Skip to main content

Category: Health

Healthy competition? Critics say consumers lose as providers build, bicker

Posted on
Capital Times

As president of the Madison-based health insurance buying pool The Alliance, Cheryl DeMars spends her days haggling with providers over the cost of services. It’s a tough job, given that health care spending continues to skyrocket.

“I understand the public sees what appears to be overbuilding but you need to look at each project on an individual basis,” says Jeff Grossman, president and CEO of the UW Medical Foundation, the clinical practice organization for faculty physicians in the UW-Madison?s School of Medicine and Public Health. Still, critics wonder how adding new buildings can do anything other than increase how much is spent on health care. And that?s a lot.

Dr. Lawrence Hansen: Cruel cat experiments unnecessary

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

I was invited by UW-Madison last year to participate in a series of lectures exploring the ethics of animal research. I made the case that the reality of experiments on animals is largely hidden from the public and that many would consider what routinely happens to cats, dogs and monkeys in labs to be torture. I explained that many current experiments on animals have a tenuous link to improving human health.

UW, GE Healthcare partner for new imaging research facility

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and GE Healthcare on Thursday announced a major partnership for creating a new imaging research facility. The aim of the project is to ultimately improve health care with better diagnostic tools, specifically imaging technology.

“This represents a remarkable opportunity to put UW-Madison at the very next cutting-edge frontier of diagnostic imaging and radiology research,” said Dr. Bob Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Dr. James Yahr: UW defense of cat experiments shocking

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: As a surgeon, a Wisconsin native and a UW-Madison Medical School alumnus, I was shocked and disappointed at UW?s dishonest attempt to defend the gruesome procedures conducted on unsuspecting cats in its labs by claiming they are the same as those performed on humans receiving implants to improve their hearing.

Speaker at biotech summit says pharmaceutical industry now has ‘flawed business model’

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Technology is changing the world, and the bioscience and health care industries are no exception, a biotechnology booster and venture capitalist told a conference in Madison on Wednesday. That means today?s biotechnology companies will have to find new ways to succeed, said G. Steven Burrill, a UW-Madison graduate and one of the featured speakers at the daylong 2012 Bioscience Vision Summit at Monona Terrace.

Some Physicians Plus members will have access to UW doctors next year, despite ruling

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Some Physicians Plus members will have some access to UW-Madison doctors next year, despite a judge?s ruling Thursday that the UW Medical Foundation?s threat to stop treating the members next year is legal. Mary Reinke, spokeswoman for Meriter Health Services, which owns Physicians Plus insurance, said Friday that access for about 97,000 Physicians Plus members is guaranteed next year.

Badgers football: SI cover story tells agonizing tale

Posted on
Madison.com

A quick cover-to-cover flip through the latest issue of Sports Illustrated produced two prominent references to the University of Wisconsin football team. One was a photo of Camp Randall Stadium in the Lineup section entitled “American Idyll.??It was taken during the season opener with Northern Iowa on Sept. 1. The other was in the Scorecard section where Dan Patrick interviewed former Badgers quarterback Russell Wilson, now the surprise rookie starter in Seattle. There was another UW reference in the magazine, but you had to dig fairly deep to find it. When you did, you couldn?t help but be saddened.

Judge drops Physicians Plus lawsuit against UW doctor group

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

A judge on Thursday dismissed a Physicians Plus lawsuit against a UW-Madison doctor group, saying the doctor group?s threat last year to stop treating Physicians Plus? 107,000 members next year isn?t illegal. With workplaces about to choose insurance plans for next year, the ruling could have a major impact in Dane County and surrounding areas. Negotiations between both parties are expected to continue.

Madison Politiscope: Tommy Thompson’s big-spending health care plan

Posted on
Capital Times

?As healthier persons opt out of the comprehensive coverage market, the segment with greater needs will put actuarial pressure on the rates for comprehensive coverage and quickly exceed the 150 percent threshold,? says professor Donna Friedsman, director of health policy programs at the UW Population Health Institute, of the likely outcome of the Thompson health care proposal.

