Caregivers of cancer patients are just as likely to be depressed as the cancer patients themselves, but a new study finds that they’re less likely to seek treatment. We talk with a researcher about the study and what we can do to take better care of caregivers. Interview with Kristin Litzelman from the School of Human Ecology.
Category: Health
SSFC recommends Blank make emergency contraception more affordable, accessible
Blank will hear committee’s proposals on March 23.
UW-Madison SSFC representatives consider contraception changes, but Big Ten schools have mixed policies
While UW-Madison student finance committee representatives deliberate over a recommendation to offer new types of free emergency contraceptives to survivors of sexual assault, other Big Ten universities are varied in their policies concerning the matter.
U.S. News withdraws UW Health’s pediatric urology ranking
U.S. News and World Report has stripped UW Health’s American Family Children’s Hospital of its No. 23 ranking in pediatric urology last year after the hospital acknowledged treating fewer patients than it reported.
Here’s why it’s so hard to make a better flu vaccine
One vaccine in the works makes use of one of the less-changeable parts of the flu virus called M2. The ReDee vaccine made by FluGen, a spinoff from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is not meant to be a completely universal vaccine, but might protect better against a range of flu strains.
Researchers look into drug that may improve prognosis for dense breast tissue
Dr. Karla Esbona, from the UW Carbone Cancer Center, talks about a new research study that looks at an FDA approved drug that may improve the prognosis for patients with dense breast tissue.
Eat like an Olympian
Quoted: “They have to really account for thinking about it to a much higher level,” said Director of Performance Nutrition for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nick Aures.
UW Health showcases Erin Davisson’s life-changing event
Erin Davisson is one of the signature faces of Local 5, but what you might not know is that her life was saved thanks to an organ donor. A very special thank you goes to UW Health for sharing this feature story with Local 5.
Aurora Health Care hopes to curb opioid epidemic with coaching in Sheboygan, Two Rivers
The program started on Dec. 17 and Kuhn says it has already helped a handful of individuals in both locations.
Aurora Health Care stated in the press release that the program was made possible by a grant from the Wisconsin Voices for Recovery (WIVFR) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Continuing Studies. The grant is for two years.
UW Hospital uses multi-victim trauma response after massive car
A 29-car pileup along Highway 151 in Verona on Monday morning left a chaotic scene out on the street as doctors inside UW Hospital’s emergency department quickly worked as they expected dozens of victims.
Bracelet could boost weak hands after a stroke
A study of ten patients led by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which developed the device, showed that applying the vibrations at the wrist instantly increased touch sensation.
High cancer-related expenses take a toll on quality of life
“When cancer patients spend more on their cancer treatment and other health care, they have less to spend on activities they enjoy and other needs, which can negatively affect their well-being,” said coauthor Joohyun Park, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy.“It turns out that financial burden is directly related to health and well-being,” Park told Reuters Health by email. “The more a cancer patient spends on health care, the worse the quality of life and mental health.”
Recovery coaches added at UW Hospital
An effort bringing help to overdose survivors before they leave the hospital is expanding to UW Hospital in Madison. It’s a program already in place at other hospitals in the state. Tonya Kraege is program coordinator and recovery coach manager for Safe Communities, which is working with UW Hospital.
UW Carbone Cancer Center releases study showing untreated depression in spouses of patients
The study found that spouses of cancer patients who experience depression are 33 percent less likely to obtain treatment for depression than people battling depression whose spouses do not have cancer.
‘Reminiscence Rooms’ offer alternative to drugs for people living with memory loss
The Alliance is partnering with the U-W’s School of Nursing to create these rooms locally. They hope to have them completed by March and implement them by 2018.
Manitowoc opioid epidemic: Aurora ER offers recovery coaches for addicts
The program is funded through a grant from the Wisconsin Voices for Recovery and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, which focuses on helping communities in the battle against opioid abuse across the state.
How to close the female orgasm gap
This silence has real consequences. Almost 30% of college-age women can’t identify their clitoris on an anatomy test, according to a study from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UHS prepares for May expansion to accommodate more space for mental health services
Students who go to University Health Services to visit mental health providers and participate in group therapy sessions can look forward to an increase in rooms.
UW Health Program Lowers Opioid Prescribing With Coaching
University of Wisconsin researchers are hoping to expand a program that involves coaching primary care doctors to follow opioid prescribing guidelines as part of the fight against the state’s opioid epidemic.
Wisconsin’s Place In The Backbone Of U.S. Flu Surveillance
As Wisconsinites push through a hard flu season, public-health officials are following a distinct mix of influenza strains and worrying about the effectiveness of this year’s vaccines, but they’re also thinking a lot about an intricate disease-tracking network that’s been built up over time.
