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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Chicago Tribune
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1 dead as outbreak related to synthetic pot use hits 38 people in Illinois
There is a statewide ban on specific formulas of synthetic marijuana but manufacturers could be slightly changing the formula to sidestep the law and get the products sold, said Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the public health department. Those who have been hospitalized obtained the products in convenience stores, from dealers and friends, she said. Consumption of synthetic cannabinoids previously has caused serious health problems such as seizures and kidney failure, but the side effect of severe bleeding is tied to the recent outbreak, said Dr. Patrick Lank, a medical toxicologist who works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “Most of what we are seeing is spontaneous bleeding of the gums or nose, in the stool and urine,” he said.
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Reuters
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Obesity, overweight tied to shorter life, more years with heart disease
Extremely obese middle-aged men had almost triple the risk of having a heart condition or dying from it, compared with normal-weight men, and extremely obese middle-aged women had more than twice the risk of normal-weight women. “Our data clearly show that obesity is associated with a shorter, sicker life with more cardiovascular disease and more years lived with cardiovascular disease,” said lead study author Dr. Sadiya Khan of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
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Chicago Tribune
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More people are seeking out mental health care, but psychiatrists are in short supply: ‘It’s getting worse’
Where and what psychiatrists end up practicing after their four-year residency ends matters most in addressing the shortage, said Dr. Sidney Weissman, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Many decide it is in their financial interest to go directly into private practice rather than continue collecting a resident stipend for a fifth year as they train in a subspecialty where the need is most dire, such as geriatric or child and adolescent psychiatry, Weissman said. He advocates letting psychiatrists train in a subspecialty in their fourth year of residency to make it more economically viable.
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HealthDay
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Well-Done Meat May Not Be Good for Your Blood Pressure
Research suggests that cooking to the point of “charring” is the main issue, said Linda Van Horn, a spokesperson for the American Heart Association who was not involved in the study. The process produces chemicals that are not normally present in the body, explained Van Horn, who is also a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Those chemicals include heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
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U.S. News & World Report
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School Nurses at Ground Zero for Food Allergies
Ninety-six percent of the nurses said school staffers had been trained on how to handle severe allergic reactions to food. And 80 percent said their school had an emergency epinephrine auto-injector available to treat potentially life-threatening allergic reactions. “We were encouraged to see high rates of epinephrine availability in schools,” said senior study author Dr. Ruchi Gupta, of Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “This is significant improvement over the last decade. We also saw that epinephrine was available more often when schools had full-time nurses.
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Reuters
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Doctors endorse counseling of some kids, young adults to prevent skin cancer
The trouble with asking all adults to do self-exams is that people may miss abnormalities that need treatment and they may be more likely than doctors to discover something that appears troubling but is actually harmless, said Dr. June Robinson, coauthor of an accompanying editorial in JAMA and a researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “It may make some people unduly anxious and result in needless skin biopsies,” Robinson said by email.
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WebMD
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Stem Cell Transplant for MS Shows Promise
The interim findings were released at the annual meeting of the European Society for Bone and Marrow Transplantation. “The data is stunningly in favor of transplant against the best available drugs — the neurological community has been skeptical about this treatment, but these results will change that,” lead investigator Richard Burt, a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, told BBC News.
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BBC
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Stem cell transplant ‘game changer’ for MS patients
Prof Richard Burt, lead investigator, Northwestern University Chicago, told me: “The data is stunningly in favour of transplant against the best available drugs – the neurological community has been sceptical about this treatment, but these results will change that.” The treatment uses chemotherapy to destroy the faulty immune system. Stem cells taken from the patient’s blood and bone marrow are then re-infused. These are unaffected by MS and they rebuild the immune system.
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U.S. News & World Report
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Coffee May Have Bigger Effect on Your Body Than Thought: Study
But many studies have found that coffee drinkers typically have lower risks of various diseases than nondrinkers do, explained Marilyn Cornelis, the lead researcher on the new work. The possible benefits include lower risks of Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and certain cancers. “But most of those studies are just looking at associations,” said Cornelis, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “They looked at people’s self-reported coffee intake and their risk of disease.” This study, she explained, tried to “get more at the mechanisms — the biology that might be underlying those associations.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Never too late to operate? Surgery near end of life is common, costly
The rush of medical decisions “doesn’t allow time to deliberate or consider the patients’ overall health or what their goals and values might be,” said Dr. Jacqueline Kruser, an instructor in pulmonary and critical care medicine and medical social sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Many hospitals and health systems are developing “decision aids,” easy-to-understand written materials and videos to help patients make more informed medical decisions, giving them time to develop more realistic expectations.
