Column: The $386 million Wisconsin Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future shouldn’t be considered secret.
Kevin Wymore: UW’s $386M health fund shouldn’t be secret
Wisconsin State Journal
Category: Health
Is a vaping-linked lung illness a public health crisis? That depends on who you ask
PBS News Hour
Quoted: Communication scholar Dietram Scheufele at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that at any point in time, roughly five issues tend to dominate a person’s memory. A constantly shuffling set of concerns struggle endlessly for one’s attention.
Adjustable Desks: Health Benefit Or Hype?
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor Robert Radwin studies workplace ergonomics. He was not involved in the University of Pittsburg study but he instructs students on the qualities of sit-stand desks which he feels have gotten a lot of hype. He does not have one.
“I think they have their place. If people suffer from discomfort from sitting at their desk and they feel standing is beneficial, then such a desk might be helpful but you should be careful not to expect that a sit-stand desk is going to make sedentary work much healthier than if you just got out and exercised,” Radwin said.
UW campuses not spared from e-cigarette trend with some reporting vaping symptoms
Wisconsin State Journal
Most University of Wisconsin System campuses ban e-cigarettes in and near campus buildings, but university officials say enforcement of anti-smoking policies is relatively lax.
Know Your Madisonian: Medicine remains retired surgeon’s passion
Wisconsin State Journal
The former Dean Clinic cardiothoracic surgeon stopped seeing patients in 2004 but refocused his passion for medicine to teaching ensuing generations of physicians at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
UW sports analytics, bracketology and solving the opioid crisis
Bucky's 5th Quarter
Noted: According to the UW-Madison College of Engineering website, Albert researches “modeling and solving real-world discrete optimization problems with application to homeland security, disasters, emergency response, public services, and healthcare.”
The research on emergency response, for example, focuses on how to match the right resources with the right needs at the right time. In one aspect of this research, Albert looks at how to get the right mix of vehicles to an emergency.
OB-GYN rural residency program expanding
WKOW-TV 27
The only rural OB-GYN residency program in the nation is expanding. The program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will add Western Wisconsin Health to the rotation.
A Wisconsin initiative raises mental health awareness, one bandana at a time
Big Ten Network
Across the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, simple, yet powerful symbols of hope and help can be found. They’re in dining halls and dorms, classrooms and labs, sports facilities and student unions.
Scientists create an advanced hat that could reverse balding
CEO Magazine
It’s a commonly known fact that by the age of thirty-five, two-thirds of men will experience some form of balding. That figure only increases as males age and hair thinning progressively increases.
China’s ‘awkward silence’ as lack of family planning slogans from 70th anniversary parade could signal policy shift
South China Morning Post
Quoted: “Family planning was an achievement for the People’s Republic at its 60th anniversary, there was an awkward silence at the 70th anniversary,” said Yi Fuxian, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a long-standing critic of China’s birth restrictions.
Medical College Of Wisconsin Looking At Cancer Disparities In Hispanics
Wisconsin Public Radio
Maureen Smith is a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She along with other members of the school developed a report to show health care disparities in Wisconsin. They gathered information from 25 different health systems across the state.
Rates of Autism and ADHD Are Increasing Significantly for U.S. Kids
24/7 Wall St
Quoted: It isn’t clear whether the greater prevalence of reported ADHD and ASD cases is necessarily a bad thing. According to Maureen Durkin, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, in an editorial appearing accompanying the study in Pediatrics, greater awareness of the disorders and better diagnosis might be largely responsible for the higher numbers.
Apparent new rise in autism may not reflect true prevalence
Spectrum News
Diagnoses of those two conditions increase with maternal education, points out Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Durkin was not involved in the study but wrote an editorial accompanying the work3.
Doctor shares healthy, effective ways to grieve
WISC-TV 3
UW Health Psychologist Shilagh Mirgain shares healthy and effective ways to grieve, whether it’s the loss of a job, a loved one or dealing with a serious illness.
ESTHER CEPEDA: Why your children’s school lunches matter
Daily Freeman
Noted: Last week I was primed for a conversation with Jennifer Gaddis, the author of “The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools.” I had just eaten a lukewarm cheeseburger (the cheese was totally unmelted) and then moved on to the accompanying banana, since I couldn’t stomach the wilted iceberg lettuce that was called “salad” or the soggy, undercooked fries that came with the “meal.”
But the public-school culinary experience isn’t what makes Gaddis’ new book important. It is required reading for anyone who wants this part of our students’ school day to be nourishing — not only for the kids, but for the women who feed them.