UW Health opens clinic for lupus
UW Health is bringing social workers, pharmacists and doctors together in a new clinic for lupus, an autoimmune disease that often strikes women at childbearing age.
Coaching reduces opioid prescribing at UW Health clinics
Opioid doses dropped 11 percent at UW Health clinics that paid special attention to urine drug testing and other monitoring of patients, while doses went up 8 percent at other UW clinics, a new study found.
Vitamin D May Help Ease Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Quoted: Dr. Arnold Wald, a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Wisconsin, is one of many who regularly request tests of patients’ vitamin D levels. “I do check vitamin D deficiency in many of my GI patients and I’m often rewarded by finding it,” he told Healthline. “It’s very inexpensive to order and very inexpensive to treat.”
UW Health opens clinic for lupus, which often strikes young women
UW Health is bringing social workers, pharmacists and doctors together in a new clinic for lupus, an autoimmune disease that often strikes women at childbearing age.
Scientists are now rushing to develop a universal flu vaccine
Noted: A different approach to the universal vaccine is under way at FluGen, a biotech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Backed by both government and VC funding, the company is working with technology first discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Dr. Gabriele Neumann and exclusively licensed to FluGen.
Student organizations partner with nonprofit to promote women’s health access
A local nonprofit clinic that provides uninsured women with free gynecological care has seen a significant increase in the number of patient referrals since it opened in 2014 — and student organizations at UW-Madison are helping them fund the effort.
A Push To Get Older Adults In Better Shape For Surgery
The Patient Preferences Project at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has developed and is testing a list of useful questions for older patients. Even if your local hospital doesn’t have a program like those at Duke, Michigan Medicine or UCSF, you can ask your surgeon to address these questions.
UHS resurrects two decades of missing student death data
For the past 20 years, University Health Services at UW-Madison recorded the total number of students that died each year. This amounts to 192 total students from April 1998 to 2017, 56 of whom died in the last five years.
UHS extends flu vaccination deadline due to particularly bad strain
University Health Services has extended the deadline for students to receive free flu vaccinations after a “particularly bad” strain of flu appeared on campus.
Living donors help UW Hospital set liver transplant record
Dr. Luis Fernandez, UW’s surgical director of liver transplants, said the hospital expanded its living liver donor program in recent years to help patients who may not be able to get deceased donor transplants quickly enough to save their lives.
Wisconsin man struggles with effects of football injuries
Noted: Ann McKee, an Appleton native who got her undergraduate degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been on the forefront of the research, noticing the degradation of a boxer’s brain years ago, she said. She was fascinated by the patterns of CTE, and how it affected brains.
A California City’s Plan to Turn Indebted Millennials Into Local Doctors
Riverside’s death rates from cancer, liver disease, and heart disease are well above the state average, for example. In 2016, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked each California county by overall health outcomes, and pegged Riverside at 40th out of 57. (Fellow Inland Empire counties San Bernardino and Imperial counties fared even worse.)
Man banks kidney for longtime friend through kidney exchange
A program at UW Hospital is helping patients move up on the list quicker.
UW-Madison Program Places Med Students in Milwaukee’s Underserved Communities
Since its creation dozens of students have gone through the program, and all of them have selected residencies in urban areas. Milwaukee currently has up to 50 TRIUMPH students a year practicing medicine within its underserved communities.
UW plans to track student deaths to help save lives
Health officials at UW-Madison say they don’t know how about a third of students who died while going to school there actually died.
Hunter tree stand falls likely to cause spinal fractures, UW study says
More than half of hunters treated for falls from tree stands at UW Hospital suffered one or more spinal fractures, including at least five who had paralyzing injuries, a new study says.
UW study combines pill, patch to help smokers quit
Up to 1,000 smokers from the Madison and Milwaukee areas are being sought for a study of whether using a pill and a patch together, or taking the pill twice as long as usual, makes it easier for people to quit smoking.
The Big Squeeze: More juice bars in Madison mean more ways to cleanse
Noted: Sarah Van Riet, a dietician at UW Health, sees no long-term benefits to doing a juice cleanse. Neither she nor Kohls would recommend it to patients, though they understand the appeal of a quick fix.
UW wins $7 million grant to study ways to improve the odds of quitting smoking
Four years ago, Inda Lampkins, a 42-year-old Milwaukee mother diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, took one of the most difficult and most important steps to improve her health. She quit smoking.
UW Program Recognizes Community Health
Wisconsin Healthy Communities Designation will be recognizing communities across the state for their work to improve health. There are gold-, silver-, and bronze-level designations available, each with different criteria.
UW oncologist discusses book, ‘Cancer: What you need to know’
Oncologist at UW-Madison Dr. Stephen Rosenberg is doing something to try to help ease some of the concerns that patients have when they’re diagnosed.
