Media Coverage

Thirty-seven Illinois hospitals got the highest grade for patient safety in the latest Leapfrog Group assessment. Among them was Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which jumped back to an A ranking after three years of B and C. “Northwestern improved on several (patient safety indicators) and infection measures and made improvements on the patient experience measures related to communication by doctors and nurses, as well as staff responsiveness,” Erica Mobley, director of operations at Leapfrog Group, said in an email.

Nine Illinois hospitals received A’s for the last five years in a row: University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, OSF St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg, Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Elmhurst Hospital and Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

Experts said aneurysms appear most often in people over the age of 50. Babak Jahromi, a neurosurgeon and professor at Northwestern University’s medical school, wrote in an email that having a ruptured aneurysm at 31 like Farquhar is “less common” but “not rare.” Jahromi, McGail and Riina said that it’s possible, but not certain, that Farquhar’s pitching activity could have raised his blood pressure and contributed to the rupture. “It’s not so surprising that it’s while participating in a game,” Riina said. “But other times, people have aneurysms when they’re just walking down the street or sitting at home.”

White Sox medical personnel clustered around him and then carried him to the clubhouse, and a waiting ambulance brought him to a hospital, where he is now in what a team official calls the fight of his life. Farquhar had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by a ruptured aneurysm. We asked Dr. Babak Jahromi, a professor of neurosurgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital if there are any warning signs. “There generally isn’t until the aneurysm leaks and at that point patients experience a sudden severe headache,” Dr. Jahromi said. But how could a 31-year old professional athlete go from peak performer to hospital patient in the time it takes his 93 mile an hour fastball to reach home plate?

There have been some modest attempts to streamline medical education in the U.S. One-third of America’s 141 med schools now allow students to pursue a bachelor’s and medical degree simultaneously. But these programs are very small, and they don’t save much time, since only 20% last less than eight years. Nonetheless, their performance is encouraging. A study of Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine found that students admitted through its seven-year accelerated program achieved equivalent outcomes to those completing degrees seriatim.

He now speaks regularly at breast cancer conferences across the U.S. and abroad: “It’s like doctors and plastic surgeons and experts and then this tattooer,” he says, but notes that he has unique insights to offer: “I realized that I spend four to five hours with a woman, and doctors spend 15 minutes at a time, so I’m kind of privy to different things.” Recently, he has been talking with doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about how his work might be offered to breast cancer patients there, and he has worked with two Minnesota plastic surgeons on ideas for how breast reconstruction might be planned in advance with scars placed to enable easier concealment by tattoos.

The psychological distress caused by anti-gay attitudes and actions has long been a problem for gay youth, but a recent study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology finds hope in a new place: young love. While single lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people ages 16 to 26 experienced a surge in emotional distress in response to anti-gay victimization, those involved in romantic relationships did not. “That’s a really new finding,” said study co-author Brian Mustanski, a professor of medical social sciences and psychology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Angela Chaudhari welcomed the new study. “The menstrual cup is becoming really popular among the college age female population,” said Chaudhari, an assistant professor in the division of minimally invasive gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “That’s because unlike tampons you don’t have to throw it out. You can just wash it.” There’s been an assumption that the menstrual cup is safer, but the new study suggests that’s not true, Chaudhari said.

“I really want this to, kind of, create a snowball effect. I want this to be something where our generation is a key part in changing everything because it starts with us. The adults, there’s onely so much they can do. We have to want more for ourselves and for generations to come,” Sales said. The frank discussions Sales, Ho-Shing and the other students at Thornwood had on Thursday came as Northwestern University released a new study that shows an increase in the number of Chicago students who self-reported carrying guns between 2007 and 2013, even as numbers remained flat in New York – where the rate is less than half of Chicago – and declined in Los Angeles.

Specifically, students in Chicago reported being exposed to a higher level of risk factors for violence, such as bullying, schoolyard fights, drug abuse and even general feelings of despair, the study said. “Kids in Chicago are experiencing multiple layers of violence and fear of violence in school on a daily basis,” said study co-author Dr. Karen Sheehan, a professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Feinberg. Researchers cited such factors as entrenched poverty and unemployment, particularly in communities that remain highly segregated by race and ethnicity, as issues contributing to a climate of fear and violence.