KAISER HEALTH NEWS - As congressional action seems increasingly unlikely, two approaches offer another possible path forward. The first is known as “march-in rights.” The second is generally referred to as Section 1498 because of its location in the U.S. Code. They are “already part of a law that is intact. … An option the administration can take now,” said HPM's WALID GELLAD.
Dean Donald S. Burke's third annual address to the school on the state of the nation's opioid overdose epidemic looks at one of the most pressing issues facing our region. Burke highlights his team's research recently published in Science ( Changing dynamics of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States from 1979 through 2016 ), as well as details Pitt Public Health's efforts to confront the crisis and how you can get involved. Click...
CAROLYN BYRNES (EPI ‘11), NANCY NIEMCZYK (EPI ‘14), and EPI's DARA MENDEZ are to serve in a new effort to collect information to investigate and disseminate findings related to maternal deaths. “With the alarming rate of maternal deaths in Pennsylvania, establishing this committee will help take immediate action in determining the reasons for this phenomenon,” Governor Wolf said.
PRI'S THE TAKEAWAY - Last week America watched as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ducked and dodged questions about his drinking habits when he was a teenager. It forced many of us to consider our own relationship to alcohol. BCHS's CHRISTINA MAIR said, "There are more deaths attributed to alcohol than any other substance and it's one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in this country."
BCHS's ELIZABETH FELTER and JASON FLATT (BCHS '13) recently published a study guide for the Certified Health Education Exam. The 200-page book serves as the primary resource for any student taking the CHES exam and is now available through Springer Publishing Company.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - A new study shows that not only are sexual harassment and assault highly prevalent today, but they may also have negative health consequences. "It is widely understood that sexual harassment and assault can impact women's lives and how they function, but this study also evaluates the implications of these experiences for women's health," says EPI's REBECCA THURSTON.
WESA-FM - Pennsylvania is asking coders and designers to look at its data on the opioid crisis as part of a month-long hackathon to find new strategies to fight the epidemic. Teams are encouraged to focus on 1 of 3 tracks dealing with the opioid epidemic: preventing opioid use disorder, saving lives and ensuring access to treatment. Pitt Public Health will participate this year and in total some 260 Pennsylvanians are taking part.
TRIB LIVE - Co-chair of the Center for Health Equity’s Community Advisory Board, JEANETTE SOUTH-PAUL, MD, is among the first to be honored with the America-Japan Society’s second annual Kentaro Kaneko Award to be presented at the International House in Tokyo this October. “I can’t over-emphasize learning from our global partner and learning from each other in a mutually respectful fashion,” she said.
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JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION INSIGHT - Jasmine Samal, Samantha Kelly, Ali Na-Shatal, Abdallah Elhakiem, Antu Das, Ming Ding, Anwesha Sanyal, Phalguni Gupta, Kevin Melody, Brad Roland, Watfa Ahmed, Aala Zakir, and Moses Bility developed a potentially novel human immune system–humanized mouse model.
ALEX SUNDERMANN (IDM) is the featured MPH profile in the fall issue of Prevention Strategist, a magazine issued by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. When asked about the best advice he ever received, he said, 'keep asking 'why?'"
On Friday, September 7-Sunday, September 9, the Department of Human Genetics held its annual retreat for students, faculty, staff, and their families at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in Northwest Pennsylvania. The retreat had 80 attendees, along with 12 partners and 5 children. The theme was "Precision Medicine and Diversity," and featured a poster session and talks by Mylynda Massart, Genevieve Wojcik, Alison Morris, and graduate student...
On Thursday, September 13, the Department of Human Genetics gathered with other departments, centers, and divisions at Pitt and UPMC for the first Interdepartmental Human and Medical Genetics Retreat. The retreat featured a variety of talks and a poster session about the latest genetics research at Pitt. Featured speakers from Pitt Public Health were H.J. Park, Eleanor Feingold, Samantha Rosenthal, and John Shaffer.
RISK ANALYSIS - Before joining Pitt Public Health in 2001, BERNARD GOLDSTEIN, EOH professor and former dean, obtained his medical degree from NYU. In 1980, he was recruited by Rutgers Medical School to help with the increase in public and political concerns about environmental pollution. Later, he left New Jersey to head the Office of Research and Development under President Ronald Reagan.
NEW YORK TIMES - Fewer patients are winding up in nursing homes, and hundreds of the facilities are closing each year. Nationally, “200 to 300 nursing homes close each year,” said HPM's NICHOLAS CASTLE. The number of residents keeps shrinking, too, from 1.48 million in 2000 to 1.36 million in 2015, according to federal data.
The Center for Health Equity invited people to create their own poster on what health equity means to them. Their spot was also a smoke-free zone and participants were invited to sign a petition to make Pitt a smoke-free campus.
Pitt's departments of biostatistics and biomedical informatics held a half-day joint faculty retreat to share respective areas of work, identify common interests, and foster collaborations in research and education.
NATIONAL LAW REVIEW - Alumna MELISSA FAN (HPM '12) is hired as an associate at Dinsmore Law Firm. Melissa focuses her practice on health care law, corporate law, regulatory and compliance issues and food and drug law. She received her JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Before joining the firm, Melissa interned with Judge Michael Wojcik of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
Congratulations to EPI's JANE CAULEY for receiving the 2018 Shirley Hohl Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. She received the award after volunteering for numerous positions and projects with the society. “To be awarded the ASBMR 2018 Shirley Hohl Service Award is a great honor and privilege, and I thank our membership for the opportunity to serve," said Cauley.
ASPPH FRIDAY LETTER - Children are at a considerable disadvantage when competing with adults for livers from deceased organ donors in the U.S. allocation system. “Using national, long-term data, our report is the first to demonstrate that the scoring system, on its own, dramatically underestimates the risk of death in the next 90 days and, thereby, disadvantages children," says HPM chair MARK ROBERTS.
SCIENCE - In an effort to understand the epidemic dynamics and perhaps predict its future course, Pitt Public Health researchers analyzed records of nearly 600,000 overdose deaths. Dean DONALD BURKE, HPM's HAWRE JALAL, and colleagues concluded that the U.S. drug overdose epidemic has been inexorably tracking along an exponential growth curve since at least 1979.