A sampling of news media stories involving UC Health:
Special financial district might help UCR med school, The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Legislation taking shape in the state Capitol would authorize a rarely used financing tool to help build UC Riverside’s medical school.
UCSF find predicts severity of breast cancer, San Francisco Chronicle
UCSF researchers have found a way to predict whether women with the earliest form of breast cancer are likely to develop deadly tumors – a significant discovery that might save women who aren’t at high risk from getting life-altering and unnecessary treatment.
See additional coverage: The New York Times, CBS Evening News (video), CBS 5 (video), KTVU 2 (video), HealthDay News, MedPage Today, WebMD
Study links chocolate and depression, Los Angeles Times
One need only look at the recent introduction of chocolate Cheerios to fully grasp Americans’ fondness for the pulp from cacao beans. Savoring chocolate is normal. But, researchers said Monday, overindulging in it could be a marker for depression. Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Davis examined chocolate consumption and other dietary intake patterns among 931 men and women who were not using antidepressants.
See additional coverage: Time, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, The Sacramento Bee, CNN, NPR, HealthDay News, BBC News
Hospital design has patients in mind, San Diego Union-Tribune
Dramatic curves, elevated gardens and breathtaking views of canyons and the ocean certainly will enhance the aesthetic appeal of a 10-story, $664 million hospital being planned for the UCSD Medical Center campus in La Jolla. If the hospital’s designers are right, those architectural elements also will help patients heal more quickly and completely.
Stanislaus County health industry positioned for future growth and job creation, The Modesto Bee
Stanislaus County has long been a health services hub for the Northern San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills. Although the sluggish economy has health care in a holding pattern, it appears the region’s health care industry is positioned for growth and job creation in the future. Some challenges, however, threaten to stymie growth in the health care sector: Lack of access to needed capital; a shortage of health care providers; uncertainty about funding for a medical school at UC Merced.
Telemedicine searches for strategy, adoption, InformationWeek
If the adoption of telemedicine at hospitals and other medical facilities is to take flight, service providers, technology vendors, and healthcare payers and providers must collaborate to build a cohesive strategy that involves a mature reimbursement model. This article mentions that one recent sign that things are moving in the right direction came earlier this month when AT&T announced a $27 million contract with the University of California to provide managed network services in support of telehealth initiatives.
UC Davis takes a leading role at new global health institute, Sacramento Business Journal
UC Davis will play an integral role in the new UC Global Health Institute, a multicampus, multidisciplinary education and research institute focused on solving increasingly complex global health problems.
Read more (subscription required)
UC San Francisco cuts costs again on big hospital project, San Francisco Business Times
UC San Francisco hopes to shave $160 million in interest charges from the price tag to build and finance its nearly $1.6 billion Mission Bay women’s, children’s and cancer hospital by taking advantage of subsidized rates under the federal stimulus package’s Build America bonds. That’s the main reason the UC Board of Regents meeting to approve the 289-bed hospital’s financing plans was moved up to September. Officials feared November might be too late: Build America bonds have to go out by year end.
Read more (subscription required)
UCSF opens eye clinic tailored to children, San Francisco Chronicle
When Crewe Hutson was a toddler and ill with a rare and potentially fatal form of eye cancer, he’d have to climb on a chair at UCSF and prop himself up on his knees to get his head high enough for the adult-sized ophthalmology equipment that would treat him. UCSF is one of the country’s best facilities for pediatric ophthalmology, and Crewe, now 8 years old, is cancer-free. But until recently, the medical center lacked the space and equipment tailored to treat young patients, whose needs are often very different than adults. Today UCSF’s Visual Center of the Child officially opens, although it’s been in use for a few months.
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Bee exclusive: Livestock waste found to foul Sierra waters, The Sacramento Bee
As director of the emergency room at the UC Davis Medical Center, Robert Derlet always wondered what made people sick. Each summer, on hiking trips into the high Sierra, he brought that curiosity along, asking himself: Where do you get infections in the wilderness? The most obvious possibility, he believed, was the water. Now, after 10 years of fieldwork and 4,500 miles of backpacking, Derlet knows for sure. What he has learned – after analyzing hundreds of samples dipped from backcountry lakes and streams – is that parts of the high Sierra are not nearly as pristine as they look.
Schwarzenegger embraces federal healthcare legislation, Los Angeles Times
As other GOP governors look to the courts to roll back the federal healthcare overhaul, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday embraced the legislation and announced that he is directing his administration to begin implementing the new system in California.”We are ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the federal government to get this done,” Schwarzenegger said in a speech at UC Davis Medical Center.
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See additional coverage: San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, The Associated Press, Modern Healthcare
California is a leader in dealing with the wildlife impacts of oil spills, which is why a UC Davis expert is headed to Louisiana to help prepare for potential contamination from the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. “California is largely considered the model,” said Michael Ziccardi, director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network and an associate professor at the university.
