Defiance Crescent News – Quotes Jeffrey Munson, assistant professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, on new research from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care which found that where seniors live makes a difference not only to how much health care they receive but also the medications they’re prescribed—as some miss out on key treatments while others get risky ones.

Xconomy – Quotes H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, on new molecular “rule-out” tests, based on genomic or proteomic analysis, that can tell someone who has suspicious lung nodules if they don’t have cancer and route them away from unnecessary procedures. “It’s a great direction to move, and intellectually I can appreciate the effort,” says Welch. “But the question is how well (do they) perform, and how do we decide whether the tests actually work?”

The Legal Examiner – Cites an opinion piece published in The Washington Post by Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz, both professors of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, on testosterone drug risks. In the opinion piece, Woloshin and Schwartz criticized testosterone drug therapy manufacturers for creating “disease-awareness” campaigns that put many men at risk of serious side effects, including heart attack and stroke.

Targeted Oncology – Quotes Chao Cheng, assistant professor of genetics and lead author of a recent study on the biomarker E2F4. The biomarker predicts survival in breast cancer, and Cheng’s research suggests that E2F4 may also predict progression and immunotherapy efficacy in bladder cancer.

Medscape – Quotes Thomas Ward, professor of neurology, on a recent study which shows that migraines are associated with an increased risk for stroke among active smokers, but not nonsmokers. Ward says that the study “does confirm that smoking and migraine is a bad combination, and already known to be even worse if the patient is taking exogenous estrogen.”

The New York Times – An opinion piece on why Medicaid and Medicare need to be reformed, which cites research conducted by Dartmouth, Harvard, and MIT, estimating the value of Medicaid. The researchers found that for every dollar of spending, the value to recipients is between 20 cents and 40 cents.

Valley News – Quotes Melanie Lawrence, clinical assistant professor of community and family medicine, on the potential construction of a nonprofit water therapy and swimming center in the Woodsville, N.H. – Wells River, V.T., area. “The therapeutic and medical reasons I think would draw a lot of people,” says Lawrence. “Gravity is much less of a restriction for physical therapy in the water, and that type of modality is really important particularly for elderly people with joint issues.”

American Academy of Family Physicians – Quotes Steven Woloshin, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice on the AllTrials campaign, which is calling for all past and present clinical trials in the United States to be registered and report their results.

WCAX-TV – Notes that a recent study for the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice’s Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care found that Vermont has the fifth lowest hospice utilization rate in the U.S. Just 32 percent of Vermonters use hospice care.

Scientific American – Continued coverage on comments by Margaret Karagas, chair and professor of epidemiology, and professor of community and family medicine, on recent research conducted by scientists at Queen’s University Belfast, U.K., which found that preparing rice by flushing it through with fresh hot water can remove much of the grain’s naturally stored arsenic.