Read article – Quotes Steven Woloshin, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article about the need for better warning labels on drugs. Woloshin and the late Geisel professor Lisa Schwartz developed a “drug-facts box”—a one-page sheet that doctors would give to patients or that would be accessed via a website or app. Woloshin envisioned it as a nutrition label, but for prescription drugs. “If they can do that for Cocoa Krispies, why can’t you do it for Lipitor?” Woloshin said.

Read article – Quotes Anne Sosin, program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth, in an article about the reaction of state health and education officials to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest guidance on opening schools for in-person instruction. Sosin noted that New Hampshire is already behind the curve for school reopening when compared to Vermont. “Vermont has recognized it’s about keeping community transmission low,” said Sosin.

Read article – An opinion piece by Anne Sosin, program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth, in which she discusses Vermont’s vaccination strategy and the state’s decision not to prioritize the vaccination of essential workers such as grocery clerks, teachers, transport drivers, and factory workers. “Equity, as Vermont has taught the country, requires prioritizing resources for those not only at greatest risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19 but also for those at highest risk of infection. Vermont’s data clearly highlights that essential workers are at higher risk for infection, as is the case across the U.S.,” says Sosin.

Read article – A news brief announcing that Alan Hartford, associate professor of medicine, was recently chosen for the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021 given by the International Association of Top Professionals.

Read article – Quotes Brian Pogue, the MacLean Professor of Engineering, who along with colleagues from Dartmouth and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center developed a method to convert a standard clinical linear accelerator (linac) used for radiation therapy to deliver a FLASH-capable, ultrahigh-dose rate (UHDR) radiotherapy beam. “We believe this is the first reversible UHDR beam on a clinically used linac where the beam can be used in the conventional geometry where patients are on the treatment couch,” says Pogue.

Read article – Quotes Anne Sosin, program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth, in an article about what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new school guidelines mean for Vermont students. “I think that this new guidance points to caution in decision-making,” says Sosin.

Read article – Quotes Steven Woloshin, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article about deferred primary and preventative care during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is kind of like a natural experiment that might give us some clues, a little more data, on what the real benefit [is] of some of these assumptions we have about the importance of screening and frequent examinations and medical testing,” says Woloshin.

Read article – A column co-authored by Paul Holtzheimer, associate professor of psychiatry, remembering the life of former Geisel professor Alan Green, who died in November 2020. Green served as the chair of the Department of Psychiatry for 18 years, was a professor of pharmacology and molecular and systems biology, served as the associate dean for clinical and translational science, and was the director of the NIH-funded Dartmouth Clinical and Translational Science Institute. “These impressive academic, administrative and research accomplishments do not fully capture the essence of Alan. He was upbeat, curious, energetic, warm, caring of others and always available. He maintained this optimism, this empathy for others in pain in spite of a life marked by serious and persistent health challenges. He will be sorely missed by all who had the good fortune to know him,” said Holtzheimer and his co-authors.

Read article – Quotes Steven Leach, the Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Professor and director of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC), in an article about three new gifts totaling $3.35 million that will go toward cancer immunotherapy research and teaching at NCCC. The three gifts were made by Paul Guyre, emeritus professor of microbiology and immunology; Bob Barber, whose wife, Esther, was treated at the center; and Justin Gmelich and Victoria Hall Gmelich ’91. “These drugs take the brakes off the immune system and allow it to recognize, treat and cure a cancer, just as it would an infection,” says Leach. (Picked up by San Francisco Chronicle, WCAX, and NBC 5.)

Read article – Quotes Anne Sosin, program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth, in an article about Vermont state officials’ vow to ensure that people of color in Vermont have equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine. “The reason why we want to prioritize communities of color right now is because [they’re] at much greater risk of infection and of transmitting to other people,” said Sosin. “An approach that only focuses on delivery barriers doesn’t fully attend to concerns around equity.”