A UCSF Division of Geriatrics program that provides medical services to homebound elders in San Francisco was profiled in the November 19 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. Rebecca Conant, MD, an associate professor of medicine in the UCSF Department of Medicine and director of the Housecalls Program, is quoted throughout the article which examines the impact of these programs on the quality and costs of health care.
Laura Esserman, MD coverage in the media
A November 17 KGO television (ABC, Channel 7) story spotlighted UCSF prostate cancer specialists Peter R. Carroll, MD, MPH, chairman of the Department of Urology, and Matthew R. Cooperberg, MD, MPH. The story centered on the value of “active surveillance” in prostate cancer, in which patients are closely monitored for disease progression, rather than given immediate surgery. The story also focused on a new assessment test developed by a UCSF team that gives patients and their doctors a better way of gauging long-term risks and pinpointing high risk cases.
The New York Times ran an online feature on the use of technology and translational medicine as a means of cutting the cost of U.S. healthcare, in conjunction with a November 18 conference on the topic at Mission Bay. The conference, hosted by QB3 and the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, included keynote addresses by former Intel chief executive officer Andy Grove and Safeway CEO Steve Burd. The Times blog quotes Grove extensively, includes possible solutions to the problem through programs at UCSF and UC Berkeley, and has an end-quote by UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences Co-Chair Sarah Nelson, PhD.
Forbes magazine’s annual feature on the Most Powerful People included UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, among the world’s seven Most Powerful Innovators. The November 11 story called Desmond-Hellmann a “hero to legions of cancer patients” for her role in the development of the cancer drugs Avastin and Herceptin.
In “Taser Wars: The Real Dangers of Loose Triggers,” Wired magazine investigated the safety of stun gun use by law enforcement and the October 10 warning by the company against aiming Taser darts near the heart. In the article, UCSF electrophysiologist Zian Tseng, MD, explains one of the cardiovascular risks of Tasers – how the stun gun’s electric current can be enough to overtake the heart’s own rhythm, which can cause sudden death. Tseng and colleague Byron Lee, MD, published a study in the American Journal of Cardiology in January 2009 finding that rate of sudden deaths increased six-fold in the first year that California law enforcement agencies deployed the use of stun guns.
A November 9 Los Angeles Times opinion piece by UCSF medical resident Basim Khan, MD, adds thoughtful insight to the current health care debate, based on Khan’s experiences in the UCSF emergency room. The piece calls for reform efforts to prioritize regular, uninterrupted access for patients to primary-care doctors, while expanding training options and loan-repayment programs to draw more graduates into primary care.
UCSF Chairman of Urology Peter R. Carroll, MD, MPH, is featured in a special Crosscurrents/KALW News segment titled, “The Over-treatment of America.”
After UC Berkeley’s star running back suffered a severe concussion during a November 7 football game, the New York Times’ Bay Area blog ran a question-and-answer column with neurosurgery and sports medicine experts about the dangers of such injuries.
Local CBS News featured UCSF leadership in finding new therapies for diabetes in an October 22 segment on islet cell transplants, noting that “only a few” medical centers in the world perform this experimental procedure. The story quotes UCSF transplant surgeon Andrew Posselt, MD, as well as a UCSF patient. The segment is part of KPIX’s ongoing focus on diabetes this fall.
Bernard Lo, MD, professor of medicine and director of the UCSF medical ethics program, was featured in a New York Times page 1 “Business Day” section article and accompanying sidebar on “sunshine” provisions, which are under consideration in Congress as part of health care overhaul legislation. The provisions are intended to shed light on the financial relationships between the medical industry and doctors. Lisa Bero, PhD, UCSF professor of clinical pharmacy, also was cited.
A “Second Opinion” column in the November 3 New York Times features Laura Esserman, MD, MBA.
Here are highlights of media coverage during 2009 concerning breast cancer.
Two teams of UCSF scientists have received grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance their stem-cell-based strategies for treating diabetes and brain tumors. The projects are among 14 Disease Team grants announced by CIRM on October 28, 2009, with the intention for teams to file new drug applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within four years, driving potential therapies toward clinical trials.
