In the mid-2000s, Dr. Suszanne Klimberg, currently Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, noticed that many of her patients from rural areas came in with late-stage breast cancer. It turned out that they have had no access to breast screening, where they lived. This motivated Dr. Klimberg to search for a simple screening method to be used at primary care level to detect the disease at an early stage, and this is how the idea of development of an easily deployed lab test to screen for breast cancer was born.

University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas Southern University are partners in a national effort to increase diversity and inclusion of underserved communities in clinic trials. Equitable Breakthroughs in Medicine Development (EQBMED), led by Yale School of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Coordinating Center (RCMI) at Morehouse School of Medicine, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is a partnership bringing clinical trial sites closer to the community to further equity and access for diverse populations.

Today, iodine is on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines. Iodine is still added to common table salt to prevent goiters. In this episode of Medical Discovery News, Dr. Norbert Herzog and Dr. David Niesel trace back the origins of iodine treatment, from a Civil War battlefield.

A three-year-old will ask many “why” questions about their surroundings. While the questions might be difficult such as why the sky is blue the answers can be as simple as “I’m not sure. Let’s look it up?” Dr. Sally Robinson discusses how to strengthen memory abilities with children in this week’s column.

All human research is reviewed by an IRB — researchers submit proposals detailing the purpose of the investigation, the procedures, the risks and benefits, consent forms, and more. The committee decides whether or not the proposal is acceptable and may ask for revisions, which can take weeks or months depending on how often a given IRB convenes. “If I’m doing a project on something related to reproductive technology in Texas, versus Massachusetts, they might be really different considerations,” said Emma Tumilty, a bioethicist at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

We generally think of good health in terms of diet, exercise, sleep and mental attitude. We also need to consider as fundamental the amount of water that we drink. Dr. Victor S. Sierpina writes about importance of drinking enough water and why it might be better to have a glass of water before your morning coffee.