See additional coverage: ABC News (video), ABC 7 (video), Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Associated Press
Bay Area wins $8.7M in stem cell cash, San Francisco Business Times
California’s stem cell research funding agency awarded $28 million, including nearly $8.7 million for Bay Area organizations. The article mentions grants awarded to scientists from UCSF and UC Davis. Scientists from UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego also received grants (view post).
‘Garage’ incubator expands to UC Berkeley campus, San Francisco Business Times
The Garage is adding a new space in the East Bay. The incubator for life sciences companies born in University of California labs is adding a location at the UC Berkeley campus and already has a tenant ready to move in.
Read more (subscription required)
Wilson To, who is pursuing a master’s degree at the UC Davis veterinary school, and two UC San Diego students have won a national technology competition for inventing cell-phone software that will help people in developing countries identify vascular diseases in children.
Fresno doctor honored by James Irvine Foundation, Fresno Business Journal
Dr. Katherine Flores of the UCSF Fresno Latino Center for Medical Education and Research is being honored today in Sacramento as one of seven recipients of a 2010 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. The awards celebrate extraordinary leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues.
South Bay health professionals pitch in at Sports Arena event, The Torrance Daily Breeze
This story cites the participation of UCLA Health Sciences physicians and medical students in Remote Area Medical/Los Angeles, a weeklong free health clinic providing care for the uninsured.
See additional coverage: Los Angeles Times
This article reports that a former UCLA researcher has been sentenced to four months in federal prison for illegally accessing the confidential medical records of high-profile patients while working at UCLA Medical Center in 2003.
See additional coverage: KTLA, SC Magazine, The Associated Press
Doctors can’t find the source of bleeding in Bret Michael’s brain, The Wall Street Journal
Celebrity Bret Michaels, who formerly led the band Poison and has turned reality star, is currently hospitalized with a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding between the brain and the tissues that cover it, but the source of that bleeding has been difficult for doctors to locate. Vascular neurosurgeon Michael T. Lawton, MD, UCSF chief of Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery Programs, explained that aneurysms normally cause this type of hemorrhage and in most cases, the source is easy to pinpoint. To treat, Lawton said, neurologists identify the best surgical option through a number of imaging tests, then perform surgery to stop the bleeding.
See additional coverage: Health.com, Access Hollywood
UC Davis resarcher challenges salt-is-bad dogma, The Sacramento Bee
UC Davis nutrition professor Judith Stern and three colleagues last November published a study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that questions that “scientific logic and feasibility” of limiting sodium consumption.
Spicy peppers may hold a key to weight loss, scientists say, Los Angeles Times
This article reports on a study by researchers at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition that found that capsaicin, the chemical that gives spice to hot peppers, may prompt the body to expend more energy and burn more calories.
See additional coverage: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, WebMD, Science News
Hill Physicians, Seton Medical Center sign patient care deal, San Francisco Business Times
Hill Physicians Medical Group and Seton Medical Center have reached an agreement for patient care services as part of Hill’s broader effort to link doctors and community hospitals more tightly to UC San Francisco Medical Center and its affiliated specialty doctors.
Rady Children’s Hospital joins philanthropists to open clinic in Oceanside, San Diego Business Journal
Sanford Health, the South Dakota-based health care system named after billionaire philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego have joined for the first time to form a pediatric clinic in Oceanside. The 28,500-square-foot clinic will house primary care and pediatric specialty services for children ages 18 and younger. It is slated to open in the spring of 2011. Rady Children’s will occupy the majority of the building, where it will consolidate specialty services from its Oceanside satellite clinics into a single facility. “This clinic will allow us to consolidate all of these services under one roof,” said Dr. Herb Kimmons, executive director of the newly formed Rady Children’s Specialists Medical Foundation, a partnership with UC San Diego.
Why men cheat (video), Dr. Phil
UCSF neuro-psychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of newly released “The Male Brain,” was an expert panelist on this show discussing why men cheat.
Study shows ‘invisible’ burden of family doctors, The New York Times
A new study detailing the uncompensated work burden on family doctors points to the need to change how they are paid, medical experts say — particularly as the new health care law promises to add millions more patients to the system. Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer, a professor of family medicine at UC San Francisco, is quoted.
Hiring slows in biotech, Mission Loc@l
This year’s biotech career fair at UC San Francisco saw the smallest turnout of potential employers ever, according to Bill Lindstaedt, director of the university’s office of career and professional development.
Debate over biotech payroll tax exemption, San Francisco Chronicle
The number of biotechnology employees eligible for an exemption from the city’s payroll expense tax jumped a whopping 7,600 percent since the tax break went into effect in 2004. But the number needs to be put in perspective. UCSF Mission Bay is mentioned.
