A sampling of news media stories involving UC Health:
Dire shortage of doctors as senior population rises, California Watch
Six out of nine regions in California have a shortage of primary care physicians, and the problem may be worsening . The findings are part of a report on the state’s physician supply, published last week by the California HealthCare Foundation. The report highlights geographic, ethnic and linguistic disparities among California’s residents and physicians, as well as how the state compares to the rest of the nation. If more Californians enroll at the five UC medical schools – and therefore pay less tuition than they would out of state – they are more likely to practice here, said report author Craig Paxton. But increasing medical school and residency head count alone is not enough, said Joanne Spetz, a community health systems professor at UC San Francisco who studies the health care work force. UC Riverside and UC Merced are mentioned.
See additional coverage: The Sacramento Bee
Digital diagnosis: More patients seeing doctors via Internet, Bakersfield Express/Valley Public Radio
This story about telemedicine mentions that Dr. Marc Goldyne, a UC San Francisco dermatology professor who also has a private practice, has partnered with Alta Family Health Clinic in Dinuba to offer dermatology through telemedicine. It also mentions a telemedicine program started by UC Merced in 2007 and interviews Maria Pallavicini.
Billionaire Marc Benioff: I’m sold, Forbes
Marc and Lynne Benioff didn’t start out planning to give away $100 million to fund the construction of a new children’s hospital at UC San Francisco. Benioff is the billionaire founder and chief executive of software company Salesforce.com. He and his wife had previously given away some $20 million, and had that total in mind for the hospital. Then Mark Laret, CEO of the UCSF Medical Center made a clever move, though he didn’t realize it at the time. He had Benioff agree to introduce him to other billionaires, hoping that each would donate $100 million. Benioff took it a step further, and signed up to meet with Laret and potential donors.
UCD prof returns from mission to save gulf turtles (video), CBS 13
Michael Ziccardi, head of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis, describes the challenges faced in rescuing turtles and manatees from the Gulf oil spill. “We’re actually out there seeing the turtles and they’re literally stuck in these ribbons of oil,” Ziccardi said. Ziccardi is in town for a quick break but plans to return to the Gulf on Friday to continue rescue efforts.
KC’s Mee Memorial joins rural physician training program, The Salinas Californian
The UC Davis School of Medicine’s rural physician training program, Rural-PRIME, is now in place at Mee Memorial Hospital in King City. The program is designed to train students for a life in rural primary care medicine.
UCSF medical students get ‘Fresno experience’, Fresno Business Journal
A new pilot program for UCSF Fresno medical students aims to offer a more varied experience that also stresses work with under-served populations. Nine third-year medical students will spend the next several months in the program, called Longitudinal Integrated Fresno Experience (LIFE), which stresses continuous cross training in areas such as family medicine, internal medicine, neurology and psychiatry.
The new abortion providers, The New York Times
This cover magazine story is on the future of abortion providers. The story highlights UCSF’s role as “the hub” of new training programs for integrating abortion care into regular OB/GYN practices.
Animal rights ‘terror’ law challenged, Nature News
UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Cruz are mentioned in this article about legislation intended to protect researchers from violent and threatening animal-rights activists.
Op-ed: Methyl iodide is needed replacement for ozone-depleting methyl bromide, San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Sims, UC Riverside professor emeritus of plant pathology, writes why he proposed the use of methyl iodide as an alternative fumigant to ozone-depleting methyl bromide. California is considering registering methyl iodide for use on strawberry fields.
Read more
See additional coverage: San Francisco Chronicle blog post
Military reckons with the mental wounds of war, The Washington Post
This article about post-traumatic stress disorder among military personnel references the work and research of David Hovda, professor of neurosurgery and director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, who served as an adviser to the Pentagon on traumatic brain injury and the effect on soldiers of repeated concussions. Hovda is quoted.
Seth Freeman: The challenge of hospital safety: A success story, The Huffington Post
This column spotlights a Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center task force that seeks ways to improve performance and communication among hospital staff in order to improve patient outcomes. Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer for the UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Dr. Barbara Kadell, clinical professor and vice chair of radiological sciences at the Geffen School, are cited. The column is written by writer, producer and director Seth Freeman, who is also a hospital board member.
Not starting means never having to quit, The New York Times
Recent studies have shown how [nicotine] hooks so many people — especially adolescents — and why those who smoke have such a hard time giving it up, even when they know the risks all too well. UCSF Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, author of a recent report on nicotine addiction in The New England Journal of Medicine, is quoted.
Study: Many Medi-Cal patients overprescribed Tylenol, Sacramento Business Journal
Thousands of Medi-Cal patients may be taking dangerous amounts of acetaminophen, new research from UC Davis reports.