“So much of the work of feeding children is gendered — the majority of workers in food service, especially frontline food service, are women,” Gaddis told me. “Whether it’s happening at school or in the homes of the millions of students who take lunch from home to school, feeding students is typically done by women.”
Why Vaping Became A Public Health Priority In Wisconsin, The US
Wiscontext
“In Wisconsin today, 19 individuals will die of a disease directly caused by smoking cigarettes,” said Dr. Michael Fiore, who directs the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, in a Sept. 17, 2019 interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time.
UHS offers free flu shots starting Thursday
Daily Cardinal
“My concerns for students is that those that would get influenza will be probably so sick they will have difficulties certainly getting into class for a week or so,” UHS Director Bill Kinsey said. “And considering a semester is only 15 weeks, missing a week or more of school is a problem.”
Transgender surgery, now more accessible in Wisconsin, lets patients ‘become whole’
Wisconsin State Journal
Dr. Katherine Gast became the first surgeon in recent memory at UW Hospital, and in the state, to offer the full range of transgender surgeries when she came to Madison in August 2017.
Labor of Lunch Discussed on America’s Work Force
America's Work Force
Jennifer Gaddis, assistant professor at UW-Madison and author of The Labor of Lunch spoke with America’s Work Force on Sept. 17 about getting better school lunches in schools.
The Labor of Lunch
Heritage Radio Network
Noted: Author Jennifer Gaddis discusses her new book about The National School Lunch Program.
Fresh data documents the impact that race and income have on health of Wisconsin residents
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: The report was described as an enhancement of the nationwide County Health Rankings & Roadmaps compiled through a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Racial disparities found among Wisconsin patients in medical systems report
Wisconsin State Journal
“Tackling the disparities should not only include focused efforts but should also include systemic efforts that get at root causes such as social determinants of health — poverty, housing, environment, transportation,” said Dr. Maureen Smith, director of UW-Madison’s Health Innovation Program, which helped produce the report.
The key to curing the common cold could lurk within our own cells
Popular Science
Quoted: This discovery, like most, raises at least as many questions as it answers. “It’s a beautiful piece of science,” says Ann C. Palmenberg, a University of Wisconsin, Madison biochemist and enterovirus expert who was not involved with the research. But “don’t throw away your chicken soup just yet,” she says
Study Links Climate Change To At Least $10B In Health Costs In 2012
Wisconsin Public Radio
“Which aligns with our understanding that younger and older folks are particularly vulnerable to the health harms posed by climate change,” said Limaye, who holds a doctorate in environmental epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Know Your Madisonian: UW Health Anxiety Disorders director is ‘child whisperer’
Wisconsin State Journal
Slattery, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, serves as director of the UW Anxiety Disorders program, which she established 15 years ago. The program helps people of all ages with anxiety, but the Wisconsin native specializes in working with children and adolescents.
Telehealth program boosts diabetic eye screening
WISC-TV 3
Patients at Mile Bluff Center in Mauston can walk in and have a retinal photograph taken in a matter of minutes. Dr. Yao Liu is an assistant professor of opthalmology at the UW School of Medicine.
Mental Health Task Force report proposes changes to UHS
Badger Herald
The task force recommended UHS hire more providers, increase space at the clinic, improve accessibility, provide resources to prevent staff burnout, and evaluate data around student mental health and then adjust services accordingly.
What Does Magnesium Actually Do for You?
Outside Online
Magnesium is abundant in the body. Hundreds of biological processes, including the creation of new proteins, energy production in cells, and DNA synthesis, depend on it, explains Colin MacDiarmid, a senior nutrition scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Telehealth program boosts diabetic eye screening
WISC-TV 3
Patients at Mile Bluff Center in Mauston can walk in and have a retinal photograph taken in a matter of minutes. Dr. Yao Liu is an assistant professor of opthalmology at the UW School of Medicine.
UW, American Lung Association professionals discuss measures reducing e-cigarette usage
Badger Herald
According to the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention website, electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices are battery-powered products designed to deliver nicotine, flavor and other chemicals to users. They turn chemicals, including nicotine, into an aerosol that is then inhaled by the user.
Can Vape Pens Cause Lung Disease? Symptoms, Deaths Reported
Bloomberg News
Quoted: The lung illness “gets worse really quickly,” said Jeffrey Kanne, a radiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has had patients. On scans, “these are like what you see with acute lung injuries,” such as inhaling toxic substances in an industrial accident.
