Read article – Quotes Karissa LeClair, Geisel ’20, who worked with fellow Geisel student Nicholas Valentini ’13, Geisel ’20, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Lyme clinic and Upper Valley Ambulance to create a pilot project in which paramedics use downtime between emergency calls to visit patients in Orford and Piermont.
In the News
Midwives Are Growing in Popularity. Here’s What You Need to Know – Healthline
Read article – Quotes Timothy Fisher, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, about the state of midwifery in the U.S. “The midwifery model of care emphasizes normalcy and wellness. It empowers women and gives them greater ownership of their health, their pregnancy, and the outcomes of that pregnancy based on choices that they’re able to make,” says Fisher. “Unfortunately, the medical model of prenatal care can take some of that ownership away, in a way that can ultimately be detrimental for some people.”
New Computer-Based Analysis Method Identifies Scleroderma Patients Who May Benefit Most from Stem Cell Transplant – Scleroderma News
Read article – Quotes Michael Whitfield, interim chair and professor of biomedical data science, and Jennifer Franks, a PhD student in the quantitative biomedical sciences program, about a study they conducted that may help identify scleroderma patients who could benefit most from stem cell transplants.
You’d Never Guess These Things Can Fight Cancer – MDLinx
Read article – Quotes David Bzik, professor of microbiology and immunology, in a news brief about research he is leading to develop a cancer vaccine from the parasite Toxoplasma gondii.
Podcast: The Polluted Stream of Health Care Information (Audio) – HealthNewsReview
Read article – As guests on a podcast produced by HealthNewsReview, Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin, both professors of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, medicine, and community and family medicine, discuss the pollution of healthcare information. (Schwartz and Woloshin’s comments begin at approximately 2:35.)
Trump Administration’s Arbitrary and Regressive Proposal to Redefine Gender – The Globe Post
Read article – An opinion piece by John Turco, professor of medicine, in which he discusses how the Trump administration’s consideration of legally defining “sex” based only on “immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth” could wipe out the impressive gains made by the transgender community. (Turco’s op-ed was also published in the Valley News.)
Vascepa Fish Oil Claims It Prevents Heart Disease. Where’s the Proof? – The Daily Beast via Kaiser Health News
Read article – Quotes Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin, both professors of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, medicine, and community and family medicine, about findings released by Amarin Corp. for Vascepa, its preventive medicine for people at risk of heart disease. Amarin Corp claimed that Vascepa caused a 25 percent relative risk reduction for deaths related to heart attacks, strokes, and other conditions, but the particulars of the scientific study on which this claim was based remain a mystery.
Researchers Look at Potential Downsides of Cancer Screenings – R & D Magazine
Read article – Article quotes Lisa Schwartz, professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, medicine, and community and family medicine, about cancer screenings. It is a popular notion that frequent cancer screenings saves lives, but is there a downside to these tests? A team of researchers believe that the impact of cancer screening tests is not as beneficial as previously thought and in some cases can result in an over diagnosis of cancer. “If the chance of dying from a cancer is small to begin with, there isn’t that much risk to reduce,” Schwartz said. “So the effect of even a good screening test has to be small in absolute terms.”
Hard-to-Treat Patients with Sclerosis Respond to Stem Cell Transplantation – Healio
Read article – Patients with sclerosis assigned to a fibroproliferative subset, who are typically unresponsive to immunosuppressive drugs such as abatacept or mycophenolate mofetil, benefited from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, according to Michael Whitfield, PhD, of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Your Baby Might Not Have Enough of a Critical Gut Bacteria – The Daily Beast
Read article – Quotes Anne Hoen, assistant professor of epidemiology, biomedical data science, and of microbiology and immunology, in an article about how Evolve Biosystems has developed a prototype screening test that can identify if an infant has low levels of bifidobacteria, which is crucial for an infant’s immune health.