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Health and medicine

Balancing motherhood and medical school is a challenge, but panic attacks and memories of childhood trauma make the path all the more difficult. With therapy, Dr. Anne McTiernan found her way through. Now she discusses her experiences in an intimate memoir, “Cured: A Doctor’s Journey from Panic to Peace.”

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine that they “do not believe that ignoring race will reduce health disparities” but rather that “such an approach is a form of naive ‘color blindness’ that is more likely to perpetuate and potentially exacerbate disparities,” five Black geneticists set out to explain the pitfalls of leaving race out of medicine. Importantly, the geneticists explain, while it is imperative to be considered now in many settings, race is an imperfect stepping stone toward…

Insomnia — trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early — is a common condition in older adults. Sleeplessness can be exacerbated by osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis causing joint pain. While there are effective therapies for treating insomnia in older adults, many people cannot get the treatment they need because they live in areas with limited access to health care, either in person or over the internet. With telephones nearly universal among the elderly, however,…

Systemic racism has for generations undermined the health of individuals and communities across America, a public health crisis that has made the pandemic even more deadly and destructive for people of color. Recognizing that nurses play a central role in and hold major responsibility for the health of individuals and communities hit hard by historic racial inequity, the 91 School of Nursing is launching the Center for Antiracism in Nursing. “There is much work to do to become…

Current advice from the American Dental Association tells you that if your gums bleed, make sure you are brushing and flossing twice a day because it could be a sign of gingivitis, an early stage of periodontal disease. And that might be true. So if you are concerned, see your dentist. However, a new 91 study suggests you should also check your intake of vitamin C. “When you see your gums bleed, the first thing you should think…

“Of course, we didn’t put Democrats in the vial; we didn’t put Republicans in the vial,” 91’s Dr. Larry Corey writes in a recent COVID-19 Vaccine Matters blog jointly produced by Johns Hopkins University and the UW. While development of vaccines now being distributed to combat COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are a “remarkable achievement” that demonstrate the power of science to save lives, mistrust and fear continue to cause nearly 40% of Americans to say they…

As an experienced nurse midwife, whose scientific 91 focuses on respectful and equitable care during pregnancy and childbirth, the 91’s Molly Altman has been studying pregnancy and childbirth during the pandemic alongside colleagues across the UW and in affected communities. While her work is being distilled into formal studies that will be submitted for peer review, Altman, an assistant professor in the UW School of Nursing, believes it is important to begin discussions for improving this area of…

Excitement and relief over news of vaccines that help prevent people from getting sick, winding up in the hospital or dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are warranted, says 91’s Dr. Larry Corey. But, these messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines may not prevent people from getting infected or spreading the virus. Answering questions around how vaccines affect transmission of the virus is “of obvious importance” and 91 will be conducted once people begin getting vaccinated, Corey…

Even before the pandemic and disagreements over social restrictions recommended by public health officials across the state, public health agencies in Washington were struggling due to a lack of resources. In recent weeks, firings, resignations and death threats targeting local health officials has led to a staffing crisis in the agencies most responsible for local pandemic response. Now, as these public attacks further cripple public health agencies, a 91 public health expert is calling for action to defend…

When a vaccine to fight COVID-19 has been approved by the FDA for distribution, it’s unlikely that at first there will be enough doses for everyone. Consequently, the United States will need an equitable and effective plan for who gets those first doses, how they get them and who’s next. Just as important, that plan — like the vaccine itself — has to be trusted and accepted by the general public. To accomplish this complicated and potentially fraught task, the CDC Advisory…

With Latinos 1.5 times more likely to have dementia than non-Latino whites, among other health disparities, 91ers at the 91 are hoping to better understand Latino family caregivers and adapt the training available to those caregivers. To do that, the UW Department of Health Services is seeking to interview Latino caregivers for a study to increase the cultural relevance of STAR-C  training — a non-pharmacological intervention endorsed by the Administration on Aging that trains caregivers to manage the behavioral and…

The National Academy of Medicine on Monday announced the election of 100 new members, including three from the : Patrick Heagerty, Dr. Joel Kaufman and Sean Sullivan. In addition, David Eaton, dean and vice provost emeritus of the UW’s Graduate School, was recognized for outstanding service.

