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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New York Times
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Is It Bad to Wash Your Hair Every Day?
Whether you should lather up daily depends on a number of factors, said Dr. Murad Alam, vice chair of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Among them, he said, are your hair’s texture, how oily it gets, how processed it is, your lifestyle habits and your age. Shampoo cleanses your scalp and hair by removing environmental contaminants like dirt and pollen, as well as dandruff, sweat and hair-care products. Using shampoo every day, Dr. Alam said, can be the right choice for people with oilier scalps where sebum can accumulate, making the hair limp, greasy and possibly smelly. “While it may seem that getting the scalp squeaky clean and without any oils is optimal, keep in mind that the scalp is a living part of your body, and not a dinner plate in your dishwasher,” Dr. Alam said.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Zuckerberg cash is helping to propel Chicago’s biotech ambitions
For about a year, Northwestern University professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics Shana Kelley and a group of more than 20 scientists met every Saturday morning to solve a complex challenge: how to win over Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. The $250 million prize, which Kelley’s team ultimately won, could propel the city’s ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Boston to become a biotech leader. “We competed and won, and I think that really speaks volumes about the strengths of bioengineering and life sciences in Chicago,” said Kelley, who was named president of the Chicago biohub. “Life sciences can really drive economic development, and the more jobs we can create in Chicago, the more we’re going to serve our community.”
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USA Today
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DNA sequencing can lead to longer, better lives for cancer patients. But why do so few get it?
Genetic knowledge is particularly important for people with advanced cancers. Sequencing a person can be particularly challenging because it has implications for others. If a patient has a BRCA1 mutation, for instance, at least one of their parents likely carries it, and any children, aunts, uncles and cousins are at risk, too. As the science continues to improve, patients will have more opportunities to be matched with safe and effective treatments. Eventually, it will make sense to genetically sequence every cancer patient as well as their tumor, said Dr. William Catalona, professor of urology at expert in the genetics of prostate cancer at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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WGN Chicago
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For cancer patients, drug shortage is a matter of life and death
There is a troubling trend of drug shortages potentially shortening the lives of patients. A cancer diagnosis is difficult enough, then add to it the news the drug that was effective against your cancer is now not available. A Chicago woman, was receiving treatment and her drug became low in supply. But her Stage 4 cancer cancels her access. Since the drug will not provide a cure, others who have a better chance are given the drugs. Northwestern Medicine thoracic oncologist Dr. Jyoti Patel is not Spratt’s doctor, but she knows the struggle. “It’s very difficult to prioritize a particular patient or situation,” she said. We try to use lowest dose we can. We try to use evidence to guide us for reasonable alternatives, but often there aren’t any and we are in a tough situation. … These drug shortages although hitting the news in the past year have been threatened in the cancer community for over a decade. We’ve been working hard to make sure we have a supply.”
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Yahoo! News
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Is Covid ticking up? Viruses and other bugs could make a summer comeback, doctors say
Covid threw the infectious diseases playbook out the window this past winter. Instead of the typical flu season, the U.S. endured a record mix of invasive strep infections, flu, RSV, enteroviruses and other respiratory illnesses that competed with Covid to make most Americans sick at some point. Bugs in different areas of the world can harbor a variety of illnesses. Many of these illnesses spread similarly, by coming into contact with infectious droplets. The old advice remains: wash hands consistently. If you feel sick, minimize time spent with others to protect them. But not all summer diseases are spread person to person. “From spring until late summer and early fall, the infections we worry about are often related to exposure to different insects,” said Dr. Michael Angarone, an infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Mosquitoes in tropical climates can transmit diseases such as West Nile, dengue and malaria. On May 30, Florida health officials in Sarasota County and Manatee County reported a rare case of malaria in a person who was bitten by an Anopheles mosquito. If you’re planning to be out in nature, Angarone said, “make sure that you’re protecting yourself from ticks and mosquitoes by using repellents, long pants and long sleeve shirts.” Further, he shared “The quicker you find the tick and get it off, the less likely you are to get an infection.”
