This RSS news feed from uwnews.org, the University of Washington Office of News and Information, includes the last 40 in the Health and Medicine category. http://uwnews.org/apps/uwnews/public/rss.aspx?q=uwnByCategoryName&categoryName=Health and Medicine&numToShow=40 http://uwnews.org/images/uwnewslogo_small.jpg http://uwnews.org/ uwnews.org, the University of Washington Office of News and Information (c)2009 University of Washington News and Information | http://uwnews.org | uwnews@u.washington.edu | 206-543-2580 Bob Roseth | roseth@u.washington.edu Ken Fine | kenfine@u.washington.edu Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:35:38 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ UW Medical Genetics Clinic faculty, leaders and staff will celebrate the clinic's 50th anniversary Friday, November 6, with a symposium and evening reception. The clinic, among the first of its kind in the United States, sees nearly 2,000 patients each year. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53291 Health and Medicine Clare Hagerty (clareh@u.washington.edu) and Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53291 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:20 GMT UW Medicine Tumor Vaccine Group hosts third annual open house Thursday, November 5, at South Lake Union http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53251 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53251 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:40:02 GMT Stress-evoked changes in circuits that regulate serotonin in certain brain regions can precipitate a low mood and a relapse in cocaine-seeking. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53217 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53217 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:26:14 GMT Women with a history of depression who used psychiatric medicine during pregnancy have triple the odds of delivering a premature baby. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53216 Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53216 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:14:24 GMT Computer scientists at the UW are using Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to transform a cell phone into a flexible data-collection tool. Their free suite of tools, named Open Data Kit, is already used by organizations around the world that need inexpensive ways to gather information in areas with little infrastructure. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53209 Science Technology Health and Medicine Environment Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=53209 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:57:42 GMT Two new studies illustrate just how hard it is to make sure people take their HIV medication. One study looked at the effects of drinking alcohol on adherence and showed the risk for non-adherence was double among drinkers compared to abstainers. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52991 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52991 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:17:06 GMT University of Washington's Institute of Translational Health Sciences and its partners-Group Health Research Institute, Duke University and Wayne State University-have developed a new web site to help researchers create and sustain successful multisite research collaborations. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52912 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52912 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:45:16 GMT Pacifier, baby bottle, or finger sucking may hamper a child's speech development if the habit goes on too long. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52897 Health and Medicine Charlotte Webber (Charlotte.Webber@biomedcentral.com) and Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52897 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:05:37 GMT Older cancer patients very commonly suffer from depression, which is debilitating both during and after treatment. UW and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance psychiatrists are showing that there are ways to better this situation, and that these approaches can be applied in primary-care settings. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52894 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) and Dean Forbes (dforbes@fhcrc.org) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52894 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:45:18 GMT Tissue engineers were able to grow stem cell patches with rudimentary blood vessels, beating contractions, and a stiffness resembling heart tissue. The patches were viable after transplant to rodent hearts. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52494 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52494 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:15:00 GMT About 90 percent of autism spectrum disorders have suspected genetic causes but few genes have been identified so far. Now a large international team, including six present and former University of Washington researchers, has identified several genetic links to autism, chief among them a variant of semaphorin 5A, a gene whose protein product controls nerve connections in the brain. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52493 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52493 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:01:08 GMT While end-of-life-care issues have come front and center in the current health care reform debate, physicians in the Pacific Northwest can now get more intensive training and new board certification in palliative medicine and hospice care. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52503 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52503 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:27:44 GMT While surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome in patients without an indication of severe nerve damage provides better outcomes than non-surgical treatment, the clinical relevance of this difference is modest, according to a new study. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52177 Health and Medicine Clare Hagerty (clareh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52177 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:04:08 GMT There is new evidence that depression, obesity and alcohol abuse or dependency are interrelated conditions among young adult women but not men. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52110 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52110 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:54:33 GMT Picture this. A bunch of adolescent rats walk into a bar and start consuming Jell-O shots. Lots of them. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52076 Social Science Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52076 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:01:19 GMT Climate change will have serious and long-term consequences for public health, with effects that will vary from community to community across the country. To help learn more about the effects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have awarded researchers at the University of Washington nearly one million dollars over the next three years. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52063 Health and Medicine Elizabeth Sharpe (esharpe@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52063 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:28:06 GMT Northwest Hospital & Medical Center, a 281-bed full service acute care hospital, will expand its program agreement with UW Medicine to become an integral part of the UW Medicine health system. The University of Washington Board of Regents endorsed the expanded affiliation agreement at its Sept. 17 meeting. