Media Coverage

In the United States, the number of babies born prematurely—at or before the 37th week of pregnancy—has been on the rise in the last five years. The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that one in 10 babies is born preterm. These infants often suffer complications that can keep them in the NICU for months. Depending on how far ahead of the mother’s due date a baby arrives, problems can include alarmingly low birth weight, underdeveloped lungs, and compromised ability to suck and nurse. (Learn why the rate of maternal mortality is rising in America.) Babies in the NICU are typically tethered to wires that continuously monitor vital signs such as body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen, and more. But if the new sensors become part of standard care, “essentially all the wires go away,” says study leader John Rogers, the engineer behind the device’s technology.

“The impetus for the study stemmed from the fact that the majority of rounds of golf in the United States are now played with a golf cart, which has been suggested to affect the health benefits of the sport. We wanted to measure the effect of this in individuals with knee osteoarthritis,” said study co-author Dr. Prakash Jayabalan. He is a clinician-scientist in sports medicine at AbilityLab, in Chicago.[…]”Walking exercise is commonly advocated for individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Our study suggests that golf may be a good prescription of walking exercise, particularly if they walk the course, as they get more health benefits,” said Jayabalan, who is also an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Survey finds violence, bullying, poverty top the list of social concerns for Chicago children and adolescents LURIE IDENTIFIES KID’S TOP SOCIAL ISSUES. Gun violence, bullying and poverty are the biggest social problems facing Chicago’s youth, according to parents surveyed by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Public Health. The survey of parents from all 77 community areas in Chicago also flagged racism and unsafe housing among the top ten concerns.

The Northwestern scholars program is run by Dr. Clyde Yancy, vice dean for diversity and inclusion at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and chief of cardiology at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago.[…]Sixty percent of the scholars pursue science, technology, engineering or math majors in college; are in premed tracks; or are in health care-related fields, such as nursing, said Janet Rocha, an assistant professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

If you have a cough that’s wet (mucus/congestion in your lungs in your cough) and if you can feel the congestion dripping from your sinuses down the back of the throat into the airway, then you know you have a cough caused by a post-nasal drip, says Angela C. Argento. M.D., interventional pulmonologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. How to treat it: First line of defense? “Nasal sprays that can include steroids or just saline (salt water) or treatments to clear the sinuses, such as a sinus rinse or Neti pot,” Dr. Argento says. In severe cases, you may require a procedure with an ear, nose and throat doctor to address the issue, along with antibiotics, she adds.

Like other areas of your body, your navel naturally contains bacteria and fungi. If you don’t clean your belly button regularly and the circumstances are just right, microorganisms can proliferate and cause an infection, Edidiong Kaminska, M.D., a dermatologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, tells SELF. There are a few other mechanisms behind common belly button infections, too. Here are five different belly button infections you can get, along with their symptoms.

Increasing exercise intensity can be as simple as adding a short sprint into a longer walk or run, said Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “High-intensity interval training provides variety and challenges that appeal to some types of personalities,” Carnethon said. “Some people enjoy the sedative experience of jogging or walking briskly for a period of time. Others want to do short bursts of activity.”

Studies have found that allowing parents to spend time with stillborn infants may reduce mothers’ chances for developing anxiety and depression afterward. Many U.S. hospitals let parents spend hours or even days with them. Some hospitals take memento photographs, footprints and handprints for families; some provide cooling cots to preserve the body while the family grieves. We stress “how important it is to the patient for us to get comfortable being with them and talking about it and reassuring them that this is a terrible thing but they will get through it,” said Dr. Alan Peaceman, who heads Northwestern Medicine’s maternal-fetal medicine department in Chicago.

THE NUMBER OF MEN developing metastatic prostate cancer is increasing rapidly, research published in 2016 in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases suggests. The number of new cases of metastatic, or stage 4, prostate cancer shot up 72 percent between 2004 and 2013, according to the Northwestern Medicine study. Overall, one in nine men in the U.S. will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. While the five-year survival rate for men with early-stage prostate cancer is nearly 100 percent, the numbers are far worse for those with a metastatic form of the disease. About two-thirds of men with metastatic prostate cancer succumb to it within five years of their diagnosis, says Dr. Sean Cavanaugh, the radiation oncology director of the CTCA Genitourinary Cancer Institute in Atlanta.

Super agers tend to share a number of traits that we can all seek to emulate. They’re generally active and engaged, whether through work, volunteering or socializing, and they’re resilient in the face of setbacks. “These individuals didn’t necessarily have easy lives,” says Emily Rogalski, associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. But they “tend to do a very good job of finding the silver lining.” Strong friendships may be key to protecting the brain in later life.