Gaining legitimacy on an international level, three University of Wisconsin institutions received accreditation status in the area of animal research programs following controversial ratings at a check-in last year.
Three finalists for director of Public Health Madison and Dane County were scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday by Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, said Travis Myren, director of administration for the county. A committee of the Board of Health interviewed seven candidates Friday and Monday and chose the finalists. Among them is Muriel Nagle, a staff director for UW-Madison’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. She previously was director of community health for Madison and Dane County.
….My mother?s ordeal reminded me again that more health care does not necessarily mean better health. ?It may in fact lead to worse outcomes in that an ever-expanding supply of specialists and tertiary services can lead to excessive testing and procedures that are not necessary, are duplicative, and are costly,? said Donna Friedsam, the health policy programs director at the UW Population Health Institute. It?s that last unintended side effect that bothers me most ? the extent to which the human body has become a sort of raw material for economic development.
Doctors disciplined by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health faced fines and suspension from leadership positions for writing sick notes to protestors in last February?s collective bargaining demonstrations, according to records obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal last Thursday.
Dear Editor: Shame on you, alma mater, shame! Fines of up to $4,000 for faculty who wrote excuses for our ongoing protests ? indeed, UW-Madison! Loss of leadership positions! This is what a friend of mine used to call ?a fearful willowing and shifting!?
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s soon-to-be-expanded School of Nursing will be graduating 130 nurses per year, with additional students in clinical doctoral training programs and 29 seeking their doctorates. The physician assistant program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health is also in the process of expanding in response to the growing need of providers. Also mentions UW-Madison programs to train urban and rural doctors.
[A column by Richard E. Rieselbach, M.D., is professor emeritus of medicine; Byron J. Crouse, M.D., is professor of family medicine, associate dean of rural and community health and director of the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine; John G. Frohna, M.D., MPH, is associate professor of pediatrics and medicine and pediatric residency program director at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health; Barbara J. Bowers, PhD, is professor and associate dean for research at the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing.]
Records released Thursday by UW-Madison officials show several UW doctors were docked pay and had duties suspended as punishment for writing sick notes for State Capitol protesters last year without documenting conditions in patient medical records.
The state medical school disciplined 20 doctors, including fining 11 faculty members up to $4,000, for handing out sick notes to demonstrators at last year?s labor protests, newly released records show. The records, requested by the Journal Sentinel last year under the state?s open records law, show for the first time the extent of the discipline given to those doctors by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Newly released records show the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s medical school disciplined 20 doctors for writing sick notes for protesters during last years? labor demonstrations at the state Capitol.
UW-Madison sanctioned 11 faculty doctors and nine residents for writing sick notes for protesters last year, with three doctors receiving the harshest discipline: loss of five days of pay and removal from leadership positions for four months. All 20 doctors had to attend an ethics seminar after writing sick notes during Capitol Square protests against Gov. Scott Walker?s collective bargaining bill in February 2011.
In a study released Tuesday, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked Philly as the least-healthy county in Pennsylvania for the third consecutive year.
The project, a collaboration of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, aims to help local leaders and residents see not only where they rank on factors that determine health, but also specific ways to improve.
St. Croix County, across the Mississippi River from Minneapolis-St. Paul, has unseated Ozaukee County as the healthiest county in Wisconsin in an annual health ranking released Tuesday.
While a myriad of factors determine a community?s overall health, a strong correlation exists between median household income and health outcomes, according to Governing?s analysis of data from the 2012 County Health Rankings, conducted by the University of Wisconsin and sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Two controversial research projects with the H5N1 bird flu virus haven?t produced a killer bug but have generated useful information, two researchers told scientists and bioethicists gathered here to talk about the benefits and pitfalls of manipulating deadly pathogens.
?We can use this information to understand what?s happening in nature,? Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin told the group, which is meeting to discuss experiments on the much-feared flu strain that has infected 600 people, killing more than half of them, since 2003. He said his work is already shedding light on outbreaks in Egypt, the country with the second-largest number of H5N1 cases over that period.
A scientist whose work was deemed too dangerous to publish by US biosecurity advisers revealed for the first time on Tuesday how he created a hybrid bird flu virus that is spread easily by coughs and sneezes.