Know Your Madisonian: Julianne Carbin works to increase acceptance of people with mental illnesses

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Looking back on her childhood, Julianne Carbin now recognizes that some of the people she was closest to probably struggled with mental illness but,”We never talked about it.” Now Carbin, 32, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Wisconsin, works to erase the shame and misunderstanding and advocate for funding and treatment for people with mental illnesses and their families.

Killer heat: beating a summer drought

Posted on
Daily Cardinal

Also unlike previous years, most buildings have air conditioning, which is the most important thing for people to have during a heat wave, according to Richard C. Keller, a medical history and bioethics professor at UW-Madison. Keller is currently compiling an account of the heat wave that spread across France and central Europe in 2003. An estimated 70,000 people in Europe ? 15,000 in France alone ? died in early August from temperatures reaching 104 degrees. There is no death toll for this summer?s heat wave in the United States. ?There wasn?t an epidemic of heat wave deaths this summer,? said Keller. ?There is much more air conditioning in the U.S. and it is more widespread.?

Seely on Science: Chemical agents wage war against bacteria

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Scratch the surface of just about any branch of science and you?ll find chemistry. Yet it remains in some ways the invisible science as its practitioners toil away ? too often unnoticed and underappreciated ? figuring out the chemical underpinnings of the natural world and chemical solutions to some of our thorniest problems.

On the UW-Madison campus, for example, chemistry is showing us a way to better understand and fight one of the most dangerous of the many bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. The bacterium is called Acinetobacter baumanni, or A. baumanni, and it proved a terror in front-line hospitals in Iraq, earning the nickname “Iraquibacter.” But in her laboratory at UW-Madison, chemist Helen Blackwell and her colleagues have spent a decade unlocking some of the chemical secrets of A. baumanni and may be on the verge of finding a new weapon against the stubborn pathogen. Chemistry, it turns out, underlies that bacterium’s ability to become deadly.

Official state bird is ‘super spreader’ of West Nile virus, researcher says

Posted on
Capital Times

The official state bird of Wisconsin is being called the primary culprit in spreading a deadly virus across the Northeast and Midwest. The American robin is being called the West Nile “super spreader,” based on research conducted by a team headed by UW-Madison infectious disease expert Tony Goldberg. “Robins are in the sweet spot,” Goldberg said in a news release from UW-Madison. “They are abundant, mosquitoes like to feed on them and they happen to support virus infection better than other species.”

UW Health clinic appears to be front-runner for Union Corners development

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

One of five proposals for developing Union Corners might have emerged as a front-runner, though not all proposals have been heard by a selection committee. Three of the five proposals for the vacant 11.4-acre site at the corner of East Washington Avenue and Milwaukee Street were presented to a selection committee Tuesday, while the other two will be presented Aug. 29.

Study: Binge drinking students report being happier

Posted on
WKOW-TV 27

MADISON (WKOW) — Some health experts are concerned about a study released Monday on binge drinking in college. Researchers from Colgate University say college students who binge drink report being happier than those who don?t. “Oh, the drinkers were happier? Wow,” says Tyler Mitchell, a former UW-Madison student. “Everything is so glamorized,” says Lee Stovall, another former UW-Madison student. “It?s hard to take a step back and say, ?Maybe I could be happier bowling for a night or something random.?”

“When we look at alcohol use, there is a lot about the institution, public or private, small or large, urban or rural, that really affects alcohol use patterns. This is one study at one university,” says Sarah Van Orman, UHS executive director.

Chris Rickert: Real pot preferable to new synthetic

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

“Bottom line: More bad reactions, more unpredictable reactions and far less known as compared to marijuana,” said UW-Madison physician and addictions specialist Richard Brown, summarizing data from the National Institutes of Health. Now, real marijuana doesn?t exactly come with a list of ingredients and growing methods, either. It?s just that it doesn?t help to outlaw one high of questionable origin if it results in another, even more questionable high.