In a four-part series on the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, Local CBS News station KPIX devoted a special segment to UCSF efforts to build a new, seismically sound medical center at Mission Bay. The piece quotes both Cindy Lima, who is executive director of the $1.68 billion Mission Bay Project, and Stuart Eckblad, who heads the project’s design and construction team.
An October 27 New York Times story on why some cancers disappear without treatment includes comments from UCSF Pathology Professor Thea Tlsty, PhD on the ubiquity of precancerous and cancer cells. Tlsty leads the Cell Cycling and Signaling Program in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
An October 21 opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association by UCSF breast cancer surgeon Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, triggered a deluge of national and regional media coverage, including a front-page story in the New York Times. The JAMA article reported that, despite widespread screening for breast- and prostate-cancer, overall cancer rates have continued to rise, while the incidence of aggressive or later-stage disease has not dropped significantly. Esserman, who is director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, urged the medical community to focus on developing new tools to identify those at risk for the most aggressive cancers.
UCSF medical anthropologist Sharon Kaufman, PhD, in the School of Nursing, is featured in Wired magazine’s November cover story, which focuses on the concern that vaccines cause autism. Kaufman talks about the public’s changing relationship to and increasing intolerance for risk, as well as the growing perception that the risk of death, illness, or accident is an individual’s responsibility to reduce or eliminate.
Sam Hawgood, MBBS, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, is quoted in an October 18 San Francisco Chronicle article on the new partnership between UCSF and Hill Physicians, and changes HMO patients could face under the new structure. In August, UCSF announced that it had signed a contract with Hill Physicians to form a new health care option in San Francisco.
Cheryl Hardin, senior recruiter for allied health at the UCSF Medical Center, was featured on NPR’s October 8 program of All Things Considered.
On the opening day for the UCSF Orthopaedic Institute at Mission Bay, KGO-TV and KTVU-TV toured the facility and filmed demonstrations of the Institute’s capabilities, calling it “a world class medical facility in Mission Bay packed with the medical technology that’ll change lives.” ABC’s Vic Lee and Fox’s Sharon Navratil interviewed Thomas Parker Vail, MD, chief of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery; Aenor Sawyer, MD, pediatric orthopaedic surgeon; Joseph Smith, Orthopaedic Institute (OI) physical trainer; Walter Racette, director of the OI’s Orthotics and Prosthetics Center, as well as a number of patients and staff.
Amy Levi, CNM, PhD, director of the UCSF nurse-midwifery program, discussed major causes of global maternal mortality and solutions to the problem on an October 7 KCBS Radio report.
Periodontology Chair Mark Ryder, DMD, was featured in an October 6 KPIX television segment called ‘Good Question’.
Jay Harris, chief strategy and business development officer for the UCSF Medical Center, is quoted in a September 25 San Francisco Business Times article about a UCSF ad campaign encouraging consumers to choose a Hill Physicians primary care doctor.
An oral health segment on Univision‘s San Francisco station, KDTV-TV, featured interviews with UCSF faculty members Gloria Mejia, DDS, PhD, MPH, in the School of Dentistry Division of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health; and Rosalía A. Mendoza, MD, MPH, in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. The doctors discussed tooth decay and its prevention. The Spanish-language program aired on the August 28 morning show “Al Despertar” and included demonstrations of applying fluoride varnish on young children.
San Francisco public radio station KQED featured Aaron Caughey, MD, PhD, a UCSF associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, and director of the UCSF Center for Clinical and Policy Perinatal Research, in a September 24 report on new research showing limited cost-benefit to private cord blood banking.
The Wall Street Journal featured a new UCSF study in a September 21 story titled, “The Case for Bans on Smoking,” based on research that appeared the same day in Circulation that found heart attack rates drop by 26 percent in the three years following public smoking bans. The story includes a comment from UCSF professor Steven Schroeder, MD, who was not involved in the research, and cites Jim Lightwood, PhD, from the UCSF School of Pharmacy, who conducted the meta-analysis with Stanton Glantz, MD. Circulation is the official journal of the American Heart Association. The research was widely covered, including a story on the new San Francisco Chronicle health blog, titled ChronRx.
Adam Boxer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology and a member of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, participated in a segment on the state of research on Alzheimer’s disease on the September 21 radio broadcast of KQED Forum with Michael Krasny.
