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.

The findings should encourage and motivate people to adopt a healthier lifestyle, said Dr. Douglas Vaughan, chairman of the department of medicine in Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. Though the study highlighted how the combination of all five lifestyle factors could help prolong life expectancy, Vaughan pointed out how each individual factor also was tied to a reduced risk of premature death. “It looks like cigarette smoking has a more powerful effect than the other lifestyle changes or behaviors. Certainly, maintaining a reasonable body-mass index is a great way to protect oneself against the development of diabetes,” Vaughan said.

Online reviews of surgeons who perform cosmetic plastic surgery may be unreliable, researchers say. The researchers examined 1,077 online reviews about breast augmentation surgeons that were posted by people in six large U.S. cities. There were 935 positive and 142 negative reviews. “We found the people who write these reviews are either very happy or unhappy, so it’s difficult for the consumer to get balanced information,” said senior study author Dr. John Kim, a professor of plastic surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

But exposure to other kinds of outdoor artificial light — such as those that are high in the red and green portions of the visible spectrum — was not positively associated with the development of either type of cancer, the study states. “That finding was unexpected but suggests that it is really the blue light that is important for cancer rather than just general brightness of light,” said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new study.

Online reviews of surgeons who perform cosmetic plastic surgery may be unreliable, researchers say. The researchers examined 1,077 online reviews about breast augmentation surgeons that were posted by people in six large U.S. cities. There were 935 positive and 142 negative reviews. “We found the people who write these reviews are either very happy or unhappy, so it’s difficult for the consumer to get balanced information,” said senior study author Dr. John Kim, a professor of plastic surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

The researchers examined 1,077 online reviews about breast augmentation surgeons that were posted by people in six large U.S. cities. There were 935 positive and 142 negative reviews. “We found the people who write these reviews are either very happy or unhappy, so it’s difficult for the consumer to get balanced information,” said senior study author Dr. John Kim, a professor of plastic surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Genetic testing appears to be an evolution in the “when the product is surprisingly cheap, you are the product” ethos: You are very much the product of commercial genetic testing companies while footing the bill, as reported by the authors of a 2014 article in The New England Journal of Medicine. “23andMe has … suggested that its longer-range goal is to collect a massive biobank of genetic information that can be used and sold for medical research and could also lead to patentable discoveries,” wrote George J. Annas, a legal scholar at Boston University School of Public Health, and Dr. Sherman Elias of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

Centers in Somerset, N.J., and Oklahoma City run by privately held ProCure have defaulted on their debts, according to the investment firm Loop Capital. A center associated with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a hospital consortium, in Washington State lost $19 million in the 2015 fiscal year before restructuring its debt, documents show. A center near Chicago lost tens of millions of dollars before its own restructuring as part of a 2013 sale to hospitals now affiliated with Northwestern Medicine, according to regulatory documents.

I provide therapy to people from all socio-economic and racial backgrounds. I am the only black female clinical psychologist on the faculty of the department of psychiatry at Northwestern University, and black women often come to me in secret, feeling alone and embarrassed. They come despite friends and family telling them to “just pray.” They come because they are “desperate” and “can’t take it anymore.” I often get requests for informal consultation via email, LinkedIn, even Facebook. They’re skeptical about mental health treatment. They don’t want therapy, just to talk, and maybe get some advice.

At Northwestern University, Dr. Ryan P. Merkow said he had only one pump but many patients who needed it. “Now I have to decide who gets this potentially lifesaving therapy,” he said. One patient is about to become a father, and Dr. Merkow said, “I desperately want to help him.”

The devices, called Codman pumps, are made by Cerenovus, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which told doctors in a letter dated April 4 that it had decided to stop production effective April 1 “because of significant and multiple raw material supply constraints within the manufacturing process.”

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