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CBS News
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As patients with disabilities face discrimination doctors discuss what needs to change
CBS dug into the challenges people with disabilities face when they try to see their doctors, and why doctors say its a challenge for them too. “People with disabilities are facing discrimination when they’re trying to make appointments with doctors,” said Dr. Tara Lagu, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. For more than 10 years, Lagu has been advocating for patients with disabilities, especially those who use wheelchairs. She found in her research that 20% of the doctors surveyed refused to treat those patients. Further studies revealed some of the reasons: It’s more difficult and time-consuming. Plus, they don’t have the facilities to accommodate them. It’s not only a lack of space, but a lack of proper equipment and staff. “If you going to transfer a patient who uses a wheelchair, you need additional staff,” Lagu said. “You need the right room. You need a height-adjustable table. You need additional training.” Dr. Allison Kessler, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, said making even some of the accommodations they use at Shirely Ryan AbilityLab can make a big difference. There are larger exam rooms. “There is a wide enough turning area so that an individual who’s either using a mobility device such as a walker or a wheelchair can come into the room, fully turn around and be able to face the physician,” Kessler said. “The room is big enough also to allow for the physician to also be a wheelchair user.”
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USA Today
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Are you truly at risk for prostate cancer? Adding genetics may give more accurate PSA tests
For decades, it has been known that prostate specific antigen ‒ or PSA ‒ tests are a flawed way to diagnose prostate cancer. Many men have a high PSA without having cancer. Others have low PSA that might lead to aggressive tumors being missed in screenings. This has led to overtreatment of men who didn’t need biopsies or whose cancers would never have become dangerous and undertreatment of those whose tumors were missed. “The PSA is really the best blood cancer marker in all of medicine, but it’s not like a pregnancy test where everybody who’s positive is pregnant,” said Dr. William Catalona, a prostate cancer surgeon and professor of urology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
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CBS Chicago
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Northwestern doctor examines why patients with disabilities face discrimination
Perhaps you’ve noticed how difficult it is just to see your doctor lately. It could take weeks, or even months. “People with disabilities are facing discrimination when they’re trying to make appointments with doctors,” said Tara Lagu, MD, MPH, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who has been studying this problem for several years in several studies. Lagu said it’s just a fact that, “nobody goes to medical school because they want to discriminate against vulnerable patients.” She further shared, “I remember how hard the system is to work in and how time-pressed doctors are,” she added. “The healthcare system is broken. I think for people with disabilities, it is the most extreme example.” Lagu also said many doctors are encouraged by insurance companies to keep visits short and see as many patients as possible in a day. She said that’s another problem, because people with disabilities often need more time than other patients.
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National Public Radio – Morning Edition
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The number of Asians and Pacific Islanders with diabetes keeps going up
In 2015, the American Diabetes Association recommended Asian Americans get tested for diabetes at a body mass index of 23, lower than other groups. And they’ve worked from the inside to make their communities healthier. Dr. Namratha Kandula at Northwestern University started a diabetes prevention program for South Asians living near Chicago.
“And so what that means is in addition to talking about diet and exercise. We specifically address the stress that comes from being an ethnic minority in this country.”
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New York Times
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To Prevent Heart Attacks, Doctors Try a New Genetic Test
Suppose your young patient has a score indicating a heart attack is likely, perhaps a few decades or more later. If that patient starts taking a statin right away, as opposed to in midlife, will a heart attack be prevented? Dr. Sadiya Sana Khan of Northwestern University emphasized the need for more research. She has a new study showing that, in middle-aged to older adults, CT scans of the heart, which can show the buildup of plaque, are better than genetics in predicting risk. But that leaves a question about how to manage risk in young people, who almost never have visible plaque on a CT scan, even if they are at greater danger for a heart attack later in life. “We need more studies that focus on younger people with follow-up over several decades,” she said. If risk scores in young adults predict a greater likelihood of a heart attack, she asked, will that prediction be borne out when the people are older, at ages when heart attacks are more likely? Or will those with high risk scores instead be needlessly worried about their hearts?
