Read article – Ellen Meara, professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and adjunct professor of economics, is quoted about about a new study published by JAMA that revealed the major causes of death for counties across the United States. “It is unique in its ability to track cause-specific death rates in small areas over a long time period, three decades,” says Meara, who was not involved in the study.

Read article – Quotes Alison Holmes, associate professor of pediatrics, about how the opioid epidemic sweeping through rural America has increased the number of drug-dependent newborns, and is putting a greater strain on hospital neonatal units.

Read article – Cites a recommendation by Michael Sateia, professor of psychiatry, emeritus, about how to treat a type of insomnia called early morning awakening, or waking up at 4 in the morning and not being able to fall back to sleep.

Read article – Quotes Stephen Bartels, professor of psychiatry, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about the use of telehealth in rural areas. “We don’t have enough therapists in this state to have them drive two hours to help someone who is frail living in a log cabin,” Bartels said. “In rural areas, this is the future.”

Read article – Jonathan Skinner, professor of community and family medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor in Economics, is quoted about how U.S. life expectancy dipped by a little more than a month last year from 2014, to 78.8 years, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics. It’s the first decline in more than two decades. The decline “could be a blip, but even if it’s flat, we have a real problem,” says Skinner.

Read article – (Bradley) Vince Watts, assistant professor of psychiatry, is quoted about a recent study he co-authored that found the implementation of a set of standards that address the physical environment in Veterans Affairs hospitals is linked to a significant and sustained drop in inpatient suicides. (Subscription may be required.)

Read story – A blog post featuring a breakthrough discovery by Brock Christensen, associate professor of epidemiology, and Kevin Johnson, a 2016 graduate of the Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine, in identifying the functional role of two specific DNA modifications in glioblastoma (GBM) cancer tissues.