Mary Ganguli is professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. Her research focuses on the epidemiology of late-life mental disorders, particularly neurocognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. She is the principal investigator of several National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded, population-based investigations in the area of dementia and Al...
Laura B. Gieraltowski is serving as a lieutenant commander with the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) for which she is a epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Emerging and Infectious Zoonotic Diseases, Division of the Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases’ Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch (ORPB). She regularly leads teams of public health professiona...
The following four individuals will be inducted into the Omicron chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society at the Graduate School of Public Health, recognizing merit and encouraging further excellence in, and devotion to, public health work:
Nancy W. Glynn (EPI '94), faculty and alumna; Leah M. Lamonte (IDM '06), alumna; Natalie A. Solomon-Brimage (BCHS '06), alumna; Christopher A. Taylor (EPI '10), alumnus.
CBS NEWS - "We knew there was an increase in the number of people experiencing problems with alcohol within the first two years of surgery, but we didn't expect the number of affected patients to continue to grow throughout seven years of follow-up," said lead author WENDY KING, associate professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. Her team discovered that 20.8 percent of participants developed symptoms of alcohol use disorder within five ye...
UPI - "The long term effects of bullying involvement are important to establish," EPI's KAREN MATTHEWS, the lead researcher from the University of Pittsburgh, said in a press release. "Most research on bullying is based on addressing mental health outcomes, but we wished to examine the potential impact of involvement in bullying on physical health and psychosocial risk factors for poor physical health."
POST-GAZETTE - A disturbing topic is the racial disparity in the cases of asthma. EPI's LUANN BRINK has reported rates for African-Americans that are nearly double the rates for whites. Pollution sources are clustered in areas where many African-Americans live, leading to this disparity.
ELSA S. STROTMEYER, associate professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health, was voted chair-elect of the Gerontological Society of America's Health Sciences Section. She will assume her role in November, joining colleagues from around the country in accepting responsibility for matters of governance and strategic planning with GSA.
CONSUMER REPORTS - Myth #2: It’s Safer to Space Out Kids' Vaccines.
That's unwise, says EPI's WILBERT VAN PANHUIS. The CDC bases the schedule on disease risks and vaccine effectiveness at specific ages, and the way vaccines may interact with each other. “To start mixing this up is really complicated and actually can be dangerous,” he says—in part because putting vaccines off can leave kids vulnerable to infectious diseases.
CONTAGION LIVE - A research team including senior author RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, BCHS, and alumna MARY PATRICIA NOWALK (EPI '93), notes that despite its lower efficacy rates, eliminating the nasal influenza vaccine has resulted in a reduced overall rate of flu vaccine uptake in the United States. Thus, eliminating this form of vaccination may lead to more flu-related illnesses. The study finds that it would take only relatively small changes to tip th...
Vice-chair for research in the Department of Epidmiology, Lisa Bodnar is to receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The award will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, April 28, 2017.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging, announced its newest elected officers, including Elsa S. Strotmeyer, Department of Epidemiology. Officers are chosen by the GSA membership of more than 5,500 researchers, educators, and practitioners, and are responsible for matters of governance and strategic planning, and represent the Society’s four membership section...
On April 13, 2017, TREVOR ORCHARD shared his inaugural lecture as Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology with Chancellor Patrick Gallegher and a throng of well-wishers during an event sponsored by Patricia Beeson, provost, senior vice chancellor, and chief academic officer of the University of Pittsburgh. Orchard's talk was titled "The Cardiovascular Complications of Type 1 Diabetes: A 30-year Pittsburgh Perspective."
CBS NEWS - Among women between 40 and 53 years of age, frequent hot flashes were linked to poorer function in blood vessels, the study found. This association was independent of other heart disease risk factors, noted the team led by REBECCA THURSTON, EPI faculty, professor of psychiatry and psychology, and director of the Women's Biobehavioral Health Laboratory.
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - Hot flashes may be more than a troublesome nuisance for some women during menopause -- they may be a signal for increased risk of heart disease, suggests a team led by REBECCA THURSTON, Department of Epidemiology. The study showed that the association was independent of other heart disease risk factors, and the link seemed restricted to the younger women in the study -- there was no such relationship among women aged 5...