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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Female scientists get smaller first-time grants than men
“That means female scientists are disadvantaged from the beginning of their careers and the kind of scientific and clinical questions they ask are less likely to be answered,” said study co-author Teresa Woodruff of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “If women are disadvantaged from the beginning of their careers, they are less likely to persist in science and medicine,” Woodruff said by email. “Less diversity in scientists means less diversity in how the next generation of clinicians are trained.”
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HealthDay
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Acne Drug Accutane May Not Depress Mood After All
“The existing literature to date is quite mixed with regards to the issue of whether there is or is not an association between isotretinoin [Accutane] use and increased risk of depression,” explained study author Dr. Bethanee Schlosser. “Our retrospective, population-based study shows no increased risk of depression in patients taking isotretinoin, compared to patients with acne but not taking isotretinoin,” she said. Still, while she found the results reassuring and a mirror of what she sees in her clinical practice, it remains “critical that patients maintain open communication with their dermatologists,” Schlosser added. “It is vital that dermatologists query patients about the impact of their acne on their mood, as well as any underlying medical or mental health history, which may influence selection of treatment,” she said.
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Reuters
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New wireless monitors will let parents cuddle fragile newborns
The sensors – one above the baby’s heart and the other on the infant’s heel – “are almost like an electronic temporary tattoo,” said study coauthor John Rogers, director of the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “They gently, non-invasively laminate onto the surface of the skin. They are imperceptible. You don’t even know they are there.” Standard sensors can damage a premature baby’s skin, he added. “Premature babies, especially those at gestational ages less than 30 weeks, have skin that is highly underdeveloped, “Rogers said. “It’s very common that these babies receive injury to the skin when peeling away the tapes.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Chicago has one female, African-American organ transplant surgeon. She fights disease — and distrust of doctors
When transplant surgeon Dinee Simpson sits in a consultation room with a patient, often they’re joined by the patient’s spouse or children or both. Sometimes a meeting includes a patient’s cousins or siblings or friends — anyone who will weave together the fabric of support that patient will rely on when he or she receives a new kidney or liver or pancreas. And sometimes, particularly if the patient is black, more than a century of mistrust of the medical community also joins them in the room. “I’ve had patients tell me that they know transplant is experimental,” Simpson said. “I’ve had patients tell me they know white people get preference when it comes to time on the waiting list.”
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Transplants by the numbers
Tracking transplants in Illinois: Who is transplanting which organs in Illinois? The following data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network shows the top organ transplants in Illinois, and nationwide.
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The New York Times
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New Sensors Monitor Sick Babies Without Wires Blocking Hugs
“This need was so compelling,” said John Rogers, a Northwestern University bioengineer who led the sensors’ development. “Without the wires, it’s much easier for the parents, mothers in particular, to interact and hold their babies.”[…]But today, that means sticky electrodes tethered by wires to a variety of beeping monitors that surround the incubator. The nest of wires impedes skin-to-skin contact with a parent that’s known to help preemies thrive, much less rock a baby or breast feed, said Dr. Amy Paller, a Northwestern pediatric dermatologist.
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HealthDay
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Sleeping In on Weekends May Not Repay Your Sleep ‘Debt’
In general, experts recommend that adults get 7 or more hours of sleep each night for the sake of their overall health. Yet, studies show that more than one-third of U.S. adults fall short of that goal. Dr. Phyllis Zee, a sleep specialist and professor at Northwestern University School of Medicine, in Chicago, said, “We tend to buy into the myth that by ‘catching up’ on sleep on weekends, we’ll [reverse] the adverse effects of repeated sleep loss.” But, according to Zee, who was not involved in the new research, “the results of this study support that it is indeed a myth. In fact, even the muscle and liver ‘remember’ the adverse and persistent effects of sleep loss.”
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TODAY
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Wireless sensors allow skin-to-skin contact with NICU babies
Now, researchers at Northwestern University are unveiling wireless soft, ultra-thin, flexible “skin-like” sensors they hope will be the solution. The technology is described in a paper published Thursday in Science: One wireless sensor is placed on the baby’s chest and a second on his or her foot, with the data transmitted via near-field communication, similar to the technology used when people make a wireless payment with a smartphone at a store. It improves on the traditional setup, which involves five or more wires and takes up a “tremendous amount of real estate” on a tiny patient’s body, said Dr. Amy Paller, one of the study authors, chair of the dermatology department and a pediatrics professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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National Geographic
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Parents can better cuddle premature babies thanks to tiny new sensors
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.
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HealthDay
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Walking, Not Riding, Boosts Health in Golfers With Knee Woes
“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.
