The University of Washington Academic Medical Center is offering the general public the chance to learn about medical science, patient care and cutting-edge research by attending Mini-Medical School 2002.
Author: Pam Sowers
Pancreatic cancer seems swift and unforgiving to its victims. Typically, the disease is not detected until after it has spread to other organs, and it is highly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation. Of the 29,000 people who will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, approximately 28,900 will die within a few months of that diagnosis. Experts at the University of Washington say this situation is changing, and they predict huge breakthroughs in both early detection and therapy in the next 10 years.
To focus on the social and emotional health and well-being of the youngest members of society, a new Center on Infant Mental Health and Development is being established at the University of Washington. The center will place special emphasis on vulnerable children at developmental risk for various reasons, including mental health issues faced by their mothers or other caregivers, an absence of social supports, conditions of poverty and homelessness, and parental substance abuse.
University of Washington School of Nursing Professor Lois Price-Spratlen will discuss the experiences of early African-American nurses in Seattle who overcame racial discrimination and adversity to achieve their dreams. Her free public presentation at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, in Hogness Auditorium at the UW Health Sciences Center is titled “Seattle African-American Nurses: How They Have Overcome.” It is the third in a series of public lectures sponsored as a community service by the UW School of Nursing.
The University of Washington National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health is conducting new research into how drugs are handled in the body by pregnant women, a field which according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deserves more attention. The FDA is providing $150,000 for the research to identify the doses that will provide the greatest benefit and the least risk for the mother and her baby. Dr. Mary Hebert, associate professor in the UW Department of Pharmacy, Dr. Tom Easterling, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and Dr. Gail Anderson, associate professor in pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, will be conducting the study evaluating a high blood pressure medication commonly prescribed for pregnant women.
Dr. Bobbie Berkowitz, professor and chair of the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health in the School of Nursing, and Dr. Cornelius Rosse, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Biological Structure in the School of Medicine, join 36 other UW faculty members previously elected to the Institute of Medicine.
The University of Washington Medical Clinic-Roosevelt, at 4245 Roosevelt Way NE in Seattle, is the only local site for an international study of the use of digital imaging in mammography. The research study currently recruiting about 2,500 patients will examine the ability of digital mammography to find breast cancer as compared it to current film-based techniques.
University of Washington Medical Center moved up a notch in its ranking among the top hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2001 annual guide to “America’s Best Hospitals,” which was updated in its July 23 issue, available July 16.
Women who’ve had a Caesarean and who later attempt to deliver by labor are more likely to suffer a uterine rupture than women who go on to have a repeat Caesarean delivery, according to a University of Washington study published in the July 5 New England Journal of Medicine.
The removal of a regulator gene that allows the tuberculosis bacterium to remain dormant in laboratory studies could point the way to new treatments for many tuberculosis patients. Research at the University of Washington by Dr. David Sherman, assistant professor of pathobiology in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and his colleagues shows that by interrupting the function of this gene, the tuberculosis bacterium is unable to mount the appropriate genetic response. It thus may be unable to become dormant.
The University of Washington Health Sciences Library has been awarded a new five-year contract by the National Library of Medicine to serve as the Regional Medical Library for the Pacific Northwest Region, as part of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.
Graduates of University of Washington Medical Center’s Prematurity Prevention Program participating in March of Dimes WalkAmerica on Saturday, April 28 will meet at the finish line in Husky Stadium to start a celebration at 10 a.m. They’ll join more program participants for a gathering in the UWMC Plaza Café starting at 11 a.m. The reunion brings together mothers who worked on preventing the early births of their babies and clinical staff members to celebrate the children’s health and compare notes.
Several brief office visits along with continuing telephone calls or even e-mailed notes can help prevent relapse into depression among patients known to be at risk. A University of Washington study showed that interventions spaced throughout a 12-month follow-up period after an acute episode helped patients at risk of a relapse into major depression, also known as dysthymia, show a significant improvement in their adherence to an anti-depressant medication program.
With the completion of a study by researchers at the University of Washington, the relationship between hormone replacement therapy and myocardial infarction (heart attacks) is a little clearer. The study, published in the Feb. 21 edition of the Journa of the American Medical Association, shows a possible link between the presence of a genetic variant associated with blood clotting and the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) in hypertensive women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Art collections and healing gardens will grow out of the conference being presented April 19-21 by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and coordinated by University of Washington Medical Center Art Program. Artists, art students and health-care facility staff, as well as architects and designers are invited to the three-day event, titled “Tools for the 21st Century: Building the Arts,” to be held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown Seattle.
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has accredited the University of Washington’s Hall Health Primary Care Center for three years. In the letter of notification, AAAHC President William H. Beeson said, “The dedication and effort necessary to achieve accreditation is substantial. UW Hall Health Primary Care Center is to be commended for this accomplishment.”
The Paul G. Allen Foundation for Medical Research has given a $1 million grant to support the University of Washington’s Medical Scientist Training Program.
Knowing that extreme sensitivity to some bitter tastes is genetically-driven, researchers in the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine tried to find out if genetic taste markers might prevent some women from enjoying bitter chocolate or bitter espresso coffee. Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the school’s Nutritional Sciences Program, says the study by graduate student Agnes Ly and himself showed that any aversion to bitter taste, genetic or not, was easily overcome by the addition of a little sugar or a lot of fat. The study was published in the January issue of Chemical Senses, an Oxford University Press journal.
In January 2001, the UW School of Nursing will launch a “cybernetic time capsule” commemorating its long history as a school and its impact on nursing education and practice as the top-ranked school of nursing in the country, if not the world
A survey conducted by Dr. Maria Silveira and her colleagues showed that while patients in Oregon have had extensive exposure to arguments about assisted suicide, and voted on it twice, many do not understand their basic rights regarding end-of-life care.
A $4 million dollar grant to create a co-operative research center on hepatitis C has been awarded to the University of Washington by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with the support of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Scientists have known for years that birds’ ears do something human ears cannot: when hair cells in the avian ear are destroyed, the bird goes deaf only temporarily. Now, research at the University of Washington is showing why.
A University of Washington survey has found that studies about human sexual activity leave out an important factor: the sexual activity of prostitutes.
For older people with mild depression, antidepressant medication improves symptoms better and faster than counseling or placebos, concluded the authors of an article published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Sudden cardiac arrest remains the No. 1 killer of adults in the United States. Coronary artery disease will kill 250,000 or more people this year. One way to reduce the numbers of these deaths dramatically is to make automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, widely available for home use, said Dr. Mickey Eisenberg.
Dr. Douglas S. Paauw, associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington, has been appointed as the first holder of the Rathmann Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Patient-Centered Clinical Education.