Providing more testing choices does not increase colorectal cancer screening...
Offering patients the choice between home screening or in-office colonoscopy does not increase participation in colorectal cancer screening, according to a new Penn Medicine study. However, the framing...
View ArticleEmoji buttons gauge emergency department sentiments in real time
Simple button terminals—featuring "emoji" reflecting a range of emotions and sentiments—stationed around emergency departments (EDs) are effective in monitoring doctor and patient sentiments in real...
View ArticleMinority students still underrepresented in medical schools
Black, Hispanic, and American Indian students remain underrepresented in medical schools, despite increasing efforts to create a diverse physician workforce, according to a new study by researchers in...
View ArticleUsing a wearable device to exercise more? Add competition to improve results
While using a wearable device alone may not always be enough to motivate more exercise, adding fun and competition can be the catalyst needed to drive real results, according to a new study from...
View ArticleCAR T-cell therapy may be harnessed to treat heart disease
CAR T-cell therapy, a rapidly emerging form of immunotherapy using patients' own cells to treat certain types of cancers, may be a viable treatment option for another life-threatening condition: heart...
View ArticleTwo studies show promise, safety of proton therapy in the brain in children...
From improving outcomes in children with brain cancer to lowering the risk of damage to the brainstem in children with central nervous system tumors, a pair of new studies published today add to the...
View ArticleHepatitis C-infected kidneys function as well as uninfected organs after...
Kidneys from donors who were infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) function just as well as uninfected kidneys throughout the first year following transplantation, according to a new Penn Medicine...
View ArticleElectric pill bottles and text messaging not enough to affect blood pressure...
About one in three Americans have high blood pressure, called hypertension, but only about half of them have their condition under control. A major factor is that many do not consistently take their...
View ArticleRadiation may lower potential for side effects of CAR T therapy in...
Treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients with radiation therapy as an additional treatment while they wait for their CAR T cells to be manufactured may reduce the risk of CAR T therapy side...
View ArticleOpioid prescriptions filled after eye surgery doubled from 2000 to 2014
From 2000 to 2014, rates of filled opioid prescriptions after eye surgery rose considerably, despite reduced invasiveness of these procedures, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman...
View ArticleNew vaccine prevents herpes in mice, guinea pigs
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a vaccine to protect against genital herpes. Tested on both mice and guinea pigs, the immunization led...
View ArticleOncologists respond swiftly to FDA safety alerts, study finds
Within six months of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) move to restrict the label of two immunotherapies, usage of those therapies among oncologists dropped by about 50 percent, according...
View ArticlePrediction system significantly increases palliative care consults
Palliative Connect, a trigger system developed at Penn Medicine and powered by predictive analytics, was found to be effective at increasing palliative care consultations for seriously ill patients,...
View ArticleCan the 'additive tree' model expand machine learning in medicine?
When health care providers order a test or prescribe a medicine, they want to be 100 percent confident in their decision. That means being able to explain their decision and study it over depending...
View ArticleMounting brain organoid research reignites ethical debate
As research involving the transplantation of human "mini-brains"—known as brain organoids—into animals to study disease continues to expand, so do the ethical debates around the practice. One concern...
View ArticleTreating pulmonary embolism: How safe and effective are new devices?
Pulmonary embolism (PE), a blood clot lodged in one of the pulmonary arteries in the lungs, is the third leading cause of cardiovascular-related death in the United States. While most patients are...
View ArticleGene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy safely preserves muscle function
A gene therapy being developed at Penn Medicine to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) successfully and safely stopped the severe muscle deterioration associated with the rare, genetic disease in...
View ArticleOnline patient portal usage linked to higher rates of flu shots, blood...
Patients who use online patient portals are 50 percent more likely to get a flu shot and twice as likely to have their blood pressure checked as compared to patients who do not interact with these...
View ArticleAlgorithm personalizes which cancer mutations are best targets for immunotherapy
As tumor cells multiply, they often spawn tens of thousands of genetic mutations. Figuring out which ones are the most promising to target with immunotherapy is like finding a few needles in a...
View ArticleOpioid Rx dosages drop 22% in Penn Medicine's NJ practices following changes...
The total amount of opioids dispensed per new opioid prescription decreased by 22 percent in Penn Medicine outpatient practices in New Jersey after the state passed a law limiting prescriptions to a...
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