WV PUBLIC RADIO - Professor and dean emeritus BERNARD GOLDSTEIN said he thinks the gas industry, which is highly fragmented, has missed opportunities to clearly address concerns about its own environmental effects. Those include air and water pollution near drilling sites, disposal concerns related to drilling waste, and the greenhouse gas emissions that result from methane leakage. As a result, any health effects remain to be clearly understood....
GOOGLE SCHOLAR - In June 2017, Google Scholar released a collection of highly-cited papers in their area of research that have stood the test of time. These Classic Papers were published in 2006 and the list includes the ten most-cited articles, proving that though research is often about the latest findings, some have an impact long after their publication.
We are proud to report that in the field of epidemiology, the Classic Papers list includ...
NEWSDAY - Asked about the keys to preventing depression, BCHS professor CHARLES REYNOLDS says, “It’s relatively straightforward for older adults who have relatively mild symptoms. We teach people better coping skills, better problem-solving skills and better sleep habits, and we encourage healthier lifestyles with more physical activities and better diets. Better self-care helps reduce the risk of depression in older adults, maybe by 20 to 25 per...
UPMC INSIDE - As it wrestles with an ongoing measles outbreak (35 deaths in the past year), Europe may soon learn more about the impact of vaccination programs, thanks to Pitt Public Health’s PROJECT TYCHO analysis just getting underway. Watch a video explaining epidemiological curves, how this Pitt data tool works to track the last 125 years of outbreaks, and how vaccines have prevented 100 million cases of infectious disease.
PBS NEWSHOUR - Reporter Roni Dengler asked ANNE NEWMAN, epidemiology chair and former geriatrician, for comments on this new study. Newman voiced concern that the all-male cohort’s inconsistent participation may have skewed the results toward healthier individuals. The senior author from Upsala University acknowledged this limitation, noting that it’s possible the trends they see would be stronger if there had been less bias.
PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE - Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro hopes that destroying unused pills will help curb the state’s opioid epidemic. The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health will be assessing the distribution of 300,000 drug-deactivation pouches in partnership with the state office and the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
Alumna KATIE BARIC (BCHS ’17), co-founder of the NGO, Hands on Peru, reports that “in June alone, we hosted 11 international volunteers, 9 health campaigns, and served 140 patients!&drquo;
Last month BCHS faculty TIFFANY GARY-WEBB and ELIZABETH FELTER met in Chicago with staff at Feeding America about evaluating community-based diabetes prevention programs in food banks.
KRISTINA WINT (BCHS ’17) will begin a new position in the School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine with Dr. Lisa Schlar. She will coordinate interconception care for mothers using well baby visits to promote mother’s health.
Noble A-W Maseru, PhD, MPH, will join Pitt Public Health as director of the Center for Health Equity (CHE), associate dean for diversity, and professor of public health practice in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. Maseru served for more than a decade as health commissioner for the City of Cincinnati Health Department where he oversaw more than 400 employees and an annual budget of $49 million dollars.
SCIENCE ALERT - From the invention of the steam-powered boat engine to the sequencing of the human genome, each state can claim its own scientific advancements. Pennsylvania claims Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, invented while working at the University of Pittsburgh. The vaccine is now used worldwide, and the World Health Organization thinks the disease can be eradicated in the near future. The number of cases is down from 22,000 cases in 1952 in th...
ALLEGHENY FRONT / 90.5 WESA - Beyond simulating epidemics, PUBLIC HEALTH DYNAMICS LAB models help predict the local impact of a severe air pollution crisis exacerbated by a heat wave. "We can get population-level estimates of how many calls to emergency rooms there would be based on the age and gender and diseases that people in various communities have,” says MARK ROBERTS, PHDL director and HPM chair. In 1948, twenty people died when thick smog ...
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - The Pitt Public Health CENTER FOR HEALTH EQUITY’s Violence Prevention Initiative received funding from the Allegheny County Health Department for community outreach to prevent firearm violence. RICHARD GARLAND, assistant professor of public health practice, will coordinate the effort, joined by a community trauma response team from FOCUS Pittsburgh.
ALZFORUM - Last year, a widely reported epidemiology study came to the troubling conclusion that elderly people who regularly took proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were at increased risk of dementia. Now, a study published in the June 7 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society challenges this association. Which study is correct? Both Lewis Kuller, University of Pittsburgh, and John Breitner, McGill University, Montreal, said it’s impossible to t...
PITTWIRE - Finding a suitable doula — a professional who gives physical and educational support before, during and after childbirth — can be difficult, said Pitt Graduate School of Public Health Student ALYSIA TUCKER of BCHS. Her prize-winning idea could make the process easier.
SCIENCE - "If the president truly wants to represent the interests of Americans, he would learn from the real histories of these regions and promote economic and environmental progress through research, education, and innovation," advises Pitt's Chancellor Patrick Gallegher, responding to the tired trope that Pittsburgh is a rusty urban relic—a manufacturing city of steel that has fallen on hard times, held back by unfair global competition, and...
NIH RESEARCH PORTFOLIO - In the face of antibiotic-resistant infections, the National Institutes of Health have awarded EOH’s Y. PETER DI a five year R01 support grant to research a new class of antibiotics, testing the efficacy of a set of novel antimicrobial peptides with potent bactericidal activity against most drug-resistant bacteria.
LIVABILITY - In 2016 rankings, Pittsburgh maintains its status among the nation’s best downtowns, after topping the list in 2015. Factors considered include the city’s growing population, high walk score, amenities, lively entertainment options and dynamic arts and cultural attractions for residents and visitors. Today’s young professionals ages 22–34 are especially drawn downtown to congregate, shop, dine, walk, bike, and live!
WWW.BIKEPGH.ORG -- Pittsburghers love their cycling culture, despite living in a city of rivers and hills where one motto is "avoid bridges and tunnels" in the daily commute. Since 1994,the region's largest bicycle ride, PedaPGH showcases Pittsburgh as a fun, bicycle-friendly city, and encourages people of all ages and fitness levels to get outside and explore to the neighborhoods, parks, bridges, and geography that make the city so unique.