Health Sciences

Patients with low socioeconomic status use emergency and hospital care more often than primary care because they believe hospital care is more affordable and convenient, and of better quality than care provided by primary care physicians, according to the results of a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylv

Neurodegenerative diseases are not all alike. Two individuals suffering from the same disease may experience very different age of onset, symptoms, severity, and constellation of impairments, as well as different rates of disease progression.

Mariell Jessup, MD, professor of Medicine, associate chief, Clinical Affairs, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, has become the president of the American Heart Association (AHA). Her term begins July 1, 2013.

Anyone who’s ever heard a Beethoven sonata or a Beatles song knows how powerfully sound can affect our emotions.  But it can work the other way as well – our emotions can actually affect how we hear and process sound.  When certain types of sounds become associated in our brains with strong emotions, hearing similar sounds can evoke those same feelings, even far removed from their or

The brain-preserving cooling treatment known as therapeutic hypothermia is rarely being used in patients who suffer cardiac arrest while in the hospital, despite its proven potential to improve survival and neurological function, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the June issue of Critical Care Medicine. 

University of Pennsylvania student volunteers cover enormous distances for charitable missions during the summer, and in the past several weeks a group of four has included Kazakhstan in the list. 

Pancreatic cancer carries a dismal prognosis. According to the National Cancer Institute, the overall five-year relative survival for 2003-2009 was 6 percent.

The motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, progresses in a stepwise, sequential pattern which can be classified into four distinct stages, report pathologists with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the Annals of Neurology.

Human bone breaks down and regenerates naturally all the time, in a perfectly balanced dance that maintains skeletal integrity. As people age, bone tends to deteriorate faster, causing osteoporosis and other disorders. Smoking artificially accelerates bone degeneration as well.

Opioids, such as morphine, are still the most effective class of painkillers, but they come with unwanted side effects and can also be addictive and deadly at high doses.