Health Sciences

Improving patient experiences in cancer clinical trials

Cancer clinical trials (CCTs) provide patients an opportunity to receive experimental drugs, tests, and/or procedures that can lead to remissions. For some, a CCT may seem like their only option. Yet little is known about the experiences of patient participants who withdraw from CCTs.

From Penn Nursing News

Medical anthropologist Fran Barg reflects on three decades at Penn

She spent her career studying the culture of medicine. Through collaborations with colleagues in medicine and anthropology, she’s pinpointed why it’s so crucial to see serious medical problems from both a scientific perspective and a patient one.

Michele W. Berger

Relief for dry eyes

Dry eye is a common condition, affecting nearly half of U.S. adults at some point during their lives, but it is often overlooked as a serious ailment, and the classic symptom of dry eyes isn’t always present.

Lauren Ingeno

Scaling the model of care for patients with opioid use disorder

Data show that concurrent with the opioid overdose crisis, there has been an increase in hospitalizations of people with opioid use disorder. One in ten of these hospitalized medical or surgical patients have comorbid opioid-related diagnoses.

From Penn Nursing News

Four things to know about the latest IPCC climate report

The assessment describes ‘unequivocal’ human influence that no doubt caused ‘widespread and rapid changes’ to the atmosphere, oceans, and more. Professors Mark Alan Hughes and Michael Weisberg discuss the findings, plus how we can avoid passing the point of no return.

Michele W. Berger



In the News


6ABC.com

Bird flu suspected in deaths of 200 snow geese in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley

Stephen Cole of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that indoor cats are contracting bird flu through raw pet foods of poultry origin or raw milk products.

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NPR

Tuberculosis rates plunge when families living in poverty get a monthly cash payout

Aaron Richterman of the Perelman School of Medicine says that there are large and underappreciated benefits of cash-transfer programs, such as potentially ending a tuberculosis epidemic.

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Self

The surgeon general calls for new warning labels on alcohol—here’s the truth about how it impacts your health

Henry Kranzler of the Perelman School of Medicine says that alcohol’s effects on the brain are observed more readily because it’s the organ of behavior.

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Newsweek

Cancer breakthrough as ‘speckles’ may reveal best treatment

A paper co-authored by PIK Professor Shelley Berger finds that patterns of “speckles” in the heart of tumor cells could help predict how patients with a common form of kidney cancer will respond to treatment options.

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Time

Scientists are racing to develop a new bird flu vaccine

Drew Weissman and Scott Hensley of the Perelman School of Medicine are testing a vaccine to prevent a strain of H5N1 bird flu in chickens and cattle.

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