Whooping cough epidemic hits California, WebMD
In the face of California’s whooping cough epidemic, Dean Blumberg, an associate professor of pediatrics at UC Davis, says, “Pertussis is a horrible disease at any age, but most severe in the youngest infants. The reason is their airways are so small. When they get pertussis they cough, cough, cough, and keep coughing. The air goes out but nothing comes in, so they suffocate.”
A tuneup via computer for older brains, The Orange County Register
Last week, a research team from UC San Francisco found that practicing simple visual tasks can improve the accuracy of short-term or working visual memory. Dr. Adam Gazzaley, director of the UCSF Neuroscience Imaging Center, is quoted.
Boy, 12, to undergo groundbreaking brain surgery (video), CBS 2/KCAL 9
This story reports on an innovative surgical technique used by Dr. Marvin Bergsneider, UCLA professor-in-residence of neurosurgery, to remove a pituitary brain tumor through the nose of a 12-year-old boy. Bergsneider was featured in the piece.
View video
Irritable bowel syndrome associated with brain changes, Los Angeles Times
This article reports on a study by UCLA researchers and colleagues demonstrating a link between irritable bowel syndrome — a condition that causes pain and discomfort in the abdomen, along with diarrhea, constipation or both — and structural changes in the brain. Dr. Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine, physiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is quoted.
Editorial: UC Berkeley’s DNA testing a bad idea, San Francisco Chronicle
Each year, UC Berkeley freshmen participate in a program that’s meant to draw them together. This year’s topic is Personalized Medicine – and as part of the program, UC Berkeley has sent incoming freshmen a kit so that their DNA can be tested. The DNA submissions are voluntary. But this is still a spectacularly bad idea, for any number of reasons.
Read more and follow-up letter to the editor
See additional coverage: California Watch, Risk & Insurance
DNA factory builds up steam, Nature News
Six months since it launched, the world’s first factory for making professional-quality biological DNA ‘parts’ is beginning to stock its shelves. BIOFAB aims to supply synthetic biologists with a collection of genetic parts that they can use in their experiments. BIOFAB aims to up the game by providing free biological parts that researchers can reliably use in their work, say Stanford University’s Drew Endy and codirector Adam Arkin, a bioengineer at UC Berkeley. Housed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, BIOFAB is so far a small-scale operation.
UCSF employee convicted of fraud, San Francisco Chronicle
A former UCSF Medical Center employee has pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to wire fraud for using the Social Security numbers of fellow workers to complete health surveys so he could receive hundreds of $100 vouchers good for purchases from Amazon.com.
Study: global warming will worsen smog, The Orange County Register
Rising temperatures in coming decades will have one more unpleasant effect in Southern California, scientists say: they will make smog worse as well. A new report that combines smog statistics with climate models says that in 40 years, global warming could push Southern California toward 25 additional days when smog levels violate federal standards for exposure to ozone. UC Berkeley and UC Davis scientists prepared the report.
30 years wit HIV: 3 men reflect, CNN
June 5, 1981. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first warning about a rare pneumonia called pneumocystis circulating among a small group of young gay men. Unrealized at the time, it was the official beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Dr. Michael Gottlieb, then a 33-year-old immunologist at UCLA, treated one of the first patients, a 31-year-old gay male with pneumocystis.
New survey says California’s child care centers not notifying parents of pesticide use, San Jose Mercury News
A new survey of California’s child care centers found that more than half of them are ignoring state regulations to notify parents that they are using potentially dangerous pesticides. Researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health also found that 90 percent of the surveyed day care centers reported a pest problem, and nearly half of them used potentially harmful pesticides such as fogs and sprays.
Doctors encourage second opinions for breast cancer diagnoses, The Sacramento Bee
In light of a recent report that indicates many early breast cancer diagnoses are error-prone, Lydia Howell, acting chair of anatomic pathology at UC Davis Medical Center, encourages patients to seek out a second opinion if they have concerns about a diagnosis. “We want everyone to feel that they are getting all the information that they want and need,” Howell said.
Better measures of breast density sought, UPI
U.S. researchers are looking for better measures of breast density, an indicator of cancer risk. Medical physicists at UC Irvine say more accurate measures of breast density — or the relative portion of glandular tissue to fat in a woman’s breasts — can help in breast cancer risk assessment and may lead to better discernment of cancers, since glandular tissue can obscure tumors.
Brain cells ‘trained’ to tell time, UPI
This article reports on research led by Dean Buonomano, professor of neurobiology and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, in which researchers found that networks of brain cells in petri dishes could be “trained” to keep time by generating simple timed intervals.
The disease taking Glenn Beck’s eyesight, The Orange County Register
Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and TV host and author, tearfully announced that he’s losing his eyesight because of a disease called macular dystrophy, which affects the central vision. Dr. Stephanie Lu, an assistant clinical professor in UCI’s Department of Ophthalmology, says that since Beck hasn’t disclosed which type of macular dystrophy, he could have a range of outcomes.
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