Read article – Quotes H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article about Geisinger Health System’s new DNA screening program for patients. The article quotes comments by Welch previously published by NPR, where he acknowledges that some mutations may have actionable treatments, but others may not. “What are we really going to do differently for these patients?” asks Welch. “We should all be concerned about heart disease. We should all exercise; we should eat real food.”

Read article – Quotes Timothy Lahey, associate professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article about how some patients are using smartphones to record their office visits and other interactions with their doctors. Lahey weighs in on what doctors think of being taped. “It’s not yet part of most doctors’ routine practice,” says Lahey. “So it’s new and it makes some doctors go, ‘Hmm.'”

Read article – Continued coverage of comments by Joy Gabrielli, postdoctoral research fellow, about a study she led that found that the TECH parenting style, an acronym for Talk, Educate, Co-view, and House Rules, could help families manage screen time at home.

Read article – An opinion piece by Roshini Pinto-Powell, associate professor of medicine and of medical education, in which she discusses the current trend of medical students choosing not to go into primary care. “For PCPs at the bottom of the compensation list, resurrecting and sustaining the notion of medicine as a calling is necessary. More than simply increasing monetary compensation, the healthcare system, our specialist colleagues, and patients need to show by their words and actions that primary care is a valued service,” says Pinto-Powell. (Pinto-Powell is participating in this year’s Dartmouth Public Voices project.)

Read article – Quotes James Sargent, the Scott M. and Lisa G. Stuart Professor of Pediatric Oncology and professor of pediatrics, biomedical data science, and community and family medicine, in an article about how the alcohol industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to convince us that drinking alcohol and living a good, meaningful life are inextricably intertwined. “How we view drinking as a culture is not accidental,” says Sargent. “It’s been carefully scripted for us by the alcohol industry, in ads we’ve seen since we were little kids.”

Read article – Quotes Anne Hoen, assistant professor of epidemiology, biomedical data science, and microbiology and immunology; and Sara Lundgren, a graduate student in the quantitative biomedical sciences program; about a study they coauthored that found that eating healthily during pregnancy could protect babies from allergies by changing their gut bacteria.

Read article – Quotes Sara Lundgren, a graduate student in the quantitative biomedical sciences program, who led a study that found that eating healthily during pregnancy could protect babies from allergies by changing their gut bacteria. “Our study demonstrates an association of a readily modifiable factor—maternal diet—with the infant gut microbiome [environment]. This knowledge may be key for developing evidence-based dietary recommendations for pregnant and lactating women.”

Read article – Quotes Harold Swartz, professor of radiology, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and of Community and Family Medicine, in an article about how fears of nuclear fallout during the Cold War led some Upper Valley residents to reinforce their homes with fallout shelters. Swartz notes that beyond the impact zones, most survivors of a nuclear attack would be fine in the shelter of their own basements. “Almost any structure will give you more protection than you would have if you were outside,” says Swartz. “Time is very much on your side. The fallout will disperse. It will blow somewhere with the wind. The radioactivity decreases very quickly with time—48, 72 hours. And unless there were an unusual weather pattern if a bomb were to hit New York or Boston, the chances of getting a lot of life-threatening fallout is not real high in the Upper Valley.”

Read article – Quotes Stewart Tepper, professor of neurology, about the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first-ever treatment specifically developed to prevent migraines by blocking the calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CGRP-R).

Read article – Continued coverage of comments by Steven Fiering, professor of microbiology and immunology and of genetics, about a new study that found that flight attendants get certain cancers more than the general population. Fiering, who was not involved in the study but conducts research on flight attendants, said he found the higher rates of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer among women in the study “striking”—”especially to see a close to four-fold increase in non-melanoma skin cancer; that is substantial,” says Fiering.