In the first semester since the program began, nearly 90 percent of UW-Madison students required to take a course on alcohol consumption safety found it beneficial, according to university health experts, though one participant disagreed.
A Florida girl who fell 100 feet from a Wisconsin amusement park ride has returned to the state for the first time since the accident, walking up to a news conference at a Madison hospital under her own power.
Two studies showing how scientists created a bird flu virus that?s easily transmissible between mammals should be fully published — but only after a panel of experts fully assesses the risks — the World Health Organization WHO announced last week. Some tasked with keeping tabs on potential biosecurity threats to the United States are not happy with the decision.
American Family Children?s Hospital in Madison has announced plans for a $32 million expansion, its first since the pediatric medical center opened in 2007. The hospital is part of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Nineteen months after a nearly fatal fall from a Wisconsin Dells ride, Teagan Marti was back in Wisconsin this weekend to help promote a multimillion dollar expansion at the American Family Childrens Hospital.
Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers soared so much over the last decade that by 2010 enough were being dispensed to medicate every adult in the United States around-the-clock for a month.
Behind that surge was a network of pain organizations, doctors and researchers that pushed for expanded use of the drugs while taking in millions of dollars from the companies that made them, a Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found.
Last year, the newspaper found that a University of Wisconsin-based organization in Madison had been a national force in helping liberalize the way opioids are prescribed and viewed. While pushing a pharmaceutical industry agenda that critics say was not supported by rigorous science, the UW Pain & Policy Studies Group took in $2.5 million over a decade from opioid companies. [Related stories can be found here and here.]
Details of how scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in The Netherlands mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic will be published only after experts fully assess the risks of sharing the information, the World Health Organization said Friday.
CNN)–The exam all medical school applicants take will have new sections requiring a broader knowledge of psychology, sociology, and the social components of health starting in 2015. The changes are the first made since 1991 for the Medical College Admission Test, known as the MCAT.
Meriter Hospital seemed to have more bloodstream infections from catheters than expected the first half of last year, while St. Mary?s and UW hospitals appeared to have fewer than expected. The first-ever ratings, released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Hospital Association, are part of a national effort to reduce bloodstream infections from central lines.
Shortly before Thanksgiving science reporters and bloggers began buzzing about a newly created, genetically modified version of the deadly bird flu that could easily be transmitted between ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to flu.
….”It’s interesting that this research became a concern, because from my perspective I’m not worried about it,” Paul Umbeck, the director of UW-Madison’s environment, health and safety department, says after outlining for a reporter a lengthy list of federal and institutional regulations and safeguards in place to help oversee such potentially dangerous experiments. “But cutting-edge is always going to be somewhat controversial to somebody.” Or, in this case, seemingly to most everybody.
Sitting down to lunch with Kirk Daubenspeck last week, listening to him embrace his extraordinary life, I couldn?t help but recall one of the best, most underrated movie scenes of all time….There is nothing fictional about the life and near-death of Daubenspeck, the Madison product and one-time record-setting goalie for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team. There is no script and there are no stunts.
What is real, and wonderful, is that Daubenspeck has been saved through the efforts of many. Remnants of their selflessness, generosity, expertise and support will accompany him to an anniversary celebration Friday night at the Kohl Center.
While the new School of Nursing building is poised to be an ground-breaking, state-of-the-art facility, its namesake has a history deeply rooted in the Madison area and the nursing profession.
UW-Madison?s new nursing building will be named after Signe Skott Cooper, a pioneer in nursing education and the facility?s largest individual donor. The UW Board of Regents approved the name at its meeting Friday. Cooper, 91, was inducted into the American Nurses Association?s “Hall of Fame” in 2000 and was named a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing in 2003.
Sexual assaults of men are coming to light after a third person comes forward alleging misconduct by former University of Wisconsin-Madison Senior Associate Athletic Director, John Chadima.
There?s nothing worse than feeling hopeless and helpless when it comes to your child, says Anne Morgan Giroux.The Madison mother of three knows that feeling first-hand, since her oldest child, Lily, was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2. At times, seizures were a regular, frightening occurrence for Lily. As any parent would, Giroux, 47, felt compelled to do something. So in 2007, she and her husband, David, executive director of communications for the UW System, established Lily’s Fund for Epilepsy Research. The fund is run through the UW Foundation and supports research at UW-Madison, including funding for a research fellowship position.
University of Wisconsin researchers have discovered a link between large amounts of caloric intake and early onset of puberty in girls.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study using primates could offer answers as to why girls are reaching puberty earlier, in some cases as young as age 7.
