A February 5 San Francisco Chronicle story about the prevalence and warning signs of hidden heart conditions features interviews with UCSF cardiac electrophysiologists Byron Lee, MD, and Zian Tseng, MD. In the rare cases when young, healthy athletes collapse during physical exertion, an undiagnosed heart condition is often the culprit.
Media outlets this week carried news stories reporting 2008 data on central-line infection rates at Bay Area hospitals that was newly posted by ConsumerReportsHealth.org. Some of these stories included information about UCSF Medical Center. Josh Adler, MD, UCSF chief medical officer, provides this clarification to the UCSF data.
The cover story in the February 8 issue of Newsweek offered an in-depth look at the controversy over the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs and the importance of the placebo effect, especially in depression.
A January 28 New York Times story in its Style section examined claims that fast food can help in weight loss. While low-fat items on fast food menus are touted as being a healthy alternative, UCSF epidemiologist Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, commented that those items often come with another health cost: high levels of sodium.
Two UCSF neurologists were featured as expert panelists in a discussion on pediatric strokes on the January 27 broadcast of KQED Forum with Michael Krasny.
The January 21 LA Times features a new UCSF resource, called Toxic Matters, to help people reduce unhealthy chemicals in their homes, workplaces and the environment.
UCSF environmental health expert Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, was a speaker at Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s January 15 press conference announcing a resolution to ban cadmium from jewelry marketed to children.
A January 20 article in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted a UC Board of Regents vote scheduled for Thursday, January 21, that was expected to approve incentive pay for 38 senior executives in the five UC medical centers, including six leaders at UCSF.
A new study in the January 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting a biological benefit for cardiovascular patients from omega-3 fatty acids has garnered wide news coverage.
The January 19 issue of Newsweek magazine includes an article on a new UCSF study recommending that elderly women with severe dementia refrain from getting screening mammograms.
The January 15 National Public Radio show, Science Friday, included Esteban González Burchard, MD, MPH, as a panelist to discuss the biological basis for race.
Nature News, a feature news publication from the international scientific journal Nature, highlighted the Neuro-Intensive Care Nursery (NICN) at UCSF Children’s Hospital in an in-depth article January 13 on treatments for pediatric brain injuries.
The new UCSF-Fresno clinical pharmacy service was covered on KFSN-TV (ABC30 - Fresno) news January 11 to help publicize a free service day for local residents. The UCSF School of Pharmacy launched the medication management service last fall to help Central Valley residents manage multiple prescriptions for chronic conditions.
A January 9 San Francisco Chronicle article on the benefits of Vitamin D features interviews with Mark Ryder, DDS, chair of the Division of Periodontology in the UCSF School of Dentistry, and Donald Abrams, MD, chief of hematology-oncology at San Francisco General Hospital.
Steven Goldman, DDS, a professor of restorative dentistry in the UCSF School of Dentistry, was featured in an article about nighttime teeth grinding and its connection to stress. The story appears in multiple publications including the Oakland Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Contra Costa Times and Press of Atlantic City. Goldman comments on the potential health effects of prolonged grinding or clenching of the jaw, including serious damage to the gums, bones and teeth.
The completed affiliation of UCSF Medical Group and Hill Physicians Medical Group doctors, as well as its impact on patients, is covered in the January 5 issue of the San Francisco Business Times.
Patients with diabetes who were treated by an interdisciplinary team of student health providers had more frequent health assessments and made fewer emergency room visits than patients who received standard care from an internal medicine resident, according to a new UCSF study published in Academic Medicine.
UCSF Professor Steven Pantilat, MD, moderated a panel this fall at the Commonwealth Club of California about healthcare reform, end-of-life care and how to promote dignity in a system that seeks to prolong life at any cost. Pantilat is director of the UCSF Palliative Care Program and holds the Alan M. Kates and John M. Burnard Endowed Chair in Palliative Care. The October 30 panel is now posted online:
Robert Wachter, a UCSF professor of medicine and national leader in patient safety, is featured in the December 17 New York Times in a question-and-answer discussion about individual responsibility in the patient safety movement.
New concerns about radiation exposure during CT scans garnered extensive news coverage December 14-16 in both national and regional outlets, leading to numerous interviews with two UCSF professors.
Mark Laret, chief executive officer of the UCSF Medical Center, is profiled in the December cover story of Smart Business Northern California. The story, “Leaving Life Support: How Mark Laret took UCSF Medical Center from dying to thriving,” details Laret’s leadership of the medical center and the steps he took to increase patient satisfaction, grow business, and help gain consistent recognition as one of the nation’s top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.
