticized Democrats as overstating its immediate promise. (AP)
Quoted: Mark Ritter, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An angry crowd protested outside the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic Wednesday to criticize the university�s decision to stop supporting research for two life-threatening diseases.
Author: Keith R. Martin, M.D., assistant clinical professor, Department of Ob-Gyn, University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison
MADISON, Wis. — About 100 ALS patients and supporters rallied outside the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison Wednesday, saying they are confused and frustrated after a research lab shut down.
Patients of a University of Wisconsin researcher will rally today to reopen a lab that deals with a degenerative neurological condition.
Quoted: Norman Fost, a pediatrics and medical ethics professor at the University of Wisconsin,
The pumps that deliver fluids and drugs intravenously to patients at UW Hospital have minds of their own. A computer drug library programmed into these new “smart” IV pumps can give nurses a warning before they make what could be a fatal typo, administering too much or too little of a drug.
(Madison)Ã? Some local heroes made some kids very happy Friday at the University of WisconsinÃ? Children’s Hospital.
Medicine often changes course slowly, but a growing number of doctors who aren’t happy with the traditional cholesterol test are turning to a relatively new type of blood test that may be a better indicator of a person’s heart disease risk.
When it comes to health care policy, Tommy Thompson is on board with his soon-to-be ex-boss on about every issue save one.
The Prescott family is also donating $500,000 to the Waisman Center, a medical research facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that is conducting research on Parkinson’s disease;
Growing education requirements in medical fields have pushed UW-Madison to form a new master’s degree program in occupational therapy.
After two years of planning and the development of a new curriculum and course sequence, the university will enroll a maximum of 25 students into the program which begins next summer.
Future doctors now are being invited to nursing students’ parties, partly because they all study under one roof at UW-Madison’s new Health Sciences Learning Center.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? Scientists are turning on its head the popular notion that video games can only promote aggressive behavior or passive learning. The explosion of real-world learning applications for games may astound critics of the virtual world.
The government must begin to support research on new human embryonic stem cell lines, said Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, on a visit to Madison on Monday.
Despite a limited budget and faculty, UW-Madison is taking steps to increase the number of graduates in the nursing and biotechnology fields.
In 2004, the School of Nursing increased the enrollment of undergraduate students from 100 to 130 while the biotechnology program graduated its first 10 students with master’s degrees in May, a number which the university hopes to double by 2005.
University Tries To Increase Graduates In Two Areas.
Despite a tighter operating budget, UW-Madison is making a push for more graduates in two hot areas: nursing and biotechnology
The planned American Family Children’s Hospital at University Hospital and Clinics is up for a vote this week by the UW Board of Regents.
Tomotherapy uses CT-scan technology to better target tumors and lower the amount of radiation received by healthy tissue. CT scanners obtain their images using the same X-ray radiation used in radiation therapy.
The device, developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and first used there clinically last year, is essentially an X-ray scanner on a circular track.
Quoted: Patrick McBride, a professor of cardiovascular and family medicine at UW-Madison.
Op-ed piece on health care authored by Robert Stone Newsom, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Public Health/Health Policy Institute.
New studies about ââ?¬Å?virtualââ?¬Â colonoscopy suggest that the colon cancer screening technique, though not ready to replace the gold-standard conventional procedures, might someday be an effective alternative.
Cited: Perry Pickhardt, a University of Wisconsin Medical School radiologist.
About 10 years ago, Gloria Johnson-Powell’s nephew landed in an emergency room in Boston after fainting on the middle school football field at his first practice
Four days and five doctor visits later, he was dead.
The 13-year-old died of drug toxicity from seizure medication, which he didn’t need, that tends to cause problems in black males. But the University of Wisconsin-Madison physician says the real problem was cultural incompetence.
An 18-year-old freshman who fell from a Mifflin Street balcony Saturday remained in critical condition today.
FOR A DECADE after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991 with a degree in political science, Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau made an excellent living selling drugs. Not, mind you, on a city street corner after dark. Slattery-Moschkau worked for a pharmaceutical company that paid her to fly around the country and persuade doctors to prescribe their drugs.
If asked, Latrell Fleming would love to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Dwayne Smith. Thursday night, Fleming explained why. “I can offer him some positive advice because I’ve been through it, and I know how hard it’s going to be for him,”….
Princeton, N.J. — Starting salaries for new graduates vary greatly, says CollegeJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal’s guide for career-minded college students. (Capital Times, from PRNewswire)
As the U.S. population ages, medical schools are looking for creative ways to boost new doctors’ interest in the specialized needs of elderly patients
Fifty-five Wisconsin police chiefs (including UW-Madison’s) joined the groups Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort today to call for reauthorizing and strengthening the federal assault weapons ban.
Letter to the Editor from WARF’s Carl Gulbransen appears on page 9A of the 8/18 print edition of the Capital Times.
After a decade as a foreign currency trader, Nick Cianci did not find his job fulfilling anymore. Neither did Cathey Gardner, a restaurant catering manager.
Local business leaders, including some who questioned the need for universal health care coverage less than a decade ago, say they need help from the federal government to cope with skyrocketing health care costs. (Chancellor John Wiley is quoted in this story.)
The one-time “sleeper issue” of stem cell research leapt squarely into the center of the presidential race Monday….(L.A. Times article from 8/10/04 Capital Times print edition)
President Bush’s 3-year-old restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research have probably hurt Wisconsin workers in that field, Gov. Jim Doyle says. Continue reading
Tissue Is Now Frozen
Stacey Hodkiewicz started dealing with a form of heart arrhythmia at age 10.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is now a Level 1 trauma center for pediatric care. The hospital also revealed two initiatives Thursday. One is a MedFlight ground unit. (See 8/6 Capital Times print edition)
UW Hospital now has its own ambulance to use instead of a Med Flight helicopter to transport critically ill patients from other hospitals.
Students from the University of Wisconsin’s school of Veterinary Medicine monitor and care for the animals all day.
Global warming means more summer smog for millions in Baltimore and 14 other U.S. cities, the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a report issued Wednesday. (AP story in 8/5/04 Capital Times quotes lead author Jonathan Patz of UW-Madison)
(MADISON) New research may help women with postpartum depression.
Quoted: Patrick McBride, a professor of medicine and director of a preventive cardiology program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Barbara Horner-Ibler, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School who teaches at Aurora Sinai.
Malika McCormick figured she’d have no problem getting into nursing school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Midway through her undergraduate education at UW-Madison, McCormick had good grades, prerequisite course credits and plenty of excitement for nursing as a career.
UW professor of veterinary medicine Dr. Sheila McGuirk, a colon cancer survivor, is one of 20 cyclists selected from nearly 1,200 applicants to team up with Lance Armstrong for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope, Oct. 1-9.
Wisconsin’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention cast its 87 votes for John Kerry for president — and, in the process, stem cell research. (7/29/04 Capital Times print edition)