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52045 Health and Medicine Tina Mankowski (ochs@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52045 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:08:46 GMT The UW was among nine research institutions from around the world that collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. UW engineers also helped develop the standard protocol used in the tests. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52044 Science Technology Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) and Lindsay Sheppard (lindsay.sheppard@sri.com) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52044 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:58:53 GMT An informal backgrounder for reporters on injury prevention and health protection in elite winter athletes http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51982 Health and Medicine Clare Hagerty (clareh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51982 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:20:19 GMT University of Washington researchers at the UW Medicine Eye Institute have successfully used gene therapy to cure color blindness in adult monkeys. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52015 Health and Medicine Science Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=52015 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:00:00 GMT The number of students enrolled in global health programs in universities across the United States and Canada doubled in just three years due to a surging interest in careers to address health disparities and prevent the spread of disease in developing countries, according to a survey released today by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51943 Health and Medicine Bobbi Nodell (bnodell@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51943 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:01:01 GMT Medical and public health experts and students from the University of Washington have weighed in on a variety of health-care topics in recent months, including the primary care doctor shortage, public hospital financing, health-care co-ops, and how to care for the uninsured. As federal and state lawmakers and President Obama debate how to reform the country's medical system, we expect these conversations to continue, and the public and media to turn to the UW to learn more. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51900 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51900 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:04:36 GMT Researchers have found new evidence showing that parents play a key role in whether or not their adolescent children who experiment with tobacco progress to become daily smokers before they graduate from high school. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51799 Social Science Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51799 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:59:47 GMT A newly designed computational method has proven its usefulness in counting copies of duplicated genome sequences and in doing initial assessments of their contents, according to a study to be published Aug. 30 in Nature Genetics. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51699 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51699 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT Although Asian-Americans as a group have lower rates of thinking about and attempting suicide than the national average, U.S.-born Asian-American women seem to be particularly at risk for suicidal behavior. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51514 Social Science Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51514 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:25:38 GMT As the national debate on health care policies continues, University of Washington experts are available to discuss the issues. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51471 Campus Law and Policy Health and Medicine Catherine O'Donnell (cath2@u.washington.edu) and Clare Hagerty (clareh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51471 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:39:57 GMT Like clockwork, brain regions in many songbird species expand and shrink seasonally in response to hormones. Now, for the first time, neurobiologists have interrupted this natural "annual remodeling" of the brain and have shown that there is a direct link between the death of old neurons and their http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51429 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51429 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:25:04 GMT Depression is common after a stroke, and can interfere with a stroke patient's rehabilitation. When a brief psychological/behavioral intervention is added to the standard treatment for their depression, stroke patients tend to have a better, faster remission compared to those on standard treatment only. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50670 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50670 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:05:00 GMT A team of engineers and medical experts has been able to illuminate brain tumors by injecting fluorescent nanoparticles into the bloodstream. The tiny particles can safely cross the blood-brain barrier, an almost impenetrable barrier that protects the brain from infection. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51245 Health and Medicine Science Technology Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51245 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:27:46 GMT In a major effort to strengthen health systems in Mozambique, Seattle-based Health Alliance International,affiliated with the University of Washington Department of Global Health, received a seven-year $10 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to work with the Mozambican government in strengthening primary health care in a region hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, poverty and other challenges. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51248 Health and Medicine Community Kenny Sherr (ksherr@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51248 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:16:12 GMT For the first time, researchers combine nanoparticles used for medical imaging and therapy in one tiny package. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51016 Science Technology Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51016 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:41:00 GMT A community workgroup led by UW research scientist Caleb Banta-Green, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, unveiled today the King County 2008 annual drug trends report. Heroin and cocaine led the list of county drug treatment admissions, according to the study. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51000 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=51000 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:00:00 GMT New research indicates that screening children for symptoms of depression, the most common mental health disorder in the United States, can begin a lot earlier than previously thought, as early as the second grade. