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Making Headlines |
Alzheimer’s Patient’s Care in Dispute after Inverness Arrest
Chicago Daily Herald June 19, 2008
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=209688&src=1
NORTHWESTERN University clinical social worker Darby Morhardt has worked with Alzheimer’s patients for more than 20 years. But for all her expertise, Morhardt, who works in the school’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, has never heard of an incident like the one police say occurred Saturday in Inverness between a 60-year-old Alzheimer’s patient and her live-in caregiver. Police say a neighbor told them they saw the caregiver spray down the unclothed woman with a garden hose in her backyard. The caregiver, 49-year-old Stefania Lisowska, has been charged with aggravated battery to a senior and criminal abuse of the elderly. Morhardt said that, if true, Lisowska’s actions were “very humiliating and very abusive.” “There really are alternatives to what she (is accused of doing) in a very public display,” Morhardt said.
On Television
WHOI-TV (Peoria) June 18.
Reference to research by Richard Burt, MD, associate professor of medicine, on stem cell transplants for autoimmune diseases.
Study Finds Depression Can Trigger Diabetes
Reuters June 17, 2008
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN1735710620080617
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—People with depression have a higher risk of developing the most common form of diabetes than others, according to a study published on Tuesday that sheds light on the interplay between the two conditions. The study indicated that the relationship between Type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease closely linked to obesity and sedentary lifestyle, may be a bit like a two-way highway. Not only can diabetes lead to depression, as has been well established, but depression can also lead to diabetes. A study last year in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine headed by Mercedes Carnethon of NORTHWESTERN University in Chicago found that people age 65 and older with symptoms of depression were more likely to develop diabetes than those without depressive symptoms.
Scrubs Should Be Freshly Scrubbed
Chicago Tribune June 17, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0617-health-scrubsjun17,0,6234283.story
The next time you see a health-care worker wearing scrubs in public, think twice. Sure, they look clean and authoritative, but you might wonder if there’s a health risk to wandering around town wearing this supposedly sterile garb. Retired pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Joseph J. Amato of Rush University Medical Center often sees health-care workers wearing their scrubs in public. But Dr. Gary A. Noskin of NORTHWESTERN warns against jumping to conclusions. “If you see people out in public wearing scrubs, they may or may not even be health-care workers,” said Noskin, associate chief medical officer at the hospital and an infectious disease expert.
Northwestern Ending Its Academic Affiliation with ENH
Chicago Tribune June 16, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-080616-uc-enh-story,0,7420531.story
NORTHWESTERN University is terminating its academic affiliation with Evanston NORTHWESTERN Healthcare, which is in talks with the University of Chicago about a possible academic affiliation. The coming change in the relationship shakes up the landscape among some of the Chicago area’s most prestigious names in medical care and could change the brands tens of thousands of area consumers have come to know in their hospitals.
Following a one-year transition period, “most NORTHWESTERN [University medical] students and residents will be phased out of rotations at the hospitals owned by Evanston NORTHWESTERN Healthcare and … most physicians and researchers at those hospitals would no longer be on the faculty of NORTHWESTERN’s Feinberg School of Medicine,” NORTHWESTERN University said in a statement Monday afternoon. “The termination of the agreement stems from different visions by NORTHWESTERN and ENH regarding future directions for the respective institutions.” The University of Chicago Medical Center said executives were in meetings and were unavailable for comment. University of Chicago is the latest Midwest academic medical center to have talks with an Evanston-based suburban hospital operator about a possible academic affiliation, according to sources close to the talks.
Evanston NORTHWESTERN Healthcare, which operates hospitals in Glenview, Highland Park and Evanston, and last month announced a plan to buy Rush North Shore Medical Center in Skokie, has had talks with University of Chicago in recent weeks, these sources say.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Chicago Tribune June 16, 2008
Medical teaching tie severed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue-northwestern-evanston-uojun17,0,1515889.story
Crain’s Chicago Business June 16, 2008
Evanston NORTHWESTERN, NU part ways
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=29835
CLTV, WBBM-AM June 16. Reference to Northwestern University ending
its relationship with Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.
