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Category: Health

Now seen as barbaric, lobotomies won him a Nobel Prize in 1949

Washington Post

Once considered by many “the height of medical progress,” according to Jenell Johnson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and author of “American Lobotomy,” the lobotomy “ought to remind us to be humble about the limits of our knowledge in the present.”

The procedure, Johnson stressed, was “a kind of brain damage” that involved separating the connection between the parts of the brain that control executive function and emotion.

Amid new rules on antibiotics in livestock, Wisconsin farmer says producers still need medications

Wisconsin Public Radio

Sandra Stuttgen, a former veterinarian and current agriculture educator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension, said the new requirements are a part of the federal agency’s efforts to address how animal use of common drugs is contributing to the global problem of antibiotic resistance.

“As humans, if we have a condition where we need antibiotics, we want them to work,” she said. “They’re trying to protect the antibiotics that are of human significance, so it’s the drugs that humans and animals share.”

UW researchers look to study updated COVID vaccine effectiveness in IBD patients

WISC-TV 3

IBD is a blanket term for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The drugs used to treat those two conditions can leave patients immunosuppressed, which raised concerns about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for those patients. “Our goal is to, as new vaccines come out or new recommendations, to keep doing this type of research that will help patients inform whether they need a different vaccine schedule,” gastroenterologist Dr. Freddy Caldera said.

Gender-affirming health care would be banned for Wisconsin minors under GOP proposal

Wisconsin Public Radio

In a statement, UW School of Medicine and Public Health Dean Robert N. Golden and UW Health CEO Dr. Alan Kaplan said they will continue to support transgender and nonbinary patients.

“UW Health and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are committed to providing gender-affirming care that is evidence-based, patient-centered, and that focuses on the health and wellbeing of patients seeking the bright future they deserve,” the statement reads. “We will continue to lead clinical, research and education endeavors that allow patients to live their best and most fulfilled lives.”

Living In A Poor Neighborhood Could Disrupt The Way Your Brain Functions

Forbes

To dig deeper, the researchers used the participants’ MRI scans and further assessed whether they lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods based on their zip code’s area deprivation index (ADI). The team was able to determine that by using Neighborhood Atlas, which was developed at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine’s Public Health.

Healthcare workers worried about potential masking changes in hospitals

Popular Science

“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95 respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties, engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how airborne transmission works.”

UHS to resume in-state abortion referrals for UW-Madison students

Daily Cardinal

Sarah Clifford Glapa, UHS associate director of marketing and health communications, said in an email that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s (PPWI) recent decision to restore abortion services to two Wisconsin health clinics increases “local access to care for students,” including abortion referrals.

Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers

NBC News

“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95 respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties, engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how airborne transmission works.”

Opinion | America Already Knows How to Make Childbirth Safer

The New York Times

Dr. Tiffany Green, a professor at the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said she believes the effort to reduce maternal mortality should focus not only on care received in hospitals, but on the social and economic conditions faced in general by Black women. The United States should consider using federal civil rights law in cases where racial bias severely hurt the care a patient received. “If you think bias is a fundamental driver of these iniquities then you have to hold providers accountable,” Dr. Green said.

How hospitals can help patients prep for appointments

STAT

Working on question lists does not require a trained coach, however. A family member or friend can be a helpful guide to preparing for a visit, as the process of making a question list can decrease worry and increase a patient’s sense of control. In fact, there are various methods to brainstorm, clarify, and organize a question list, and anyone can find frameworks to navigate their medical decisions, including the Ottawa decision guides, the University of Wisconsin Surgery’s Best Case/Worst Case framework, or our own pre-appointment question list.

UW-Madison installs more Narcan boxes across campus

NBC-15

Aug. 31 is National Overdose Awareness Day, and in recognition, the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced 13 new Nalox-ZONE boxes were installed on campus. The boxes offer students resources to reverse an opioid overdose. Naloxone, also called Narcan, is found in all of the boxes and is a medication that can save someone from an overdose until they can get to a hospital, UW explained.

UW-Madison adds 13 more Naloxone kits across campus

WISC-TV 3

As students prepare to head back to classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they will find 13 more Opioid Overdose Reversal Boxes across campus. “Narcan saved my life way more times than I could count,” Kaeden Watford said.

Cats and dogs get dementia. Here’s how to spot signs and support pets.

Washington Post

“With cats, there is excessive vocalization and disorientation and changes in interaction with humans or other animals, such as hissing and swatting,” said Starr Cameron, clinical associate professor in small animal neurology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, who studies cat dementia. “Some cats are up all night and vocalizing. They go outside the litter box or can’t find it.”

UW Health launches home-based hospital care program

WISC-TV 3

The Home-Based Hospital Care program currently allows up to four adult patients to receive hospital care and equipment — everything from oxygen tanks and intravenous pumps to multiple in-person visits by medical staff daily — from home. Patients will also receive smart devices that will allow them to call medical staff at any time, just like a call button in a hospital bed.

The politics of school lunch

Wisconsin Public Radio

As kids head back to school, we take a look at the politics of school lunch, including compensation issues among school lunch workers, parental involvement with school meals, and the role of farmers in school lunches. Interview with Jennifer Gaddis, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Society and Community Studies at UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology.

