Northwestern Medicine Caregivers Practice Having Difficult Conversations
Frontline caregivers practiced breaking bad news to simulated patients in an interactive workshop broadcast from Feinberg’s Simulation Lab to four other Northwestern Medicine locations.
Novel Approach Offers New Insights Into HIV’s Lifecycle
Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed a novel method of tracking HIV infection, allowing the behavior of individual virions to be connected to infectivity.
Medical Students Get First Taste of Patient Care
First-year medical students shadowed a wide variety of medical professionals, part of Introduction to the Profession week.
Sleep Patterns Contribute to Racial Differences in Disease Risk
Poor sleep may be a significant factor driving the differences in risk of cardiometabolic disease between African-Americans and European-Americans, according to a new study.
Active Non-Coding DNA May Help Pinpoint Genetic Risk for Psychiatric Disorders
Northwestern Medicine scientists have demonstrated a new method that helps to pinpoint which genetic variants might be most important in the development of schizophrenia and related disorders.
Incoming Medical Students Celebrate Founders’ Day
Founders’ Day, an annual Feinberg tradition, welcomed the incoming class of first-year medical students and marked the official beginning of the school year.
Media Coverage
Pediatricians say Florida hurt sick kids to help big GOP donors
In the spring and summer of 2015, the state switched more than 13,000 children out of a highly respected program called Children’s Medical Services, or CMS, a part of Florida Medicaid. Children on this plan have serious health problems including birth defects, heart disease, diabetes and blindness. The state moved the children to other Medicaid insurance plans that don’t specialize in caring for very sick children…”These are the sickest and most vulnerable kids, and (changing their insurance) can mean life or death for them,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. “This is really very troubling.”..
Dr. Rishi Agrawal, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, agreed, adding that Florida should have more carefully considered how the insurance switch would affect the children’s health care.
“The process in Florida was particularly abrupt and poorly executed,” he said.
This scientist hopes 3-D-printed ovaries will help women have babies
When Teresa Woodruff was in kindergarten, she tried dissecting earthworms to figure out how they work. Now, the 3-D-printed ovaries produced in her lab at Northwestern University are helping scientists better understand the female reproductive system — and that understanding has opened the door to promising new fertility treatments. Woodruff is the guest on the latest episode of People Behind the Science, a podcast that asks scientists about their motivations, challenges and accomplishments.
When Stress Hormone Falters, Your Health May Suffer
Steady daytime levels of the stress hormone cortisol are associated with serious health problems, such as inflammation, obesity and cancer, researchers say. Normally, cortisol levels should vary throughout the day. “Cortisol is naturally high in the morning to help perk you up, and it decreases into the evening,” said study lead author Emma Adam . She is a professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University.
For Cosmetics, Let the Buyer Beware
Dr. Califf’s editorial accompanied a rather startling report in the journal by Dr. Shuai Xu, a dermatologist, and two colleagues at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. On the heels of the thousands of complaints uncovered about WEN products, the F.D.A. made publicly available its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Adverse Event Reporting System, a repository of adverse events related to foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics. This enabled Dr. Xu and colleagues to analyze all the adverse events associated with cosmetics and personal care products voluntarily submitted from 2004 through 2016 by consumers and health care professionals. Through 2014, they averaged 396 a year. There was a 78 percent increase in reports in 2015 and a 300 percent rise in 2016, largely driven by complaints about WEN products.