Quoted: “The virus multiplies exponentially so 10 today could be 100 tomorrow,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, director of infection control at UW Hospital and Clinics and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Safdar urged people to take precautions like mask wearing and getting vaccinated.
“All around us, we are surrounded by high transmission, and it’s just a matter of time before we are right in there with the rest of the country,” she said.
Quoted: “If that indeed means that vaccinated people can become a source of transmission, though not the majority of transmission, mask use is a good idea,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Doctors and researchers who share Ciappa’s hope are worried about how much progress the movement lost during the last year and a half. “It took time to get those family-centered policies into the fabric of hospitals,” said Traci Snedden, a career critical care nurse and assistant professor of nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Will Covid give clinicians permission to pull back again, or will it propel us forward like, ‘I can’t believe we went without family at the bedside’?”
Noted: Hansfield hopes he can ward off a gap in services for the Waupun area by participating in a first-of-its-kind program out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — one that places OB-GYN medical school residents at rural hospitals.
The program graduated its first resident in June. If it’s successful, it would send a slow but steady pipeline of doctors into Wisconsin’s rural hospitals, so women don’t have to go extra miles for care, and potentially risk their health or their baby’s health along the way.
Dane County is seeing an increase in the number of people infected with COVID-19 but is considered at a “moderate” community transmission level. Janel Heinrich, Public Health director, attributed the increase to the more contagious Delta variant, which is now the dominant strain in Wisconsin.
For the 10th year in a row, University of Wisconsin Hospitals, which includes University Hospital and UW Health at The American Center, has been ranked the best in Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin hospitals were ranked best in the state Tuesday for the tenth consecutive year, according to a new report.
Quoted: “It is as simple as if we’re all vaccinated, hanging out together in large groups, however large you want, that becomes a safe thing to do,” said Dr. Pothoff, an emergency medicine doctor at UW Health.
Quoted: “It’s almost like a personal tourniquet system. So you have a cuff that’s applied to your arm or leg that significantly reduces blood flow,” Marc Sherry, a physical therapist and manager of the UW Health Sports Rehabilitation Department in Madison, Wisconsin, told TODAY. “The basic premise is that it’s inflated to a pressure that prevents the blood from coming out of your arm but doesn’t prevent the blood from going into your arm.”
Noted: Another, and probably underestimated, factor may be the weather. Mississippi summers usually see average temperatures rise above 80℉ (26.7℃), a threshold at which the likelihood of violence in prisons increases.
That is the finding of a working paper by Anita Mukherjee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nicholas Sanders of Cornell University. The authors matched county-level weather variations across Mississippi with violent incidents reported in the state’s 36 prisons and jails between 2004 and 2010. Using these data, they built a statistical model that controlled for the time of year that the violence took place, the type of institution and other factors. They calculated that on days with average temperatures of 80℉ or higher the chances of violence increased by 20%. The hot weather leads to an average of 44 additional incidents of severe violence—those that result in serious injury or death—each year,
UW-Madison officials said the campus is disqualified from the ’70 for 70’ campaign since its campus community is expected to have a vaccination rate at or higher than 80% this fall.
The University of Wisconsin football team is over 85% vaccinated from COVID-19, according to coach Paul Chryst. Speaking with local reporters Friday at the Big Ten Conference football media days, Chryst said there was an instant surge of vaccination among his players once shots were available, and their total has climbed over 85% over the summer.
Abbie Esterline, a fifth-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found herself missing fewer classes during the pandemic.
She has several chronic illnesses, such as gastroparesis and fibromyalgia, that can make it difficult to go in person to a classroom.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plan to meld computer modeling and social science in hopes of providing better responses to future pandemics. The goal is to be ready with quicker and more equitable strategies to distribute vaccines.
Wisconsin weather forecasts for the next several days predict temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more, and the public should take care when traveling or spending time outdoors, according to Rishelle Eithun, manager, Child Health Advocacy Program, UW Health.
