11.20
Public Health
Using science to make cities safer and healthier
Using science to make cities safer and healthier
In a Q&A, criminologist John MacDonald discusses his new book, grounded in years of research on the positive effects of remediation like fixing up abandoned lots and houses.
How does opioid exposure affect brain development in young children?
How does opioid exposure affect brain development in young children?
That’s the question Allyson Mackey and Dylan Tisdall hope to answer, through a new grant from an NIH initiative focused on addiction research.
A novel approach to treating opioid use disorder
A novel approach to treating opioid use disorder
An FDA-approved drug called exendin-4 decreased voluntary oxycodone taking and drug-seeking behavior during withdrawal in rats without reducing the relief the opioid provided.
Algorithm identifies advance care planning needs
Algorithm identifies advance care planning needs
A Penn-developed system can be used to ensure that doctors talk to cancer patients about their values and goals before it is too late.
Physicians, social responsibility, and sexual assault survivors
Physicians, social responsibility, and sexual assault survivors
Penn Medicine’s Florencia Greer Polite wants doctors to take a more proactive approach to conversations with their patients about consent and sexual abuse.
As a nursing innovator, Therese Richmond thinks beyond hospital walls
As a nursing innovator, Therese Richmond thinks beyond hospital walls
During a four-decade career, Penn Nursing’s associate dean for research and innovation has tackled topics like gun violence by accounting for her patients’ environment in their long-term recovery.
Opioid prescriptions filled after eye surgery doubled over a decade
Opioid prescriptions filled after eye surgery doubled over a decade
A Penn study suggests efforts in the past decade to reduce the invasiveness and recovery time for these procedures have not reduced opioid use.
The dangers of vaping
The dangers of vaping
Vaping has been marketed as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, but recent deaths and acute respiratory illnesses have belied that claim. Pulmonologist and smoking cessation expert Frank Leone of the Perelman School of Medicine explains the e-cigarette phenomenon and why it’s dangerous.
Inferno in the rainforest
Inferno in the rainforest
Satellite images have detected more than 100,000 points of fire in the Amazon this year. Scientists Reto Gieré and Alain Plante illuminate some less obvious impacts of the fires, including health threats and climate impacts.
The U.S. and Canada are seven times more likely to prescribe opioids than Sweden
The U.S. and Canada are seven times more likely to prescribe opioids than Sweden
Within 30 days of discharge, nearly half of all surgical patients in the United States received opioids in excess of 200 morphine milligram equivalents, compared to just 11 percent of the patients in Sweden.
In the News
The Washington Post
The Tragedy to Communities When Church Buildings Are Demolished to Make Condos
Ram Cnaan of the School of Social Policy & Practice has piloted several studies on the economic and social benefits urban congregations offer local communities.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
As Opioid Overdoses Rise Along With Suicides, Experts Look for Links
Maria Oquendo of the Perelman School of Medicine discussed opioid addiction, noting that “anywhere between 25 and 45 percent of deaths by overdose” may actually be suicides.
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