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Sixty-six percent of publicly-insured children were unable to get a doctor’s appointment for serious medical conditions including diabetes and seizures, while children with identical symptoms and private insurance were turned away only 11 percent of the time, according to an audit study of specialty physician practices in Cook County, Ill. conducted by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings are published in the June 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected for AcademyHealth’s 2011 Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award.

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Photodynamic therapy added to lung sparing surgery provides superior results for overall survival in mesothelioma patients.

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Women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations, which are linked to a very high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, can safely take hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) to mitigate menopausal symptoms after surgical removal of their ovaries, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented Monday, June 6 during the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting. Results of the prospective study indicated that women with BRCA mutations who had their ovaries removed and took short-term HRT had a decrease in the risk of developing breast cancer.

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Newly diagnosed cancer patients frequently face hurdles in obtaining an appointment for care with an oncologist, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennnsylvania that will be presented Saturday, June 4 at the 2011 annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (Abstract #6128). Even callers with private health insurance had difficulty scheduling an appointment, with just 22 percent of them obtaining a slot, compared to 29 percent of uninsured patients and 17 percent of patients on Medicaid, according to results of a study in which research assistants posed as patients seeking an initial evaluation.

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Genetic analysis of the tumors from patients with advanced melanoma can clue researchers in to how well patients will respond to a therapy that targets the growth-promoting protein called BRAF, a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will report on Monday, June 6 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Looking outside of the BRAF gene, the researchers found loss of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN also appears to be associated with patient response to GSK436, which could help guide researchers to even more personalized approaches to melanoma therapy.

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Emergency department patients who have recently been hospitalized are more than twice as likely to be admitted as those who have not recently been in the hospital, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented this week at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual meeting.

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Despite their beneficial effects in heart disease, neither aspirin nor simvastatin appear to offer benefit to patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Nearly everyone who has tried to quit smoking says it’s incredibly difficult, and the struggle is due in part to genetic factors. Now, a new study from the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania sheds light on how one specific genetic risk for smoking relapse may work: Some of the difficulties may be due to how many receptors, called "mu opioid" receptors, a smoker has in his or her brain. The results, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, may lead to the development of new treatments that target these receptors and help smokers increase their chances of success when they try to quit.

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Penn Transplant Institute/University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine faculty are presenting research findings and moderating sessions on the lateast advances in transplant medicine. The American Transplant Congress keynote speaker (May 4th) this year is Penn Med's Medicine's own Dr. Arthur Caplan, the Robert Hart Director of the Center for Bioethics and the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics. Dr. Caplan will address "The Not-So Distant Future of Organ Transplantation - Ethical Obstacles and Opportunities.

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A new national study, designed and analyzed by Penn Medicine’s Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics, has determined that two medications commonly used to treat age-related macular degeneration are equally effective. These results, from the Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials (CATT) study, were published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have found a way to turn an adaptive cellular response into a liability for cancer cells by treating a group of patients with several different types of advanced cancers with temsirolimus, a molecularly targeted cancer drug that blocks nutrient uptake, plus hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that inhibits autophagy. The regimen halted tumor growth in two-thirds of the patients.

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Each year, more than 100,000 patients in the U.S. undergo implantation of a new ICD for heart rhythm abnormalities. Current medical guidelines advocate discussion of end of life care of these medical devices, including deactivation. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say that discussions should also address post-mortem donation of ICDs for product improvement or reuse overseas as pacemakers, to help reduce global health disparities.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has revealed an increased incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with severe psoriasis.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine reveals the role that guilt may play as a motivational tool for cardiovascular patients.

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More than three quarters of domestic violence victims who report the incidents to police seek health care in emergency rooms, but most of them are never identified as being victims of abuse during their hospital visit. These findings, from a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study, point to a missed opportunity to intervene and offer help to women who suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner. The findings are published online this week in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

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Standards for health policy curricula in medical education are urged by a Penn Medicine physician. Matters affected by health policy, such as health care systems, quality improvement, and medical economics, ultimately affect patient care, and physicians need the skills to address them.

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A simple test performed at the sideline of sporting events can accurately detect concussions in athletes, according to study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

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New research has identified a common genetic risk factor for heart failure in Caucasians that is also linked to kidney function.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that a different metric, a measure of HDL function called cholesterol efflux capacity, is more closely associated with protection against heart disease than HDL cholesterol levels themselves. Findings study could lead to new therapies in the fight against heart disease.

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An international team of researchers led by Daniel J. Rader, MD, associate director of Penn Medicine’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has received a $6 million grant from the Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study the molecular genetics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

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The Penn Transplant Institute, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Division of Plastic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) have collaborated to form the Penn Hand Transplant Program.

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Weightlifting may play a key role in the prevention of the painful limb-swelling condition lymphedema following breast cancer treatment, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The new data cements the reversal of long-running advice that breast cancer survivors should avoid lifting anything heavier than five pounds after they finish treatment. The research results will be presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and published online concurrently in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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A personalized vaccine is a powerful therapy to prevent recurrence among certain follicular lymphoma patients, according to the latest results of ongoing research led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The new findings show that when these patients – whose tumors are marked by a specific protein that may be present in up to half of people with this type of cancer -- receive a vaccine made from their own tumor cells, disease-free survival is improved by nearly two years, compared with patients who receive a placebo.

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Researchers discovered that a pair of enzymes called HDACs are critical to the proper formation of mammalian skin. The findings not only provide information about the molecular processes underlying skin development, they also suggest a potential anticancer strategy. Inhibition of these HDAC enzymes might be able to shut down the growth of tumors that contain cells resembling those in embryonic skin.