UCSF School of Medicine Dean Sam Hawgood, MBBS, is quoted in the September 22 San Francisco Chronicle health blog about the new relationship between UCSF and Hill Physicians. Hawgood noted the current outreach campaign to advise consumers about the change in access to UCSF and ongoing work to invite community physicians into the new network.
San Francisco ABC News affiliate KGO TV ran a two-minute news segment on September 22 covering the collaborative work of three UCSF laboratories in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at Mission Bay.
Jeanette Brown, MD, director of the UCSF Women’s Continence Center and a professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, spoke with the San Francisco Weekly about an upcoming forum on incontinence co-sponsored by UCSF and the National Association For Continence.
UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is one of several women leaders highlighted in a September 16, 2009 article on Forbes.com. The story, titled “Mythbusters: Who Says Women Can’t Do Math and Science?,” examines the increase in the number of women in science and engineering and the rise of some of these women to top leadership roles at corporations and universities. Desmond-Hellmann, an oncologist by training, was president of product development at Genentech Inc. before assuming the chancellorship of UCSF in August.
A September 15 New York Times article, which focuses on new reports of disparate patient outcomes for cardiac defibrillators, includes commentary by UCSF cardiology professor Rita Redberg, MD.
UCSF Campus Architect Michael Bade, who is also Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Capital Projects, is profiled in the August 21 issue of AIArchitect. The story describes Bade’s 12-year experience in Tokyo before joining UCSF a decade ago and his adoption of the Japanese construction management style known as ‘lean construction.’
UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond Hellmann, MD, is among three UCSF experts interviewed for a 5-minute radio feature on personalized medicine that aired September 14 on KQED Quest Radio. The story, which also featured interviews with breast cancer surgeon Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, and pharmacogenomics researcher Deanna Kroetz, PhD, focused on how differently individuals respond to medications and the status of researchers’ efforts to harness genetic information to improve patient outcomes.
New research on the limited amount of testing for HER2 gene expression in breast cancer patients is covered in a Sept. 14 article by Bloomberg News, which cites the research led by health policy professor Kathryn Phillips, PhD, from the UCSF School of Pharmacy. Phillips, who is director of the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine, was lead author of a paper in the Sept. 14 issue of the journal Cancer, which found that two-thirds of women with invasive breast cancer are never tested to see whether they overexpress the HER2 gene, despite the potential effectiveness of the drug Herceptin for those patients.
Periodontology Chair Mark Ryder, DMD, from the UCSF School of Dentistry, was interviewed live on KCBS radio on September 10.
The Sept. 10, 2009 New York Times included an article on a new development in prion research, featuring a discovery from the laboratory of Nobel laureate Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, UCSF professor of neurology and director of the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and scientists at the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Wildlife Research Center. The discovery also was featured in the Sept. 10 San Francisco Chronicle.
Public Radio International interviewed Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, for a September 5 broadcast of “Living on Earth,” which focused on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Woodruff, who is director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment in the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, discussed the herbicide atrazine and said the Environmental Protection Agency needs to do more about endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Health policy researcher Claire Brindis, DrPH, MPH, continued to answer San Francisco Chronicle readers’ questions about health care reform in special Sunday Insight sections of the Chronicle on August 23 and 30.
The New York Times’ August 28 coverage of Senator Ted Kennedy’s death included an extensive story on what it called the nation’s 40-year “war on cancer” and Sen. Kennedy’s role in those efforts.
An essay by Catherine Maternowska, PhD, an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, was published in the August 18 online edition of the New York Times Magazine. In the article, Maternowska describes her experiences in South Africa where she was assigned to assess a health clinic for truckers, and the girls and women who trade sex with them for cash and goods.
To celebrate the 60th birthday of the popular children’s board game Candy Land, San Francisco’s famously crooked Lombard Street was transformed on August 19 into a life-size version of the game.
UCSF nephrology professor Stephen Gluck, MD, is interviewed as an outside expert in an Aug. 17 CNNhealth.com story about new theories on Mozart’s death. The cause of the 35-year-old composer’s death in 1791 has long been a mystery, with theories ranging from tuberculosis to poisoning. A new study from the University of Amsterdam analyzed death records at the time, as well as personal accounts of Mozart’s symptoms, and proposes that Mozart died from complications related to strep throat. The article, which CNN picked up from Health Magazine, ranked among CNN‘s most emailed health stories for the week and included Gluck as an objective analyst of the study.