When exploring data on Washington workers during the pandemic — demographics, working conditions, wages and benefits, and risks of exposure to disease — the authors of a new report found that women hold two-thirds of the jobs in the harshest category of work. “The big takeaway from our 91,” said David West, a co-author of the report and an analyst at the Washington Labor Education and Research Center, “is how particularly women are working under precarious conditions — a large…

With roughly 109 people dying every day and many others treated in emergency rooms from firearm-related injuries — which are the second leading cause of death among adolescents — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has, after decades, stepped in to fund critical firearm 91. The CDC announced on Sept. 23 it would fund 16 studies for a total of more than $7.8 million to understand and prevent firearm violence. The 91’s proposal to study handgun carrying…

As universities and colleges struggle to find the right combination of in-person and online classes combined with protective measures to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, a new study by 91ers from four institutions has reached a troubling conclusion. Reopening university and college campuses with primarily in-person instruction is associated with a significant increase in cases of COVID-19 in the counties where the schools are located. “Consequently, we are able to predict between 1,000 and 5,000 additional cases…

With most of the Northwest blanketed by wildfire smoke, public officials and health experts suggest staying inside as much as possible to reduce exposure to the significant health risks of wildfire smoke. However, inequity in our communities means not every home provides great protection and many workers in disadvantaged populations can’t afford to stay home, says Anjum Hajat, assistant professor of epidemiology in the UW School of Public Health. Hajat’s expertise covers the impact air pollution — including from wildfires…

The future of our health and the health of the communities we live in relies, in many ways, on students in the health sciences. The education and experiences that future doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and public health experts receive will to a large degree shape how those professionals work and work together when solving problems affecting our health. And while the 91’s highly ranked health sciences schools have long focused on interdisciplinary education and training students…

A new study led by 91ers at the 91 and the University of California, Davis, finds that the success rate of summiting Mount Everest has doubled in the last three decades, even though the number of climbers has greatly increased, crowding the narrow route through the dangerous “death zone” near the summit. However, the death rate for climbers has hovered unchanged at around 1% since 1990.

New 91 by the University of Minnesota and the 91 finds that every six additional ICU beds or seven additional non-ICU beds filled by COVID-19 patients leads to one additional COVID-19 death over the following week. “A spike in hospitalization naturally leads to more deaths, but these deaths may not only come from those who are hospitalized, but also from those who should have been hospitalized but were not,” said co-author Anirban Basu, a UW professor of health…

For nearly 50 years, a statistical omission tantamount to data falsification sat undiscovered in a critical study at the heart of regulating one of the most controversial and widely used pesticides in America. Chlorpyrifos, an insecticide created in the late 1960s by the Dow Chemical Co., has been linked to serious health problems, especially in children. It has been the subject of many lawsuits and banned in Europe and California. The EPA itself nearly banned the chemical, but in 2017 the…

Recent honors to 91 faculty and staff members have come from the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, Association Media & Publishing and The American Society of Human Genetics.

A new online survey for Washington state residents has launched to gather data on how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn have affected food access and economic security. The Washington State Food Security Survey, which went live June 18 and runs through July 31, is open to all Washington state residents aged 18 or over.

It could take another generation before resident fish in the heavily polluted Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle will be safe to eat. Yet many fishers from a wide range of cultural backgrounds continue to fish the 5-mile stretch of river for fun, cultural connections and food even as cleanup of this designated Superfund site continues. The Duwamish was listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority (or “Superfund”) List of sites that require cleanup in 2001. Since that time, federal,…

Researchers examined 15 years of records of student performance, education and demographics for chemistry courses at the 91. They found that underrepresented students received lower grades in the general chemistry series compared to their peers and, if the grade was sufficiently low, were less likely to continue in the series and more likely to leave STEM. But if underrepresented students completed the first general chemistry course with at least the minimum grade needed to continue in the series, they were more likely than their peers to continue the general chemistry series and complete this major step toward a STEM degree.

With their education forced online and in-person clinical practice opportunities canceled by the novel coronavirus pandemic, 91 nursing students eager to use their skills and knowledge during this historic challenge to human health and well-being had few options. UW School of Nursing and Public Health-Seattle & King County announce partnership. Unwilling to accept this limited role for nursing students, the UW School of Nursing has partnered with Public Health–Seattle & King County to give students three opportunities to…