THE NATION'S HEALTH - With summer’s arrival, it’s time to find a quiet beach, a shady grove, a comfortable corner on an inviting porch and relax with a good book. But which one? That’s where we can help. The Nation’s Health editors have searched online and brick-and-mortar book sellers to come up with a simmering hot collection of the latest public health-related books. Relax and take a cool dip into some hot summer reads.
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BCHS's Jessie Burke was among 25 exceptional women leaders in health who met in Pittsburgh this month to explore their career and life goals and learn to address organizational and cultural barriers and meet life-stage challenges. The training was sponsored by Women of Impact, a group of women representing various sectors of the health care industry.
Professor Jessica Burke and student Teagan O'Malley (BCHS '12 '19) developed a framework for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which responds to over 1000 calls for help each day. Burke and O'Malley engaged multiple stakeholders including service providers, users, and experts via a content-mapping research methodology to isolate what matters most and to establish metrics for monitoring this vit...
"I am extremely grateful for my MPH Practicum experience and the relationships that I built during those months! The opportunity to work with programs across the entire health department...allowed me to gain insight and understanding into the process of public health program planning, implementation, and evaluation at a local public health agency. I have continued my work with the health department in various positions since the practicum and no...
"Working as an intern gave me an opportunity to meet different groups of people, and it made me realize that the knowledge that we get in classes can be enhanced and polished by having a field experience in relevant areas. Also, the results that we got from our projects, Parental Needs Assessment, emphasized the importance of listening to people's opinions and concerns and that we should not think for a second that we understand everything about...
"After hearing about the journeys of women and spending time at the shelter, homelessness to me seems like the intersection of all social problems: poverty, mental illness, underinsurance, domestic violence, substance abuse... I feel very motivated to help these women, but I also feel like my work will never be done. I think after this experience, I am more motivated to work towards alleviating these problems in my career. Even if I can't 'solve...
THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT - In the past century, Pennsylvania has become very favorable for the ecology of tick-borne diseases. The region's woodlands, rivers, growing white tailed-deer population, plentiful population of white-footed mouse, and the expansion of human populations into the black-legged tick's habitat create ideal conditions for the transmission of Lyme disease to humans. Jill Henning (IDM '08) breaks down the risks.
HOPE WITH ANSWERS - Discover in-depth information about immunotherapy for lung cancer through this conversation between Kellie Smith (IDM '13) of Johns Hopkins and patient advocate Lysa Buonanno, part of a video series providing the next level of information for patients to understand treatment options, particularly if they've experienced resistances or if their lung cancer has progressed.
INSIDE UPMC - Rural Pennsylvania Medicaid enrollees diagnosed with opioid use disorder are driving an average of four times as far as their nearest prescriber to receive medication-assisted treatment, according to an analysis led by HPM's Evan Cole. The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , also found that the farther people have to travel, the less likely they are to adhere to medication-assisted treatment to relieve o...
INSIDE UPMC - Public health alumnae & RPCVs Marilyn Blasingame (IDM '16) and Ingrid Godfrey (IDM '18), and IDM professor Linda Rose Frank discuss their work on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its co-morbidities through the MidAtlantic AIDS Education & Training Center (MAAETC), which recently was awarded $14.2 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to continue the center’s work for the next five years
UPMC — The PHDA announced a new machine-learning research sponsorship with Amazon Web Services to advance innovation and transform the way that diseases are treated and prevented. This alliance of Pitt, UPMC, and UMPC works to use the “big data” generated in health care, such as electronic health records, diagnostic imaging, prescriptions, genomic profiles, and insurance records.
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.
PITT MAGAZINE - Lauren Chubb, DrPH, MPH (EOH ’16, ’13) occasionally dons a hard hat to see the results of her work in the lab. Her team at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Mining Program has developed software to analyze respirable dust samples in just a few minutes, rather than days. And time is of the essence: The sooner we detect airborne disease-causing particles, the better the mines can protect their workers' he...
OXFORD SUMMER COURSES – Pittsburgh stacks up well among the world’s “most cultural cities for students” in a ranking of university towns including Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Paris, and Zurich. Pittsburgh finished 12th in the world, and sixth among U.S. cities in the rankings, which counted cinemas, museums, theaters, libraries, gig venues and street markets per 100,000 residents.
We have a lot on our summer "To Be Read" pile, particularly titles we're considering for our next One Book, One Community program. Read about the program at publichealth.pitt.edu/oboc and check out Facebook and Instagram to let us know what you're reading and what you think would make a good OBOC selection.
It's that time again. Submit your suggestions for next year's One Book, One Community title. We want to hear from you on this initiative that has encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, staff, students, and friends through reading a shared book with a public health theme.
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.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - BCHS's Patricia Documet, director of Latinx researh and outreach at the Center for Health Equity, is chair of the board for Casa San Jose, a Latino community resource center that held a major party last week benefiting the efforts of Casa San Jose's mission to create a welcoming community for Latino immmigrants through civic and social engagement.
SPECIALTY PHARMACY TIMES - A new studying has found a correlation between children born to pre-pregnancy body-mass index (BMI) and the likelihood of developing childhood cancer, even after correcting for known risk factors, such as newborn size and maternal age. "My hope is that this study can be, in a way, empowering and also motivating for weight loss," said lead author Shaina Stacy (EOH '15 '12).