Claire Brindis, DrPH, MPH, director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF answered SF Chronicle readers’ questions about health care reform in a special section that ran in the newspaper’s August 16 Sunday Insight section. The Chronicle and SFGate.com are asking readers to contribute questions about health care reform. In two separate segments, Brindis addressed areas that are likely to contribute to future health care expenses, as well as current uncertainties about the structure of a reformed health insurance system and how medical costs will be offset.
The discovery of the first human gene associated with regulating the optimal length of human sleep, led by UCSF neurology professor Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, is featured in today’s New York Times, on the front page of USA Today, and on National Public Radio, among numerous other media outlets worldwide.
Sam Hawgood, MB, BS, president of the UCSF Medical Group and dean-designate of the UCSF School of Medicine, is featured in the August 11 online edition of the San Francisco Business Times.
San Francisco’s Channel 5 CBS News highlighted the work of virologist Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, in the UCSF Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center in an August 10 story on the Bay Area “medical sleuths” who are working to “unlock the mysteries” of the H1N1 flu virus of 2009. The segment interviews Chiu extensively, focusing on the center’s efforts to track the genetic changes of this virus over time, to assess how it is mutating and help inform the public health response.
A program that helps breast cancer patients review treatment options and formulate questions for their doctors is highlighted by the Wall Street Journal.
Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, the principal investigator for a national study beginning this fall, was featured in a front page New York Times story about the paucity of volunteers for clinical trials.
Anesthesiologist Dan Burkhardt, MD, director of the UCSF Acute Pain Service, was featured on KPIX TV’s July 27 and 28 nightly news programs discussing the dangers of propofol.
The June 2 grand opening of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building at Mission Bay was featured in several photographs in the social pages of the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, July 26.
KQED QUEST featured UCSF scientists in an 11-minute segment on research in synthetic biology: what it involves and the promise it holds, ranging from biofuels brewed from yeast to the biologically synthesized antimalarial, artemisinin.
Susan Fisher, PhD, UCSF professor of cell and tissue biology, is quoted in a July 18 San Francisco Chronicle story about stem cells in placenta. The story reports on Bay Area advancements in this area.
Bloomberg News quotes Margaret Wallhagen, PhD, director of the UCSF John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, in a July 20 story about the expected strain on resources that will result from the rising number of elderly people worldwide.
Laura Esserman, MD, MBA is profiled in the July 20 San Francisco Chronicle. The story depicts Esserman’s upbringing in Chicago, her research and her operatic talents—she sings a patient’s requested song as general anesthesia is being administered. Included in the story is breast cancer survivor Jessica Galloway, a mother of three young children who was diagnosed with the disease in 2005; she is now assisting Esserman in a UCSF peer-support program.
Marcelle Cedars, MD, director of the UCSF Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, participated in a July 17 live interview on KPCC, Southern California’s public radio station. The Patt Morrison show focused on ‘how old is too old?’ for assisted reproduction in women and included a call-in session for listeners. Morrison cited UCSF’s “widely regarded fertility center,” which is part of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.
Jane Hirsch, RN, MS, UCSF director of Nursing and Health Systems Leadership, participated in a live discussion on the July 17 edition of the KQED Forum radio program. The show featured a panel of experts discussing Governor Schwarzenegger’s replacement of most members of the state Board of Registered Nursing. His actions followed an Los Angeles Times report about the length of time the Board took to resolve misconduct charges against nurses.
A July 13 USA Today story on the influenza epidemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968 quotes UCSF infectious disease expert Charles Chiu, MD, PhD. The story cites a new study that used computer analyses of those three epidemics and determined the strains had been circulating in humans and pigs for at least two to 15 years before the widespread and deadly outbreaks. Chiu is director of the UCSF Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center at China Basin and is affiliated with the UCSF School of Medicine and with the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3).
