NORTH HILLS MONTHLY - Keith Lorenz (HPM '11) has been appointed vice president of operations for UPMC Passavant. He will support and lead the hospital in its goal to be the best place for people to work, patients to receive care, and for advanced care providers and physicians to practice medicine.
THE CONFLUENCE (WESA) -- Outgoing director of the Allegheny County Health Department, adjunct professor in HPM and BCHS, and Pitt Public Health board of visitors member, Dr. Karen Hacker discusses the population health issues of this region as well as her plans to head the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
NPR - A New York regulation that dictates how doctors treat sepsis appears to be paying off, according to a study in JAMA. Amidst concerns about an unorthodox requirement of a specific set of practices that a doctor might otherwise deviate from based on the patient, HPM's Jeremy Kahn found that the rules reduced mortality, an important finding as other states consider and even the nation considers additional regulation.
"Being a Dawn Gideon Scholar helped me feel like HPM was a great fit for me. [At the] annual golf outing...I was surrounded by inspiring women and men in the healthcare field, and I just felt right at home. I was energized by the stories that I heard. It made me excited for what I can learn and contribute to HPM. It was at that time that I knew I had made the right decision about both HPM and Pitt Public Health."
"The Dawn Gideon Foundation has done a lot of work to expose the scholars to people who knew Dawn Gideon and it's been really wonderful to hear about her impact on their lives, whether they've been people that she's personally mentored or just her close friends...It's been wonderful to get to know them and I feel like her life has really been carried on not only in the award for other motivated women who want to go into health care administratio...
CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS - The women selected are dedicated to creating and expanding learning opportunities for Northeast Ohioans of all ages, at all levels, and in a host of fields. Mary Beth Zeni (HPM '93) was chosen for innovative and successful curriculum development strategies as associate dean of graduate nursing at the Breen School of Nursing, Ursuline College.
KDKA - President Mark Sevco (HPM/Katz '91) said, "It is an extraordinary achievement to be recognized as one of the best children's hospitals in the country. I am honored to work with all the outstanding and talented health care professionals who are committed to putting children first. The rankings reflect our staff's dedicatio to creating the ultimate patient care experience by providing compassionate and world-renowned care for every single p...
ASTHOEXPERTS BLOG - HPM's Wendy Braund, director of the Center for Public Health Practice, wrote a blog for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials that says that both practice-based research and implementation science are vital but that neither receives adequate effort and gives us ideas to address this challenge.
UPMC - A move by the White House in 2017 - decried by many as an attempt to undercut the ACA - improved the affordability of health insurance for Marketplace enrollees. "...In terms of affordability, monopoly insurance markets are resulting in low- to no-cost premiums for Marketplace enrollees. On the other hand, this is a really inefficient way to spend federal tax dollars to create affordable health insurance," said HPM's Coleman Drake.
MEDPAGE TODAY - Patients given opioids during their hospital stay were more likely to continue using them post-discharge. Compared with patients who were not prescribed opioids, those who did get a prescription were also twice as likely to continue using them in outpatient settings three months out according to a study by HPM's Julie Donohue.
VOX - The U.S. has some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world, and this summer, Democratic House leadership will unveil a plan to fix that - though questions remain about just how effective this measure will be. "The discussion should be around trying this with a limited amount of drugs to start with, then you figure out what infrastructure is needed and how it's going to work," said HPM's Walid Gellad.
Congratulations to HPM's Wendy Braund for receiving the inaugural award, selected by and presented by ACPM CEO Donna Grande at the Prevention 2019 Conference in Pittsburgh on May 20, 2019. Braund has a long history of service to ACPM. Currently, she is secretary of the ACPM Board of Regents and chair of the CME/MOC Committee. She is also a fellow of the college.
REUTERS - "The key message here is that expansion doesn't necessarily mean better access," said HPM's Eric Roberts. That's unfortunate since "Medicaid disproportionately insures people with serious mental illness," said Roberts. "This should be a point of concern for policy makers."
PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES - UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh named MHA/MBA alumnus Mark Sevco (HPM/Katz '91) as its new president. Sevco, who was most recently COO of UPMC Pinnacle, has been interim president since January. His former classmate, MHA/MBA graduate Christopher Gessner (HPM/Katz '91), served as the hospital's previous president.
ASPPH FRIDAY LETTER - Broadband penetration rates are substantially lower in many rura counties where access to primary care physicians and psychiatrists is inadequate, which limits the potential of telemedicine to mitigate barriers to care say findings from a brief research report led by HPM's Coleman Drake.