BCHS' Richard Garland was among the presenters at the American College of Preventive Medicine's Prevention 2019 meeting held in Pittsburgh in May. Garland was on a panel called Lessons about Gun Violence from the National Violent Death Reporting System.
WESA - Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, will leave at the end of July to take a job with the CDC as director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Hacker is also a member of our Board of Visitors and holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Health Policy and Management and Behavioral and Community Health Sciences.
UPMC - Much like cancer, sepsis isn't simply one condition but rather many conditions that could benefit from different treatments, according to the results of a Pitt study reported in JAMA involving more than 60,000 patients, featuring Derek Angus (BCHS '92), chair of Pitt's Department of Critical Care Medicine and Pitt Public Health's distinguished professor of health policy and management.
Reversibly paralyzing and heavily sedating hospitalized patients with severe breathing problems do not improve outcomes in most cases, according to an NIH-funded clinical trial conducted at dozens of North American hospitals and led by clinician-scientists at Pitt -- including Derek Angus (BCHS '92), chair of critical care medicine and distinguished professor of health policy and management -- and the University of Colorado.
WESA - BCHS's Richard Garland said that by expanding access to jobs, the clean slate law plays a crucial role in preventing low-level ex-convicts from committing future crimes. Before the law, he said, those individuals too often were defined by their criminal records when seeking work.
ASPPH FRIDAY LETTER - Research by BCHS's Steven Albert put the HSIM falls-prevention program on the pre-approved list for future federal funding. The study showed a significantly lower incidence of falls in older adults who completed program workshops than in a comparison group at the same sites. HSIM participation reduced falls by about 28 percent.
MANAGED CARE - Pitt Med's Derek Angus (BCHS '92) contributed to a first-of-its-kind, hematology-based cellular biomarker that is designed to help emergency department physicians identify patients with sepsis or who are at increased risk of developing sepsis. Compared to the traditional method of reviewing white blood cell count alone, the Early Sepsis Indicator strengthens a clinician’s suspicion of sepsis by 43 percent.
REUTERS - "This is an important paper, if a state has legislation that allows terminally ill adults to request medication to hasten death, there needs to be a policy from each hospital on how they will respons. This is one of the first studies to address that," said BCHS Chair Steven Albert.
BCHS's Richard Zimmerman and Jonathan Raviotta (BCHS '18) and Patricia Nowalk (EPI '81, '93) are among those who recently published research that says that hundreds of deaths can likely be avoided if older adults wait until October to get their flu immunization. Since the protection offered by the vaccine wanes as the season progresses, waiting until closer to the start of the season ensures greater immunity.
BCHS associate professors Mary Hawk and Tiffany Gary-Webb participated in the provost's recent event, “A Celebration of Newly Promoted Women Faculty.” Sponsored by the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns (PACWC), the event featured a panel of accomplished women professors offering perspectives and advice for successful academic careers and then introduced the recently promoted women among the faculty. The event was part of Pitt's on...
AIDS AND BEHAVIOR - Chandler C, Bukowski LA, Egan JE, Hawk M, Matthews D, Markovic N, Stall R revealed that tere were synergies among depression, problematic binge drinking, and poly-drug usebut these pschosocial factors cannot entirely explain testing patterns and excess disease burden among BMSM.
AGING AND MENTAL HEALTH - Meanley SP, Stall RD, Hawk ME, Surkan PJ, Shoptaw SJ, Matthews DD, Teplin LA, Egan JE, Plankey MW's study underscores internalized homophobia as a persisting concern among MSM in midlife and older adulthood. Their findings suggest that saliences, as a characteristic of discrimination experiences, may have a greater impact on internalized homophobia compared with exposure.
AIDS EDUCATION AND PREVENTION - Dr. Mary Hawk and co-authors found that peers are well-positioned to collect client-level data, best practices, standards, and trainings for peer-based evaluation should be developed.
Congrats to professor (and alum) Thistle Elias (BCHS '12) on winning the 2019 award - a major honor recognizing continuing work with Bridging the Gaps, a premier service-learning opportunity for Pitt students. The award "recognizes... efforts [that] far exceed the traditional duties expected of a faculty member and showcases the extraordinary impact that you have had in your own department and in the University."