Penn Medicine News Blog Archive: Patient Stories

William Fahringer and Christopher Gorrell, PT, DPT In 2005, William Fahringer tore his meniscus – the piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber for the bones that come together to form the knee -- while working as a plumber for the School District of Philadelphia. What seemed like...

Educators, researchers, and practitioners across in the United States and abroad have been working to address the rift between personal and impersonal care by developing models that introduce ways to encourage humanism and professionalism to the practice of 21st century medicine.

To celebrate February as American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all parts of Penn Medicine. It may seem thoroughly unromantic, but researchers at Penn Medicine’s Cardiovascular Institute are hoping for some broken hearts this Valentine’s Day. But these broken...

To celebrate February as American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all parts of Penn Medicine. Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the number one birth defect in the U.S., affecting one out of 120 babies. This group of conditions consists...

In pursuit of a cure, cancer patients must turn their bodies over to doctors, nurses and family caregivers. But the human touches that are ultimately meant to be healing – needle sticks for placement of chemotherapy lines and blood samples, positioning on the table for radiation treatments and imaging tests, and countless physical exams – often feel anything but soothing. The Beauty of Healing, a new salon-based program for women dealing with cancer that is helping patients at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, aims to inject a unique type of TLC into cancer care.

The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now formally call for hospitals to make provisions for each patient, if they choose, to be accompanied any point during their stay by a family member, friend or other support person. As part of HUP’s Patient- and Family-Centered Care Initiative, leaders have rolled out new ways to accommodate visitors and help them support their loved ones during these often scary, stressful times.

A genetic mistake that arose thousands of years ago spares rare HIV-infected individuals the ravages of AIDS. Researchers at Penn’s School of Medicine are in the midst of translating the language of ancient genetic mistakes into today’s cures.