Medicine | Penn Today

Front entrance of the PHMC Public Health Campus on Cedar.

Penn Medicine’s new center to improve surgical equity for vulnerable patients

The Center for Surgical Health provides a new access point into sustainable, high-value surgical care for patients who typically rely on the emergency room for treatment.

historic illustration of a phrenology map of someone’s skull.

When trust in science fosters pseudoscience

A study co-authored by PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín finds that people who trust science are more likely to believe and disseminate false claims containing scientific references than people who do not trust science.

A table in the archives office with an old painting, historic newspaper clippings, and old pamphlets from Penn Medicine archives.

Unexpected finds bring fresh excitement to the archives

Stacey C. Peeples’ discovery of a trove of historic papers, newspaper clippings, and various ephemera adds to the rich history she curates as lead archivist at Pennsylvania Hospital.

The most common causes of memory loss

Jason Karlawish of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about memory loss, the condition’s symptoms, and seeking diagnosis. “Start with a doctor who knows you well, so a primary care physician,” he said. “Ideally, people go in with someone who knows them well—a spouse, child or close friend—who can speak to what they’ve been seeing.”

100 years of insulin

On July 27, 1921, Canadian doctors Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated the hormone insulin, one of the most important breakthroughs in treating diabetes. Experts from around the University share their thoughts on the medical triumph on the 100th anniversary.

Person sitting with doctor who is showing them something on a tablet.

Spinal fluid biomarkers detect neurodegeneration, Alzheimer’s disease in living patients

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurodegeneration can be identified using a combination of biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid of living patients, Penn researchers find.

How scientists are subtracting race from medical risk calculators

Nwamaka Eneanya of the Perelman School of Medicine said researchers need to consider the drivers of health disparities, rather than merely correlating race with health outcomes. “That’s not a standard that is expected of scientists in this day and age, and it needs to be,” she says. “This is a wake-up call for the scientific community.”

In the same health system, Black patients are prescribed fewer opioids than white patients

Salimah Meghani of the School of Nursing commented on a study that found that white patients are prescribed opioids more frequently and in greater quantities than Black patients within the same health system. Because the study was conducted using data from before the CDC’s revised opioid prescription guidelines, it “may be underestimating the actual size of disparities,” she said.

Penn Medicine’s first living donor uterus transplant

Cheryl Cichonski-Urban donated her uterus to Chelsea Jovanovich through Penn Medicine’s Uterus Donation program. In May, Jovanovich gave birth to a baby boy.

Six maps of the US highlighting Twitter keywords reflected in a word map.

Community concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine tracked by Twitter

A study of vaccine-related Twitter posts reveals significant differences in concerns people have when broken down by age, race, population density, and religious beliefs.

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