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.
The state Medical Examining Board is looking into investigating at least 10 doctors not previously disciplined for writing sick notes the Madison School District considered fraudulent. The review, which started Monday, was triggered by a State Journal article Saturday, said Greg Gasper, spokesman for the state Department of Safety and Professional Services.
….The UW School of Medicine and Public Health reviewed 22 doctors said to have been involved in writing questionable sick notes and disciplined at least a dozen of them. The university hasn’t released the specific actions, saying the process isn’t complete.
UW Health won an award this month from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists for reducing the number of patients who develop life-threatening blood clots.
The Madison hazardous materials team responded to a chemical spill in a UW-Madison biochemistry laboratory Monday after a graduate student spilled a highly flammable solvent, injuring one person.
For one family, this year?s Rose Bowl festivities will be a thrill far beyond what happens on the field between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Oregon Ducks.
A new survey of surgeons suggests many fail to discuss their patients? wishes in case a risky operation goes awry, and even more would not operate if patients limited what could be done to keep them alive.
PPS: Great tips for stopping smoking and more are on UW-Madison?s world famous Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention website at www.ctri.wisc.edu. They are pioneers in helping you stop.
Cellular Dynamics International is out with a new product: stem cell-derived neurons. The Madison company, founded by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson, says it is the first commercial release of human brain cells, created through the company?s stem cell technology, in large enough quantity, quality and purity for use in life science research.
Well before taking their first steps onto a college campus, the majority of women have at some point heard the statistic that one in every four females will be the victim of rape or attempted rape during their college years.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student?s death revived campus concern over the problem of college binge drinking.
Regarding the legal conflict between UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital, I?m a family physician and employee of UWMF. I practice at UW Health Sun Prairie Clinic, and admit my patients and deliver babies at Meriter Hospital.I plead with both sides to step back from the courtroom.
Physicians Plus is suing UW-Madison?s doctor group, saying the doctors? threat to stop treating the insurance company?s patients is illegal. Physicians Plus, owned by Meriter Health Services, says the doctor group, UW Medical Foundation, demanded fees that are too high. After Physicians Plus refused to pay the fees, it says the doctor group threatened to stop serving most of the insurance company?s patients starting in 2013. Both sides say they?re still negotiating.
Appreciation to reporter David Wahlberg for continued attention to conflicts of interest in health care. Community interest helps a profession adhere to its higher values. Doctors are human ? the struggle to balance self-interest with altruism lives on.
Physicians Plus is suing UW-Madison?s doctor group, saying the doctors? threat to stop treating the insurance company?s patients is illegal. Physicians Plus, owned by Meriter Health Services, says the doctor group, UW Medical Foundation, demanded fees that are too high. After Physicians Plus refused to pay the fees, it says the doctor group threatened to stop serving most of the insurance company?s patients starting in 2013. The doctor group says it?s still negotiating.
Ten doctors at UW-Madison received $48,000 or more from drug or medical device companies last year, a State Journal analysis of campus disclosure records found. Six of the doctors were orthopedic surgeons, and each made $99,000 or more in consulting or royalty fees on top of their salaries averaging $750,000. The top earner ? Dr. Thomas Zdeblick, with nearly $1.7 million in medical industry income ? has been the subject of investigations and media reports about conflicts of interest in medicine. But he?s not alone in earning large sums, according to university records that only recently have included specific amounts of income instead of broad ranges.
Science reporters and bloggers are lighting up the Internet with posts noting the creation of a genetically modified version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu which can be easily transmitted among ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to flu. Although many of these reports focus on the work coming out of this Dutch medical center, most also note University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka conducted similar work. Sources within the university confirm that’s true.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in both Madison and Janesville received the Consumer Choice Award.
Aspirus Wausau Hospital is studying the possibility of a third medical school in Wisconsin. Hospital officials and the Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine expect the study on whether to create a $70 million medical school in Wausau will be done in four months.
A new medical school in Wausau would open in 2013, admit up to 150 students a year and reduce Wisconsin?s looming doctor shortage, according to organizers of the plan announced Wednesday. The Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine, likely to be built next to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, would be the state?s third medical school….Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW medical school, said it would be cost-prohibitive for the new school to set up enough residency programs for the additional training required after medical school.
“A brand new medical school at this point would be a bridge to nowhere,” Golden said.
Physicians Plus is threatening to sue UW-Madison?s doctor group, saying the group might cut off members? access to UW doctors because the insurance company rejected a contract it deemed too expensive. The threat of legal action, made in a Physicians Plus news release Monday, comes less than three weeks after UW?s doctor group sued Meriter Health Services, which owns Physicians Plus. The lawsuit claims Meriter Hospital wouldn?t provide night coverage for UW?s family medicine patients or allow more UW doctors to provide the coverage. The new conflict, according to Physicians Plus, involves an “ultimatum” from the doctor group, UW Medical Foundation.
