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 Washington Post
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Home tips, daylight saving and eyedrops: The Week in Well+Being
Staying in sync with the sun is important to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health. Every morning, sunlight resets our internal clock to put us in sync with a 24-hour day. Then, after the sun sets, the lack of sunlight allows our bodies to produce hormones such as melatonin, which promotes sleep. Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a neurologist and chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said without that sunlight, we can slip into circadian misalignment — “when your internal body clocks fall out of sync with that of the sun clock and your social clocks.” This weekend, 48 states and the District of Columbia will reset their clocks and fall back into standard time. You may notice that you feel better with the time change and the extra morning sunlight it brings.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Northwestern, Lurie try prenatal treatment to cure pregnant women of hepatitis C
Northwestern Medicine’s Women’s Infectious Disease Program is turning to an uncommon practice of treating hepatitis C in pregnant women, in an effort to stem the tide of rising infection rates for the disease. The standard of care for treating hepatitis C in a pregnant person is to initiate treatment immediately postpartum, a Northwestern Medicine statement said, but that approach has significant limitations. During pregnancy, hepatitis C has been associated with low birth weight, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and preterm birth, the statement said. “Our goal is pretty simple — we want to improve the lives of pregnant patients with hepatitis C and their infants,” Lynn Yee, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and director of the Northwestern Medicine Women’s Infectious Disease Program, said in the statement. “Although treatment during pregnancy is not yet common, our professional societies support a shared decision-making process, including discussing with patients what is known versus unknown. We believe that by including pregnant people in hepatitis C research and treatment programs, we will work towards the public health goal of eliminating hepatitis C as well as addressing historical issues of excluding pregnant people from life-changing therapies.” Rising hepatitis C rates are driven by the ongoing opioid epidemic and the sharing of needles, the statement said.
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Chicago Tribune
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Freezing temperatures, uncertainty and concern among migrants living outside Chicago police stations: ‘How are we going to survive winter here?’
Thousands of migrants sleeping at police stations woke up to freezing cold conditions on Halloween morning as city officials, volunteers and faith-based organizations scrambled to find warmth Tuesday for a population, mostly from Venezuela, that has never experienced cold. Scott Dresden, MD, MS, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician, said he wasn’t sure how the thousands of migrants that have arrived since last August would influence the numbers of people he treats in emergency departments over the next few months. “This is certainly a unique winter with a larger population who are without housing than we are used to,” he said. When someone has mild hypothermia they will start shivering, Dresden said. As the body shuts down, confusion will set in. The shivering will stop. He said severe hypothermia can cause cardiac arrest.
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The Wall Street Journal
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If Some Cold Medicines Don’t Work, What Should You Take for a Stuffy Nose?
When a cold or flu strikes, choosing among hundreds of products can be overwhelming. But to clear up a stuffy nose, doctors and pharmacists say consumers should choose medicine wisely. A key ingredient found in many over-the-counter medicines—oral phenylephrine—just doesn’t work, according to a finding last month by advisers to the Food and Drug Administration. A few weeks after that determination, CVS Health stopped selling certain oral medicines with the ingredient. There are plenty of convenient alternatives for relief from a cold or flu, but the first step is to consider your symptoms: Congestion? Congestion with a runny nose? “The most important thing is for people to always think about, ‘What is going on? What am I feeling?’ That helps you understand what’s best for you,” said Sterling Elliott, a clinical pharmacist and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. There is one medicine that is the time-honored standard for relieving congestion from cold and flu: Pseudoephedrine. The decongestant shrinks blood vessels in the nasal area and prevents blood from flowing into them, stopping the congestion. “We know that it works because when people take it they certainly report benefit and relief,” said Elliott.
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WebMD
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Needle-Free Flu Vaccine for Home May Be Approved for Next Year
Drug-maker AstraZeneca announced this week that the FDA is currently considering approving the needle-free option for home use. Called FluMist, the vaccine must be refrigerated and would be shipped in insulated packaging to people’s homes. FluMist has been around for more than two decades and is approved for people ages 2 to 49 years old. It’s fallen in and out of favor over the years, including one period where a CDC advisory panel highlighted FluMist as the preferred flu vaccine for children. AstraZeneca expects the FDA to make a decision on whether to allow home use of FluMist by Spring 2024. The convenience of home administration could increase the number of people who get a flu vaccine, said Ravi Jhaveri, MD, Chief of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Vaccination rates for children and adults under 50 years of age declined in the 2022-2023 flu season, highlighting a need for more accessible solutions,” said Jhaveri in an AstraZeneca press release. “The ability for individuals and parents to choose where to administer an injection-free flu vaccine could help increase access and, subsequently, vaccination rates, and greatly benefit those most impacted by this serious and contagious respiratory illness.”