Yoga, deep breathing used to address soldiers’ post-traumatic stress

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rich Low dreamed of Iraq long after he returned home from the war.

The memories haunted him when he was awake, too. About six months after his deployment, he was driving at night when a sudden burst of lightning snapped him back to Baghdad and the bomb that exploded near him during a thunderstorm. Low?s pulse raced as adrenaline surged through his body even though he was driving on a road far from any war zone.He didn?t know post-traumatic stress was affecting him.

Not until he took part in a University of Wisconsin-Madison study that taught Iraq and Afghanistan veterans yoga, meditation and breathing techniques to cope with PTSD.

Experts say this allergy season one of the longest

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. – Hang on to your tissues. Experts in Wisconsin said this allergy season will be one of the longest. Dr. Mark Moss at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health said the allergy season began about two to three weeks early. The mild winter and unseasonably warm spring temperatures caused trees to bud and bloom and release pollen and mold much earlier.

Seely on Science: Exploring the human side of nanotechnology

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

In today?s fast-moving technological world, some words can quickly lose their meaning. Take the word “nanotechnology,” for example. We see and hear it all the time. But, other than a vague sense that some pretty amazing things are being done with very small things, most of us don?t really have a handle on the promise of this science.

Exact Sciences expects to raise $50 million through additional stock offering

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Exact Sciences Corp. wants to raise $50 million to get its test for colon cancer ready to go to market, even though it will be more than a year before that happens, in the best of circumstances.

“Part of the thinking behind that decision has to be a reflection of their concerns about the general stock market overall,” said Brian Hellmer, director of the Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis at the UW-Madison School of Business.

Neuroscience: A quest for consciousness

Posted on
Nature

In the end, consciousness is all that matters. So writes Giulio Tononi, whose stunningly original scientific fantasy, Phi, is a distant echo of that great deduction by René Descartes. Tononi, a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and expert on sleep and consciousness, is also that rarest of modern scholars ? an idealist.

A Journey through the Human Brain with Giulio Tononi

Posted on
Public Radio International

The human brain and our consciousness: they have been mystical and exotic topics that many a scientist has tried again and again to understand. Neuroscientist Guilio Tononi, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, is one of those scientists.

School Spotlight: High school students study surgery

Posted on

Five high school students are spending six weeks this summer exploring the field of surgery, even practicing skills like suturing at the simulation center that opened last fall on the first floor of UW Hospital. The minority students are participating in a first-ever Clinical Research Experiences for High School Students made possible because the UW School of Medicine and Public Health was one of nine institutions nationwide to receive grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The foundation launched the program because minorities remain underrepresented in medical research careers and some of the participants may become the first in their families to attend college.

UW’s Thomson gets $2.2 million grant for drug research

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

A UW-Madison professor is set to receive a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health as part of a push to study drug safety. The NIH is giving up to $70 million over the next five years to research projects across the country that use “tissue chips” to predict how human cells will respond to some medications, according to a news release.

Training in meditation, exercise may reduce common cold, UW study finds

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Meditation or exercise may lower the rate, length and severity of the flu or common cold, according to preliminary findings of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Wisconsin. Whether, it?s frequent hand washing or covering the mouth when sneezing or coughing, preventing the common cold may not just be limited to these practices.

$6.6M in grants to 30 state groups geared to boost healthy living

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The Transform Wisconsin Coalition will distribute grants to 30 organizations for projects advocates say will encourage active lifestyles, healthy eating habits and smoke-free places to live. Their goal: Avoid higher health costs down the road from obesity and smoking. Tom Sieger, prevention director for University Health Services at UW-Madison, which oversees Transform Wisconsin, said the “return on investment” in funding preventive health initiatives is high. According to Sieger, $3 of every $4 spent on health care in Wisconsin goes toward treating chronic health problems, many of which are preventable. “We can realize tremendous health care savings in this state,” he said.

