A new Congestive Heart Failure Clinic at St. Vincent’s House run by medical students at the University of Texas Medical Branch is striving to better educate uninsured patients about heart failure, its complications and how best to manage the condition. The comprehensive care clinic at St. Vincent’s House in Galveston provides post-discharge heart failure patients with bi-weekly interprofessional services such as respiratory and occupational therapy by supervised UTMB students who will also monitor vitals, discuss diet, and engage in supervised exercise.
.jpg?sfvrsn=cbc2c757_1 "Phillips (1141 x 642 px)")
While a reduction in the number of infections is good news, scientists and doctors are beginning to understand the chronic illness that lingers after COVID infection, called long-haul syndrome. Long-haul patients were infected and appeared to recover, but then chronic symptoms began and remained months after the infection. Extreme fatigue and debilitating brain fog are common symptoms, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel of UTMB.
November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. Together, we can wipe away the stigma and improve the quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.
For months, Pearland realtor Gerald Hatter anxiously waitied on news that her 11-year-old daughter Bella Hatter would be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. On Wednesday, one day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use for children ages 5-11, Bella received her first dose. She is one of 2.9 million children in that younger age group now eligible for the vaccine in Texas. In Galveston, UTMB opened its system for appointments Wednesday afternoon. Within 24 hours, 575 appointments had been scheduled, Jenny Lanier, UTMB’s director of ambulatory operations said. UTMB has as many as 6,000 of the pediatric vaccines available this week, Lanier said, with more coming.
About 54,000 Galveston County children are younger than age 12 and were ineligible to receive vaccines before the approval. Most now can be inoculated, although studies are still being conducted on the vaccines for children younger than age 5. UTMB, the largest health care provider in the county, said it would begin administering vaccines to younger children.
The complex relationship between environmental stressors, extracellular vesicles (EVs), and adverse health outcomes was the focus of an NIEHS workshop held Sept. 27-28. Experts discussing the topic included Dr. Ramkumar Menon, from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, who described his work analyzing exosomes in the context of premature birth. He used an organ-on-chip device that mimics human biological interactions between fetus and mother. Menon showed that fetal exosomes shuttling the protein HMGBI functioned as a signal to trigger early labor.
With the Lone Star Rally rolling onto the island for the first time in two years, UTMB has increased its staffing levels and is preparing for the surge in patients that can come with large events. “When there’s an extra 500,000 people in place, there’s an increase in volume,” said Christine Wade, the chief nursing officer at the medical branch’s League City campus, who helps organize trauma response preparations ahead of the motorcycle rally. “They have heart attacks. They get food poisoning. By the sheer volume of them coming to the island, we have more patients in the emergency rooms.”
The radio program explored the appeal of scary movies and the psychology of fear with Dr. Jeff Temple, psychologist and director of the Center for Violence Prevention at UTMB.
Media outlet Newsmax had no choice on Tuesday but to issue two statements that COVID vaccinations are safe and do not contain luciferase after a now-deleted tweet from the company’s White House correspondent. The enzyme is not in the vaccination, but researchers have used luciferase for bioluminescence tracking to study COVID. In July 2020, a report stated that scientists at UTMB were using luciferase to “develop faster and more accurate diagnostic tests for COVID-19 as well as to analyze potential therapies and gain a clearer understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself.”
The National Institutes of Health has launched a study looking at the long-term effects of COVID-19 in pregnancy. Researchers will recruit 1,500 pregnant patients with COVID-19 and their children and follow them for four years. A recent study from UTMB found babies born to symptomatic mothers were more likely to need respiratory support or be admitted to neonatal intensive care units.
Conflicting news earlier this year about COVID-19 vaccinations confused Michele Budd, so she put off deciding if she should get the shot. Then she got sick and spent two weeks in the hospital.
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston School of Nursing has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for 2021-2024. Joining a growing list of schools across the nation, UTMB’s School of Nursing was recognized as a center of innovation, leadership, and educational excellence.
The remodeled residents and fellows lounge on the 12th floor of John Sealy Hospital reopened Oct. 29. The 12th floor space includes 31 sleep rooms, a meditation room, a lounge, showers, and spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico.
What you should know for the flu season
A new state law sets minimum standards for how schools teach kids about teen dating and family violence, child abuse and sex trafficking. San Antonio City Councilman Manny Pelaez wants to make these lessons mandatory for students in San Antonio and heighten awareness about domestic violence. “Kids right now learn how to be in a relationship through mostly trial and error,” said Dr. Jeff Temple, director of UTMB Center for Violence Prevention. “Conflicts are inevitable in relationships. In fact, I would say they’re healthy. How we resolve those is what matters—some couples do it terribly with violence and other couples do it healthily. We want to teach those kids how to do it in a healthy way.”
Samples taken by CDC from a bottle of the Better Homes and Gardens Lavender & Chamomile aromatherapy room spray in the home of the Georgia victim found the presence of burkholderia pseudomallei, something known to cause meliodosis, primarily a disease of tropical climates, according to the CDC. Dr. Alfredo G. Torres, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UTMB, talked about the bacteria and the possible but rare disease on “Morning in America.”
Dr. Timothy Harlin has a lot that could keep him up at night, and what’s always on his mind is the burnout and demand on his staff at UTMB. “Burnout is very, very real and something that keeps me very concerned,” said Harlin, the executive vice president and CEO of UTMB. “We have to create a culture where people want to stay. They’re part of a family at UTMB. They feel they have a voice. They feel that we really do emphasize quality and that we are not just in the business of grinding through employees.”
These increases point to significant mental health effects of COVID-19-related mitigation measures, particularly among women, researchers noted in a cohort study published in JAMA Network Open. “Most health care resources were focused on non-psychiatric aspects of COVID-19,” said Sadaf Arefi Milani, PhD, MPH, of the department of internal medicine-geriatrics and palliative medicine at UTMB. “We were interested in seeing if the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated mitigation measures exacerbated the already higher rates of mental health conditions and psychiatric prescriptions among women.”
A study finds that domestic violence shelters took in thousands of victims and many requests for services were unmet. Leila Wood, lead investigator on the UTMB study talked about the findings on “Good Day Austin.”