Three epidemiology students traveled to Seattle this week to present findings at the 2017 annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Epidemiologic Research. Pictured below are KYLE FREESE, LARA SIMINERIO LEMON, and TAMALA GONDWE. What was their take-away from the 30th anniversary event? Reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric epidemiology is no longer the “new kid on the block.”
Due to renovation conditions at the DeSoto Street entrance, it will be closed starting Monday 06-26-17 until Wednesday morning 06-28-17. Please use the Fifth Avenue entrance during this time period.
E&E NEWS - The debate has gone on for some time over whether scientists should simply lay out their information and let politicians decide how to use it or advocate for a specific policies. Emeritus EOH professor and emeritus dean BERNARD GOLDSTEIN, who also served as assistant administrator for research in the Reagan administration says, “I find it very situational,” Goldstein said. He added that recent political attacks on science and particula...
U.S. CONGRESS - On June 20, 2017, emeritus dean and professor BERNARD GOLDSTEIN called on lawmakers to support a research agenda to mitigate global climate change during special D.C. hearing. As an expert environmental toxicologist, he emphasized the need to address conservatives’ reasons for not trusting climate science in order to get bipartisan support for research. He concluded that fighting over the issue is potentially disastrous to society...
PITTMED MAGAZINE - Someone once told Eve, a teen with severe intractable depression, "You just aren’t working hard enough in therapy." And then her doctor, HuGen’s LISA PAN—along with fellow Human Genetics faculty member DAVID FINEGOLD—learned that she can’t seem to make critical neurotransmitters. As it turned out, Eve’s CSF level of biopterin, a chemical the body uses to synthesize several neurotransmitters, was through the floor.
Alumnus RAJESH PANDAV (EPI ’01) has now completed two years as the World Health Organization’s country representative to East Timor. Along with updates on his accomplishments, Pandav sent in a nice shout-out to his mentors at Pitt: “All this has been possible because of the excellent education I received when I was at Pitt Public Health. I would like to specially thank Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, MARY DERKACH, and my mentor, MARY GANGULI...
Alumna BETSY JOHNS (MMPH ‘99) recently joined the Stormont Vail Health medical team and will practice as a family medicine physician at Cotton O’Neil Corporate View. She received her medical degree at the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1994. She completed a residency training in family practice at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and a faculty development fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medic...
PITTSBURG POST-GAZETTE - The numbers are staggering, and yet DONALD S. BURKE wants more of them. He believes good data is essential in fighting the opioid crisis that is growing exponentially across the country — and nowhere faster than the Appalachian region that includes Western Pennsylvania. Burke, dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, took his case to Washington, where he participated Monday in a panel discu...
On Monday, June 19, 2017, Dean Burke joined four other public health deans from Appalachian universities to speak at a U.S. congressional hearing on the national opioid epidemic. Addressing the standing-room-only crowd, he spoke about the epidemiology of the crisis and the need for better info on costs. “Billions [of dollars] are needed, and we don't have a good handle on the magnitude of the epidemic. We need data.”
PUBLIC HEALTH POST - In a public health article, HPM's MARIAN JARLENSKI says fake scientific arguments should not shape abortion law. She asks “why it is that so much un-scientific medical guidance is being codified into state statutes. Six state laws require that women seeking an abortion be counseled that induced abortion may result in adverse mental health effects, four require counseling that induced abortion reduces future fertility, and fiv...
GO ERIE - A presentation and discussion of Erie’s opioid epidemic will highlight Thursday’s Challenges & Innovations in Rural Psychiatry Conference at the Bayfront Convention Center, sponsored by Stairways Behavioral Health. DONALD BURKE, dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, will give the keynote address. Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper will join Burke and Stairways professionals during a roundtable discus...
We hear that new doctoral alumna CHELSEA PALLATINO (BCHS ’17) will begin a position as a postdoc researcher with Magee Women’s Research Institute in July. She’ll be studying unintended pregnancy, Hep C prevalence, and intimate partner violence among opioid-dependent mothers.
WALL STREET JOURNAL - In a piece by HPM's WALID GELLAD, he says, "Everyone agrees prescription drugs are too expensive, but what to do about it? One popular idea—supported in the past by President Trump, and by 80% of the public in some polls—is for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices directly. But such negotiation would work only if there were some limitations on the drugs available to patients, raising many questions about the feasibility ...
