Read article – Quotes Bill Hudenko, assistant professor of psychiatry and adjunct assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, in an article about how researchers are now developing ways to use artificial intelligence to map out the relationship between factors that lead to suicide. Hudenko is working with researchers from the University of Vermont to develop a system for both suicide risk assessment and prevention by using an app he and his Dartmouth colleagues developed called Proxi, which aims to improve well-being for people with depression and other conditions.

Read article – An opinion piece by Kathy Kirkland, Geisel ’86, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, regarding her experiences working in palliative care. “It’s funny how the world of palliative care, which each day brings us face-to-face with illness, with mortality, with heartbreak, is not a place of overwhelming sadness,” says Kirkland. “Each day, instead, we find (or perhaps we cocreate) meaning, and even joy in our work.”

Read article – Cites findings from The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare that show regions that spend more on treatment do not have better outcomes.

Read article – A video featuring Mariétou Ouayogodé, post-doctoral fellow at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, where she discusses how the provision in the Affordable Care Act to remove cost sharing for preventive care visits created a shift in how Medicare pays, with a greater emphasis on prevention and managing chronic diseases, and less on treatment of acute illness.

Read article – Quotes Lisa Schwartz, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a new study published in JAMA that found the rare cancer polycythemia vera got a mention on America’s oldest soap opera, “General Hospital,” because the drug company Incyte asked it to. Incyte’s only FDA-approved drug, ruxolitinib, happens to treat the cancer, and the “General Hospital” appearance was the company’s attempt to raise awareness about the rare disease — and possibly to sell more of its drug. With a message this subtle, “there’s no way you would ever know it was connected to the drug company,” says Schwartz, who was not involved in the study. “Your natural skepticism that comes up when you see advertising is totally down because you don’t know the drug company has any role in the message you’re getting.”

Read article – A segment that features comments by Elizabeth Talbot, associate professor of medicine, where she shares tips on how to be prepared for tick season. “Long pants, wearing closed shoes, wearing tall socks, even some inconvenient measures like tucking your pants into your socks,” says Talbot.

Read article – Quotes Samir Soneji, assistant professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, who argued at the the first-ever U.S. E-Cigarette Summit that e-cigarettes may reverse the negative perceptions of smoking among teens and young adults that have led to the dramatic declines in cigarette use. “The concern that I and others have is that e-cigarettes may re-normalize smoking and reduce the stigma of smoking in public,” says Soneji.

Read article – Researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine announced that two new studies of DAR-901, their investigational vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), have moved it to the forefront of new vaccines in development for global control of this deadly infectious disease. An earlier form of the vaccine was used in the DarDar Trial, a seven-year study in Tanzania sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health involving patients with HIV infection who at birth had received BCG, the current tuberculosis vaccine.

Read article – Quotes Jay Buckey, professor of medicine and adjunct professor of engineering, about what would actually happen if if a human ended up in space without a suit. “If someone were in the vacuum space without a spacesuit, they would become unconscious very quickly — the main reason would be lack oxygen,” says Buckey.

Read article – Quotes David Jevsevar, chair and assistant professor of orthopaedics, in an article about how an international panel of surgeons and patients has challenged the effectiveness of arthroscopic surgery for patients with degenerative knee problems. Jevsevar, who also serves as chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Council on Research and Quality, said the recommendation is in line with current evidence, but he also cautioned that generalizing a variety of randomized trials does not necessarily take into account the circumstances of individual patients. “Guidelines don’t apply to every patient,” Jevsevar says. “There’s always going to be an exception.”