A University of Wisconsin student-run health program for community outreach and student education recently received an accolade for its volunteer effects with a prestigious award from the White House.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered a molecular mechanism that could open the door to new approaches to fighting cancer. The research, which was published this week in the journal Nature, focuses on the body?s penchant for producing its own hydrogen peroxide at the site of wounds.
Dear Editor: I echo your call for elected officials? positions on ?personhood? (?Where do state leaders stand on ?personhood???). After solid defeats in Colorado and Mississippi, this absurd notion has come to Wisconsin, courtesy of state Rep. Andre Jacque, R-Bellevue. I have treated the women of Wisconsin for 18 years. I must know: Does our government want to rob my patients of basic medicine, just to give legal rights to fertilized eggs?
Psychopaths such as Hannibal Lecter – Anthony Hopkins? character in the film The Silence of the Lambs – are callous, anti-social and sometimes violent. They are incapable of feeling empathy or guilt.
Brains of Wisconsin prisoners diagnosed as psychopaths are different in structure and function from the brains of prisoners who committed similar crimes but were not diagnosed with the mental disorder, a new study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers indicates.
Medical School hopefuls at the University of Wisconsin may face additional curriculum challenges following the recent announcement that changes to the Medical College Admissions Test will be fully implemented in 2015.
Avoiding antibiotics when they aren?t needed. Disinfecting rooms with ultraviolet light. Installing sensors to make sure workers wash their hands. Hospitals in Madison and around the country are taking action against a superbug that appears to be on the rise.The bacterium is called Clostridium difficile, or C.diff. It may not be as well known as MRSA, a drug-resistant staph infection, but it has become more of a threat.
So, doctors caught lying and writing fraudulent sick notes are only “punished” with a slap on the wrist. Since honesty and honor obviously don?t matter to the state?s Medical Examining Board or the guilty individuals, what kind of message does that send to the rest of us?
Starting the first of the year, Dane County?s detox center will cease to be the “drunk tank” it?s often lampooned as and use its funding to become a pathway to treatment and recovery, Dane County Human Services officials said. In a statement, UW Hospitals and Clinics said the “proposed changes ? will undoubtedly result in increased numbers of intoxicated patients in the region’s only Level One Trauma Center.”
Seven doctors who wrote sick notes for protesters at the state Capitol in February received reprimands Wednesday from the state Medical Examining Board. Two other doctors got administrative warnings, which aren?t considered disciplinary action as the reprimands are. Along with the reprimands, the seven doctors also have to pay to take four hours of continuing education in medical record keeping.
MADISON ? The board that supervises Wisconsin physicians reprimanded seven doctors Wednesday who were accused of writing sick notes for protesters to cover their time at last spring?s massive demonstrations against Gov. Scott Walker?s collective bargaining law.
The state Medical Examining Board will decide Wednesday if six doctors from UW-Madison and one from Dean Clinic should be disciplined for allegedly writing sick notes for protesters at the Capitol in February. Only one of the doctors ? Lou Sanner of the university?s family medicine department ? had been widely named before, though some websites and groups had named others.
An emaciated 4-year-old Thoroughbred named Sarahs Tiger needed a sling hung from a special scaffold to keep him upright when he was brought by equine ambulance to the UW Veterinary Medical Hospital on Tuesday. It wasn?t long ago when Tiger was a handsome gelding 16 hands high and presumably with a future as a race horse. But after he failed to win on the track, he was left to starve on an Illinois farm before rescuers stepped in late last month and tried to save him.
Dr. Sarah Jacob said Tiger?s condition was guarded to poor. ?The next 24 to 48 hours will tell the story of how he?s going to do,? she said.
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A feud between UW Health and Meriter Health Services has escalated into a court battle, with UW?s doctor group filing a lawsuit Friday against Meriter over Meriter?s decision to stop providing doctors to oversee patients at night who are treated during the day by UW doctors. The UW Medical Foundation filed the suit in Dane County Circuit Court. It says Meriter made it harder for UW to fill the night coverage gap by refusing to let more UW doctors work at Meriter and by hiring some of the UW doctors.
A decade after he helped persuade a president to allow funding of some embryonic stem cell research, Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and presumptive U.S. Senate candidate, paid a visit to the Vatican on Wednesday to deliver a very different message.
In Rome, Thompson, who is Roman Catholic, portrayed himself as a strong proponent of adult stem cells – cells that aren?t culled from embryos – while appearing to brush aside the embryonic stem cell research he once defended.
LEÓN, Nicaragua ? Seven doctors and a surgical tech from Madison plunged into a sea of need: parents clutching toddlers with cleft lips and cleft palates, women hiding faces with grotesque bumps and birthmarks, men whose crooked noses suggested car crashes or bar fights. More than 70 patients gathered, most sitting on wooden benches in the hot, cramped, open-air waiting room of León?s public hospital. Some had traveled from hours away. They were waiting for the American doctors to join Nicaraguan doctors and perform the transformative magic of reconstructive plastic surgery. By the end of their visit last month, the UW-Madison doctors would be reshaped, too.