A highly mutated COVID-19 strain, has infectious disease experts worried. It’s not been found in Wisconsin – yet.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“The concern is, could that cause a very similar spike epidemiologically, with more spread, more hospitalizations, more death?” said Ajay Sethi, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It doesn’t have to replicate what we saw the last time (with omicron), … but it certainly is on everybody’s mind.”

Social isolation is the greatest risk factor for dying of heat stroke

Wisconsin Public Radio

Richard Keller, professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said social isolation is the greatest risk factor for dying of heat stroke.

“Especially if they’re living on their own in marginal conditions without access to air conditioning and without access to a steady social network, they can often find themselves with no one to help if they find themselves in crisis,” Keller said.

You need an antibiotic, but it’s not available. How drug shortages force doctors to pick frustrating alternatives.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“We are a nation with many resources, and yet, generic medications across the board, and things like infant formula, are resources that some of our citizens don’t have access to because we haven’t really built the policies to ensure that there would be access,” said Kari Wisinski, chief of hematology and oncology and palliative care at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medicine.

Poor regulatory safeguards leave farmworkers suffocating in the face of increasing heat waves

Associated Press

“As a physician, I believe that these deaths are almost completely preventable,” said Bill Kinsey, a physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Until we determine as a society the importance of a human right for people to work in healthy situations, we are going to see continued illness and death in this population.”

Ketamine clinics have popped up across Wisconsin. Here’s why, and how they work

Wisconsin Public Radio

Ketamine has emerged as a therapeutic option for treatment-resistant depression and other mental health conditions. We talk to Cody Wenthur, an assistant professor at UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy and director of the school’s new Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation master’s program, about how it works and why ketamine clinics have popped up across Wisconsin.

What to Know About Long COVID in 2023

CNET

Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin spoke with CNET in 2021, when scientists were first getting a grip on long COVID, that the key to discerning the condition is to pay attention to new symptoms that develop or ones that never go away — about 30 days post-infection. This separates long COVID from the initial viral infection itself.

Health experts say teens, young adults benefit from doctor advice about social media

WKOW-TV 27

Dr. Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics with UW Health Kids, said the study had a surprising impact. 

“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” she said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”

COVID rates are rising. Now, a UW-Madison scientist has found a way to recycle face masks.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It may be time to break out the face masks again.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise nationwide due to a new omicron subvariant, EG.5, nicknamed “Eris.” Though Wisconsin isn’t getting hit hard yet, hospitalizations are up 14.3% and deaths are up 10% in the last week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

What to Know About Long COVID

CNET

Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin spoke with CNET in 2021, when scientists were first getting a grip on long COVID, that the key to discerning the condition is to pay attention to new symptoms that develop or ones that never go away — about 30 days post-infection. This separates long COVID from the initial viral infection itself.

Getting your kids to talk about social media with their doctors improves online behavior, study finds

Channel 3000

A new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health finds that even a brief conversation about social media with their doctor can improve teens’ behavior on the platforms.

“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” Dr. Megan Moreno of UW Health Kids and a professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”

UW-Madison professor Dr. Steve Cho lauds new prostate cancer therapy, notes shortages of needed radioisotopes

Wisconsin Public Radio

While some radiopharmaceuticals have been utilized in thyroid cancer treatment for decades, new radiation drugs are showing promise in many other areas, according to Dr. Steve Cho, a professor and section chief of the nuclear medicine section of the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

Now is the time to transition bedtimes from summer to school schedule, doctors say

Channel 3000

Dr. Steve Barczi, a professor of medicine at UW Health, said making a few small changes during the weeks leading up to the school year will go a long way.

“Most people project that if you can even just shift a child’s bedtime by maybe 15 minutes everyday or a couple days, until you move them back let’s say that hour that they need to be back to be able to be prepared for school, that’s a good gauge,” Barczi said.

Covid-19 cases on the rise in Wisconsin as summer winds down

TMJ-4

Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer and emergency medicine physician at UW Health, says a new COVID booster is good news. Dr. Pothof encourages people to get the new booster in September or October when they get their flu shot.

“Our immune systems get a little bit lazy and they don’t work as well against COVID. So having this booster is going to be helpful. It’s actually against the strain that’s pretty common out there right now,” Dr. Pothof.

UW Health Carbone Cancer Center to hold annual Roll and Stroll for Pancreas Cancer on Sunday

Madison365

The annual event is organized by the Pancreas Cancer Task Force, a group of volunteers dedicated to raising funds for pancreas cancer research while supporting patients throughout their cancer journey. Gerianne Holzman, chair of Roll and Stroll 2023, says “Gathering survivors, along with their family, friends, and care teams shows everyone impacted by this disease that they are not alone.”

UW Health to host free sports physical clinic Wednesday night

WISC-TV 3

There are a number of reasons why sports physicals are important, especially this time of year. Dr. David Bernhardt, a pediatric sports medicine physician with UW Health said it allows kids to participate in sport which has a significant impact on mental and physical health, among other benefits.

New study shows some Wisconsin neighborhoods have higher rates of antibiotic resistance

Wisconsin Public Radio

Now, new research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could give doctors a better understanding of which patients are affected by these strains by mapping the location of antibiotic resistance in great detail.

Laurel Legenza is a postdoctoral researcher at UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy and lead author of the new study. She used data from cases of E. coli infections at three Wisconsin health care systems to map out where bacteria were susceptible to two common antibiotic treatments.