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Mimicking the reflective iridescence of a butterfly's wing, investigators have developed a color-changing patch that could be worn on soldiers' helmets and uniforms to indicate the strength of exposure to blasts from explosives in the field. Future studies aim to calibrate the color change to the intensity of exposure to provide an immediate read on the potential harm to the brain and the subsequent need for medical intervention.

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Researchers -- led by James Eberwine, PhD, the Elmer Holmes Bobst professor of Pharmacology and co-director of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute -- have documented a novel form of splicing in the cytoplasm of a nerve cell, which dictates a special form of a potassium channel protein in the outer membrane. The channel protein is found in the dendrites of hippocampus cells -- the seat of memory, learning, and spatial navigation -- and is involved in coordinating the electrical firing of nerve cells. Dendrites, which branch from the cell body of the neuron, play a key role in the communication between cells of the nervous system. Diseases such as epilepsy that are based on electrical misfiring in the brain could be targets of manipulation of the type splicing of splicing studied.

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CPR quality is worse during in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring overnight than those that happen during the day, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study that will be presented at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions on November 14.

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A study published online this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry in advance of print publication in February 2011 showed no difference in nonsuicide mortality between people taking ziprasidone and another second-generation anti-psychotic in real-world use.

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Gone are the days when a doctor’s only way of helping patients is by treating the disease after symptoms have started. Instead, a new approach to medicine, called “Desktop Medicine” is emerging, in which the emphasis shifts from diagnosing diseases and treating symptoms to identifying risk-factors for medical conditions such as hypertension and osteoporosis, and intervening before they develop. The commentary appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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A third of breast cancer survivors who received the breast-conserving treatments lumpectomy and radiation rate the appearance of their post-treatment breast as only “fair” or “poor” in comparison to their untreated breast, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study that will be presented today at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego.

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Prostate cancer patients who receive intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) are less apt to suffer serious gastrointestinal complications following their treatment than those who receive three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (CRT), according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine which will be presented Nov. 1 at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego.

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The University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center has been rated as “exceptional” by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) during a competitive research funding review by the government agency.

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Beatrice Hahn, MD and George Shaw, MD, will be joining the faculty of the Penn Center for AIDS Research in the School of Medicine in 2011. Both are international leaders in human and simian immunodeficiency virus research and have made groundbreaking contributions to this field for over two decades. Hahn and Shaw have also contributed significantly to the study of the transmission of human infectious pathogens from non-human animals. Both are currently at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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Just released data from a clinical trial shows promise for a new minimally invasive treatment option for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are too sick for traditional forms of open-heart surgery. As compared to standard medical therapy, the new procedure, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), significantly reduced mortality rates in patients who received the new valve.

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A major new personalized medicine clinical trial, led by addiction researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, will study how a smokers’ genetic make-up influences their quitting success.

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J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., has been named the next executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of Penn’s School of Medicine, effective July 1, 2011.

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Investigators have described a previously unknown biological mechanism in cells that prevents them from cannibalizing themselves for fuel. The mechanism involves the fuel used by cells under normal conditions and relies on an ongoing transfer of calcium between two cell components via an ion channel. Without this transfer, cells start consuming themselves as a way of to get enough energy.

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Biologists have been studying how the protein AMPK works for several decades and know that once it is activated, AMPK turns on a large number of genes by passing the "make more energy" message through numerous signaling cascades in the cell. What was not known, until now, was that AMPK also works via an epigenetic mechanism to slow down or stop cell growth. Researchers found that AMPK binds directly to sites on chromosomes called promoters that regulate gene expression related to cell metabolism.

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Investigators have found that fruit fly males -- in which the activity of an Alzheimer’s disease protein is reduced by 50 percent -- show impairments in learning and memory as they age. What’s more, the researchers were able to prevent the age-related deficits by treating the flies with drugs such as lithium, or by genetic manipulations that reduced nerve-cell signaling.

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A novel therapy designed to attack tumors in patients with a genetic mutation in either BRCA1 or BRCA2, slowed tumor growth in 85 percent of advanced breast cancer patients treated in a small study, researchers report in the July 6 issue of The Lancet.

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A media seminar and expert panel to explore the pros and cons of one of the hottest and most hotly contested approaches to modern surgery – remote and minimally invasive surgery through the use of robots – from surgical, ethical and financial perspectives.

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Using high-throughput sequencing to map the locations of a common type of jumping gene within a person’s entire genome, researchers found extensive variation in these locations among the individuals they studied, further underscoring the role of these errant genes in maintaining genetic diversity.

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Cancer patients who’ve been told to rest and avoid exercise can – and should – find ways to be physically active both during and after treatment, according to new national guidelines.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center reveals a possible genetic basis for why a particular side effect – joint pain referred to as aromatase inhibitor-associated arthralgia (AIAA) – occurs and shows promise for treating these symptoms in breast cancer survivors without interfering with the drugs’ efficacy.

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Early trials using targeted monoclonal antibodies in combination with existing therapies show promise in treating pancreatic cancer and metastatic breast cancer, according to research by investigators from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center.

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APOEε4 gene carriers with alzheimer’s disease have more memory problems; non-carriers troubled with attention, language and executive function.

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In a finding with potential drug-development implications, researchers report the discovery of an intermediate state between early-stage fat cells and fully mature ones that is only present transiently during the fat-cell formation process. This intermediate state is induced by hormones related to cortisol, which are known to contribute to obesity and metabolic disturbances in people.

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Researchers investigating a regulatory protein involved in a rare genetic disease have shown that it may be related to epileptic and autistic symptoms in other more common neurological disorders. A team of researchers demonstrated how mutations in the STRAD-alpha gene can cause a disease called PMSE (polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy) syndrome, found in a handful of Amish children.

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The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has been ranked #2 among the nation’s research-oriented medical schools, according to the annual survey by U.S.News & World Report, rising from #3 in last year’s survey.