POPULAR SCIENCE - Geneticists often don’t like to perform population studies at such scale because they are too large to zoom in on any specific details. But that means that we might not be getting the full picture. Research by JOHN SHAFFER, ELEANOR FEINGOLD, and SETH WEINBERG tells us that there’s power in numbers. Just as seemingly simple traits reveal their true complexity, diseases that currently puzzle us will soon become easier to understan...
CENTRAL VALLEY BUSINESS TIMES - The analysis of California death rates was conducted at the county level using data from the Mortality and Population Data System (MPDS) at Pitt Public Health. Data from biostatisticians JEANINE BUCHANICH, SHANNON WOOLLEY, and MICHAEL LANN include ICD codes for underlying causes of death for nearly all U.S. deaths since 1950.
PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES - Last night the Health Activist Network named HPM student and research assistant HEATHER TOMKO as a Jonas Salk Health Activist fellow for tackling the problems and effecting change in the health care field. The expo event was held at the August Wilson Center, and brought together health professionals who accelerate health policy and care delivery improvements. (subscriber-only content)
IDM's JENNIFER BOWLING presented a poster entitled, "Influence of Sex on Protection Conferred by Vaccination with Attenuated Strains of Francisella tularensis in the Rabbit Model."
ABIGAIL R. CARTUS (EPI '21) and C. ELIZABETH SHAABAN (EPI '18) were honored by the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at Pitt for cofounding Pitsburgh Lead Action Now, a citizen-led group working for the lead-free drinking water in Pittsburgh. The Young Award honors work that promotes social justice, and recognizes that social activism takes many forms.
WTAE - “We as adults are always trying to make programs or projects that we think that the kids need,” said BCHS’s RICHARD GARLAND. “But my strategy has always been going to the source, so I’d like to talk to the kids and see what they really need and what’s really on their mind.”
HEALTH LEADERS MEDIA - “As long as these programs do not account adequately for patient differences, which is very difficult to do, they will further deprive practices serving low-income populations of important resources,” said ERIC ROBERTS, assistant professor of health policy and management at Pitt Public Health and lead author of the study.
91.5 WESA - When a parent has health insurance through Medicaid, their child is 29 percent more likely to receive an annual physical exam. That’s according to a new study designed by HPM researcher ERIC T. ROBERTS, who calls this correlation between pediatric care and parental health insurance a spill-over effect. “We can’t look at individuals in isolation,” he explained. “When we help parents, we can help their kids.”
Alumnus DIEGO CHAVES-GNECCO (MMPH ’00), now associate professor at Pitt’s School of Medicine and founding director of the program SALUD Para Niños at UPMC’s Children’s Hospital, received the F. Edwards Rushton CATCH Award at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition. Named in honor of F. Edwards Rushton Sr., this award honors pediatricians who collaborate within their communities to increase children’s access to ...
CONSUMER REPORTS - It’s unwise to delay or spread out vaccines, says EPI’s WILBERT VAN PANHUIS. The CDC bases the schedule on disease risks, 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.” The MMR vaccine, for instance, is timed so that children receive it just as they’ve lost residual immunity from their mothers. And measles,...
DATA-SMART CITY SOLUTIONS, HARVARD - Using Pittsburgh’s public safety open data sets, HPM and PHDL’s ZAN DODSON has been advancing the region’s response to the opioid overdose epidemic by sharing his hot-spots research results to public health officials working to coordinate their responses to the crisis.
POST-GAZETTE - The second, $160,000 grant was awarded to the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. RICHARD GARLAND, an assistant professor, is leading that effort and has hired two street outreach workers who are focusing on violence prevention through mediation and by building personal relationships with people in Wilkinsburg, Braddock, Rankin, Duquesne, McKeesport, and Penn Hills.
CNN - Good. Clean. Hope. Pitt alumnus Samir Lakhani has been selected as a 2017 Top 10 CNN Hero for initiating a way to recycle hotel soaps for rural Cambodians, addressing issues of affordability and access to improve hygiene, thwart outbreaks of cholera and impetigo, and provide jobs for local women. This is public health! Click heading to cast your vote for him as Hero Of The Year!
NPR - While warning of privacy and cost concerns, HPM’s WALID GELLAD explains the upside of the newly FDA-approved “big brother” digital pill. But he warns that there are broader privacy concerns when it comes to sensors that transmit health information. “We’ve seen time and time again that stuff that’s being transmitted ends up in the hands of people it shouldn’t. There are real concerns about data security.”
The award is based on contribution to public health, with emphasis on scholarship, leadership, and service. The 2017 winners are: ANDREW KROEMER, CHANTELE MITCHELL-MILAND, JENNA NELSON, ASHLEY SIER, BAIYAND SUN, and EMILY WASSON.
Open to EPI students in good academic standing seeking travel funding to attend approved scientific meetings or events. 2017 winners are: KATHLEEN CREPPAGE, CHRISTINA CALAVARO, HSIN-HUI HUANG, HEMANT MAHAJAN, MEGAN MARRON, and SHARON WELBURN. Congratulations!
BLOOMBERG - Azar “is not the pick you would expect from someone who is going around calling the pharmaceutical industry a bunch of murderers,” HPM’s WALID GELLAD, who heads Pitt’s Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing, said in a phone interview, referring to Trump’s “Getting away with murder” comment about the industry.
STAR TRIBUNE - “It sounds awful to say this, but it’s probably going to take a senator’s mother or father to be involved in an incident like this for policymakers to wake up and take notice,” says HPM’s NICHOLAS CASTLE. “Not a lot of folks realize that the biggest threat to your loved one’s safety…could be sleeping in the room next door.”
POST-GAZETTE - BCHS student SARAH BAUMANN’s first installment of her documentary series, “Cycle Series,” focuses on how homeless women deal with menstruation needs while on the streets. Costs, logistical issues and mental health issues are often unaddressed. “This is something that happens every month for 40 years of their lives. There’s no reason we should not be talking about this.”
UPI - “Smoking cessation is notoriously difficult to achieve,” said senior author MARIAN JARLENSKI, HPM. “The sizable increase we found in smoking cessation might lead to significant reductions in death and diseases caused by smoking, and the taxpayer-funded health care expenditures that come with treating them.” Results were published in the December issue of the journal Medical Care .