The new QB3 Mission Bay Incubator Network, launched July 15, was featured on the cover of that morning’s business section of the San Francisco Chronicle. The story documents the start of a program to foster new biotechnology startups in unused space in the FibroGen, Inc. headquarters, across the street from the UCSF Mission Bay campus. The project builds upon the success of the “QB3 Garage” in supporting entrepreneurs in the biosciences.
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, Director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, is spotlighted on the cover of the San Francisco Examiner on Sunday, July 12.
The UCSF team for the national iGem competition was featured on the July 8 nightly news on KGO TV. The program is run by Wendell Lim, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology in the School of Pharmacy and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), and involves Lincoln High students in the only high-school team in the nation.
The July issue of Family Circle magazine includes advice from Leslee Subak, MD, a UCSF professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, on exercises to help control incontinence.
UCSF School of Nursing Professor Susan L. Janson, DNSc, RN, NP, is featured in this month’s Managed Healthcare Executive magazine in an article about asthma medications.
A Prevention magazine article titled, “When the Best Cure Isn’t,” includes numerous quotes from Kevin Barrows, MD, interim director of clinical programs at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.
Dr. Desmond-Hellmann is depicted as a pioneering cancer researcher and biotech executive at Genentech Inc.
The June 16 KQED Quest program titled, “The Science of Chocolate,” includes an interview with Mary Engler, PhD, professor in the UCSF School of Nursing. Engler discusses her clinical trial showing the heart-healthy effects of anti-oxidants in chocolate.
Nursing labor markets expert Joanne Spetz, PhD, from the UCSF School of Nursing, commented on the temporary abatement of the nursing shortage for a June 15 KCBS Radio story. Spetz attributed the change to nurses working longer than expected, due to the recession, as well as the growth of new nursing education programs in Northern California.
Kathleen Dracup, RN, DNSc, dean of the UCSF School of Nursing and an expert in cardiovascular disease, was interviewed for a feature article on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the June 10 edition of ADVANCE for Nurses. Dracup describes the physical characteristics, symptoms and treatments for the inherited heart defect, which is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in people under 30.
A Page One news story in the June 8,2009 issue of the San Jose Mercury News about development of new,cheaper tests to sequence the human genome features comments by UCSF Chancellor-Designate Susan Desmond-Hellmann and genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter. Both were speakers at last week’s opening celebration of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building at Mission Bay. Within a few years, your entire genome may be decoded in less than half an hour and cost just $1,000, according to the news story. Teams of scientists, including several in the Bay Area, are hurrying to create tests that can swiftly, accurately and affordably sequence the genome, the report says.
A UCSF School of Nursing study to test culturally specific programs aimed at improving diabetes management in the Chinese-American community received coverage in English- and Chinese-language media. Asian Americans are almost twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes than Caucasian Americans, according to the Joslin Diabetes Center. The trial is part of a four-year, $1 million NIH grant led by Catherine Chesla, School of Nursing, and involves community partners. Stories appeared in the May 21 editions of the World Journal and China Press, and in Sing Tao Daily on May 22. The San Francisco Chronicle carried an article on the front page of the Bay Area section in the June 7, 2009 issue.
The June 2 grand opening celebration of the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus generated widespread coverage by the media—print, television, radio and online. In addition to the opening day event, news reports highlighted UCSF’s ongoing leadership in cancer research, philanthropic support from the Helen Diller Family, and the striking design of the new building.
Prominent philanthropist Helen Diller is profiled in the June 1 San Francisco Chronicle for her lifetime of giving back in the spirit of “Tikkun olam,” the Hebrew term for repairing the world. Diller has become a leading philanthropist in the Bay Area, the article says, including significant support for UCSF. The story ran in advance of the June 2 opening of the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building at Mission Bay, which was made possible by a $35 million grant from the Helen Diller Family Foundation which was created in 1999.
The Scientist magazine blog of May 28 highlights new advances from the UCSF laboratory of Frances Brodsky, DPhil, in understanding the human proteins involved when glucose transport is disrupted in type 2 diabetes. The research, which is published in the current issue of the journal Science, points to some of the differences between human diabetes and mouse-models and sheds new light into possible mechanisms of the disease. The story quotes Brodsky, who is senior author on the paper and a UCSF professor in the joint Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences in the schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, as well as in the departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Microbiology and Immunology.
