Penn Medicine News Blog Archive: In the News

The Perelman School of Medicine, and other schools from around the University of Pennsylvania, has partnered with an innovative new learning platform to make Web-based courses, taught by some of the world’s foremost experts, available free to the general public.

David Grande, MD, MPA, assistant professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and a senior fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, helps break down the oral arguments the Supreme Court will hear regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Earlier this year, the Penn campus received a visit from one of the nation’s most prominent sociologists of medicine and health care –- Paul Starr, PhD. As Joshua Metlay, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine, said in his introduction, Starr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1982), “is the mandatory starting point” in discussions of health care’s future and health care’s reform. As the Republican presidential primaries show, that topic remains one of the most important issues in the nation. Starr is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.

With this year’s Super Bowl setting a record for being the most-viewed show in U.S. television history, concussions – more technically, mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) – have probably been on many a mind this week. TBI has long been a leading cause of death and disability, with over 1.7 million cases in the US alone each year.

To celebrate American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all parts of Penn Medicine. Just in time for the start of American Heart Month, Penn Medicine kicked off the MyHeartMap Challenge yesterday. For the first time, the wisdom of the...

This month, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania united with First Lady Michelle Obama and more than 100 other members of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to improve the health and wellness of military service members and their families as part of the new...

520 days ago, in June 2010, a team of six astronauts embarked on a simulated Mars mission, conducted by the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation – Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On November 4, 2011, the hatch was opened in Russia and...

If you wind up going to the hospital to get a tattoo, you're not the only person to be surprised by the intersection of art and medicine. We're very fortunate at Penn to have a skilled tattoo artist who specializes in 3D nipple tattoos along with tattoos for scar camouflage or cosmetic purposes - Mandy Sauler, a micropigmentation specialist in Penn's Plastic Surgery Division.

Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Center for Bioethics in the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, last week challenged Michele Bachmann to produce evidence to back up her televised claims that the HPV vaccine – which prevents the strains of the virus that cause cervical cancer -- has "very dangerous consequences" including causing “mental retardation.”

UPDATE: Sunday, August 28, 2011 10:15 AM EDT As Hurricane Irene pulls away from the Philadelphia region, Penn Medicine's facilities - the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse - report no disruption of service to our patients. We had...