Editorial: Root for important research

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

It?s exciting to see stem cell pioneer James Thomson attracting millions of more dollars to Wisconsin for exciting research. Yes, the famed scientist and so many of his talented colleagues in the public and private sectors still call Madison their home ? something we should all be proud of and thankful for. Thomson?s lab just landed a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help speed the discovery of drugs and improve their safety for humans.

The State Journal reported in April that Madison’s stem cell enterprise may not be as big as those in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco and other big cities on the coasts. Yet Madison likely has more people per capita working in the field ? and a drive to stay on top. Let’s root for this important sector of our economy that’s increasingly important in saving, improving and extending lives.

Richard E. Rieselbach, Patrick L. Remington, Patrick E. McBride, and John G. Frohna: Talk with your primary care physician about health care reform

Posted on
Capital Times

The ACA is far from perfect, but by extending coverage to an estimated 93 percent of all legal U.S. residents, it is a major step forward in providing affordable coverage to nearly all Americans. It is the first U.S. law to attempt comprehensive reform touching nearly every aspect of our health system. The law addresses far more than coverage, including health system quality and efficiency, prevention and wellness, the health care work force, fraud and abuse, long-term care, biopharmaceuticals, elder abuse and neglect, and many other issues. Most physicians recognize that the road ahead will require congressional Democrats and Republicans to collaborate and modify some ACA elements, as is required after any major law.

No magic pill for improving health care

Posted on

Dr. Robert Nesse was one of several panelists who spoke Friday at an event in La Crosse organized by the Wisconsin Idea Scholars Program, a group recruited by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study the root of state issues and possible solutions.

Exercise, meditation can help prevent cold, flu symptoms, according to study

Posted on
New York Daily News

People who are prone to colds and flu can find relief with a regular program of exercise or meditation, a new study suggests. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers looked at 149 active and sedentary middle-aged adults to compare the preventive effects of moderate exercise and mindful meditation on the severity of colds and flu during winter.

UW Hospital named top hospital in the state

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

Madison has the state of Wisconsin?s top hospital, according to a new study released by US News and World Report.

In its first ranking of hospitals by state, the magazine named UW Hospital and Clinics as the state?s top hospital, and among the nation?s top hospitals in seven specialties.

UW Hospital ranked tops in Wisconsin

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

UW Hospital is the top hospital in Wisconsin and among the nation?s top 50 hospitals in seven medical specialties, according to U.S. News and World Report?s latest ranking, released Tuesday.

Tech and Biotech: Asthmapolis device cleared for market

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Asthmapolis is all fired up after getting clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early July to market its high-tech asthma-tracking device. ?It?s very, very exciting. There?s a super-positive, wonderful energy around the office every day,? said Inger Couture, chief regulatory officer. The young company, established in 2010 based on the work of co-founder David Van Sickle, an asthma epidemiologist and honorary associate fellow at the UW-Madison, already has moved to bigger quarters at 612 W. Main St. from its previous offices at 3 S. Pinckney St.

Physicians Plus to shift outpatient services from UW Hospital to Meriter

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Physicians Plus will save up to $30 million a year by shifting much of its UW Hospital outpatient services to Meriter Hospital, the health insurance company?s president said last week. About 9,000 health plan members who have primary care doctors at clinics owned by UW Hospital will have to switch to Meriter network doctors, Linda Hoff said. Some members who see UW Hospital specialists also will be told to go to Meriter, Hoff said.

UW study: Exercise, meditation can help prevent cold and flu

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Meditation and exercise can reduce the incidence, duration and severity of colds and the flu by about 30 percent to 60 percent, according to a UW-Madison study. A larger version of the study will start at the university this fall. If the benefits of meditation and exercise are confirmed, “this could be more powerful than flu shots,” said Dr. Bruce Barrett, a UW Health family physician heading up the research.