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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Reuters
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Chemical in cigarette smoke may damage important aspect of vision
Even those with 20-20 vision can experience problems with daily living if their contrast sensitivity is impaired, said Dr. Nicholas J. Volpe, George and Edwina Tarry Professor and chairman of the department of ophthalmology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Contrast sensitivity declines as we age, Volpe said. But the new study suggests there might be other factors that can affect it.
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The New York Times
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Why Your DNA Is Still Uncharted Territory
Researchers tend to focus on genes that have been studied for decades, for example. To take on an enigma like PNMA6F can put a scientist’s career at risk. “This is very worrisome,” said Luís A. Nunes Amaral, a data scientist at Northwestern University and a co-author of the new study. “If the field keeps exploring the unknown this slowly, it will take us forever to understand these other genes.”
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The Washington Post
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Scientists identify four personality types
Gerlach and his colleagues Luís A. Nunes Amaral and Beatrice Farb are trying to propel these old ideas into the realm of big data. They took a relatively new approach — not adhering to Jungian theories but analyzing four huge data sets. They also enlisted the aid of Northwestern psychologist William Revelle, who been an outspoken skeptic of the idea of personality types. He was, at first, a critic of the group’s own study. “I’m going to be very blunt,” he said. “My first reaction was this is nonsense.”
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Chicago Tonight – WTTW
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Physician: ‘We Can All Do Something’ to Address Gun Violence
Dr. Mamta Swaroop has seen life slip away from gun violence. Two years ago, a patient she was treating for a gunshot wound died. She describes the experience as “one of the most self-defeating feelings in the world because you can’t do anything about that.” But what haunts Swaroop, an associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, was how the victim’s mother responded. “She fell into my chest, and she’s crying and she’s yelling and she’s screaming. And those screams and those yells are in my bones,” she said.
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NBC News
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Daily aspirin may be harmful for healthy older adults, large study finds
That’s a decision Dr. Mark Huffman plans to make in conversations with his patients. “Some of them will say, ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,’ ” predicted Huffman, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine. “Others will say, ‘If the data suggest I might not have any benefit, I would like to take fewer pills.’
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Chicago Tribune
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New blood test can determine what time your body thinks it is
The new test, called TimeSignature, measures 40 different gene expression markers and can be taken any time of day. Rosemary Braun, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of biostatistics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the blood test can assess a person’s biological clock to within an hour and a half.
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Chicago Tribune
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Should obese women try to control weight during pregnancy? Yes, but here’s the catch
Researchers are concluding that to lower their risk of complications, women may have to change their behaviors before or immediately after they conceive. “We think that by the time these women are already in the second trimester, it may already be late to change important outcomes,” said Alan Peaceman, lead author and chief of maternal fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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The cancer patient had exhausted his options. Enter immunotherapy.
Dr. Young Kwang Chae, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University and one of DART’s principal investigators, says that DART researchers are analyzing the first round of results and have no plans to close enrollment. Patients with rare cancer make up roughly 20 percent of diagnoses, Chae says, but they often have no standard of care and little hope for survival. “That’s really depressing,” he says. “As a collection, they’re not rare.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Experts at Aurora forum say we need to end ‘stigma’ concerning talking about suicide
Laura Murray of Northwestern Medicine, who said she works as a case therapist, participated in the Aurora forum “to educate the public about ways to help.” “We tell people they can call 911 or go to the emergency room where an evaluation can be done as well as schedule outpatient therapy,” she said. “As a case worker – I see this issue every day and we need to be more open to prevention – there is no single cause to suicide, but in most cases, the victim believes their stressors have exceeded their coping procedures.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Eat this, not that: New FoodSwitch app helps you shop for healthier options
Northwestern Medicine has joined the mix with FoodSwitch, which dubs itself “a nutritionist whispering in your ear.” As you grocery shop, the app allows you to scan an item’s bar code, pull up nutrition facts such as saturated fat, sugar, sodium and energy, and get its health rating based on a five-star scale. Finally, FoodSwitch will suggest healthier alternatives from its database of more than 268,000 products.The app, which launched in June, is a collaboration of The George Institute for Global Health in Australia, data from Chicago-based Label Insight, and academic support from Northwestern. “We needed a system to monitor what’s in the food supply in order to improve the helpfulness of what we eat every day,” said Dr. Mark Huffman, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine.