UW must train more in-state doctors — John Gillis
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: The State Journal’s August 31 article, “White coats mark special entry”, noted that 71% of the class at the UW School of Medicine hailed from Wisconsin. If the administration of UW-Madison cared about meeting the state’s medical workforce needs, the percentage would have been over 90%.
Dr Miriam Stoppard: A simple blood test could replace use of cameras when colon cancer is suspected
Mirror Online
But now a study has found most small polyps detected during screening will never become cancerous and treating them is unnecessary. Taking a new tack, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have come up with four markers for the pre-cancerous forms of colon cancer most likely to develop into the disease.
ASM hears update on Nicholas Recreation Center construction
Badger Herald
Associate Director of Strategic Engagement and Wellbeing Alex Pierce said University Recreation and Wellbeing will focus on two main aspects for the new semester: providing support for students’ mental health, as well as food and nutrition education.
50,000 unvaccinated children head to Wisconsin schools as the U.S. copes with worst measles outbreak in 27 years
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “I would not be surprised at all if I woke up tomorrow to hear that the measles outbreak had reached Wisconsin. Not surprised at all,” said Malia Jones, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory.
“I would say that if a child was given the facts themselves and told what these diseases would be like to go through, they would choose to be given something that would not make them have to go through that disease,” said James H. Conway, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Shiva Bidar to Moderate Panel on Standing Together Across Ethnic Lines
Madison 365
Another BIG announcement from the Wisconsin Leadership Summit: Madison Common Council president Shiva Bidar will moderate the panel titled “Together We Stand: Building Community Across Ethnic Lines.”
In her role as the first Chief Diversity Officer for UW Health, Shiva provides vision, coordination and strategic leadership for the design and implementation of UW Health’s initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Digestive problems may respond to diet changes
Consumer Reports
Although chronic digestive disruptions warrant a doctor’s attention, “generally about 80 percent of patients will benefit from doing some sort of diet intervention,” says Melissa Phillips, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin Health System’s Digestive Health Center.
White coat carries cachet for future docs, including one who lives on the cutting edge
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health holds its “white coat ceremony” each year, welcoming the incoming class of medical students and presenting them with a hip-length, cotton white coat.
What Meditation Does To Your Brain When You’re Annoyed, According To Experts
Bustle
“We begin to see stabilization of changes in the brain after 1,000 to 1,500 hours of meditation practice,” Dr. Richard Davidson, PhD, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, tells Bustle. “You can think of it as learning a musical instrument; if you got 24 hours of training in playing the violin, you still wouldn’t be very good at playing it.”
Hot Toddy: Can This Home Remedy Really Cure Your Cold?
Men's Health
Hot liquids help move mucus and germs out of your system. They “increase the mucociliary clearance rate,” explains Bruce Barrett, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Basically, it helps your body sweep mucus and germs out of your body.
Should You Let Your Kid Play Football? Experts Weigh In
Parents
Quoted: Despite the publicity of CTE, doctors cannot predict whether a child will have it later on, says Julie Stamm, Ph.D., LAT, ATC, who researched the issue at the Boston University CTE Center. “We do not understand why one person gets it and the other does not get it,” adds Dr. Stamm, also a clinical assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Want to live longer? Be an optimist, study says
CNN.com
Quoted: “Optimism is one important psychological dimension that has emerged as showing some really interesting associations with health,” said neuroscientist Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds.
“And I would add other positive attributes, such as mindfulness, compassion, kindness, and having a strong sense of purpose in life,” Davidson added.
Psychologist: Back-To-School Jitters Are Common. But Talk To Your Kids About Them
Wisconsin Public Radio
New pencils, notebooks and backpacks may be on the checklist as the summer winds down and kids gear up for a new school year, but Dr. Shilagh Mirgain says it’s also an important time of year to check in with kids on how they’re feeling about heading back to school.
“We spend a lot of time preparing our kids for school by buying them school supplies or back-to-school clothes, but our families should equally spend time preparing kids mentally for the start of the school year and pre-school jitters and anxiety,” said Mirgain, a clinical psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
AIQ Solutions of Madison raises $3.2 million for cancer treatment assessment software
Wisconsin State Journal
A Madison company that makes software approved to gauge treatment response in breast and prostate cancer patients plans to submit a second product, for blood cancers, for approval by early next year.
AIQ Solutions, which is based on technology developed at UW Carbone Cancer Center, raised $3.2 million in equity financing, the company announced this month. Capital Midwest Fund led the round, which also involved Rock River Capital Partners, 30Ventures and Wisconsin Investment Partners.
