Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, also known as Obamacare, aimed to achieve parity in coverage between mental health care and other forms of health care. A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that ACA plans may still fall short of that goal. The Penn researchers found that provider networks in ACA Marketplace plans tend to offer far fewer choices for mental health care, compared to primary health care. ACA plan networks last year included, on average, only 11 percent of all mental health care providers in their coverage areas — compared, for example, to 24 percent for primary care providers. The study is published today in the September issue of Health Affairs.

• share
• favorite_border

Yoganatomy courses at the Perelman School of Medicine combine traditional yoga practice with reinforcement of lessons in gross anatomy. By mindfully moving and breathing with the body parts that earlier in the day they had learned about in lectures and examined up-close in donated cadavers in the lab, first-year medical students at Penn gain a deeper appreciation of these structures in a living body.

• share
• favorite_border

An experimental imaging tool that uses a targeted fluorescent dye successfully lit up the benign brain tumors of patients during removal surgery, allowing surgeons to identify tumor tissue, a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows. The tumors, known as pituitary adenomas, are the third most common brain tumor, and very rarely turn cancerous, but can cause blindness, hormonal disorders, and in some cases, gigantism.

• share
• favorite_border

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has become a global epidemic affecting more than 380 million people worldwide; yet there are knowledge gaps in understanding the etiology of type-2 diabetes. T2D is also a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), but the biological pathways that explain the connection have remained somewhat murky. Now, in a large analysis of genetic data, published on August 28, 2017 in Nature Genetics, a team, led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has first looked into what causes T2D and second clarified how T2D and CHD – the two diseases that are the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, are linked.

• share
• favorite_border

In a landmark decision for the field of cancer immunotherapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved a personalized cellular therapy developed by the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse.

• share
• favorite_border

A new “anatomic atlas” of how B cells – the immune system’s producer of antibodies – link up to form networks has been charted by researchers. This map will be an important resource for researchers and clinicians studying infectious diseases, the microbiome, vaccine responses, and tissue-specific immunity.

• share
• favorite_border

Ian A. Blair, PhD, an internationally recognized expert on applying mass spectrometry, has won the 2017 Founders’ Award from the Division of Chemical Toxicology of the American Chemical Society.

• share
• favorite_border

The more the surface area of the body is covered by psoriasis, the greater the risk of death for the patient suffering from the condition, according to a new analysis by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Patients with psoriasis on 10 percent or more of their body are at almost double the risk of death.

• share
• favorite_border

The “involuntary treatment” of unwilling psychiatric patients has long been accepted as necessary in some cases, for the sake of patients and society, though it can raise serious ethical concerns as well as legal barriers. In a Viewpoint essay published online today in JAMA, Dominic Sisti, PhD, an assistant professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that some of the concerns about treating patients without their consent would be alleviated if the mental health profession recognized an important distinction among these cases.

• share
• favorite_border

Individuals who have a high level of moral reasoning show increased activity in the brain’s frontostriatal reward system, both during periods of rest and while performing a sequential risk taking and decision making task according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Shanghai International Studies University in Shanghai, China and Charité Universitätsmediz in Berlin, Germany.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers found a relationship between the genetics of tumors with germline BRCA1/2 mutations and whether the tumor retains the normal copy of the BRCA1/2 gene, and risk for primary resistance to a common chemotherapy that works by destroying cancer cells’ DNA.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Pennsylvania is the first institution with more than one training grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute, now with three.

• share
• favorite_border

As politicians struggle to solve the nation’s healthcare problems, a new study finds a way to improve health and lower costs among Medicaid and uninsured patients. Researchers at Penn Medicine showed that patients who received support from community health workers (CHWs) had 30 percent fewer hospital admissions in one year compared to those who did not receive CHW support. The results also showed reductions in cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes severity, and mental illness.

• share
• favorite_border

Data from the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia showed that doctors there were ordering bone scans at three times the national rate for a certain group of prostate cancer patients. It called for a coaching visit to the pitcher's mound.

• share
• favorite_border

Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, an internationally recognized expert in the field of cancer genetics, has been named deputy director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Psoriasis Foundation has announced the winners of its Medical Professional Research Awards. Joel M. Gelfand, MD MSCE, a professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology, received the 2017 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award. The award for Outstanding New Investigator went to Junko Takeshita, MD, PhD, MSCE, an assistant professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology.