The Madison City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to provide a $1.3 million loan to allow the development of a new University of Wisconsin clinic that will allow doctors who promote and treat digestive health to reach more patients.
Training for emergencies has always had its limits for doctors. There is only so much they can simulate, but a new program at UW Hospital stretches those limits to give doctors training that is incredibly close to the real thing.
When Sim Baby?s oxygen level drops, its mouth turns blue. METIman groans and coughs from heart failure. TraumaMan?s neck can be punctured to create a tracheostomy, or hole for breathing. The high-tech manikins ? anatomical models used in health care, as opposed to storefront mannequins ? are among the stars of UW Health?s Clinical Simulation Program, featuring a new $6 million facility on the first floor of UW Hospital.
Madison will deliver $1.37 million in public assistance to the developers of the $21.9 million University Crossing mixed-use project on the West Side. The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the tax incremental financing (TIF) loan to GI Clinic LLC, which is building a 60,000-square-foot digestive health clinic and 265 parking stalls on the former Erdman properties at University Avenue and Whitney Way. The clinic and parking will be leased by the UW Hospital and Clinic Authority.
Madison-based Stratatech Corp. is getting a $4.6 million grant to help fund the start of clinical trials of ExpressGraft, a skin substitute designed to heal diabetes-related foot ulcers. Founded in 2000 based on discoveries at UW-Madison, Stratatech makes tissue products described on the company’s website as “nearly identical” to human skin. The company has 32 employees and will likely add more staff in 2012, Allen-Hoffmann said, but she could not yet estimate how many.
Mangoes are Haiti?s largest export, but the country imports mango juice.
“It doesn?t make sense,” said Gergens Polynice, a UW-Madison research assistant from Haiti. “How can we process the foods in Haiti and take advantage of the local market?” Polynice and other campus researchers will explore that question in one of eight projects to win grants through the university?s new Global Health Institute, launched Thursday at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
As part of the launch of the new Global Health Institute, eight research projects will receive $40,000 grants to continue their work to advance global health through a variety of methods, including agriculture and women?s health.
I provide care to critically ill or injured patients in the air on Med Flight. The helicopter flies to accident scenes or hospitals within in a 250-mile radius of Madison in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota….I was a ground EMT/paramedic in Oakland, Calif., for 12 years before becoming a flight paramedic there. I earned my bachelor’s degree in nursing at California State University of Hayward. I’m currently attending UW-Madison for my master’s degree in nursing.
Ten years ago, working on a night shift as a resident in a Madison emergency room, Josh Medow found himself treating a child with hydrocephalus, a disease in which fluid accumulates in the brain. The child had a headache and the anxious parents feared the worst ? that a shunt designed to drain the fluid had failed and potentially lethal pressure was building up in the boy?s brain. Medow realized there was no way to check whether pressure was indeed increasing, short of intrusive and painful procedures. The child ended up in the operating room. Today, Medow, 38, an attending neurosurgeon at UW Hospital, is on the verge of patenting a device he invented that allows doctors and even parents to easily keep track of cranial pressure in a child with hydrocephalus.
The ankle braces many football players wear to prevent injuries seem to work, a study of high school players suggests.
After following more than 2,000 football players during last year?s season, researchers discovered that wearing ankle braces made players 61 percent less likely to suffer an ankle sprain or fracture.
“We were surprised with the findings,” said Timothy A. McGuine, an athletic trainer and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the work. “I didn?t think the braces could be that effective.”
The ankle braces many football players wear to prevent injuries seem to work, a study of high school players suggests. “We were surprised with the findings,” said Timothy A. McGuine, an athletic trainer and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the work. “I didn?t think the braces could be that effective.”
1qThe Oscar Rennebohm Foundation identified itself Tuesday as the group that anonymously donated $1 million to the UW-Madison School of Nursing.
Tyler Engel transferred to UW-Madison for its engineering program, but he faced more challenges than the average transfer student. Engel, a wheelchair-bound fifth-year senior who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, had to deal with accessibility issues he rarely faced at UW-Whitewater.
Following cuts in funding for the Alcohol Policy Coordinator from the University of Wisconsin, Mayor Paul Soglin said the role would likely face a revamping in the scope of its focus in the near future.
Dr. Diane Heatley, an accomplished pediatric otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat) surgeon for the past 18 years at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, was recently appointed to serve as the interim medical director of the American Family Children?s Hospital.
Design plans for the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s new $52.8 million School of Nursing got the green light Friday from the UW Board of Regents, paving the way for the school to expand its undergraduate nursing enrollment by 20% to 25% in the next five years.
The UW System Board of Regents approved building designs for a new $52.8 million UW-Madison School of Nursing facility Friday.
A research lab on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus has identified the part of a particular gene that determines whether an obese mouse is susceptible to diabetes.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including one of an Indian-origin, have identified a gene that could explain why some people are more susceptible to diabetes.
