WESA - Epidemiologists say it is rare to prove an environmental cause for a cancer cluster. EPI's Evelyn Talbot says there's some evidence linking pesticide exposure with Ewing sarcoma and suggests conducting a case control study of historical pesticide use in the areas agricultural fields.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - The departure of EPI's Donald S. Burke, dean emeritus, from his position as dean comes at a time when the region is losing two other top public health officials - Arthur Levine, senior vice chancellor of the health sciences, and Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department. "This is a time of transition - of the health department, myself, Dr. Levine - this presents an opportunity for the community an...
PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES - Donald Burke is retiring from his role as dean but he’ll remain active with the University. He reflected on his career, including time in the military and international work in two dozen countries and shared concerns about scientific denialism. "As a scientific community, it's our job to continue to point out that the best decisions are based on evidence, and that without science, you can't make policies."
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - "What I'm worried about is that, if in fact it is a statistical aberration or an epidemic anomaly, that we psychologically, in public health, take credit for it and presume that we're doing enough," said Dean Donald Burke. "The response still has not been proportionate to the problem."
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT - EPI's Wendy King and colleagues say their findings highlight the need for more education, diagnosis, treatment, and tracking of alcohol and drug use as part of post-surgery care and called on primary-care doctors to be more aware of these risks as they treat patients who have had weight-loss surgery, and for more long-term follow-up. They deaths uncovered in the study occurred about five years after surgery.
Congratulations to EPI Chair Anne Newman for winning the award from the Gerontological Society of America, given annually to a prominent physician in the field of aging, both in research and practice.
NJ.COM - New research suggests taht even for adults who develop noticeable cognitive impairments in later life, that doesn't mean they have Alzheimer's or will progress to Alzheimer's anytime soon. Mary Ganguli (EPI '87) says the findings suggest no one should jump to hasty conclusions about people with cognitive loss.
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT - EPI's David Brent (MSHyg '87) was one of the authors on a study published in JAMA Psychiatry that found children whose parents were prescribed opioids were twice as likely to attempt suicide as the offspring of people who did not use those drugs.
REUTERS - "Being black isn't the issue," EPI's Anthony Fabio said. "The issue is probably that there's institutionalized racism in the United States and if you're African American you're more likely to be born in a poor neighborhood, which has a whole plethora of disadvantages as you grow up and move through life."
On April 27, 2019, Pitt Public Health celebrated recent graduates with awards given upon the culmination of a degree program. Delta Omega's honor society inductees were announced and outstanding thesis/essay and dissertation awards were conferred. Outstanding Student Awards were also given at both the master's and doctoral level, as well as Dean's Service Awards.
THE ALLEGHENY FRONT - The Pennsylvania department of health has determined that there is no cancer cluster in a Washington County school district. The agency conducted the study after several cases of a rare bone cancer were reported there. EPI's Jian-Min Yuan told the Allegheny Front agreed that the state used appropriate methods.
Kevin Kip (EPI ’98) is a Distinguished Health Professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health as well as an epidemiologist with 18 years of research experience on federally funded and industry-sponsored studies. He is a methodologist with expertise in a wide range of health disciplines, including interventional cardiology, endocrinology, oncology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, complementary and...
Thomas Songer (EPI ’86, ’90) is an assistant professor and the director of doctoral programs in the Department of Epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. Consistently one of the most highly rated teachers in the school, he is the primary instructor for graduate courses in injury epidemiology and injury prevention and control as well as the undergraduate Introduction to Research and Introduction to Epidemiology classes. Since 2007, Songer has been th...
Kamil Barbour (BIOST ’11, EPI ’10) is an epidemiologist with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for the CDC, currently serving as team lead of the State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program. In this hand-selected role, he supervises four senior-level epidemiologists and leads a prolific research program focused on critical applied epidemiological needs.