Worries are rising among some UW-Madison employees as the school year approaches, the delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across unvaccinated pockets of the U.S. and university leaders plan to reopen without a mask mandate or vaccine requirement.
Noted: Dr. Luke Funk is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Srividya Kidambi is an associate professor and chief in the Division of Endocrinology and Molecular Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin/Froedtert Hospital. Dr. Christopher Weber is an obesity medicine specialist practicing in Milwaukee.
Schools across the state — whether they serve kindergartners or college students — continue to adjust plans for the fall based on the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation. The general idea is to bring as many students back in person as possible — the so-called return to normalcy — while not endangering students, teachers or their families.
Eating disorders like the one Natalie struggles with typically begin between 18 and 21 years of age. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the number of students seeking treatment for eating disorders and other mental health issues. The amount of students requesting care at UW-Madison’s University Health Services (UHS) has increased, and students with pre-existing conditions have also been triggered.
The ultimate goal of the National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program is to ensure that all LGBTQ+ patients receive the highest standards of care, according to Dr. Elizabeth Petty, principal investigator and program director for the interdisciplinary fellowship program.
The American Medical Association Foundation announced on Tuesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Public Health and Medicine will be the first institution to participate in its new National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program, which aims to combat shortcomings in the medical care provided to LGBTQ people in the United States.
Dr. Elizabeth Petty, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the medical school, explained the $750,000 in funding over the course of four years will help create the training program for primary care physicians who are early in their career.
The school’s National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program, which will receive $750,000 in funding from the American Medical Association Foundation over the course of four years, will create a clinical training program for early-career physicians so they can help optimize LGBTQ+ patients’ health.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will be the first site to host a new national fellowship that aims to make the doctor’s office more supportive of LGBTQ patients.
Students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison will not be required to be vaccinated, although the university says that it expects most will get one of the vaccines. Less than two hours away, at the private Marquette University in Milwaukee, students must get the vaccine.
Madison: Wisconsin’s two medical schools are collaborating on a study addressing health disparities in the state. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will use $3 million in endowment money to measure and recommend solutions for health inequities, which have been underscored by the coronavirus pandemic.
The UW Undiagnosed Genetic Disease Clinic, a clinic for people with undiagnosed genetic diseases, will allow doctors to give a diagnosis to patients, give patients a better understanding of their condition and let experts discover new genes that can cause the disease.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will use $3 million in endowment money to measure and recommend solutions for health inequities, which have been underscored by the coronavirus pandemic.
A new collaboration between UW Health, the Waisman Center and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health aims to discover, diagnose and ultimately better understand rare genetic diseases.
A new collaboration between UW Health, the Waisman Center and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health is trying to better understand rare genetic diseases.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health has been selected as the first site of the National LGBTQ+ Fellowship Program to train early-career doctors to understand and respond to the needs of LGBTQ+ patients.
Column by Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Twelve years after scientists in Wisconsin delved into all the genes of a young Monona boy, diagnosed a new disease and saved the child’s life, a new clinic will try to do the same for scores of other people suffering from mysterious illnesses.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin are launching a $3 million effort to address health disparities in Wisconsin, which have been underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The league’s Scientific Advisory Board on Thursday announced a four-year, $4 million award to a team of medical researchers led by the University of Wisconsin. The study is part of the NFL’s effort to better understand and prevent lower-extremity injuries, including soft tissue strains such as hamstrings.
The NFL announced on Thursday that they have awarded $4 million to fund a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The award, which will be given over four years, is devoted to researching new ways to prevent and treat hamstring injuries.
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that even though the Delta variant is the most infectious strain, “there are areas of the country where too many people have not yet gotten vaccinated and wrongly believe that the pandemic is over.”
But, according to numbers from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, only about 83 casesof the variant have been formally diagnosed in the state.
For more on the variant, and the risk it could pose, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Doctor Ajay Sethi, an Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison.
UW Health experts said there’s a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and the majority of patients are not vaccinated. In the past week, the number of people hospitalized jumped by 17 people and officials are urging those who have not been vaccinated to make an appointment as soon as possible.
