WJET-TV - To show the seriousness of the disease, Pitt Public Health launched an outbreak simulation know as Fred, named after Fred Rogers, because the spread of the disease all comes down to neighborhoods. There were over 1,200 measles cases reported in the nation as of November. Visit https://bit.ly/2KW35zy to watch the simulation.
JUNIATA MAGAZINE - Pitt Public Health alumni are leaders in their fields. Congratulations to Jen Jones (BCHS '11) for her spotlight feature!
SALON - The tobacco industry may have been the first to recognize that requiring transparency in scientific research could serve as a weapon to defend a dangerous product, but it appears that, in the face of opposition from virtually the entire scientific community, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler will soon issue regulation that will make it national policy. "Unless he is stopped, the EPA’s ability to protect t...
PASADENA STAR NEWS - HPM's Coleman Drake tells us it's an exciting year for the Affordable Care Act marketplace. More generous subsidies are available, overall premiums are only increasing slightly, and some insurers are expanding into new markets. But more research is needed for us to understand why some enrollees are not benefiting from the competitive market. Known to economists as inertia, this phenomenon occurs when health plan enrollees st...
U.S. NEWS - Postmenopausal issues definitely put a damper on a woman's desire. But just as often, it’s issues with a partner that brings sexual activity to a halt. EPI’s Rebecca Thurston contributed to a study that found that low libido has a lot of causes. The most common reasons for a lack of desire include postmenopausal conditions, erectile dysfunction, self-image, life stress, and fatigue and body pain. The good news is that many of these i...
VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES - "As an exemplary leader in the field of managed care, Dr. Hernandez sincerely represents the values that the Seema S. Sonnad Emerging Leader in Managed Care Research award was founded on," said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, parent company of the presenting body, the American Journal of Managed Care. The award was named in honor of Sonnad, who served as a mentor to many young researchers and was...
Justin A. Dutta (HUGEN '23), Ellyn Dunbar (HUGEN '23), Vibha Acharya (HUGEN '21), Muaaz Aslam, and Dongjing Liu (HUGEN '21) formed Team BlueHack Geneticists for the IBM BlueHack Competition the weekend of October 26-27 to work on their creative health care question and innovative solution, and they took home the social media award!
MEDICAL EXPRESS - Researchers including Dana Jorgensen (EPI '14) found that kidney transplants between identical twins have high success rates, but also high rates of immunosuppressant use. About half of patients were on immunosuppresant drugs a year after transplant, but survival rates were about the same regardless. "Once you confirm that the organ donor and recipient are identical, that's really a best-case scenario," said Jorgensen. "It's al...
NEWS MEDICAL LIFE SCIENCES – BCHS’s Christina Mair said, “Careful analyses of the 'social ecologies' of drinking will lead to the development of more effective environmental prevention interventions.” In Mair’s recent study they tackle the problems researchers must address to fully understand the effects of physical and social environments on drinking patterns and problems.
VOYAGE LA - "We fill a unique role. FracTracker Alliance studies, maps, and communicates the risks of oil and gas development to protect our planet and support the renewable energy transformation. We support groups across the United States, addressing pressing extraction-related concerns with a lens toward health effects and exposure risks on communities from oil and gas development," said Kyle Ferrar (EOH '10) about FracTracker, an organization...
PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE - The Center for Disease Control estimates that 130 people die in this country every day from opioid-related drug overdoses. As the executive director of Prevention Point Pittsburgh, Aaron Arnold (BCHS '13) is working to change that. In addition to offering a needle exchange program and STI testing, Prevention Point provides opioid users with free naloxone access and training, as well as other services. It is, quite literally...
THE PITT NEWS - Nearly 2.4 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were reported in the United States in 2018 - the highest cumulative number ever recorded, according to a recent report by the CDC. Pitt's numbers are on par with national averages. "My professional opinion is that this represents a failure of our public health system," said IDM's Lawrence Kingsley. "We haven't been able to control many sexually transmitted diseases wh...
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - While several previous studies have focused on the relationship between pharmaceutical promotions and doctors' prescribing habits, this new study from lead author Mara Hollander (HPM '20) focuses on how those payments affect physicians across specialties. "There's definitely some behavioral science and social science literature that indicates that providers may perceive themselves immune to bias from gift giving - we ...
DESMOG BLOG - “They indicate that the Clean Air Act works,” said EOH's James Fabisiak, director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, referring to the pollution reductions starting in 1990 shown in CEA’s report. “Air improved by setting stricter ambient air quality standards, continuing and enhanced enforcement, and increased control technologies to meet the mandated need to reduce pollution (auto fuel efficiency standards, cle...
Congratulations to Marian Jarlenski for being named the recipient of the 2019 John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators. Jarlenski was presented with this award at the AUPHA Annual Meeting in New Orleans in June. This award is used to recognize young faculty who have received their PhD within the past six years for their contributions to the research literature in the field of health services.
EPI's Samar El Khoudary was elected as a new NAMS board member and also received a poster prize for work presented during the meeting. El Khoudary is also faculty at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. EPI's Rebecca Thurston was elected 2019-20 President of NAMS. Thurston is also faculty in psychiatry and psychology. Congratulations!
WESA-FM -- A documentary about a local transgender musician’s reproductive health offers a new way to think about public health research: through the visual medium of film. Produced by Pitt Public Health postdoctoral associate Sara Baumann (BCHS '19), the film focuses on Jude Benedict, who identifies as trans-masculine genderqueer (someone whose gender was assigned female at birth, and often expresses themselves in a masculine way, but does not...
“I started doing research in the second year of my master’s program and that’s where I started to feel like research is kind of exciting and I enjoy doing it. My advisor at that time was Dr. Jonathan Yabes, who is also a graduate of our program and who is now working in the medical school. He helped me a lot and is a very nice person. I like the challenge – especially when the research is new and there are some tangible problems to solve.”
Governor Tom Wolf's proclamation encouraging all Pennsylvanians to recognize the need for increased advocacy and improved public policy as we continue to work toward true liberty and justice for all. On display in the Commons with Acceptance Journeys Pittsburgh through November 1.
JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH - BCHS's Sumetsky, Burke, and Mair find that previous-year opioid-related hospitalizations are connected to common comorbid conditions such as HCV, HIV and mental disorders, illustrating some of the broader health-related impacts of the opioid epidemic.