• share
• favorite_border

This week, in a pair of papers published in Cell, researchers turned to an ant species — the Indian jumping ant -- that does not behave like most ants. In this species any female worker can change into a “pseudo-queen,” in the absence of the true queen and establish dominance on her colony. The teams genetically engineered this species in different ways using now-famous CRISPR technology that dramatically changed their social and reproductive behavior.

• share
• favorite_border

Neil R. Malhotra, MD, an assistant professor of Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic Surgery and the vice chairman of operations in the department of Neurosurgery, performed the first endoscopic percutaneous lumbar spinal nerve decompression and discectomy in Pennsylvania

• share
• favorite_border

Julie Park graduated this year from Rowan University, but she almost didn’t make it to graduation. Last January, she sprained her ankle. A week later, she flew from her South Jersey home to Thailand for vacation. Although her ankle hurt during the trip, she didn’t think it merited going to a hospital while out of the country. What she didn’t realize at the time was that such indecision could have cost her life.

• share
• favorite_border

A recent study by Penn Medicine researchers published online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found that the costs associated with the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), one evidence-based treatment for young children with autism, were fully offset after only two years following intervention due to reductions in children’s use of other services.

• share
• favorite_border

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian Again Named to Honor Roll, Leading List of Philadelphia-Area Hospitals

• share
• favorite_border

A newly discovered biomarker associated with a rare metabolic disorder may facilitate better diagnosis and identification of new drugs for clinical trials for the disease. Development of treatments for the neurological symptoms of MPS, a family of rare genetic disorders, have been hindered by the lack of objective measures of the extent of central nervous system damage in patients.

• share
• favorite_border

nsurance companies end up covering proton therapy treatment for pediatric cancer patients in 97 percent of the cases they originally deny once those decisions are appealed. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed five years of coverage decisions at Penn’s Roberts Proton Therapy Center. They discovered that roughly one in 10 pediatric cancer patients are initially denied coverage for the cutting edge and costly treatment – yet nearly all patients ultimately get approval.

• share
• favorite_border

Matthew S. Kayser, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Penn Medicine, has been awarded a 2017 Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF).

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered that a patient’s awareness of a diagnosis of cognitive impairment may diminish their self-assessment of quality of life.

• share
• favorite_border

Cancer cells are smart and find ways to best even the newest of treatments. Chemo, radiation, targeted therapy, and other treatments may kill nearly all cancer cells, but some cells are either not affected, or change to survive treatment. In time, these surviving cancer cells replicate and wreak havoc. Determining who is at-risk for recurrence and how to stop it before it starts is a major research effort supported by Penn’s Basser Center for BRCA, where researchers are ferreting out which patients might be most likely to become resistant to treatment, and devising new ways to help them.

• share
• favorite_border

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is establishing the Asperger Syndrome Program of Excellence (ASPE) with a $5.4 million gift from an anonymous donor. ASPE aims to significantly improve understanding of the genetic causes of Asperger syndrome in order to energize the international research and clinical community.

• share
• favorite_border

Chester County is the wealthiest county among all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. The median household yearly income is more than $85,000. And yet, more than 25,000 county residents received over $3 million in SNAP (food stamp) benefits because they do not have enough money to consistently put food – let alone healthy food – on the table each night. Last year, Chester County Hospital sought to tackle the issue by providing a "food insecurity" questionnaire to patients in the hospital's Ob/Gyn clinic. As a result of the Food Insecurity study, the Chester County Food Bank now pre-packages emergency food kits for the Ob/Gyn Clinic to have instantly available for their patients who acknowledge that they worry when their families will eat next. The boxes are nutritious and geared toward prenatal women. There are discussions currently underway to expand the screening tool hospital-wide.

• share
• favorite_border

The delayed arrival of immune cells after cancer therapy is well documented and critical for responses to chemotherapy and radiation, yet the events underlying their induction remain poorly understood. Now, Penn researchers have discovered how DNA damage is a clarion call for the immune system.

• share
• favorite_border

Surgeons were able to identify and remove a greater number of cancerous nodules from lung cancer patients when combining intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) – through the use of a contrast agent that makes tumor cells glow during surgery – with preoperative positron emission tomography (PET) scans. The study from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania (ACC) is the first to show how effective the combination of IMI with the tumor-glowing agent can be when combined with traditional PET imaging.

• share
• favorite_border

Timothy H. Lucas, II, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Translational Neuromodulation Lab in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the 2017 Fellow in Leadership Award by Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.