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New York Times
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It’s Covid Season. What Are the New Rules for Staying Safe?
While cases are not as high as they were at the end of this summer, newer variants are spreading, and experts predict that the patterns often seen over the last three years of the pandemic – the temperature drops, people cluster indoors, cases rise – will play out again this fall. As the holiday season approaches, here is a quick refresher on how to navigate the pandemic. Risk largely boils down to how crowded a place is and how long you spend there. If you’re popping into a convenience store, for example, your risk is probably minimal; if you’re lingering unmasked for hours in a full concert hall, it’s higher. “Any time you’re indoors with a lot of people, the risk is still there,” said Marc Sala, MD, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Covid-19 Center in Chicago. It’s a good idea to wear a mask on the subway or bus. Planes are likely less risky because of their ventilation, but you still may want to mask, especially when boarding and deplaning. As the coronavirus has evolved, the amount of time between being exposed and developing symptoms has shortened.
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New York Times
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Feeling Stressed? These 5 Books Can Help.
Too much stress is bad for our health – putting us at risk for conditions like depression, heart disease and memory problems. But life is full of commitments and pressures that make relaxation seem impossible, and finding ways to soothe can be difficult. “Stress happens. Stress is normal. Negative emotions are normal,” said Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “But, whatever stress you’re experiencing, there are things you can do to bring more positive emotions.” Some book titles experts recommended include “Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross, “Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life,” by John Kabat-Zinn, “Rest Is Resistence: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey, “The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook” by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay, and “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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On the policy side, Illinois leaders prioritize child mental health
As the severity of the child mental health crisis came into full view during the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois state officials became serious about writing policy that could help transform how families and children find and access treatment in communities across the state. Audrey Brewer, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and attending physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital, says she often treats young patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, as well as trauma-like symptoms, including stress, anxiety and depression, especially among older children and teenagers. Some patients have even come to Brewer after reporting suicidal ideation, a phenomenon Brewer has studied extensively. In a 2022 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Brewer and her team found that child emergency department visits for suicidal ideation spiked nearly 60% from 2016 and 2017 to 2019 and 2021 in Illinois, with an additional 57% surge in hospitalizations during 2020 — the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The possibility that mental health screenings in schools could provide intervention for struggling children before they reach such an acute crisis makes Brewer supportive of the Blueprint for Transformation’s effort.
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ABC 7 Chicago
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Doctor shares how to prevent and treat viruses this ‘sick season’
As school is in full swing, sick season has begun. Children are more prone to catch illnesses and bring them home. Alin Abraham, MD, health system clinician of general internal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shared how to stay protected from illnesses this sick season. RSV, strep throat and COVID are some of the viruses of which doctors are seeing an uptick in children Abraham said. “The winter months tend to be the highest risk for catching illnesses,” Abraham said. She suggests parents stay vigilant of their children’s health and monitor any symptoms if they are sick. If your child is having trouble breathing, urinating or is showing signs of dehydration, you should reach out to your pediatrician office, Abraham said.
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WGN Chicago
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Medtronic receives FDA approval for extravascular defibrillator to treat abnormal heart rhythms, sudden cardiac arrest
Medtronic plc, global leader in healthcare technology, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the Aurora EV-ICD MRI SureScan and Epsila EV MRI SureScan defibrillation lead to treat dangerously fast heart rhythms that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest. “The Aurora EV-ICD system is a tremendous step forward in implantable defibrillator technology,” said Bradley P. Knight, MD, medical director of electrophysiology at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, a co-author of the study and professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Placing the leads outside of the heart, rather than inside the heart and veins, reduces the risk of long-term complications, ultimately allowing us to further evolve safe and effective ICD technology.” In the pivotal study, the device’s effectiveness in delivering defibrillation therapy at implant was 98.7%, and there we no major intraprocedural complications, nor any unique complications observed related to the EV ICD procedure or system compared to transvenous and subcutaneous ICDs.
