Media Coverage
The work done by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine faculty members (and even some students) is regularly highlighted in newspapers, online media outlets and more. Below you’ll find links to articles and videos of Feinberg in the news.
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The Washington Post
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What all those words on the sunscreen bottle really mean
Whether you have fair or dark skin, hit the beach every day or only on vacation, are 16 or 60, you need to use sunscreen if you’ll be in the sun for longer than a few minutes. But with bottles and tubes covered with claims, “it’s really hard to make sense of what all the terminology means,” says ,”Roopal V. Kundu, an associate professor of dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who researches how people buy and use sunscreen. Here, then, is the help you need: seven common terms and what they actually mean — and don’t. First, however, know that although the federal government requires sunscreen claims to be “truthful and not misleading,” only three of the main claims that consumers see — “SPF,” “broad-spectrum” and “water-resistant” — are strictly regulated.
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TODAY
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Toxic shock syndrome blamed for 16-year-old’s sudden death on school trip
TSS now occurs in up to three per 100,000 menstruating women, the National Organization for Rare Disorders estimated. Menstrual TSS most commonly occurs in girls and women 15 to 25 years old who are using tampons. Dr. Lauren Streicher, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has only seen one case in her almost 30 years of practice. “It’s extraordinarily, extraordinarily rare,” Streicher told TODAY. “I certainly would not tell my daughters or my patients that they should be concerned about using tampons.”
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National Public Radio (WBEZ-Chicago)
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Science and Creativity: Your Brain on Laughter Part III
When is humor appropriate in the medical field? Bioethicist Katie Watson, an Assistant Professor in the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program of Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, has thought a lot about this issue. She moonlights as faculty at the Second City Training Center in Chicago, the teaching side of the famous improv comedy club.
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NBC News
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HIV-prevention program that uses soap operas and games shows results
“Keep It Up!” is made up of different modules involving interactive games, exercises, a simulation at a bar and a soap opera. “We start the program by hearing from other gay and bisexual men, talking about their connections to family, community, dating and sexual health,” said Brian Mustanski, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University. “So we start by this realization that we’re not just talking about HIV, we’re talking about your lives.” The study, conducted by the institute, was published last week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. When the HIV prevention program was developed, researchers compared its style of education to more traditional HIV education models made up of powerpoint slides and instructional videos.
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The Washington Post
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From apps to avatars, new tools for taking control of your mental health
IntelliCare, developed at Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, is based on a similar methodology aimed at depression and anxiety and includes a suite of programs. Some of these mini-apps give advice, others offer a checklist. “When you start, the app gives you a brief screening to find out the severity” of the user’s problems, said psychologist Stephen Schueller, one of IntelliCare’s developers and an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern. Individuals who are depressed and likely to stay in bed all day might be prompted with “goals” to get out of bed, brush their teeth and eat something. “So you check them off as you do them,” Schueller said, “and as you check them off, you’re given harder things to accomplish. People really like being challenged.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Northwestern students give ‘freedom’ by retrofitting motorized cars for kids with disabilities
The Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering students were collaborating on a project for the course Clinical Management of the Complex Patient, which offers various hands-on workshops. The workshops focus on a range of topics from pediatrics to women’s health. This is the first year students have modified the motorized cars that will be donated to the kids as part of the pediatrics series, said Jennifer Kahn, a physical therapist and the course director. “We can teach them everything on paper, everything on a PowerPoint, but to really have that interaction with the kids gives them a whole new skill set,” Kahn said. The five kids receiving the modified cars were referred to the class by various organizations, including Lurie Children’s Hospital, and physical therapists.
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Reuters
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People with allergies often leave life-saving epinephrine at home
Most people with severe allergies have filled their prescriptions for epinephrine auto-injectors, but fewer than half carry the devices with them, a new study suggests. About 40 percent of study participants reported having a severe allergic reaction when their auto-injector was unavailable. “Many patients at-risk of potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis do not routinely carry their prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors, despite having experienced severe reactions in the past,” coauthors Christopher Warren and Dr. Ruchi Gupta told Reuters Health in a joint email.
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National Public Radio (WBUR-Boston)
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Want To Prevent HIV Among Young Gay And Bisexual Men? Try Turning Sex Ed Into A Game
The multimedia program, called “Keep It Up!,” was created by researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It’s the first entirely online HIV prevention program to show a biologically relevant outcome — reduction in sexually transmitted infections. The trial results were published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “We were expecting maybe we would see a 10 to 15 percent reduction,” says Brian Mustanski, director of Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing and lead author of the study. “We were really, really pleasantly surprised.”
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National Public Radio
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‘Fundamental Shift’ Needed To Protect Miners From Deadly Black Lung
“We still have to sample more people and we have to sample them more frequently,” says Dr. Robert Cohen, a pulmonologist and black lung researcher at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who reviewed drafts of the report. Also, the new dust monitors do not provide real-time sampling of silica dust, which is created when mining machines cut into sandstone and is far more toxic than coal dust alone. Cutting sandstone has occurred more often in Central Appalachia as large coal seams are mined out and the thinner seams that remain have sandstone mixed with the coal.
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CNN
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Just 23% of US adults get enough exercise, CDC reports
“You can have a physically active job, but certainly, if one is out as a contractor, aspects of being a fireman or firewoman, such jobs have physical aspects to them in a way that sitting in a job do not,” said Daniel Corcos, a professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, who was not involved with the report. “But there are virtually no jobs out that require the heart to be elevated continuously at more than 100 beats per minute and also strengthen the muscles in a way they do in leisure-time physical activity that includes both aerobic and resistance activity.” It’s imperative for people to find ways to exercise and take ownership of their health if they want to ward off the many illnesses associated with a lack of physical activity, such as hypertension and diabetes, Corcos said.