A cutting-edge surgical procedure at the University of Wisconsin Hospital has brought back the voice of a Monona man who lost his ability to speak.
Isaiah Darden-Roey, 8, gets monthly blood transfusions to manage pain, pneumonia and other complications of his sickle cell disease. Many people with the genetic blood disorder, most common among African-Americans, develop immune reactions from the transfusions because there isn?t enough closely matched blood available.
“I don’t ever want to see the day when there is no blood he can receive,” said Latyna Lewis, of Madison, Isaiah’s mother. “What would I do?” Lewis has teamed up with the American Red Cross in Madison to organize two blood drives this month. The events ? to feature former Badger tailback and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne ? aim to increase the pool of minority blood donors, especially those who are African-American. The blood drive on campus is February 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Red Gym.
The breathalyzer has been used to determine if a person has been drinking. What if a new type could also detect certain diseases? UW-Madison researchers have developed technology that can distinguish between normal exhaled air and air that has been altered by disease. The research has been published online in the journal Metabolism, according to a news release from UW-Madison. UW-Madison biochemist and scientist Fariba Assadi-Porter, lead author of the research, said the method could lead to cheaper, faster and more sensitive methods of diagnosis.
Mirroring national and statewide trends, demand for mental health services at UW-Madison increased last year, according to a report published by The Center for Investigative Journalism and written by UW-Madison journalism students.
A decade ago, Thomas Murphy was a college dropout who used alcohol and drugs to deal with undiagnosed depression. Now he?s back at UW-Madison, where he co-leads a chapter of Active Minds, a national student-run group promoting open conversations about mental illness.
Steroids have been linked to the death of popular athletes, but a Wisconsin doctor claims steroids aren?t harmful at all.
After receiving $5.8 million in funding from the National Institute of Health alone this past year, the University of Wisconsin?s Department of Surgery was recently ranked 12th among all academic surgery departments in the country for research dollars coming into the school from NIH.
To a person without a disability, the life of a person with one is nearly impossible to truly comprehend.
Anya Covington has always known she has the sickle-cell trait. But for most of her life it was a non-factor. That all changed one day during her sophomore season while running sprints along with her University of Wisconsin women?s basketball teammates.
High-risk surgeons can get caught in a “Catch-22” when trying to save a life: what if the patient doesn?t want extraordinary measures taken to keep living? A new study from a UW-Madison surgical professor suggests advance directives, or “living wills,” don?t work in the surgical suite. Dr. Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, assistant professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, discovered that only 50 percent of surgeons who do high-risk operations discuss advance directives with their patients before surgery.
Additional sick notes from last year?s Capitol protests released Thursday by the Madison School District reveal two more doctors who provided excuses the district deemed “fraudulent.” That brings to 15 the number of doctors who signed such notes but have not faced sanctions from the state Medical Examining Board. A board committee plans to decide next month whether to investigate additional doctors.
A judge issued a temporary injunction Tuesday against UW-Madison?s doctor group in a lawsuit filed by Physicians Plus, the insurance company owned by Meriter Health Services.
More than 2,700 people are expected in Milwaukee from Wednesday through Saturday for the Wisconsin EMS Association conference at the Frontier Airlines Center.
Can?t sleep? Other health problems might be looming, according to a UW-Madison sleep researcher. Ruth Benca, director of the Wisconsin Sleep laboratory and clinic, said insomnia, a condition where you have trouble falling or staying asleep, can increase risks for anxiety, depression, alcohol or drug abuse, even heart failure and diabetes.
Despite having recently moved to a new location in a more populated and accessible area on campus, the McBurney Disability Center and its staffers behind the scenes are still mysteries to a sizeable population at the University of Wisconsin.
The details of death weighed on Dane County?s official forensic inquisitor in numbers that justified last year?s creation of the Medical Examiner?s Office. It also forced the hiring of a backup physician and plans for a possible deputy medical examiner. A year ago, the county hired its first chief medical examiner, forensic pathologist Dr. Vincent Tranchida, and predicted the hire would save money by keeping autopsy work in-house and generate revenue by bringing in autopsy work from surrounding counties. Preliminary numbers bear that out, said Barry Irmen, director of the office….The effect of the Medical Examiner’s Office expansion on UW-Madison’s forensic pathology service was inevitable, said Dr. Robert Corliss, a medical school faculty member and forensic pathologist. The autopsy numbers ? which included both forensic and medical autopsies for the university ? dropped from about 650 in 2010 to 450 last year.