Gun deaths by suicide above national average in older white males in rural areas
Wausau,Wis.(WSAW)– While gun deaths continue to rise in Wisconsin a new Study by researchers at UW Madison show nearly three of four gun deaths are suicide by white men ages 45 and older in rural parts of the state.
Wisconsin starts Healthy Communities designation
The Wisconsin Healthy Communities Designation, launched by the UW Population Health Institute, plans to gather letters of interest through the end of January, accept applications in the spring and announce its first designations in the summer.
No proof Zika causes microcephaly, UW-Madison study says
There isn’t enough evidence to claim that Zika virus causes abnormally small heads in babies of infected mothers, according to a UW-Madison study that challenges government findings.
Madison man’s death from epilepsy highlights need for research
Events, including Lily’s Luaus held each January since 2009, have raised more than $1.2 million. About $450,000 has been given out in grants and fellowships. Another $100,000 grant will be awarded at the next Lily’s Luau, scheduled for Jan. 20 at UW-Madison’s Union South.
UW medical school funds eight organizations dedicated to improving public health
New grant program invests nearly $400,000 in innovative community health solutions.
UW, VA study looks at fish oil to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
Now, a study at UW Health and the Madison’s Veterans Hospital is seeing if veterans with a parental history of Alzheimer’s might be helped by a high-dose, prescription variety of a common supplement: fish oil.
Stressed Out, Anxious or Sad? Try Meditating
Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman—well-known for his 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence”—spent almost two years combing through more than 6,000 academic studies on meditation with a team of researchers to sort through the hype and discover the real benefits. He wrote about his findings in a new book, “Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body,” which he co-authored with Richard J. Davidson, a neuroscientist who directs a brain lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Pain procedures can be alternatives to opioids, UW studies say
A variety of powerful drugs, including opioids, didn’t help. At UW Health, a doctor used an electric probe to burn a nerve in her forehead, blocking the nerve’s pain signals.
UW Health to reduce $80M in expenses
UW Health announced plans on Thursday to cut jobs in order to reduce millions of dollars in expenses.
UW Health to cut jobs, reduce $80M in expenses
A major Madison-area health provider plans to cut jobs and other areas to reduce millions of dollars in expenses, the company said Thursday.
Why Current Patient-Doctor E-Communication Guidelines are Not Good Enough: One Researcher Speaks Out
Noted: Researchers from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently stated in a paper that although there are plenty of frequently suggested benefits of “e-visits” and of electronic communication between providers and patients, such as enabling providers to give patients a low-cost alternative to visiting the doctor’s office, there could also be unintended consequences involved.
The Unspoken Health Effects of the Republican Tax Bill
Barbara Wolfe, a professor of population-health sciences at the University of Wisconsin, explained to me that this is what economists call an income-inequality hypothesis: Your health is influenced not only by your own level of income, but by the level of inequality where you live. Sociologists have described a similar socioeconomic-inequality hypothesis: As socioeconomic disparities grow, overall health metrics decline.
UW Health to cut $80 million from budget
UW Health plans to cut $80 million or find equivalent new revenue in its $3 billion annual budget over 18 months, a move expected to include a workforce reduction of at least 225 full-time positions, Dr. Alan Kaplan, CEO, said Thursday.
Kristin Meurrenns: UW Hospital’s work helps patients with rare, painful disease
Patients from all over the United States are now looking to UW Hospital and are grateful for the hope and a cure from this disabling illness.
Depression Gender Gap – Why Women Are More Depressed Than Men
Dr. Rachel Salk, along with researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that adolescent women receive depression diagnoses about three times as often as young men do. This gap narrows in the 20s and 30s, but women are labeled “clinically depressed” at nearly twice the rate of their male counterparts.
UW Health Planning $80M In Cuts
UW Health is seeking to cut $80 million over the next 18 months to help cope with sharp cost increases and declining revenue growth, according to a statement the health system released Thursday.
The Potential Risks Of Consumer Genetic Testing Services
Recent advancements in the field of genetic testing have led to accurate predicting of risk of diseases and genetic abnormalities, as well as helping to map out our personal genealogy and ancestry. But are there risks associated with giving away our personal genetic information? Interviewed it Jason Fletcher is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs with appointments in Sociology, Applied Economics and Population Health Sciences.
Bill puts UW’s ob-gyn program at risk
If you are a woman living in Wisconsin, you probably don’t think much about how your obstetrics/gynecology physician was trained; you just expect that he or she has completed a rigorous educational program in med school and then in residency training.
UW surgeon moonlights as Hollywood medical adviser
The medical story lines share a Madison connection: Dr. Jonathan Kohler, a pediatric surgeon at UW Health, who works on the side as a medical adviser for Hollywood.