Schools across the state — whether they serve kindergartners or college students — continue to adjust plans for the fall based on the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation. The general idea is to bring as many students back in person as possible — the so-called return to normalcy — while not endangering students, teachers or their families.
Eating disorders like the one Natalie struggles with typically begin between 18 and 21 years of age. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the number of students seeking treatment for eating disorders and other mental health issues. The amount of students requesting care at UW-Madison’s University Health Services (UHS) has increased, and students with pre-existing conditions have also been triggered.
The ultimate goal of the National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program is to ensure that all LGBTQ+ patients receive the highest standards of care, according to Dr. Elizabeth Petty, principal investigator and program director for the interdisciplinary fellowship program.
The American Medical Association Foundation announced on Tuesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Public Health and Medicine will be the first institution to participate in its new National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program, which aims to combat shortcomings in the medical care provided to LGBTQ people in the United States.
Dr. Elizabeth Petty, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the medical school, explained the $750,000 in funding over the course of four years will help create the training program for primary care physicians who are early in their career.
The school’s National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program, which will receive $750,000 in funding from the American Medical Association Foundation over the course of four years, will create a clinical training program for early-career physicians so they can help optimize LGBTQ+ patients’ health.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will be the first site to host a new national fellowship that aims to make the doctor’s office more supportive of LGBTQ patients.
Students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison will not be required to be vaccinated, although the university says that it expects most will get one of the vaccines. Less than two hours away, at the private Marquette University in Milwaukee, students must get the vaccine.
Madison: Wisconsin’s two medical schools are collaborating on a study addressing health disparities in the state. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will use $3 million in endowment money to measure and recommend solutions for health inequities, which have been underscored by the coronavirus pandemic.
The UW Undiagnosed Genetic Disease Clinic, a clinic for people with undiagnosed genetic diseases, will allow doctors to give a diagnosis to patients, give patients a better understanding of their condition and let experts discover new genes that can cause the disease.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will use $3 million in endowment money to measure and recommend solutions for health inequities, which have been underscored by the coronavirus pandemic.
A new collaboration between UW Health, the Waisman Center and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health aims to discover, diagnose and ultimately better understand rare genetic diseases.
A new collaboration between UW Health, the Waisman Center and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health is trying to better understand rare genetic diseases.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health has been selected as the first site of the National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program to train early-career doctors to understand and respond to the needs of LGBTQ+ patients.
Column by Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Twelve years after scientists in Wisconsin delved into all the genes of a young Monona boy, diagnosed a new disease and saved the child’s life, a new clinic will try to do the same for scores of other people suffering from mysterious illnesses.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin are launching a $3 million effort to address health disparities in Wisconsin, which have been underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The league’s Scientific Advisory Board on Thursday announced a four-year, $4 million award to a team of medical researchers led by the University of Wisconsin. The study is part of the NFL’s effort to better understand and prevent lower-extremity injuries, including soft tissue strains such as hamstrings.
The NFL announced on Thursday that they have awarded $4 million to fund a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The award, which will be given over four years, is devoted to researching new ways to prevent and treat hamstring injuries.
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that even though the Delta variant is the most infectious strain, “there are areas of the country where too many people have not yet gotten vaccinated and wrongly believe that the pandemic is over.”
But, according to numbers from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, only about 83 casesof the variant have been formally diagnosed in the state.
For more on the variant, and the risk it could pose, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Doctor Ajay Sethi, an Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison.
UW Health experts said there’s a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and the majority of patients are not vaccinated. In the past week, the number of people hospitalized jumped by 17 people and officials are urging those who have not been vaccinated to make an appointment as soon as possible.
Interview: Christine Whelan, UW–Madison professor and Chief Happiness Officer at Dear Pandemic, offers “Nerdy Girl” insight into navigating our emotions, finding joy, and spreading kindness at this stage of pandemic life.
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, professor of population health sciences at UW-Madison, said this scenario is proof the pandemic is not over.
“It’s a good reminder that anybody who is not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 really ought to do so because as soon as you leave your house without a mask, you have a risk of catching the virus,” said Sethi.
Quoted: Thomas Friedrich, professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the FT that federal regulations designed to protect people’s privacy can get in the way of the “rapid sharing of information we need.” States interpret these regulations in different ways, he said.
Interview with Shelby O’Connor from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Shelby has worked with several other labs at UW-Madison on several specific areas of study, one of which she refers to as passive surveillance.
Quoted: “The really good news is that if you have gotten your vaccine, you’re not going to be sick with the Delta virus,” said David O’Connor, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the July 7 edition of Here & Now’s Noon Wednesday.
“Most of the people who are getting sick with the Delta variant, and indeed with covid generally, in the United States are people who are not vaccinated,” said Thomas Friedrich, a professor of pathobiological sciences at UW-Madison, also during the July 7 episode of Noon Wednesday.
Quoted: Dr. María Carolina Mora Pinzón, a preventive medicine physician and scientist at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute at University of Wisconsin, Madison, says that Latinos are less likely to move a relative into a residential care facility or access other forms of help.
“We have heard from people that are looking for the services, that they are not available for their family members,” said Mora Pinzón. “It’s either an access issue where they are not eligible, or the insurance does not cover these types of services.”
With just over a month-and-a-half until students return to the University of Wisconsin-Madison residence halls, university officials say 92.5% of those who plan to live on campus plan to be fully vaccinated by the time they move in.
The University of Wisconsin Health System is adding nearly two dozen new locations where someone will be able to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
UW-Health’s Dr. Jeff Pothof describes this as “messy science”. He says, it’s not uncommon for scientists and health officials to go back and forth, trying to interpret all of the data.
UW Health says COVID vaccines are now available at its primary care clinics throughout the Dane County area.
A survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found 92.5% of incoming dorm residents will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the start of classes this fall.
Guest Dr. Joshua Mezrich, an associate Director of Surgery at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, shares insights from his book, “When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon.”
Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón—a UW Health doctor and associate professor of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health—takes care of patients at the Wingra Family Medical Center. In her free time, Dr. Téllez-Girón serves as co-chair of the Latino Health Council, helping her community get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We started hearing a lot in the media about ’oh the minority populations, they are not going to want it. There is gonna be a lot of hesitancy,’” UW Health Primary Care Provider Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón said. “Particularly here in Dane County we started thinking, huh, I don’t think that is going to be the case with our population.”
Dane County has the strongest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Wisconsin for the Latinx community, and a UW Health physician has had a big hand in that effort.
UW Health said it is offering the immunizations at several primary care clinics in Dane County and will be expanding access to all primary care sites in the coming weeks. For more information, go to go.madison.com/uwhealth.
The ambulatory nurse program is designed for new nurses who just finished school. The program began in February, but a new group will start the program in August.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has joined an international effort to create a pandemic prevention institute aimed at helping researchers, public health officials and governments respond quickly to future pandemics.
Medical debt collection, a complex process and significant cause of personal bankruptcy, is receiving renewed attention because of the financial challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some health systems, including UW Health, Froedtert Health and Advocate Aurora, stopped such actions early last year as the pandemic hit, but it’s not clear how long the reprieve will last. “We will reevaluate our situation once (the federal government) declares we are no longer in a pandemic,” said Tom Russell, a spokesperson for UW Health, which stopped such lawsuits in late March 2020.
Mary Thurber, clinical instructor in zoological medicine at UW-Madison and Vilas’ primary veterinarian, said zookeepers continue to take precautions around animals potentially at risk of contracting COVID-19, including wearing facemasks.
“When we talk about herd immunity, it’s not as simple as talking all the 65 plus into getting immunized,” UW Health’s Dr. Jeff Pothof said. “It really needs to be a representative cross sample of that community that you’re living in getting to that high number.”
Doctors told Daniel Wilburn’s family he had asthma. But when the 24-year-old’s breathing problems turned worse this spring, tests showed major blood clots in his lungs had put so much pressure on his heart that all of the organs were failing. On April 4, Easter Sunday, Wilburn got a second chance for life with a rare heart-lung transplant at UW Hospital.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say that even without a vaccine mandate, they expect at least 80 percent of the campus population will be vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is recruiting volunteers for a Phase 3 clinical trial of a treatment aimed at stopping Alzheimer’s disease even before the first symptoms of memory loss.
Noted: Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at data on covid-19 cases across the U.S. reported during the spring of 2020 and focused on comparing counties with prisons and jails to those without them. After controlling for other variables linked to covid-19 spread, like nearby nursing homes or population density, they found a clear link between having a state prison in the area and increased covid-19 cases.
“Our big takeaway from this research is that prisons are a particularly vulnerable type of facility when it comes to risk for disease spread, which may add additional stress to rural healthcare systems that are already struggling to cope with the pandemic,” study author Kaitlyn Sims, a doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics at UW–Madison, told Gizmodo in an email.
Quoted: While it may seem there are more of the pesky biters this year, it’s not clear if the number of ticks is higher this year than other years, said PJ Leisch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison insect diagnostic lab.
“It’s my overall impression that it’s rather variable depending on where you are in Wisconsin,” he said. “In some areas, ticks are having a good year, in other spots, it’s typical levels.”
UW Health is seeking people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but with no signs of it, to study an experimental drug like one approved this month amid hope and controversy.
Quoted: “It’s more contagious than the viruses that have come before, and it’s a little bit slippery so immune responses don’t work quite as well against it,” said Dave O’Connor, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It really looks like a bullseye and it’s at the site in which the tick bites and it can be easily identified,” UW Health Infectious Disease Specialist Joe McBride said. “Oftentimes with that rash you can have fevers, muscle aches and pains, joint aches and pains.”
Quoted: “We were very surprised,” says Timothy Gómez, professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the new study. “We were expecting this to be all mTOR.”
As the warm weather is making its way through Wisconsin, the tick population is growing and experts are predicting a bad tick season. However, the University of Wisconsin Health is offering tips to residents on how to track and treat tick bites.
She was studying athletic training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when she met the athlete who would change the trajectory of her career.
Now a 34-year-old assistant professor at UW-Madison’s Department of Kinesiology, Mosinee native Julie Stamm was an undergraduate then, in the midst of the clinical portion of her studies — working with a high school football team, getting hands-on training in treating athletic injuries.
“We had a lot of concussions that fall, probably seven or eight just in preseason camp,” Stamm said.
Quoted: “Even though it has been politicized in the last year, I think people generally recognize that if you put a physical barrier between you and someone else, then there’s a lower risk of spreading germs in a community,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that mindfulness meditation could actually enhance immune function. Participants in the study were injected with the flu vaccine. Half of them also received mindfulness training, while the others did not. After eight weeks, the mindfulness group showed greater levels of antibodies, effectively giving them better flu-fighting ability. (P.S. a strong immune response isn’t the only health benefit of meditation.)
Quoted: “Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways,” Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, the study’s author from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a statement. “For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”
Quoted: “It’s really a litmus test for a world view right now,” said Christine Whelan, clinical professor at University of Wisconsin’s School of Human Ecology. “If you have been vaccinated, you trust in the science. You have sort of a proactive approach and you believe in public health and research.”
This diagnosis doesn’t mean I won’t be. There are outliers, as they’re called. People who live 10 years or more with stage 4. Mark Burkard at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center is studying them to see what they might have in common. So far, it’s too early to draw conclusions.
