Penn Medicine News Blog Archive: In the News

Basser.graphic.blue.background.expanded This week, when Oscar-winning actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie revealed that she underwent surgery to remove her breasts after learning that she carries one of the BRCA gene mutations that put her at high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, the news hit home here at the University of Pennsylvania. Just a year ago, Penn announced the creation of the Basser Research Center for BRCA, which was made possible by a $25 million gift from Penn alums Mindy and Jon Gray, in honor of Mindy Gray’s sister, Faith Basser, who died of ovarian cancer at age 44. As the only center in the United States devoted solely to research on prevention and treatment for cancers related to BRCA mutations, Jolie’s story turned a spotlight on the important work in progress there, and the experiences of the many other families with similar cancer risks.

Cover image via TIME.com This week’s TIME magazine makes an eye-catching, bold proclamation. HOW TO CURE CANCER, the cover reads, with a subhead previewing the story contained inside: “Yes, it’s now possible – thanks to new cancer dream teams that are delivering better results faster.” Much of that team science...

For an organization created in 1902, Alpha Omega Alpha is still going strong. That was certainly how it seemed last month when the Perelman School of Medicine inducted 31 members of the Class of 2013 –- and, in the special segment of the ceremony, one member of the faculty, Benoit...

Mariell Jessup, MD To celebrate February as American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all areas of Penn Medicine. As we wrap-up our Heart Month blog post series, I asked Penn Medicine’s Mariell Jessup, MD, medical director of the Heart...

Taking a look back, 2012 has been a year marked by breakthroughs in medical research, system-wide growth, and landmark philanthropic support for Penn Medicine. As we set our sights on the year ahead, we also celebrate the past year's accomplishments and give thanks to the outstanding faculty, staff, and students...

Steve Berkowitz, MD, director of the Penn Center for Youth and Family Trauma Response and Recovery, outlines some strategies for helping children and teens process their feelings in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

Exhibit A: This year’s incoming class of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania was assigned to read Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, by Paul A. Offit, MD. Issued by Basic Books in 2011, the book came out this year in paperback. During...

Chemo luauBeach Boys music, hot dogs, sheet cake and feather boas aren’t the tools oncologists usually use to attack cancer. But along with powerful drugs and targeted radiation treatments, they’ve all played a big role in helping Debbie Hemmes, a 52-year-old Abramson Cancer Center patient from Westampton, NJ, fight lung cancer. Debbie’s daughter, Kelly McCollister, quickly added her own prescription to the list: a special party during each chemo session to help her mom count down the days until she finished her treatment.

Now that Penn Medicine's new fiscal year, for 2013, is underway, we took a look back at our last year’s worth of media activities to see how our efforts to promote the research and clinical care work by our amazing faculty and staff made an impact from July 2011 through June 2012.

In the wake of the tragic shootings in Colorado last week, people across the country are still in shock as they try to contemplate the meaning behind such an evil act of human nature. Twelve people were killed and 59 more are struggling to recover from the injuries they sustained in the violent attack. And while many of them will make full physical recoveries, the memories of the shootings will persist. Penn Medicine mental health experts are now weighing in to help both the victims and the general public cope with the inevitable fear, anxiety and depression that can follow traumatic events like this.

This week, HIV advocates, scientists, and patients gathered at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. – the first time in 22 years the meeting was held in the United States. The group’s charge: mapping out a strategy to usher in an AIDS-free generation.

Sepsis researcher David Gaieski, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and clinical director in Penn’s Center for Resuscitation Science, spoke this week with several news outlets about the issues raised by the case of the 12-year-old New York City boy who died of sepsis after his infection apparently went undetected at his doctor and an emergency room. ABCNews.com explored the reasons why these infections can be so difficult to identify when they’re easiest to treat:

It's becoming more and more common to find out a relative or friend has to leave his/her job to care for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease. Just yesterday, I heard about a colleague who is facing this difficult situation. In fact, the Alzheimer’s Association estimates in 2011, 15.2 million...

All of Society Needs to Support Breastfeeding for Everyone to Reap the Maximum Benefits Medical journals, magazines, websites… they’re all touting the same message, something nature has known all along: breastfeeding is beneficial for both babies and mothers. The message is getting through - but not always to everyone who...

This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new prescription weight loss drug – the first in more than a decade. Advocates of the drug, which trials showed helped users lose an average of about five percent of their body weight, say it provides an important new weight loss option for the 35 percent of Americans classified as obese. But the medication, which will be sold under the name Belviq, is not without risks. Some studies showed that it causes heart valve problems, an issue that echoes the reasons why the weight-loss drug combination known as Fen-Phen was pulled from the market in 1997. A Penn medical toxicologist and emergency physician, Jeanmarie Perrone, played a role behind the headlines about the drug’s approval, as a member of an FDA advisory committee tasked with reviewing the data about the drug and making recommendations to the agency about whether or not it should be approved.

As doctors and medical researchers discover more effective cancer drugs that extend survival and increasingly, turn certain cancers into chronic conditions rather than certain deaths, cancer survivorship care is becoming an increasing focus for patients and doctors in specialties of all kinds.

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.