The hardest two words: ‘forgive me’: An expert in ‘forgiveness science’ explains why it’s essential for mental health
MercatorNet
Written by Robert Enright, a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Board Member of the International Forgiveness Institute, Inc.
Know Your Madisonian: Singing nurse meets patients where they are emotionally
Wisconsin State Journal
Bridget Ravis grew up in Richland Center, where she spent her summers performing musical theater with the Community Players of Southwest Wisconsin. Now the 26-year-old UW Hospital nurse finds herself singing to patients if she discovers they share her passion for show tunes, and if she feels it might brighten their day.
UW Med Flight shows off new base in Portage
WKOW-TV 27
Med Flight officials say the new base gives them a big advantage to get to people north of Madison.
Wisconsin Sees Drop In Opioid Deaths
Wisconsin Public Radio
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine also oversees a statewide network where peer counselors in emergency rooms around the state urge overdose patients to consider treatment. Since 2017, the ED2 Recovery program has discussed treatment with 559 individuals; most were willing to try efforts to break their addiction; 4 percent were not.
Bone Marrow Transplants
Wisconsin Public Radio
Interview with Dr. Mark Juckett.
Meet the Author: Transplant surgeon Joshua Mezrich on new book How Death Becomes Life
The Sunday Post
American transplant surgeon Joshua Mezrich is a fun guy with a love of all things British. His disarming humour belies his gruelling work, creating life from loss. The 48-year-old, who is based at the University of Wisconsin, confesses to growing up on a diet of M*A*S*H and dinnertime tales from the ER, told by his engineer dad, who was training to become a doctor.
State Health Officials Confirm New Cases Of Vaping-Related Lung Disease | Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin Public Radio
Doug Jorenby, the director of clinical cervices for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Tobacco Research, says the cases are unusual and it might be difficult to find out what products the patients used.
UW Study Indicates Brain Bounces Back After Anesthesia
Wisconsin Public Radio
General anesthesia allows those having surgery not to feel pain or remember what occurred on the operating table. Both functions are controlled by the brain so no matter what part of the body is being operated on, the brain also is affected. To what degree has been unclear. Past studies have had mixed results.
How Exercise Lowers the Risk of Alzheimer’s by Changing Your Brain
Time
Noted: To find out, for nearly a decade, Ozioma Okonkwo, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and his colleagues have studied a unique group of middle-aged people at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Through a series of studies, the team has been building knowledge about which biological processes seem to change with exercise. Okonkwo’s latest findings show that improvements in aerobic fitness mitigated one of the physiological brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s: the slowing down of how neurons breakdown glucose. The research, which has not been published yet, was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association on Aug. 9.
Can Major Surgeries Cause a Long-Term ‘Brain Drain’?
Health Day
“Our data suggest that, on average, major surgery is associated with only a small cognitive ’hit,’ and while there was a doubling in the risk of substantial cognitive decline, this only affected a small number of patients,” said senior study author Dr. Robert Sanders. He’s an assistant professor in the department of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
UW study: Major surgery’s impact on brain is smaller than feared
Wisconsin State Journal
Robert Sanders, UW assistant professor of anesthesiology, said on average people’s cognition is “pretty much the same” after a major operation as compared to before, according to a study he authored that was recently published in the British Medical Journal.
Major surgeries linked to small decline in mental functioning in older age
Reuters
“Our data suggest that, on average, major surgery is associated with only a small cognitive ‘hit,’” said Dr. Robert Sanders, an assistant professor in the department of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the study’s senior author.
UW Program launches first US cell-therapy trial for kidney transplant patients
NBC-15
The UW Program for Advanced Cell Therapy (PACT) will use the treatment to study its effects on a viral infection faced by around 30-40% of kidney and/or pancreas transplant recipients.
The Talk Seniors Need To Have With Doctors Before Surgery
WGCU News
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Margaret Schwarze, an associate professor of vascular surgery, has developed a tool called “best case/worst case” to help surgeons communicate more effectively with older patients.
‘Time lost is brain lost’: Stroke patients face dangerous delays in receiving critical surgery.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Azam Ahmed, a thrombectomy specialist at the University of WisconsinHospital, said delays in stroke treatment are widespread because hospital systems are not cooperating with each other. If a doctor in one system refers a patient to another system, that system might miss out on revenue that could come from the patient’s care.
“Sometimes the best care isn’t being provided — knowingly,” Ahmed said. “It sounds unpalatable to say hospitals are competing for patients but the fact of the matter is they are.”
UW Hospitals ranks in national top 20 list
NBC-15
UW Health officials said the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics are among the 20 most highly ranked hospitals in the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals rankings.