In the News

Dartmouth Medical Student Warns the Public That Popular Household Appliances Contain Carcinogens: ‘It’s Important That People Know the Health Effects’ – The Cool Down

Read article – Alex Conway ’20, MED ’25, is featured in an article about a video she posted related to the health effects of methane emissions from gas stove tops.”I think it’s important that people know about the health effects of methane gas because it’s something we can change,” Conway said.

Psychologists Are Calling for Guardrails Around AI Use for Young People. Here’s What to Watch Out For – CNET

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is quoted in a story about an American Psychological Association health advisory on AI and adolescents. “This is a new technology that is probably potentially as big in terms of its impact on human development as the internet,” Jacobson said.

ChatGPT Is Making Us Weird – Business Insider

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, talks about the risks of commercial therapy chatbots in the context of Therabot, the first AI therapy chatbot to undergo a clinical trial. “A lot of folks in Silicon Valley want to move fast and break things, but in this case, they’re not breaking things—they’re breaking people,” Jacobson said.

What to Know About Plasma Exchange Therapy and Longevity – The New York Times

Read article – Zbigniew M. Szczepiorkowski, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, is cited as a third-party expert in an article about the first trials on plasma exchange for anti-aging in humans. Szczepiorkowski notes that it’s not clear if the findings were a direct result of the treatment or if they were influenced by some other confounding factor.

Should You Start Colorectal Cancer Screening Before Age 50? – Consumer Reports

Read article – Douglas J. Robertson, a professor of medicine, is quoted in an article about the recommended age to test for colorectal cancer. “Screening is always a trade-off with benefit and harm,” Robertson said. “The trade-off is that as you go to younger and younger age groups, the absolute risk for getting or dying from cancer is lower, so more and more people would need to be screened to find the one case of colorectal cancer hiding in these younger age groups.”

Gastroenterologists Have Growing Role at Forefront of Obesity Care – Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News

Read article – Richard I. Rothstein, a professor of medicine and surgery, is quoted in an article about obesity’s impact on common gastroenterological conditions, which can include type 2 diabetes or heart disease. “Maybe we can intervene and prevent [those comorbidities] from happening by co-managing or referring patients for obesity treatment,” Rothstein said.

Groundbreaking Research Aims to Understand the Impact of Work-Related Stress in EMS Clinicians – JEMS

Read article – Enzo Plaitano, a third-year PhD candidate, and Catherine Stanger, a professor of psychiatry and biomedical data science, are featured in an article about their research in collaboration with the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians into the impact of stress on EMS clinicians. “As a paramedic, I see the daily stress from this job negatively impacting myself and my coworkers both mentally and physically,” Plaitano said. “The EMS community is struggling and our goal is to help support each other.”

AI Chatbot Improves Mental Health, According to New Clinical Study – Warp News

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is featured in an article about the first-ever clinical trial of a generative-AI therapy chatbot. “The improvements in symptoms we observed were comparable to what is reported for traditional outpatient therapy, suggesting this AI-assisted approach may offer clinically meaningful benefits,” Jacobson said.