Chicago Sun-Times June 17, 2008
NORTHWESTERN ends affiliation with ENH
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1009038,CST-FIN-nu17WEB.article
CLTV, WGN-AM, WBBM-AM June 17. Reference to Northwestern ending
its relationship with Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.
Evanston Review June 19, 2008
ENH, NORTHWESTERN to part ways
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/evanston/news/1010486,ev-enh-061908-s1.article
NIU to Break Ground on New Cancer Center
Chicago Daily Herald June 14, 2008
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=207585&src=2
Northern Illinois University is set to break ground next week on the state’s first proton cancer therapy treatment center in West Chicago. University officials from the DeKalb school will join state and local officials Thursday at the future site of the $159 million facility, to be located at the DuPage National Technology Park.
State health regulators gave NIU the go-ahead in February to pursue construction of the treatment center. Only five such facilities, which use proton beams rather than standard radiation to treat a variety of cancers, exist in the country. John Lewis, an associate vice president of NIU and the cancer center’s project manager, said university officials are finalizing an agreement with NORTHWESTERN University’s physicians group, the NORTHWESTERN Medical Faculty Foundation, to provide clinical services on site.
Delayed Sleep Pattern Tied to Irregular Menstrual Cycles
Washington Post (HealthDay News) June 13, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061303077.html?sub=new
Having delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) appears to be linked to irregular menstrual cycles and increased premenstrual symptoms in women, according to a new report. DSPS occurs when your internal clock is naturally out of sync with real time, so that staying up late and having difficulty waking early is your norm. It is unlike such conditions as jet lag, because external factors (time zone change, noise, light) do not cause your internal clock to desynchronize.
“While the data is preliminary, these results suggest that women with delayed sleep phase syndrome may be at increased risk for menstrual irregularity associated with circadian misalignment,” study author Kari Sveum, of NORTHWESTERN University in Chicago, said in a prepared statement. “Further investigation with a larger group of subjects using prospective diary data would be useful to further establish the effects of circadian disruption on reproductive cycles in women with delayed sleep phase syndrome.”
Experts Say ‘Death-Defying’ Culture Contributes to Underused Hospice in Illinois
Windy City Citizen June 13, 2008
http://www.windycitizen.com/news/beverly/2008/06/13/experts-say-death-defying-culture-contributes-to-underused-hospice-in-illino
Illinois is failing aging population, draining Medicare dollars with inefficient end-of-life care system, health care authorities say. But that shouldn’t be the case in the future as more medical schools incorporate end-of-life curricula, according to Dr. Joshua Hauser of the Buehler Center for Aging, Health & Society at NORTHWESTERN University. “There’s a growing familiarity with dying among nurses, students, residents and health care providers,” Hauser said. “There is a growing realization that [death] is a part of what happens to people and what happens in hospitals.”
Doctors aren’t the only people to blame for delayed entrance into hospice, according to Judith Paice, a cancer-related pain expert at NORTHWESTERN Memorial Hospital. Patients are also unrealistic about their mortality, she said. “We are a death-defying society,” Paice said. “The ads for Botox and liposuction and herbal therapies that make us appear young forever are all over the media, so the message is, ‘you can live forever.’ But we know that’s not the case.”
On the Radio
WBBM-AM June 13.
Reference to a study by Michael Wolf, Institute for Healthcare Studies, on reading prescription labels.
ECG Reading May Predict Death, Rehospitalization Risk
Washington Post (HealthDay News) June 10, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061001984.html
Hospitalized heart failure patients who have a longer than normal QRS duration (a measurement of the electrical conducting time of the heart on an electrocardiogram) appear to have a high risk of death or rehospitalization, U.S. researchers report. They analyzed data from 2,962 patients hospitalized for heart failure who had a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF—a measure of how well the left ventricle of the heart pumps with each contraction) of 40 percent or less. Of those patients, 1,641 had a normal QRS duration (less than 120 ms) and 1,321 had a prolonged QRS duration (120 ms or greater).
