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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The Wall Street Journal
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When the Room Spins: Researchers Learn More About Vertigo—and How to Treat It
According to research at Northwestern University, vertigo and dizziness account for about one in 30 emergency-room visits, and the average patient is just over 50 years old.
But ER visits for vertigo commonly result in unnecessary diagnostic tests, adding to costs with limited added benefit, according to the Northwestern study, with 28% of patients receiving a CT scan. And patients may also be given medications after an episode including a type of antihistamine, but they have sedative effects that can cause more problems, such as falls.
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TIME
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Heart Disease Is Preventable. So Why Does It Kill So Many of Us?
Risk for most cardiovascular disease builds over years and often over decades. Yet we seem to be caught off guard when it happens; these heart events are often viewed as sudden or unexpected. What if we could, years or decades before, predict the likelihood that a cardiovascular event may happen? In fact, we can: the science, data, and tools are now available to do just this.
Written by Dr. Sadiya S. Khan, cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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NPR Illinois
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Historic Decline in U.S. Overdose Deaths Threatened by Changing Street Drug Supply
As of October 2025, the most recent month where preliminary data is available from CDC, roughly 71,542 people had died in the U.S. over a 12-month period. That’s down dramatically from the 12-month peak of nearly 113,000 drug deaths recorded in August 2023.
“This is unprecedented and historic, for the longest consecutive months of decline,” said Lori Ann Post, a researcher at Northwestern University whose new paper in the American Journal of Public Health tracks the steady improvement. “That is awesome.”
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WGN
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New Targeted Therapy Gives Hope to Pancreatic Cancer Patients and Families
A new drug is offering hope and time for patients and their families and doubling the survival rate for one of the most deadly cancers.
Dr Deva Mahalingam is a Northwestern Medicine Oncologist. “There’s no real screening tool for pancreatic cancer, and so when it starts causing symptoms, typically patients come in with weight loss, abdominal pains, sometimes jaundice, the cancer is already more advanced,” Mahalingam said.
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TIME
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Two New Drugs Offer Hope for Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic tumors have traditionally not responded well to immunotherapies because the tumors tend to be full of fibrotic tissues that make it difficult for immune cells to infiltrate.
“We started seeing immune-cell infiltration around the tumor when we treated with the drug,” says Dr. Devalingam Mahalingam, associate director of clinical research at Northwestern University’s comprehensive cancer center and lead author of the study.
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WGN
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Dr. Jeffrey Kopin: We Are Out of the Influenza Season
Dr. Jeffrey Kopin, Chief Medical Officer for Northwestern Medicine Catherine Gratz Griffin Lake Forest Hospital, joins John Williams to talk about physician burnout and everything that Northwestern does to deal with employee wellness, the challenge of getting people the right care at the right place in a timely manner, COVID being down, the flu season being over, and new research that shows the flu vaccine that is recommended for older adults could lower Alzheimer’s risk.
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TODAY
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The 1 Thing a Sleep Doctor Would Never Do After Waking Up in the Middle of the Night
Most of us wake up a few times throughout the night and quickly fall asleep again, explains Dr. Kuljeet K. Gill, sleep medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine. These normal “microarousals” are typically inconsequential and forgotten by the following morning.
Engaging in certain activities during those nighttime wakings, however, can trick your brain into thinking you should be alert, and that your day has begun.
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NPR
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You Can Order Your Own Bloodwork Now. Interpreting the Results Is Another Story
Direct-to-consumer blood testing is a growing industry targeting health-conscious patients who want to order their own blood work for the price of a dinner out. But it also can leave patients to reckon with stressful information they don’t know what to make of — and receive either a worrying result that not require action, or a false reassurance of a clean bill of health.
“Patients are getting outside testing done and bringing them to appointments asking us to interpret them for them,” Dr. Jeffrey Linder, chief of general internal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said in an email.
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WGN
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Ticked off: Dr. Santina Wheat on Lyme disease
Dr. Santina Wheat, Program Director, McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, joins Wendy Snyder for this week’s health update. n
They discuss ticks and Lyme disease, fiber intake regarding colorectal cancer risk, and take listener questions.
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US News & World Report
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Your Doctor Might Be Using The Wrong Test To Track Your Cholesterol, Study Says
Doctors might be using the wrong blood test to assess a person’s risk for clogged arteries, a new study argues. A routine blood test called apolipoprotein B, or apoB, is better at guiding cholesterol-lowering treatment than other tests that health care professionals use more often.
“We found that apoB testing to intensify cholesterol-lowering medication would prevent more heart attacks and strokes than current practice, and that these health benefits were achieved at a cost that represents good value for U.S. health care payers,” lead researcher Ciaran Kohli-Lynch said in a news release. He’s an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