Interview: Christine Whelan, UW–Madison professor and Chief Happiness Officer at Dear Pandemic, offers “Nerdy Girl” insight into navigating our emotions, finding joy, and spreading kindness at this stage of pandemic life.
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, professor of population health sciences at UW-Madison, said this scenario is proof the pandemic is not over.
“It’s a good reminder that anybody who is not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 really ought to do so because as soon as you leave your house without a mask, you have a risk of catching the virus,” said Sethi.
Quoted: Thomas Friedrich, professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the FT that federal regulations designed to protect people’s privacy can get in the way of the “rapid sharing of information we need.” States interpret these regulations in different ways, he said.
Interview with Shelby O’Connor from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Shelby has worked with several other labs at UW-Madison on several specific areas of study, one of which she refers to as passive surveillance.
Quoted: “The really good news is that if you have gotten your vaccine, you’re not going to be sick with the Delta virus,” said David O’Connor, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the July 7 edition of Here & Now’s Noon Wednesday.
“Most of the people who are getting sick with the Delta variant, and indeed with covid generally, in the United States are people who are not vaccinated,” said Thomas Friedrich, a professor of pathobiological sciences at UW-Madison, also during the July 7 episode of Noon Wednesday.
Quoted: Dr. María Carolina Mora Pinzón, a preventive medicine physician and scientist at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute at University of Wisconsin, Madison, says that Latinos are less likely to move a relative into a residential care facility or access other forms of help.
“We have heard from people that are looking for the services, that they are not available for their family members,” said Mora Pinzón. “It’s either an access issue where they are not eligible, or the insurance does not cover these types of services.”
With just over a month-and-a-half until students return to the University of Wisconsin-Madison residence halls, university officials say 92.5% of those who plan to live on campus plan to be fully vaccinated by the time they move in.
The University of Wisconsin Health System is adding nearly two dozen new locations where someone will be able to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
UW-Health’s Dr. Jeff Pothof describes this as “messy science”. He says, it’s not uncommon for scientists and health officials to go back and forth, trying to interpret all of the data.
UW Health says COVID vaccines are now available at its primary care clinics throughout the Dane County area.
A survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found 92.5% of incoming dorm residents will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the start of classes this fall.
Guest Dr. Joshua Mezrich, an associate Director of Surgery at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, shares insights from his book, “When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon.”
Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón—a UW Health doctor and associate professor of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health—takes care of patients at the Wingra Family Medical Center. In her free time, Dr. Téllez-Girón serves as co-chair of the Latino Health Council, helping her community get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We started hearing a lot in the media about ’oh the minority populations, they are not going to want it. There is gonna be a lot of hesitancy,’” UW Health Primary Care Provider Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón said. “Particularly here in Dane County we started thinking, huh, I don’t think that is going to be the case with our population.”
Dane County has the strongest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Wisconsin for the Latinx community, and a UW Health physician has had a big hand in that effort.
UW Health said it is offering the immunizations at several primary care clinics in Dane County and will be expanding access to all primary care sites in the coming weeks. For more information, go to go.madison.com/uwhealth.
The ambulatory nurse program is designed for new nurses who just finished school. The program began in February, but a new group will start the program in August.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has joined an international effort to create a pandemic prevention institute aimed at helping researchers, public health officials and governments respond quickly to future pandemics.
Medical debt collection, a complex process and significant cause of personal bankruptcy, is receiving renewed attention because of the financial challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some health systems, including UW Health, Froedtert Health and Advocate Aurora, stopped such actions early last year as the pandemic hit, but it’s not clear how long the reprieve will last. “We will reevaluate our situation once (the federal government) declares we are no longer in a pandemic,” said Tom Russell, a spokesperson for UW Health, which stopped such lawsuits in late March 2020.
Mary Thurber, clinical instructor in zoological medicine at UW-Madison and Vilas’ primary veterinarian, said zookeepers continue to take precautions around animals potentially at risk of contracting COVID-19, including wearing facemasks.