What a lovely evening of connections! On Tuesday, June 13, 2017, HPM alumnus Rob Curry welcomed Pitt Public Health friends DAVID TYE, DAREEN MEYERS, MARK MEYERS, WEN TA CHIU, KRISTIN LAZZARA, KEVIN BROOM, and MARK ROBERTS to his Pasadena home for cocktails and talk about great memories, current issues, and the newest school happenings.
ESPN - There was something about showing a movie of your hometown that people relate to,” said DON BURKE, dean of Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. It was his idea to break the data modeling down by county.The FRED platform allowed researchers to build a simulation of human interaction dynamics, said MARK ROBERTS (Public Health Dynamics Lab director and HPM chair) wherein virtual people in 116 million households across the country live, wo...
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - Congratulations to BCHS student ALYSIA TUCKER, who took home $2,500 for her Best4Baby startup that connects soon-to-be mothers with local, affordable doulas. Tucker said her company will only match expecting mothers with fully-trained doulas who have undergone 30 hours in classes and have completed a certain number of births successfully.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - “For the first time in Allegheny County, fentanyl was found in more people than heroin,” said Pitt Public Health epidemiologist JEANINE BUCHANICH. There appear to be two distinct epidemics in Pennsylvania, said DONALD BURKE. Southeastern Pennsylvania historically has been a source of extremely pure and cheap heroin, which is now drawing some users whose addictions began with prescription pain pills.
KVOA NEWS 4 - New prediction tools to identify patients at risk of inappropriate prescription opioid use, while allowing safe administration of legitimate pain management are being developed by alumna WEI-HSUAN JENNY LO-CIGANIC (BIOST '10, EPI '05), now an assistant professor with the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy. Her newly-funded work builds on research she completed as a postdoctoral associate at Pitt's HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE.
UPI - Research led by EPI's WENDY KING found that while the number of adults with severe obesity using prescription opioids initially declines in the months after bariatric surgery, it eventually increases to surpass pre-surgery rates. "Almost half of patients reporting opioid use at the time of surgery reported no such use following surgery. However, among the much larger group of patients who did not report opioid use pre-surgery, opioid use gr...
CBS MONEY WATCH - President Donald Trump pointed to Pittsburgh as a reason for pulling out of the Paris climate accord, but some residents in the former steel town are calling him rusty and out-of-date. The one-time industrial center is now a thriving city focused on health care, tech, and clean energy.
EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY - Alumnus WILL BROUGHTON (BCHS '14) is coordinator for the Office of Health Access in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University as well as future project coordinator for an apples-to-apples project to standardize the methodology and synchronize the assessment process for regional community health needs assessment in eastern North Carolina. He will be facilitating the day-to-day implementation efforts. He sa...
PITTSBURGH TODAY - “PM2.5 is probably the chief concern for the region, mainly because of its contribution from a source as big as the Clairton plant has an effect over a fairly large area,” said EOH associate prof JAMES FABISIAK.... “Everything that’s a risk factor for bad health is showing up high in that area,” said LUANN BRINK, Allegheny County Health Department deputy director and chief epidemiologist (as well as EPI alum and assistant prof)...
Kudos to (photo front, left to right) alumna PATRICIA NOWALK (EPI '81, ’93) and BCHS faculty MARY HAWK, ED RICCI, and (back) RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, who received the Immunization Publication Excellence Award presented during the National Adult Influenza Immunization Summit, May 10, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia. The award was in recognition of their work on the Four Pillars Practice Transformations Program for adult influenza immunization.
BCHS student EMMA HOSMAN is working with the Allegheny County Health Department through the Pittsburgh Summer Institute (bit.ly/2rVg2RO). This morning, in collaboration with ACHD's Emergency Preparedness Program, she helped to lead a CPR class for 17 community participants.
A facial shape genetics paper from a research team including HUGEN's JOHN SHAFFER, ELEANOR FEINGOLD, and student EKATERINA ORLOVA, was among the top 50 most downloaded "PLoS Genetics" open-access journal papers in 2016.