In a conference presentation that was webcasted live to the public, he detailed how his team created the deadly virus. Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison described experiments that pinpointed four genetic mutations enabling the virus to spread between ferrets kept in neighbouring cages. The animals are considered the best models of how the infection might spread between people.
Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison described experiments that pinpointed four genetic mutations enabling the virus to spread between ferrets kept in neighbouring cages. The animals are considered the best models of how the infection might spread between people.
In the study, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison used MRI to examine the brains of 55 patients with chronic temporal-lobe epilepsy and 53 people without epilepsy. The participants were aged 14 to 60.
Americans are living longer, but the gains in life span are accruing disproportionately among the better educated, according to a new report by researchers from the University of Wisconsin.
Stem cells derived from the skin and blood of blind people are morphing into retina-like balls in Dr. David Gamm?s lab at UW-Madison. WiCell Research Institute and the Waisman Center, both connected to the university, are growing stem cells to help researchers around the country prepare for clinical trials.
(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal)
Sioux County, North Dakota (USUSND), is the least healthy place in the U.S. for the second consecutive year, while Los Alamos County, New Mexico (USUSNM), is the healthiest, according to a study.
The rankings, produced by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, compare counties throughout the state ? and nation ? based on both physical and socioeconomic factors. The third annual report is being released today at http://www.countyhealthrankings.org.
A U.S biosecurity panel?s recommendation that two controversial papers on bird flu be published in full is not a reversal of the stand it took last year out of concerns over terrorism, the head of the group said on Monday in London.
The U.S. government?s biosecurity advisers said Friday they support publishing research studies showing how scientists made new easy-to-spread forms of bird flu because the studies, now revised, don?t reveal details bioterrorists could use. The decision could end a debate that began in December when the government took the unprecedented step of asking the scientists not to publicize all the details of their work.
Last year, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) ? an independent advisory board to the government ? recommended that both papers should be published with significant redactions. The full information would only be released to selected scientists. But on 30 March, after a two-day meeting, the NSABB announced that it had changed its mind.
Doctors are warning that too few people are undergoing colonoscopies and without the test, might fail to detect colon cancer. University of Wisconsin doctors said that they know it?s not an easy subject so they?ve hoping to address some popular colonoscopy myths in the hope that more people will schedule the test. For patients, preparing for a colonoscopy can require patients to drink as many as 4 liters of liquid the night before to clear out the colon. Doctors said that many skip the test simply because of this step. It?s not pleasant, but there?s an upside, according to Dr. Mark Benson of UW Health.
Cellular Dynamics International has expanded its distribution agreement with iPS Academia Japan. The Madison stem cell company will begin providing its iCell neurons and endothelial, or blood vessel, cells to the Japanese company in addition to its heart cells, distributed through an agreement reached last June.
One of Wisconsin?s leading exports offers an encouraging sign. It?s not cheese, motorcycles or football. It?s high-end medical equipment. Think MRI, CAT scan, colonoscopy and ultra-sound. Thanks in part to the presence of GE Medical and spinoffs from research at UW-Madison, Wisconsin is third in the nation in electromedical equipment manufacturing employment, with 6,100 jobs. Only California and Minnesota employ more in the field.
It began with James Abrahamson and concluded 13 minutes and 78 names later with Ronald Zielinski. UW-Madison medical student Lauren Brown read each name Saturday afternoon, memorializing people who donated their bodies for medical research in an annual ceremony at a packed auditorium at UW Hospital.
One can see why Laurel Rice does not follow politics closely, considering that what she calls her ?day job? is performing gynecological cancer surgery. Dr. Rice is chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Who better, I thought, to ask about the bill that majority Republicans in the Legislature recently passed requiring that doctors take unnecessary steps and abide by new restrictions before performing an abortion.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital has begun participating in a national initiative requiring all doctors, nurses and visitors to the intensive care unit to wear gloves and gowns while in the wing.
Parents will tell you that the obesity epidemic, which today affects one-third of America?s children, is now their leading health concern. Policymakers, business leaders and health care professionals share that worry. Childhood obesity is not only a serious health epidemic; it is also a perilous problem for the budget.
