News Makers 2016
- archived News Makers -- 07 - 31 - 16
Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare elects UMass Medical School executive vice chancellor clerk of its board of directors
Joyce A. Murphy, executive vice chancellor of UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division, has been elected clerk of the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare board of directors.
- 07 - 28 - 16
CDC Issues First-Ever Report on Prison Healthcare
Warren J. Ferguson, MD, professor of family medicine & community health, comments on the first-ever CDC survey of state prison officials regarding health care services for inmates.
- 07 - 28 - 16
Poison control centers are getting a surge of calls about ‘natural’ painkiller kratom
Edward Boyer, MD, PhD, professor of emergency medicine, explains how kratom, a Southeast Asian leaf and natural painkiller sometimes used as a substitute for people coping with heroin addiction, works by binding to opioid receptors.
- 07 - 28 - 16
UMass Medical School researchers using salmonella in fight against cancer
Beth A. McCormick, PhD, vice chair and professor of microbiology & physiological systems, Gang Han, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology, and Regino Mercado-Lubo, MD, a postdoctoral fellow, discover a Salmonella protein that increases the efficacy of some cancer drugs. Delivered to mice with colon and breast cancer using a specially designed nanoparticle, the protein was able to dramatically shrink tumors.
- 07 - 27 - 16
Ice Bucket Challenge Funds ALS Gene Discovery
John Landers, PhD, professor of neurology, led a team of more than 80 scientists who found that variations in a gene with multiple functions in neurons are present in approximately 3 percent of all cases of ALS in North American and European populations, both sporadic and familial. Funding for the work came from donations made as part of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
- 07 - 25 - 16
Standing Desks: The Experts Weigh In
Yunsheng Ma, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor of medicine, comments on the perceived benefits of standing desks.
- 07 - 21 - 16
How the Immune System Controls Social Behavior
A study by Vladimir Litvak, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology & physiological systems, shows that the immune system plays a role in social interactions in mice.
- 07 - 21 - 16
UMMS Opioid program
Medical student Yan Emily Yuan talks about a standardized patient program at UMass Medical School designed to teach safe pain prescribing techniques.
- 07 - 21 - 16
UMMS, Curie Institute and Stanford scientists untangle Barr body of inactive X chromosome
Job Dekker, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology and co-director of the Program in Systems Biology, unpacked the structure of the inactive X chromosome found in female mammals called the Barr body and developed a model system that may be an important tool for understanding chromosome structure and gene expression.
- 07 - 19 - 16
Topline Results Show Stem Cell Transplants Safe in ALS
Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, the Leo P. and Theresa M. LaChance Chair in Medical Research and chair and professor of neurology, is quoted in a story about a phase 2 clinical trial for a stem-cell-derived ALS treatment development by BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. UMass Medical School is one of three sites enrolling patients in the trial.
- 07 - 19 - 16
UMass program gives students good dose of medical field
Robert Layne, director of outreach programs and the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative coordinator, is quoted in a story about the High School Health Careers program at UMass Medical School that exposes high school students to the realities of pursuing careers in the health care field and that being a doctor, nurse or medical researcher is a real world option for them, but it takes a lot of hard work to be successful.
- 07 - 18 - 16
102 Years Later: The U.S. Path To The Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act
In an op-ed, Julie White, LICSW, senior direct of operations for Commonwealth Medicine’s Health and Criminal Justice Program, explores the impact of new federal legislation that seeks to address addiction support services by focusing on prevention, law enforcement strategies, prevention of overdose deaths, expansion of evidence-based treatment including Medicated Assisted Treatment and support for those in, or seeking, recovery.
- 07 - 13 - 16
As I See It: Better care for children in foster care
An op-ed by Heather C. Forkey, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, calls for supporting federal legislation that would require mental health residential programs for adolescents to meet common-sense standards for licensed clinical and nursing staff.
- 07 - 13 - 16
Senate advances bill to tackle opioid addictions
An article about a federal bill to combat the prescription painkiller and heroin epidemic includes a photo of GSN student Morgan Brescia as she participates in a simulation of treatment for a patient coping with addiction.
- 07 - 13 - 16
Shocking New Role Found for the Immune System: Controlling Social Interactions
A study by Vladimir Litvak, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology & physiological systems, shows that the immune system plays a role in social interactions in mice.
- 07 - 07 - 16
Nutrition and epigenetics link found in mice
Oliver J. Rando, MD, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology, comments on a new study that links parental diet with inherited epigenetic modifications in offspring.
- 07 - 06 - 16
Teledermatology Scores Big With Doctors and Patients
Mary Maloney, MD, professor of medicine, and Thomas J. Scornavacca, Jr., DO, instructor in family medicine & community health, are quoted in an article about a new teledermatology system being developed by 3Derm.
- 07 - 06 - 16
UMass business school expansion turns to private sector for donations
An article about UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management raising private funds for a 70,000-square-foot expansion mentions that UMass Medical School topped $26 million in private donations for the Lazare Research Building, the largest private fund raising for a building in the system’s history.
- 07 - 05 - 16
Researchers look to biosensors as way to monitor opioid use
A study by Stephanie Pepper Carreiro, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine, found that wristbands monitoring skin temperature and movement can be used to track and predict opioid use with a fair degree of accuracy. The ability to identify instances of opioid use and opioid tolerance in real time could be helpful to manage pain or substance abuse treatment.
- 07 - 03 - 16
AIDS Project Worcester marks successes as it builds needle-exchange program
Erik J. Garcia, MD, assistant professor of family medicine & community health, explains that a "low-barrier" to syringe services among drug addicts can help reduce transmission of diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
- 07 - 03 - 16
Critics: State doctor rank system is misleading
An article about the Group Insurance Commission, the body that oversees health insurance for the state’s 430,000 state and municipal workers, retirees and their family members, includes comments from Joseph L. Bouchard, MD, assistant professor of medicine.
- 07 - 03 - 16
Springfield native son Sean T. Collins promoted to general, named to Pentagon post
Graduate School of Nursing alum Sean T. Collins, PhD, was promoted to brigadier general in the Air National Guard and will serve at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A veteran of more than 20 years with the Air National Guard's 104th Fighter Wing, the Southwick native will serve as the assistant for mobilization and reserve affairs in the office of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
- 07 - 01 - 16
Comeback for Google Glass?
Peter R. Chai, MD, instructor in emergency medicine, explains how Google Glass is being used to perform emergency medicine and toxicology consultations.
- 07 - 01 - 16
Congressman McGovern, Community Servings look to future of nonprofit food delivery
Mireya Wessolossky, MD, associate professor of medicine, is quoted in a story about food and nutrition nonprofit Community Servings, which just delivered its 100,000th meal in Worcester, becoming a template for a national movement to deliver quality food to sick and medically needy citizens.
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