A story about the University of California’s honorary degree program, which recognizes UC students who were interned during World War II due to their Japanese heritage, ran on the December 13 CBS News broadcast “Sunday Morning” with Charles Osgood.
UCSF Neurology Professor Peter Goadsby, MD, PhD, director of the UCSF Headache Center, explained recent study findings to Good Morning America about a drug-free option for pain relief from debilitating cluster headaches. The story also aired as an expanded feature on ABC stations across the country. The study, published in the December 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), provides the best evidence to date that inexpensive, high-flow oxygen is an effective treatment for cluster headache pain. Goadsby’s team found that 78 percent of patients who received oxygen treatment reported being pain-free or having adequate pain relief within 15 minutes of treatment.
UCSF gynecologist George Sawaya, MD, has been interviewed by several national and regional news outlets in conjunction with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology’s (ACOG) new cervical cancer screening recommendations.
Donald Abrams, MD, director of clinical programs at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, is featured in the December 6 issue of Parade magazine. In the article, “Do Alternative Cancer Therapies Work?,” Abrams cautions readers that some supplements, such as antioxidants, have the potential to interfere with conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy.
Claire Brindis, DrPH, MPH, director of the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, was interviewed for a segment on KPIX television’s December 7 news program. Brindis commented on the proposed amendment in the health care reform bill to eliminate federal funding for abortion.
The December 4 UCSF honorary degree ceremony, which recognized UC students who were interned during World War II due to their Japanese heritage, was featured on regional television, print and radio. UCSF was the first public university in California to provide such degrees to 68 former students, many of whom were honored posthumously.
A December 7 front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle, titled, “Men Need to Check for Breast Cancer, Too,” includes comments from UCSF radiologist Lori Strachowski, MD, chief of Women’s Imaging at San Francisco General Hospital.
Helen Diller, philanthropist and special friend to UCSF, is profiled in a major feature in the December 2009 issue of “Gentry” magazine. The story, “Repairing the World,” describes Mrs. Diller’s upbringing in San Francisco.
A national research project led by Laura Esserman, MD, MBA to accelerate new treatments for breast cancer is featured on a December 3 program on KGO television (ABC Channel 7).
Tracy Foose, MD, assistant director of UCSF’s Adult Psychiatry Clinic at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, participated in a segment on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) on the December 3 radio broadcast of KQED Forum with Michael Krasny. The segment also included comedian Howie Mandel and local news anchor Jeff Bell, both of whom have written books about their struggles with OCD. More than three million Americans suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a condition characterized by repetitive, obsessive rituals such as hand washing, hoarding or counting.
UCSF cellular engineering research that encoded mammalian cells to respond to light has placed third on The Scientist magazine’s list of the Top 10 Life Sciences Innovations of 2009. The UCSF research was among the first to demonstrate that plant light-switches can be imported into mammalian cells to control complex regulatory processes. The research was unique in developing a generic plug-and-play switch, based on protein recruitment, which can be wired to control diverse processes in many types of cells and organisms.
Patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that took the life of Senator Edward Kennedy and affects about 10,000 Americans per year, have a difficult situation to face: many therapies are ineffective, and tumors can return after they’ve been surgically removed. The November 26 San Jose Mercury News reported on efforts by UCSF neurosurgeon Andrew Parsa, MD, PhD, to develop personalized vaccines based on a patient’s own cancer cells as a new approach to battling these tumors. The article noted that Parsa and his team are currently enrolling patients with primary and recurrent glioblastoma in the vaccine trial.
A UCSF Medical Center patient recently made history as the first in the country to try a new brain cancer vaccine meant to keep tumors from recurring. In an extended feature story on KGO-TV, Dr. Andy Parsa and this patient announce a new UCSF study to treat glioblastoma by using proteins from a patient’s own tumor cells to create a vaccine specific to the patient and his or her cancer. The goal is to train the patient’s immune system to attack the tumor and keep cancer at bay.
UCSF Neurosurgery Media Coverage
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.
UCSF researchers have identified an elusive molecular regulator that controls the ability of human sperm to reach and fertilize the egg, a finding that has implications on both treating male infertility and preventing pregnancy.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
3333 California Street
Suite 103, Box 0462
San Francisco, CA
94143-0462
tel: 415-476-2557
fax: 415-476-3541