“In this analysis, a prolonged QRS duration was present in 45 percent of patients admitted with heart failure, and reduced LVEF, did not appear to significantly change during hospitalization, and was independently associated with high post- discharge mortality and readmission rate. This high morbidity and mortality was observed even though patients were well-treated with standard medical therapy that included beta-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers [ARBs],” wrote the researchers from the NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Science Centric June 11, 2008
For heart failure patients, certain findings on ECG predicts risk of rehospitalisation
http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08061118
A Very Inexact Science—Doctors Often Fumble Predicting Life Expectancy
Wall Street Journal June 6, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121270546010950205.html
When Sen. Ted Kennedy’s diagnosis of brain cancer was announced, it set off a morbid, sometimes irresponsible, countdown. Reporters wanted to know how long he could live with his tumor, known as a glioma. Doctors, going by the limited information available from Sen. Kennedy’s doctors, responded with answers that were all over the map. Even if the media’s medical experts could draw on the same information as Sen. Kennedy’s doctors, it would be hard to predict survival time. “Most of the numbers are based on all comers,” says Jeffrey Raizer, director of NORTHWESTERN University’s medical neuro-oncology program. Age—Sen. Kennedy is 76 years old—and functional impairment, as measured by the Karnofsky Performance Status score, have a big impact on the prognosis. An otherwise healthy person his age might do as well as a typical 40-year-old. “You have to treat the individual, not the statistic,” Dr. Raizer says.
Arts Council Set for State Budget Bump
Chicago Tribune June 5, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-giving-arts-humanities-0605jun05,0,3022926.story
Grants: The National Institutes of Health is providing $29 million for work at NORTHWESTERN University’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute aimed at speeding the evolution of basic science findings into patient treatments. As part of the initiative, the institute is establishing five centers.
Guideline Would Boost Cholesterol Drug Use
Reuters June 6, 2008
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=cf22cb10-99a6-4c61-b376-3ed4683e3992
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The number of U.S. adults on cholesterol-lowering medication could rise by one-quarter to one-half if doctors were to routinely scan adults’ arteries for plaque buildup, a study suggests. In 2006 a group of prominent cardiologists, dubbed the SHAPE Task Force, drew up recommendations for a new way to assess middle-aged and older adults’ heart attack risk. The study “is necessary and important but does not in itself provide sufficient evidence for the adoption of the SHAPE recommendations,” write Dr. Mark J. Pletcher, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Philip Greenland, of NORTHWESTERN University in Chicago.
With a Tiny Bit of Cancer, Debate on How to Proceed
New York Times June 3, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/03canc.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
In a cancer patient, lymph nodes are the closest thing to a crystal ball. Gaze into them after removing a tumor. The presence of malignant cells may be a sign that the cancer will recur, leading to more tests and intensive treatment. As biopsies of the lymph nodes grow more sophisticated and sensitive, oncologists and patients face the unsettling question of what to do with a little bit of cancer. It has become a familiar debate, especially for breast cancer, with no clear answer in sight. “We don’t have good answers at this point,” said Dr. Nora Hansen of the Feinberg School of Medicine at NORTHWESTERN University, who reported the results.
Whodunnit: TV or Fast Food or Genes?
Discover Magazine June 3, 2008
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/03-whodunnit-tv-or-fast-food-or-genes
The blame game for obesity (was it your parents or those cupcakes?) continues to escalate. Two recent studies—one in mice and another in humans—provide new evidence that a mind-numbingly complex array of genes influence body weight. By sampling fat tissue, one group of researchers found that the activity of 17,000 genes correlate with body mass index (a measure of body fat based on height and weight), and 14,900 correlate with waist-to-hip ratio. Complicating matters further, these genes seem to operate in large networks, interacting with each other and the environment to influence weight. So should you blame genes-with labels like Lpl, Lactb, and Ppm1l-or fast food and failure to exercise for your weighty woes? The top researchers say they still don’t know. Data from identical twins going back as far as the 1930s suggest that body weight is at least partly inherited, but only in recent years have scientists begun to appreciate the complexity of the genetic factors underlying obesity. Robert Kushner, a specialist in obesity medicine at NORTHWESTERN University, says that identifying the interacting genes will help screen those at risk, but far more research is needed before pharmaceutical interventions might emerge.