One year ago, Wildwood Family Clinic, 4901 Cottage Grove Road, started turning away new patients covered by Medicare, the national health insurance program for senior citizens and the disabled. Wildwood is the first clinic in Madison and maybe even the entire state to bail out of accepting new Medicare patients. Dr. Tim Bartholow, a senior vice president with the Wisconsin Medical Society, fears it might not be the last. “This is the canary in the mine,” he says. A massive report released just last week by the federal commission in charge of Medicare suggests he could be right.
The state Medical Examining Board decided Tuesday to investigate 11 additional doctors for writing sick notes during Capitol protests last year. The doctors are not among the nine the state sanctioned last year. The additional doctors were named in records the Madison School District released to the State Journal and other media in December after a lawsuit by the newspaper.
The emergency room costs of treating college students with injuries associated with alcohol-induced blackouts can be more than half a million dollars a year at a university with 40,000 or more students, a new study found.
A research report published earlier this week suggests a possible connection between the use of stem cells and a treatment for Huntington?s disease.
Next to a simulated clinic and hospital unit in UW-Madison?s new School of Nursing will be a space not found at most nursing schools: an “apartment.” The mock living area will be wired for the latest in home health technology, such as shoes with computer chips that transmit data about an elderly patient?s mobility and stride.
“We’ll be able to simulate almost an entire cycle of care,” said Katharyn May, dean of the nursing school. “That’s critically important as we try to reform how care is given.”
Researchers working on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus have found a way to use neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells to restore muscle coordination in mice inflicted with a Huntington?s disease-like condition….?This is very exciting, and next we?ll try to move onto different models, particularly in primates, to see whether this actually works in a larger brain,? says Su-Chun Zhang, a UW-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the study.
College students who black out from drinking alcohol can cost large universities roughly a half-million dollars per year in emergency room visits, according to research conducted by two members of UW-Madison?s School of Medicine and Public Health.
University Health Services, the UW-Madison on-campus clinic for students, is handing out free condoms, lip balm, sunscreen and safety advice on Wednesday, 10 days in advance of the UW?s spring break holiday from March 31 through April 8. The items and advice will be offered at College Library beginning at 5 p.m. and from 6-7 p.m. on the Ogg Hall lawn during the spring break fair.
“If you normally make good choices, keep it up,” said UHS executive director Dr. Sarah Van Orman in a UW-Madison news release.
Among college students who drink heavily, those who black out are more likely to seek emergency care, costing about $500,000 a year at a campus the size of UW-Madison, a new study says. Prevention efforts should be targeted at students whose drinking leads to memory loss, not only at students who drink the most, said Marlon Mundt, a UW-Madison researcher who led the study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.
In August, when the new federal mandate that insurance plans offer free contraceptive services kicks in, it will save women in Wisconsin hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars. But it also adds fuel to a long-simmering debate over religious freedom in the state. And the effect on Catholics in Wisconsin could be surprising….Among those applauding the new requirement is Grace Colas, a UW-Madison junior who co-chairs the campus chapter of Advocates for Choice, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood. She pays about $45 every three months for birth control under her insurance plan. Colas, 20, welcomes the mandate but said more should be done to help poor women pay for contraception.
“I think it’s important to remember that this is a matter of making basic health care accessible,” she said.
On Thursday, the University of Wisconsin-Madison community will have the opportunity to honor the memory of Maureen Grant, a former UW Libraries employee of 26 years, by taking part in the campus? annual blood drive.
End Violence on Campus encouraged students Monday night to share their experiences in their dating, partying and sex lives in the process of making a University Health Services video to help students avoid a sexual assault.
Sixteen months ago, UW-Madison Law School student Jimmy Anderson lost his family in a car crash in California that left him paralyzed and changed his life forever. It was a setback from which some might never recover. But Anderson, 25, is not one of them. A year after the crash, Anderson was back in law school and expects to graduate in December.
