“The primary reason hobbies are good is because they force you to take time for yourself,” writes Dr. Samuel Mathis. “Hobbies count as part of the 10 in the 0-5-10-20-30 of the formula for healthy living (0 cigarettes, 5 servings of veggies and fruits a day, 10 minutes of daily mindfulness, 20 minutes of exercise a day, and a body mass index less than 30).”
Dr. Neil Mehta, an associate professor in epidemiology in the School of Public and Population Health at UTMB, is a guest editor of the special supplemental issue, Why is Health in the United States Continuing to Lag Behind? “There’s no simple answer,” Mehta said. “The issue touches on the many complicated factors with a focus on social and behavioral factors.”
Thanks to a $56 million grant, the University of Texas Medical Branch and global health care company Novartis will enhance their work together to discover drugs to fight off the next pandemic. The grant comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is one of nine such grants awarded by NIAID to establish Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern. “We must prepare for the next pandemic by working together across governmental, non-governmental, academic and private sectors to develop an arsenal of countermeasures,” said Dr. Pei-Yong Shi, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and VP for Research Innovation at UTMB and one of the leaders of the partnership. Many national and international sites also posted this news, including Pharmabiz, Medical News and Study Finds.
Haley Hernandez discovered that Dr. Trine Engebretsen, a transplant surgeon at UTMB, is also a liver recipient. “This whole miracle of transplant is made possible because of donor families and the decisions they make in a very tragic time,” Engebretsen said. She suggests having the conversation about organ donation with your family now instead of leaving them with that decision in the event of an untimely death.
Dr. Jeff Temple, psychologist and director of the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, discussed the recent mass shooting on the Houston Public Media program.
To coincide with National Nurses Week, the medical branch’s League City campus opened a “Zen room” Thursday to allow employees to unwind and unload their burnout and stress. “The overall goal of the Zen den was to create a dedicated space for clinical staff to go relax, recharge and to help reduce symptoms of burnout that are caused by the daily work they do,” said Christine Wade, hospital administrator.
International news outlets, including this one in Nigeria, continue to report on a comparative study published May 4 in The BMJ. Dr. Peter Cram, professor and chair of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Center at Galveston, is one of the authors. Infectious Disease Advisor also reported on this study.
Dr. Elena Volpi, director of the UTMB Sealy Center on Aging, wrote about researchers seeking volunteers who are women, 65 years and older and who recently have broken a hip and had surgical repair.
This feeling often is attributed to the release of endorphins, natural painkillers released by the body that are thought to create a general feeling of well-being. This is probably a myth though because endorphins cannot cross into the brain. Read more about it in Medical Discovery News.
Drs. Victor S. Sierpina and Michelle Sierpina encourage us to get our toes in the sand soon. “It should be no surprise that we benefit cognitively and psychologically from time away from daily stress,” they wrote in their column. See you on the beach.
The University of Texas Medical Branch partners with UT El Paso on deep learning approach to improving lung region segmentation accuracy in chest x-ray images. The model is one of the first products created in partnership leveraging medical expertise at UTMB and computational expertise with machine learning and artificial intelligence at UT El Paso.
Thanks to a $56 million grant, the University of Texas Medical Branch and global health care company Novartis will enhance their work together to discover drugs to fight off the next pandemic. The grant comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is one of nine such grants awarded by NIAID to establish Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern.
To prioritize women’s evolving health care needs, UTMB employs experts in a variety of fields including urology, urogynecology, comprehensive women’s care and more.
Early anecdotes about Paxlovid’s effects on long COVID are intriguing, but no one’s testing them in clinical trials yet. Vineet Menachery, a coronavirus expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch, believes long-term infection is probably “more common than we think,” he told Katherine Wu.
American medical facilities typically have access to the latest healthcare technology and generally boast low readmission rates among heart attack patients. New research reports that America’s one-year heart attack death rate is one of the highest among studied high-income nations. Dr. Peter Cram, professor and chair of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Center at Galveston, was one of the research collaborators. “From a U.S. perspective, our heart attack care is good, but the one-year mortality rate is concerning,” Cram said. “If dying is one of the things we want to prevent, then we have work to do.” News Medical, All Health Books, World Health and Medical Economics also reported on this comparative studied published in The BMJ.
The Texas Department of State Health Services recently recognized the University of Texas Medical Branch’s League City campus as a Level III trauma facility. “Our hospital continues to provide higher levels of care as it continues to grow,” administrator Christine Wade said. “We are proud to be the first trauma center to serve League City.”
League City registered nurse Nori Head is heading in new directions after retiring from her position as the nursing program manager and senior research nurse coordinator in the neuropathology and infectious disease division at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She's acting in plays in local community theaters and working part-time as a nurse with a vaccine research group.
People with immunocompromising conditions might be unsure whether their COVID-19 vaccinations will protect them from severe disease. Many may also be unaware aware there’s now a treatment, Evusheld, that can protect and allow them to lead more normal lives. Drs. Meagan Berman and Richard Rupp explain in the latest Vaccine Smarts column.
“Now for the first time, artificial intelligence was used in conjunction with the standard colonoscopy to reduce the rate at which polyps are missed by nearly a third,” write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in the latest Medical Discovery News column.
Among older adults, such memory concerns represent a daily complaint in the primary care setting. Most patients fear that the slightest forgetfulness predicts progressive senility, dementia or even Alzheimer’s Disease. Drs. Victor S. Sierpina and Michelle Sierpina write that forgetting things once in a while can be healthy.