Family History Might Improve Odds Against Colon Cancer
HealthDay News June 2, 2008
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2008/06/03/hscout616158.html
The genetic makeup that increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer also seems to improve the chances of survival after treatment, a new study indicates. People with colorectal cancer who had close relatives with the malignancy were 28 percent less likely to die or to have a recurrence after treatment, according to a report in the June 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association by physicians at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The study “could change some expectations about colorectal cancer,” said Dr. Boris Pasche, director of the cancer genetics program at NORTHWESTERN University, who wrote an accompanying editorial. “The genetics of colorectal cancer are very clear,” Pasche said. “There is an increased risk for those with a family history. But we still don’t know what is causing that inheritance.” On the clinical level, the study indicates that “patients with a family history of colorectal cancer might be more treatable than whose who do not,” Pasche said. “If these intriguing findings are validated in other studies, family history may well become a new prognostic factor in colorectal cancer,” he wrote. “Should this be the case, genome-wide association studies and tumor gene expression profiling studies will be warranted.”
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
People’s Daily (China) June 4, 2008
Colon cancer history improves survival chance
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/90880/6424167.html
U of C Moving into Northwestern’s Turf
Associated Press June 2, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-hospitalexpansion,0,3379447.story
CHICAGO—A turf war between two major university hospitals may be brewing just north of downtown Chicago. In an attempt to compete with NORTHWESTERN Memorial Hospital in the downtown area, the University of Chicago Medical Center plans to open a physicians’ practice just off North Michigan Avenue.
The move by the U. of C. to lease a floor on East Huron Street would give the South Side hospital a presence in the Streeterville neighborhood, which is dominated by providers of medical care affiliated with NORTHWESTERN University. The U. of C. tried a decade ago to have a presence in downtown Chicago when it leased floor space on North LaSalle Street, but that effort lost money and was abandoned in the late 1990s.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Crains Chicago Business June 2, 2008
Docs duel downtown
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?id=29915
Chicago Tribune June 1, 2008
University of Chicago Medical Center to open downtown practice
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-080601-chicago-hospitals-,0,1328175.story
On Television
WLS-TV June 1.
Broadcast live from the 15th Annual Cancer Survivors’ Celebration & Walk with commentary by a survivor.
WMAQ-TV June 1.
Scenes from the 15th Annual Cancer Survivors’ Celebration & Walk
Beauty News
Good Housekeeping June 1, 2008
Not one tester applied a full ounce. The average application was only 0.3 ounces-less than one-third of what’s needed. To ensure you do better, try measuring out two tablespoons (a.k.a. that shot glass full). Or use the sunscreen container as a gauge: A three-ounce bottle holds three applications; four ounces has four; and so on. If yours lasts all summer, that’s a sure sign you’re skimping. Also choose a broad-spectrum product to block both aging UVA rays and cancer-causing UVB rays-and then reapply it at least every two hours, advises Brooke A. Jackson, MD, assistant professor of clinical dermatology at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Essence of Thought
New Scientist May 31, 2008
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19826586.100-is-this-a-unified-theory-of-the-brain.html
The quest to understand the most complex object in the known universe has been a long and fruitful one. These days we know a good deal about how the human brain works—how our senses translate into electrical signals, how different parts of the brain process these signals, how memories form and how muscles are controlled. We know which brain regions are active when we listen to speech, look at paintings or barter over money. We are even starting to understand the deeper neural processes behind learning and decision-making.
Friston’s results have earned praise for bringing together so many disparate strands of neuroscience. “It is quite certainly the most advanced conceptual framework regarding an application of these ideas to brain function in general,” says Wennekers. Marsel Mesulam, a cognitive neurologist from NORTHWESTERN University in Chicago, adds: “Friston’s work is pivotal. It resonates entirely with the sort of model that I would like to see emerge.”
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