As a 15-year-old volunteer at a sleep laboratory in a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital, Richard Davidson watched a room of sleeping participants, heads pasted with electrodes, experience dreams or nightmares that registered as brain waves on a gigantic machine. His time in the sleep lab, Davidson writes in his new book, taught him ?virtually every dream contained significant emotion ? terror or joy, anger, sadness, jealousy, or hatred.?
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said he wants to examine whether Madison police are taking people to the county?s detox facility who are not incapacitated by alcohol, though they may be intoxicated. But Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said that?s not the case and that doing so would violate not only state law and department policy, but people?s civil rights. “It would be a false arrest,” Wray said. Parisi said people from Madison take up a disproportionate amount of detox beds, which Wray attributes to the city being an urban center with a university and concentration of nightlife Downtown.
Three years after a large outbreak in university residence halls, cases of norovirus again are appearing in Madison and the University of Wisconsin.
Regarding Sunday?s story titled ?Legislation would allow doctors to say ?sorry,?? readers may be interested in the view of one who teaches communication to doctors. The author examines the trial lawyers? view that protecting a doctor?s admission of error will prevent a patient from receiving compensation. That would be a bad thing ? there should be no tolerance for malpractice. But common sense suggests such rare cases would be far outweighed by the common good resulting from doctors feeling safe to speak openly after bad news happens.
Madison stem cell company, Stemina Biomarker Discovery, is getting a $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health aimed at expanding the use of its drug testing technology for harmful side effects. Co-founded by UW-Madison stem cell researcher Gabriela Cezar, Stemina has been using its technology with heart cells provided by Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), the Madison company founded by UW stem cell pioneer James Thomson, to see if drug compounds could cause cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakens the heart and can lead to heart failure.
In the wood-floored studio flooded with natural light, the only sound is the wave-like cadence of deliberate breathing. Here a dozen students bend and twist into the ancient poses that Western fitness gurus have embraced and marketed with religious fervor. The silence is broken as the instructor calls out names such as downward-facing dog, side angle, shoulder stand. This is yoga, the epitome of a safe fitness experience. Not so, says William J. Broad, the author of the new book ?The Science of Yoga,? who reports on some startling health repercussions that threaten to give yoga a bad name.
The State Journal editorial board is right to express outrage over our continuing DUI epidemic. But when our lawmakers do react, let?s make sure their actions are effective. Clearly Wisconsin needs stronger DUI penalties, but that alone won?t help. Ample research has shown that increasing penalties doesn?t change behavior unless people think they might get caught. Toward that end, we need sobriety checkpoints.
The relationship status feature of Facebook appears to be central to the happiness ? or not ? of many romantic relationships among young people, according to new research.
When he reached his post that night, just inside the entrance to sections 116-117 at the Kohl Center, John Deering had the best view in the house. Not of the game ? Wisconsin had faced off against Denver a few minutes earlier ? but of the students seated in the rows below him, directly behind one of the goals. This was Saturday, Feb. 18, a little after 7 p.m.
A new treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder is under way at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that doesn?t involve drugs or traditional therapy.
Noted: The man?s niece, a 34-year-old nurse, had wanted to give him her kidney, but her Type A blood clashed with his Type O. So in exchange for Mr. Ruzzamenti?s gift, she agreed to have her kidney shipped to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison for Brooke R. Kitzman?s transplant. It was Ms. Kitzman?s former boyfriend, David Madosh, who agreed to donate a kidney on her behalf despite their acrimonious split.
Rapid response from officers and paramedics saved the life of a student who went into cardiac arrest in the Kohl Center during Saturday?s hockey game, according to a UW-Madison Police Department press release.
University Police Officers received a report of an individual having a medical issue in the student section of the Kohl Center on Saturday.
A new treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder is under way at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that doesn?t involve drugs or traditional therapy.
A UW-Madison police officer keeping an eye on behavior in the student section during the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey game at the Kohl Center on Saturday night may have helped save a student?s life.
A 20-year-old student stood up at his seat and then collapsed. He had no pulse and was not breathing, UW-Madison Police Capt. Karen Soley said. UW-Madison Police Officer John Deering saw the student fall, rushed over and began chest compressions. Madison Fire Department paramedics arrived a short time later and used an external defibrillator to revive the student.