• share
• favorite_border

The Penn Center for Precision Medicine (PCPM) Accelerator Fund awarded eight research teams from Penn Medicine in their second round of funding for the implementation of personalized medicine projects across a range of clinical specialties.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Benjamin L. Prosser, PhD, an assistant professor of Physiology, in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received the Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the American Heart Association’s Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences, one of its scientific divisions

• share
• favorite_border

Women undergoing daily radiation therapy for breast cancer are commonly told they should not use antiperspirant for fear that it could cause greater radiation damage to the skin, but a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows there was no difference in the radiation skin dose absorbed by these patients with or without these deodorants.

• share
• favorite_border

Offering $100 to patients eligible for a preventive colonoscopy screening more than doubled the rate of screening when compared to a simple emailed request, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

• share
• favorite_border

On Sunday, Phelps will go head-to-head against a very unlikely competitor: a great white shark. Yes, you read that correctly – an actual shark. While the logistics of this race alone leave me with many, many questions, I’m most curious about whether this would even be a fair fight from the get-go. Brian Sennett, MD, chief of Sports Medicine at Penn Medicine, and Peter Dodson, BSc, MSc, PhD, a professor of Anatomy at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine, detail the advantages and disadvantages of each competitor -- from the aerodynamics and muscle make up to the impact of oxygen intake and VO2 max to the buoyancy that comes with having lungs.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Across the country, there are 58 Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO), which are responsible for recovering and distributing organs and tissues for life-saving and life-enhancing transplants. Each OPO is designated to serve a specific geographic area and works with the transplant centers in their area to match donors with recipients. With more than 117,000 people awaiting a lifesaving organ transplant, these OPOs work very hard to identify as many organ donors as possible to help save these lives. But according to a study published today in the American Journal of Transplantation, there seem to be significant differences in the results of these efforts.

• share
• favorite_border

Genetically modified “hunter” T cells successfully migrated to and penetrated a deadly type of brain tumor known as glioblastoma (GBM) in a clinical trial of the new therapy, but the cells triggered an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and faced a complex mutational landscape that will need to be overcome to better treat this aggressive cancer, Penn Medicine researchers report in a new study this week in Science Translational Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Three new gene variants, found in a genome wide association study of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), point to the brain’s immune cells in the onset of the disorder. These genes encode three proteins that are found in microglia, cells that are part of the brain’s injury response system.

• share
• favorite_border

More than a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep, and growing evidence suggests it’s not only taking a toll on their physical health through heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and/or other conditions, but hurting their mental health as well.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study that could explain why some breast cancers are more aggressive than others, researchers say they now understand how cancer cells force normal cells to act like viruses – allowing tumors to grow, resist treatment, and spread. The virus mimic is detected in the blood of cancer patients, particularly in cases of an aggressive type known as triple-negative breast cancer. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say cracking the code of how this process works opens up the possibility of targeting this mechanism for treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

A newly identified biomarker panel could pave the way to earlier detection and better treatment for pancreatic cancer. Currently over 53,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer -- the fourth leading cause of cancer death -- every year. The blood biomarkers correctly detected pancreatic cancer in blood samples from patients at different stages of their disease.

• share
• favorite_border

The idea that better decisions can be made simply by guiding people to them is the principle behind the Penn Medicine’s Nudge Unit, which officially launched last year. Looking to the year ahead, projects both on-going and up-coming are using some of the most basic principles of behavioral economics – gamification, financial incentives, and default settings – to tackle costly health interventions and some of the leading causes of death and other health risks, including statin and opioid use, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and readmissions.

• share
• favorite_border

While discussions on stewardship are often focused on fighting infection among the sickest patients, those aren’t the only people taking these drugs. Data from the CDC shows the average dermatology provider wrote 669 antibiotic prescriptions in 2014, the most recent year for which data are available. That is, by far, the highest average of any provider specialty. For some perspective, the next closest group was primary care physicians, who wrote an average of 483 prescriptions per provider. It begs the question of whether dermatology should be under the microscope when it comes to stewardship.

• share
• favorite_border

A recent study at the University of Pennsylvania found that, not only did commercial brain training with Lumosity™ have no effect on decision-making, it also had no effect on cognitive function beyond practice effects on the training tasks.

• share
• favorite_border

Cancer patients in the United States may be unable to access care at the nation’s top hospitals due to narrow insurance plan coverage – leaving patients to choose between lower premiums or access to higher-quality cancer care. A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows common, so-called “narrow network” insurance plans – lower-premium plans with reduced access to certain providers – are more likely to exclude doctors associated with National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Cancer Centers.