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50985 Social Science Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50985 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:33:00 GMT Researchers have discovered that the sea lamprey, which emerged from jawless fish first appearing 500 million years ago, dramatically remodels its genome. Shortly after a fertilized lamprey egg divides into several cells, the growing embryo discards millions of units of its DNA. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50970 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50970 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:22:06 GMT University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) is ranked among the nation's top hospitals in U.S. News & World Report's 2009 edition of America's Best Hospitals, and made the Honor Roll for its breadth of excellence in specialty care. The 2009 edition is accessible today online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and on sale at newsstands Monday, July 20. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50934 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50934 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:35:26 GMT A team of researchers from the University of Washington, McGill University and Oregon State University has mapped patterns of illicit drug use across the state of Oregon using a method of sampling municipal wastewater before it is treated. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50932 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50932 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:56:54 GMT Wendy Stone, a researcher and clinician who has focused on the early identification and early intervention for children with autism, has been named the new director of the University of Washington's Autism Center. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50919 Social Science Health and Medicine Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50919 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:27:21 GMT While applauding findings that an Easter Island compound extends the lives of middle-aged mice, University of Washington longevity researchers caution that healthy people shouldn't start taking the drug in the hopes of extending their own life spans -- at least not yet. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50852 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50852 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:01:02 GMT Beyond the immediate distress, dental pain may portend future medical problems. It may be a warning that the high-glycemic diet that led to dental problems in the short term may, in the long term, lead to potentially serious chronic diseases. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50669 Science Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50669 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:02:00 GMT UW Medicine Kent/Des Moines clinic is taking part in a free summer activities program sponsored by the city of Kent and Kent4Health. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50750 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50750 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:20:01 GMT A study of elderly patients receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in hospitals shows that rates of survival did not improve from 1992 to 2005. During that period, the proportion of hospital deaths preceded by CPR rose, and the proportion of patients who were successfully resuscitated and later discharged fell. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50720 Health and Medicine Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50720 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:25:32 GMT University of Washington engineers used a novel underwater manufacturing technique to build biomimetic cilia. The hairlike appendages mix tiny volumes of liquid to speed up biomedical reactions. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50683 Technology Science Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50683 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:13:44 GMT A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Columbia University have found that Metropolitan Transit Authority subways had the highest average noise levels of all mass transit in New York City, with levels high enough to potentially increase the risk of noise- induced hearing loss. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50477 Health and Medicine Mary Guiden (mguiden@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50477 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:56:00 GMT Weaving chitosan, found in the shells of crabs and shrimp, with an industrial polyester creates a promising new material for biomedical applications, including the tiny tubes that support repair of a severed nerve. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50407 Technology Science Health and Medicine Hannah Hickey (hickeyh@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50407 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:50:00 GMT Dr. Paul Farmer, subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and co-founder of Partners In Health, will speak about the current climate of global health on Thursday, June 18 from 6-7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall Room 130. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50371 Campus Health and Medicine Bobbi Nodell (bnodell@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50371 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:26:43 GMT Researchers trying to uncover why premature birth is a growing problem in the United States and one that disproportionately affects black women have found that pre-pregnancy depressive mood appears to be a risk factor in preterm birth among both blacks and whites. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50363 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50363 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:58:51 GMT UW Medicine surgeons and the 500th heart and 500th lung transplant patient recipients will discuss their medical diagnoses and road to recovery at a morning news conference June 9 at the UW Medical Center. The lung and heart transplants took place at UW Medical Center on April 17, 2009 and May 8, 2009, respectively. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50331 Health and Medicine Susan Gregg-Hanson (sghanson@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50331 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:35:40 GMT Families throughout Washington and parts of Oregon and Idaho have two opportunities to help University of Washington researchers unlock some of the secrets of autism, a spectrum of developmental disorders that now affects about one out of every 150 children born in the United States. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50295 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=50295 Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:16:30 GMT Lower rates of smoking among black teens may be the result of black parents setting concrete guidelines about substance use and establishing clearly defined consequences for not following those guidelines. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49748 Health and Medicine Social Science Joel Schwarz (joels@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49748 Thu, 14 May 2009 16:16:01 GMT Through sophisticated statistical analyses and advanced computer simulations, researchers are learning more about the genomic patterns of human population structure around the world. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49745 Health and Medicine Science Leila Gray (leilag@u.washington.edu) http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=49745 Thu, 14 May 2009 16:00:09 GMT