The San Francisco Chronicle, KQED Forum and KCBS featured stories on the NIH public forum and scientific workshop on women’s health, one of four town hall meetings on the subject nationwide which UCSF hosted May 27 at Mission Bay. The Chronicle ran an article that morning that included comments from Nancy Milliken, MD, vice dean in the UCSF School of Medicine and director of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.
The UCSF Memory and Aging Center’s efforts to educate the public via its YouTube channel and Facebook page are cited in a May 25 New York Times article on medical centers’ use of social media. Bruce Miller, MD, the A.W. & Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Neurology, and director of the UCSF center, discusses the goals of generating participation in clinical trials and educating caregivers about the symptoms of the various forms of dementia in order to get patients into treatment quickly.
A May 24 Modesto Bee article tells the story of a local family’s experience raising two children with Zellweger syndrome—a disabling genetic disorder that prevents the body from ridding itself of toxic substances and causes muscles and organs to function improperly. Both children have been diagnosed and treated at UCSF Children’s Hospital by Elliott Sherr, MD, PhD, a pediatric neurologist who directs the Comprehensive Clinic for Brain Development and is interviewed in the story.
The discovery of a mutated gene in fruit flies that confers relative resistance to the intoxicating effects of alcohol is featured in the May 22 Health Blog in The Wall Street Journal. The UCSF study http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(09)00319-5, led by neuroscientist Ulrike Heberlein, PhD, professor of anatomy, is significant because the more resistance one has to alcohol—ie., the longer it takes to get drunk—the more likely one is to become an alcoholic. The finding, as described in the WSJ Health Blog, could have implications for treating patients. The gene, which the team dubbed “happyhour,” is one out of many genes, plus environmental factors, that are believed likely to contribute to alcoholism.
Five UCSF scientists—Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD; Kimberly McDermott, PhD; Wallace Marshall, PhD; Jeremy Reiter, MD, PhD; and postdoctoral fellow Young-Goo Han, PhD—were cited in a May 19, 2009 New York Times Science Tuesday article for their individual contributions to the emerging field of research on the primary cilium, an antenna-like structure jutting out of cells that plays essential roles in development, wound healing and disease.
Dan McGuire, a student in the UCSF School of Nursing, is a featured commentator on KQED Public Radio’s Perspectives program on May 15, 2009. McGuire shares his views on the value clinicians bring to families struggling with end-of-life decisions.
In a May 14 Opinion piece in the Fresno Bee, Joan Voris, MD, addresses the chronic shortage of physicians in the Central Valley and notes that the best way to find doctors who will stay in the area is to “grow our own.” Voris, who is associate dean for the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, cites the successes of the nearly 35-year-old program, which trains 200 residents per year in seven specialties and offers 6-8 week rotations for another 200 medical students annually.
Suellen Miller, CNM, PhD, was featured in a May 10, 2009, article in the Marin Independent Journal about her work as director of the Safe Motherhood Programs in the (UCSF) Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. The program provides LifeWraps—reusable neoprene garments that stabilize women in shock from obstetrical hemorrhaging—to help reduce maternal mortality in developing countries. Miller is an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.
The UCSF Memory and Aging Center and Lennart Mucke, MD, UCSF professor of neurology and neuroscience and the director of the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institute of Neurodegenerative Disease, are featured in a May 8 San Francisco Chronicle story on research and clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease
UCSF infectious disease experts have been front-and-center in providing expert opinion and rational leadership in local media coverage of the swine flu outbreak, with interviews and TV footage featuring UCSF campuses at Parnassus, Mount Zion, China Basin and San Francisco General Hospital.
Bernard Lo, MD, UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Program in Medical Ethics, is quoted in the April 28 New York Times and Wall Street Journal Health Blog about a report issued by an Institute of Medicine committee he chaired on conflicts of interest in medicine. UCSF’s Deborah Grady, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, and Lisa Bero, PhD, professor of clinical pharmacy, were also members of the committee. The IOM is part of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Pediatric Stroke Center at UCSF Children’s Hospital was featured in an April 27, 2009, story in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story focuses on a young patient who was treated successfully for stroke using cutting-edge technologies that removed the blood clot from his brain. The article includes interviews with Michael Conte, MD, UCSF’s chief of vascular surgery, Heather Fullerton, MD, director of the Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease Center at UCSF Children’s Hospital, and Amy Houtrow, MD, director of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Program.