Wrong patient phone numbers trip up ER docs, MSNBC
Somewhere in Westminster, there’s a 38-year-old Vietnamese man who doesn’t know he has a blood infection — and doctors have no way to tell him. The phone numbers and address the man gave two weeks ago to the UC Irvine Medical Center emergency department turned out to be wrong, so when results of a blood culture came through the day after he was discharged, several phone calls and an urgent visit by city police weren’t enough to track him down. “There is no way to find the patient,” fretted Dr. Michael J. Burns, a UCI emergency room doctor who fears the infection could spread to the man’s heart or joints. “If he came back, we’d admit him.”
IPad could cause insomnia, TechNewsDaily
This article reports on a study by researchers at the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center suggesting that exposure to the Apple iPad’s liquid-crystal display before bed could disrupt normal sleep patterns. Dr. Alon Avidan, associate professor of neurology and associate director of the center, and Dr. Frisca Yan-Go, professor of neurology and medical director of the center, are quoted in the coverage.
See additional coverage: NBC Los Angeles
Calif. expert backs L.I. brain surgery unit, The Associated Press
This article reports on the release of a report by Dr. James Ausman, UCLA clinical professor of neurosurgery, who was commissioned to review conditions at a Long Island, N.Y., hospital that specializes in the treatment of Chiari malformations, a rare congenital brain defect.
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Survey: 1 in 6 Californians victims of assault by partner, The Sacramento Bee
This story is about a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research explaining that one in six Californians report having been physically or sexually abused by a partner.
Genetic map gives detailed look at MS, San Francisco Chronicle
The most detailed genomic analysis ever of a person with multiple sclerosis and a healthy identical twin failed to find a genetic cause for the disabling illness – but it is nonetheless an “elegant” study that underscores the exciting potential for demystifying disease through DNA, researchers said. The study led by a UCSF neurologist took nine months to complete using some of the most advanced analysis equipment in the world, at a laboratory in Santa Fe, N.M.
California gears up for reform provisions taking effect this year, California Healthline
It’s been more than a month since President Obama signed health care reform legislation into law. The debate over health care overhaul hasn’t stopped since the passage of reform, but the conversation has quickly shifted to implementation. Many of the most-publicized health reform provisions — such as the creation of health insurance exchanges and the requirement that most U.S. residents purchase health insurance — won’t take effect for several years. However, there are a slew of provisions slated to go into effect this year that likely will have an immediate impact in California. This rundown cites a March issue brief from UC-Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
Op-ed: Government must inform us of cell phone risk, San Francisco Chronicle
A huge, 30-year study called COSMOS has been launched in Europe to determine whether cell phones cause cancer and other health problems. Meanwhile, policymakers in Sacramento are considering legislation to ensure people know how much radiation their cell phones emit. The wireless industry vigorously opposes such legislation. It argues that its phones comply with regulations, and there is no consensus about risks so people don’t need to know this. Our research review published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found alarming results to the contrary, write Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health in UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Diana McDonnell and Gene Kazinets collaborated on this commentary and the research review.
UCSD med school hires director of outcomes research (audio), KPBS
The UCSD Medical School has hired a director of outcomes research. David Chang will examine which health care treatments show the best results.
Ancestry study could lead to better asthma treatments (video), ABC 7
This story reports on the UCSF-led Genetics of Asthma in Latino Americans (GALA) study being conducted at the San Francisco General Hospital and several other sites in North America. The international project, designed and led by Esteban Gonzalez Burchard, MD, MPH, aims to identify genetic and environmental factors behind the widely divergent asthma rate and response to medications between Hispanic/Latino ethnic groups. For example, in the U.S., Hispanics of Mexican heritage, have the lowest incidence of asthma and best response to standard medication, and those of Puerto Rican heritage, have the highest incidence and worst drug response.
Typical male behavior comes from estrogen, too, HealthDay News
Gender-specific behavior patterns are often chalked up to testosterone in men and estrogen in women, but a new study explains why the hormone issue isn’t so clear cut. Study senior author Dr. Nirao M. Shah, of the anatomy department at UC San Francisco, is quoted.
Expectant mom on bedrest, marries fiance, Santa Monica Daily Mirror
This story reports on the wedding ceremony arranged at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital for an expectant mom on bedrest and her fiancé.
David Arquette gives his $3,700 Lakers seats to veterans — during the game, People
David Arquette was so moved by the Los Angeles Lakers’ halftime ceremony honoring war veterans that he and three other ticket holders gave up their $3,700-a-ticket courtside seats for the vets to watch the rest of the playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. “I was so shocked to meet a celebrity who was so cool and so respectful of military guys like us,” says Army specialist Joey Paulk, a patient from UCLA’s Operation Mend program, recognized Tuesday for providing plastic surgery to veterans severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Lakers announced that the public can support Operation Mend by donating $10 by texting — and that each donation will help Operation Mend continue to serve the nation’s men and women in uniform.
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