11/15
Public Health
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.
Five insights into how the brain works
Five insights into how the brain works
As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.
What is a ‘mass shooting’ and how do we talk about gun violence?
What is a ‘mass shooting’ and how do we talk about gun violence?
In a Q&A, criminologist Richard Berk discusses why definitions matter and what role social media and mental illness play in this context.
When a fix for one vision problem causes another
When a fix for one vision problem causes another
Aging diminishes the ability of the eyes to focus up close. New Penn research reports that monovision, a common prescription lens correction to mitigate this issue, can cause dramatic misperceptions of depth and 3D direction for objects in motion.
In the News
The Washington Post
Got canker sores? Try switching your toothpaste
Richard Wender of the Perelman School of Medicine says that canker sores often start with a minor trauma to the mucosal lining, like a sharp edge on a tooth or a pair of prickly braces.
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CPR News
Colorado has the most cases of bird flu among dairy cows in the U.S.
The School of Veterinary Medicine has developed a bird flu vaccine that is to be tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Forbes
FDA Study finds infectious H5N1 bird flu virus in 14% of raw milk samples
Patrick E. Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says it is important that anyone planning to consume raw milk be aware that doing so can make you sick and that pasteurization reduces the risk of milk-borne illnesses.
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The Hill
This Juneteenth, we must invest in our future as well as remember our past
Victor Roy, an incoming assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, writes that “baby bonds” could help mitigate the worsening racial wealth gap.
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Los Angeles Times
Column: How a blunder by a respected medical journal is fueling an anti-vaccine lie
Jeffrey S. Morris of the Perelman School of Medicine says that even with a 100% effective vaccine, there would have been high levels of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in 2021.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
RFK Jr.’s vaccine misinformation campaign started after he ignored a Philly doctor
Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine and Melanie Kornides of the School of Nursing comment on Robert F. Kennedy’s misinformation campaign against vaccines.
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