Read article – Quotes Richard Barth, professor of surgery, in an article about how surgeons are using new methods to provide pain control after surgery, which they hope will reduce reliance on opioids. “I suspect we are going to see a major change in the number of opioids prescribed. There are lots of things we can do, with local anaesthetics in wounds that can be used as well as taking even some medications prior to surgery and using nonopioid alternatives like acetaminophen to help,” says Barth.

Read article – As a guest on “All Things Considered,” H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and professor of economics, discusses how screening healthy people for thyroid cancer does more harm than good. “If you look early, you just find a whole new category of patients that has the disease but is never going to suffer from it at all,” says Welch. “But they will suffer from the treatment.”

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; and Samantha Cukier, a public policy researcher in the department of data science; in an article featuring their new research that found alcohol brand placement in movies has nearly doubled over the past two decades. It isn’t just adult films that are heavy on the booze. According to the research, 72 percent of PG-rated films and 46 percent of G-rated films surveyed featured alcohol use. While that number appears to have stayed steady over time, again, brand placements nearly doubled within the 20-year period. “It can really deliver a lot of alcohol images to an underage group,” Sargent says.

Read article – As a guest on “All Things Considered,” Ellen Meara, professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, discusses new research that documents significant disparities in the lifespans of Americans depending on where they live. Meara speculates that the findings could be another manifestation of the economic inequality plaguing areas of the country.

Read article – Quotes Ellen Meara, professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in an article about a new study that calculated a gap of 20.1 years between U.S. counties with the lowest and highest life expectancies. Meara, who was not involved in the research, said many factors impact life expectancy.

Read article – A news brief that mentions Kathryn Kirkland, Geisel ’86, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, has been named the Dorothy and John J. Byrne Jr. Distinguished Chair in Palliative Medicine.

Read article – Features a study coauthored by 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, that found alcohol marketing in movies increased significantly over the past two decades, especially in popular children’s films.

Read article – Quotes Ellen Meara, professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found African Americans have made significant gains in life expectancy, and the mortality gap between white and black Americans has been cut in half since 1999. “My enthusiasm for these impressive gains in mortality is dampened by the stunning mortality gap between blacks and whites that remains in 2015,” says Meara. “Combined with an uptick in deaths due to external causes (accidental injuries, homicides, drug poisonings and related causes) between 2014 and 2015 offsetting some of the mortality gains since 1999, those reading this report should be vigilant to ensure continued survival gains among black Americans.”

Read article – Gundlach Huber Professor in Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine. The professorship was established in 1984 by Gertrude H. Mertens to honor her mother. Gertrude Mertens and her sister, Marion Huber, had established another chair in 1981 to honor their father, Joseph M. Huber.

Read article – Continued coverage of a new Dartmouth-led study, preschool age children who are exposed to child-targeted fast-food advertising on television are considerably more likely to consume fast-food products.