The New York Times “Doctor and Patient” blog includes an interview with Alicia Fernandez, MD, in the UCSF Department of General Internal Medicine, on cross-cultural communications in hospitals. The April 23, 2009, blog by Dr. Pauline W. Chen focuses on language barriers in hospitals and doctors who “get by” on their own often limited foreign language skills in communicating with non-English-speaking patients, rather than taking the time to call an interpreter.
Religion and health care: put these words together in the same sentence, and opinions are sure to fly. KQED Public Radio’s Health Dialogues program explored how religion affects health care, from making major life decisions, to choosing health practitioners, to religio-cultural attitudes towards health care, and much more.
Marcelle Cedars, MD, director of UCSF’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, discussed in vitro fertilization (IVF) on the April 20 broadcast of NPR’s Morning Edition. The program highlighted current opportunities and challenges with IVF, including new research from Finland focused on single embryo transfers.
The May 2009 issue of Scientific American features a front-cover article on human genomics authored by Katherine Pollard, PhD, UCSF associate professor of genomics and biostatistics. Pollard, whose primary affiliation is with the Gladstone Institutes, is also a core member of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics and is affiliated with QB3. The story, titled What Makes Us Human, examines what genomic research is unveiling about the key genetic distinctions between humans and their closest relative, the chimpanzee.
A story distributed by Reuters international news service featured the work of Chris Voigt, PhD, in using synthetic biology to make gasoline from plant waste materials and other non-food plant sources. The research was published in the current issue of the “Journal of the American Chemical Society.” Unlike currently available biofuels, this fuel is indistinguishable from petroleum-based gasoline and can be used as a direct replacement for gasoline in cars, but Voigt estimates it would only cost between $1.10 and $1.65 per gallon. Voigt is an assistant professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy who is also affiliated with QB3.
UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, Gladstone Institutes President Robert Mahley, and researchers are featured in San Francisco Business Times coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Mission Bay on April 17. The visit focused on the importance of ongoing funding for science.
A recent UCSF study about teens and preventive health care was featured on the USA Today website on April 1, 2009. The study found that only 38 percent of adolescents in the United States had a preventive doctor’s visit in the past year. The story includes quotes from Charles Irwin, MD, director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at UCSF Children’s Hospital, and Sally Adams, RN, PhD, a specialist in adolescent medicine.
Four UCSF prostate cancer specialists were featured last week in broadcast interviews about new study findings on cancer screening benefits reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Robert Lustig, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Children’s Hospital, was featured in a front page story in The New York Times about the use of different sugar products in food and beverages.
Margaret Handley, PhD, MPH, and Dean Schillinger, MD, were interviewed on Sunday, March 1, about their work on behalf of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, based at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco General Hospital. The interview aired on local television program Comunidad Del Valle (NBC - cable ch 3, non-cable ch 11), which reaches a primarily English-speaking audience whose influence reaches large segments of the Latino community.
UCSF Children’s Hospital was featured on KTVU-TV in a story about severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID – a life-threatening genetic immune disorder.
UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty Kathy Giacomini, Kathryn Phillips and Esteban Burchard are featured in a patient-focused story on personalized medicine in the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009.
The Fetal Treatment Center at UCSF Children’s Hospital was highlighted in a Feb. 3, 2009, Wall Street Journal story about treating genetic conditions in the womb. The story mentions an ongoing trial at UCSF that uses steroids to treat a condition that causes abnormal lung tissue in a fetus. An accompanying Wall Street Journal news blog about ethical issues related to prenatal diagnostics quotes Michael Harrison, MD, professor of surgery and pediatrics at UCSF.
Several UCSF scientists were featured in a segment on stem cell research on the PBS Jim Lehrer News Hour on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. The piece examined the state of stem cell research in California against the backdrop of expected changes in the federal funding policy for stem cell research under the Obama administration.
Aga Khan University & UCSF form partnership to help underprivileged
UCSF and the Aga Khan University signed a memorandum of understanding today to advance their common goal to promote equitable human advancement and social justice in the less privileged parts of the world..(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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