UW Hospital plans to open a neonatal intensive care unit next year within American Family Children?s Hospital. The surgical NICU, to have up to 14 beds, will care for infants after they have “highly complex surgeries or other advanced procedures,” Lisa Brunette, a hospital spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement. The unit could open by January, said Dr. Julie Kessel, a UW Health neonatologist who is clinical director of Meriter Hospital?s NICU.
When Dr. Frank Greer visited the hospital room of brand-new mother Amy Hurt last month, he came bearing an unusual baby gift: Two boxes of slides from a surgery 27 years earlier that made Wisconsin history. The June 1984 operation separated the newborn Amy from her conjoined twin sister only days after their birth. It was complex, closely documented, and celebrated in local news headlines.
Madison doctor Bernie Micke has allegedly retired after practicing medicine here for 33 years, but he continues to pursue a passion that?s been with him for years ? improving the medical services in Madison?s sister city, Camaguey, Cuba. Over the years, he and the Wisconsin Medical Project, a nonprofit organization whose origins began with the Sister Cities program, have made 30 trips to Cuba, bringing with them medical equipment and supplies for doctors and nurses who do everything from basic pediatric care to treating people suffering from cancer and other major illnesses.
SwedishAmerican Health System?s board of directors has approved a business plan to build and operate a free-standing outpatient cancer center in collaboration with UW Health and its nationally-recognized University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.
Kai Hirata?s parents feed him healthy foods. When cold and flu season hits, they increase his vitamin C. But they haven?t given the 7-year-old any vaccines. Diseases such as measles, which sprang up around the country last year, including in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, don?t worry them.
“As more people get waivers, our herd immunity goes down to the point where the entire community is at risk,” said Dr. James Conway, a UW Health pediatric infectious diseases specialist who is on the board of the Dane County Immunization Coalition.
ATLANTA (WKOW) — A new government report shows college-age binge drinkers average nine drinks each time they get drunk. Binge drinking is when someone consumes four or five alcoholic beverages on one occasion.
MADISON, Wis.– A CBS News eight-month investigation found a University of Wisconsin-educated doctor promised cures that science could not provide. Dr. Dan Ecklund received his medical degree from UW in 1987, but his medical license was revoked in 2005, according to state records in Alabama. On Sunday night, “60 Minutes” accused Ecklund of peddling fake stem cell therapies to a family whose son has cerebral palsy, a disease with no known cure. With so much research done on potential therapies and stem cells in Madison, local scientists are quick to distance themselves from Ecklund. Still, Dr. David Gamm, an ophthalmologist and stem cell researcher at UW, said similar attempts at fraud are all too common.
The professor who oversees biosafety for the University of Wisconsin-Madisons controversial avian influenza research responded Monday to mounting criticism about the necessity and safety of the research, saying “ongoing research with H5N1 remains salient.”
While State Journal columnist Chris Rickert made interesting points in his piece on the $23.5 million federal disease prevention grant UW-Madison is applying for, I take exception to his claim that fixing health insurance is a more cost-effective way to prevent disease than “disease prevention.”
More than a hundred years ago, when the telephone was introduced, there was some hand-wringing over the social dangers that this new technology posed: increased sexual aggression and damaged human relationships. ?It was going to bring down our society,? said Dr. Megan Moreno, a specialist in adolescent medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?Men would be calling women and making lascivious comments, and women would be so vulnerable, and we?d never have civilized conversations again.?
An elite group of up-and-coming biotech companies from around the country – as well as a number of the nation?s biggest, most successful health-related firms – will be making presentations this week to the investment community at the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Monday through Thursday. Cellular Dynamics International, the Madison company founded by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson, will be among them. It will be the second year that CDI has been invited to participate in the event, considered the biggest and most prestigious in life sciences in the U.S., said CDI chief executive Robert Palay.
The drug Ritalin has been used for years to help people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But it wasn?t until now that researchers at UW-Madison have discovered where in the brain the drug works. Psychology professor Craig Berridge and graduate student Robert Spencer have identified the upper portion of the brain?s prefrontal cortex as the key area where Ritalin works.
It was the week before Christmas, and D.A. Henderson was alarmed about germs. He isn?t easily rattled: Dr. Henderson led the successful worldwide effort to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, and he directed the U.S. Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness after the deadly anthrax letter attacks and the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. But recently not just one but two laboratories had engineered the virus known as bird flu to make it easily transmissible?through the air, among mammals?and that was a scary development. “Compared to plague or to anthrax, this one has a potential for disaster that dwarfs all others,” says Dr. Henderson, now a distinguished scholar at the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Given our flu-vaccine capacity, which is limited, this could be a catastrophe if it gets out.” The experiments shouldn?t have been done, in his view, and?partly because they could give terrorists a blueprint for making a more deadly form of H5N1 avian-influenza virus?they certainly shouldn?t be published.
