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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Children are twice as likely to develop long COVID after two COVID-19 infections, compared with children who’ve only had COVID-19 once, according to a new study co-authored by a doctor at Lurie Children’s Hospital.
The results of the study come amid controversy over COVID-19 vaccines, especially for children, with the state and federal governments issuing differing recommendations about who should get the shots.
The study offers one more reason why parents might want to get their kids vaccinated against COVID-19, said Dr. Ravi Jhaveri, head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Lurie Children’s Hospital and a co-author of the study, which was published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
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If you haven’t received the vaccine, your body’s “defense system isn’t ready, so the virus has time to grow and cause symptoms (that) can make you sicker,” says Dr. Natalie Cameron, an instructor of medicine at Northwestern Medicine. Receiving the flu shot vastly lowers your risk of flu-related complications, including pneumonia, hospitalization and in severe cases, death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 500,000 flu-related hospitalizations each year, resulting in around 25,000 deaths, Gulick says.
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Before a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular disease hit, there are almost always warning signs, according to a new study.
Those warning signs are well-known cardiovascular disease risk factors, but more can still be done to reduce cases of heart disease, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Even ‘mild’ elevations of these 4 factors should be addressed with lifestyle treatments or medications,” said Dr. Philip Greenland, one of the study’s lead authors, in an email. He is also a professor of preventive medicine and the Harry W. Dingman Professor of Cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
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As daylight diminishes, you may find your mood dimming, too. About 1 in 20 adults have seasonal affective disorder, which is seasonal depression. And millions more experience a milder form of “winter blues.”
One way to fend it off is by using a light box, beginning in the fall.
“A lot of research has shown that using bright light therapy in the morning can be extremely helpful to reverse some of the symptoms of seasonal depression,” says Dr. Dorothy Sit, a psychiatrist and associate professor at Northwestern University, who has studied bright light therapy.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Opzelura cream 1.5 percent (ruxolitinib) for children ages 2 to 11 years with atopic dermatitis (AD).
“Navigating a complex condition like atopic dermatitis can be very challenging for children,” Peter Lio, MD, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a statement. “With this approval, we now have a new, nonsteroidal topical option that expands how we care for kids with this chronic disease.”
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Long-standing ethical debates surround who can receive transplants, who can donate organs and how, said Dr. Kelly Michelson, a professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who is not involved in the lawsuit.
“I think organ transplantation has been one of those areas that is just completely riddled with ethical challenges from every angle,” Michelson said. “Whenever you have a scarce resource, there’s going to be ethical challenges when it comes to how you allocate those scarce resources.”
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The strain urban trauma centers bear in treating firearms injuries could be exacerbated by Medicaid funding cuts, Northwestern Medicine and the University of Michigan warn in a JAMA Health Forum study.
“Gun injuries are a source of financial strain on hospitals, particularly large safety-net trauma center hospitals that often operate on thin margins,” Alexander Lundberg, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and corresponding author of the study, said in the release.
“Medicaid funding cuts could further financially destabilize trauma centers,” study co-author Dr. Anne Stey, assistant professor of surgery at Feinberg and a Northwestern Medicine trauma surgeon, said in the release. “Some could close, or stop being trauma centers that provide the high-level and life-saving trauma care that all American families need after car accidents, falls and bike accidents.”
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“Research on firearms and the association with youth injury and death is critically important, and in prior years (it) has been hard to advance the science due to funding barriers,” said Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois, via email. She wasn’t involved in the research. “If parents are gun owners, they need to be aware of this data and store their gun appropriately.”
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Understanding that could help us live longer, healthier lives, many longevity experts believe. Dr. Douglas Vaughan is among them. He is the director of Northwestern University’s Potocsnak Longevity Institute and its Human Longevity Laboratory, where people can go to get their so-called biological age calculated.
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Many researchers agree the drug warrants additional study, particularly for patients with a deficiency of folate, or vitamin B9, in the brain that may play a role in autism. But for now, they say, it should only be taken in carefully controlled clinical trials.
“We often say our job is to stay between the yellow lines,” said Dr. Lawrence Gray, a pediatric developmental specialist at Northwestern University. “When people just decide to go outside of current guidelines, then they’re outside of that. And nobody knows what’s going to happen out there.”