UW-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Ron Fouchier, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, are mentioned in this article.
The bird flu censorship debate, while far too narrowly focused, is nonetheless a timely reminder of how badly we need to stay on guard against a pathogen too often dismissed as the flu bug.
A deadly influenza virus has circulated widely in birds in recent years, decimating flocks but rarely spreading to humans. Nonetheless, because of its persistence in bird flocks, this highly pathogenic virus has loomed as a major public health threat. Seasonal influenza kills less than 1 percent of the people it infects. In contrast, human infections with the H5N1 virus, though exceedingly rare, are fatal in most cases. Should this virus mutate in a way that allows it to be transmitted as efficiently among people as seasonal influenza viruses are, it could take an unprecedented toll on human life.
A number of important scientific and public health questions regarding this virus remain unanswered, including the likelihood of such mutations arising and the mechanisms by which they may occur. Two recent studies co-funded by the National Institutes of Health (including research conducted by UW-Madison bird flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka) have shed light on how this potentially grave human health threat could become a reality.
I have to admit, I?m a little disappointed in our new budget-conscious secretary of the state Department of Health Services. So, Dennis Smith is cool with cutting government health insurance coverage for the poor to save the state money, but when it comes to saving $23.5 million aimed at getting people to do what they already know they should do ? stop smoking, eat right and generally live more healthful lives ? he caves? A few months ago, Smith declined to write a letter supporting UW-Madison?s bid for the $23.5 million, five-year federal grant.
When Greg Szymanski started raising money for eye research, he decided not to give it to a foundation far away. He donated the money to the lab of Dr. David Gamm, a UW-Madison retina specialist using stem cells to better understand and treat vision loss. “I wanted to help right here, where we have specialists who work on these diseases,” said Szymanski, 62, of Madison, who lost most of his sight seven years ago. Unlike government grants that pay for most medical research, Szymanski?s money comes with few restrictions, Gamm said.
For smokers, there are just a few more days left if you want to kick the habit in 2011. Doctor Michael Fiore of the UW Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program says most smokers do want to quit, but may need a little extra help getting there. He says that?s why the Tobacco Quit line remains available.
Paul Anderson, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gets so much money from the medical device firm Medtronic that the university put its most stringent oversight on the relationship.
One of the requirements is that Anderson, who has received $225,000 in consulting fees from Medtronic in 2008 through 2010, has to meet annually with his department chairman to review the relationship and its potential influence on his university activities.
But the chairman, Thomas Zdeblick, got more than 25 times that amount from Medtronic himself during the three years. And a new accounting by the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today shows he received more than $25 million in royalties from the company since 2003.
Madison doctor Bernie Micke has allegedly retired after practicing medicine here for 33 years, but he continues to pursue a passion that?s been with him for years ? improving the medical services in Madison?s sister city, Camaguey, Cuba.
Communities around Wisconsin can apply next month for a share of a $23.5 million federal grant that state officials initially opposed but that was eventually awarded to UW-Madison to prevent chronic diseases. The five-year grant, awarded in September, targets three efforts: smoke-free apartment complexes, access to exercise and fresh foods, and heart disease screening in underserved areas.
The grant will boost disease prevention programs around the state, said Tom Sieger, prevention coordinator for UW-Madison’s University Health Services.
In early October, the 6-year-old German shepherd spent six days at the UW Veterinary Care Small Animal Hospital, where he was treated for a near-fatal infection and pneumonia.
When Mary Morton?s beloved German shepherd Carl died two years ago, the Shorewood Hills resident wanted to do something to honor his memory. “He was my constant companion for a decade,” said Morton, a board member of Capital K9s who has put together a program providing free veterinary care for the Madison Police Department?s K9s.
Two teams of researchers, one in the Netherlands and one at the University of Wisconsin, have run experiments to find mutations that can turn H5N1 from a bird flu to a mammal flu. They?ve carried out their experiments on ferrets, which respond to flu viruses much like humans do.
Instead of focusing so heavily on human terrorists, we ought to take this opportunity to defeat a natural pathogen?one we can now recognize and manipulate with all the sophistication of molecular biology.
The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, concerned about bioterrorism and a worldwide pandemic, has for the first time ever urged scientific journals to keep details out of reports that they intend to publish on a highly transmissible form of the bird flu called A(H5N1), which has a high death rate in people.
Officials with the National Institutes for Health are recommending restrictions on the publishing of the findings of a UW-Madison?s researcher?s work on avian flu, over fears bioterrorists could use the information.
