Orthopedic physician Dr. Randon Hall brought along a few case studies for his NERD Hours talk.

By Lana Sweeten-ShultsGCU News Bureau

Its 7 p.m. on a Thursday and instead of binging Netflix, a smattering of Grand Canyon University health care students are scattered in a socially distanced way in the Technology Building anatomy lab, seated at long lab tables and visible to Dr. Randon Hall on a Zoom call.

Pre-med junior Alyssa Deyo created NERD Hours.

Other students are remotely attending Halls talk, the latest in the NERD Hours series created by junior biology/pre-med student Alyssa Deyo. She has connected with such groups as GCUs chapter of HOSA Future Health Professionals, mentored by Dr. Mark Wireman, and the Master Anatomy Program, mentored by Michael Bodeen, to reach as many pre-health students as possible.

Hall, an orthopedic physician at Phoenix Childrens Hospital, doesnt waste any time launching into his guess-the-bone-break-and-suggest-a-treatment portion of his talk.

He shares his screen and an X-ray of a young patient who was thrown off a mechanical bull and fractured his wrist.

What kind of injury is this? he asks the students while presenting this particular case study.

After a flurry of answers via the comment section of Zoom, he bobs his head in agreement: Yes, a distal radius fracture.

A lot of people say this has to be fixed, said Hall. But it doesnt have to be. In young patients, you can leave this like this. As long as we can straighten it up a little bit, they should do OK.

Then Hall opened the door to something personal.

Hall also spoke about his residency experiences and work-life balance.

This was one of the cases I saw early on in my career, when I started working, and I was losing sleep all over it. I was worried the kids arm was going to be crooked and terrible and just needed to be fixed, and so I called one of my older colleagues and they said, Trust me, dude, itll be fine.

About six months later, You could not tell the kid had any issue at all.

Its the kind of insight Deyo looks for from NERD Hours, which stands for Networking, Educational, Resources Done Online. The virtual series for pre-health students came about as a way for them to continue to connect with mentors and get real-life experiences, even during the pandemic.

I know for myself and for others, the pandemic really hurt some of our hours for shadowing and for clinicals for pre-med, Deyo said.

Pre-med students, pre-physician assistants, pre-physical therapy students and the like wanting to enter the health care field normally learn by shadowing a physician or landing an internship at a health care facility.

Deyo spent time last summer wondering how students would be able totalk to those key medical personnel anytime soon. Then I thought to myself, you know, Im a pretty smart girl. I can get some connections really quick.

Self-starter that she is, she did.

She knew Hall from her high school, where he was the team physician and she assisted the athletic trainer. She also was one of Halls patients.

Orthopedics is definitely one of those top-tier specialties, she said. To get to talk to them (physicians) about their lifestyle, their day-to-life balance stuff like that its crucial for us so we can also understand, before we get to medical school, and start to weigh these decisions.

Not that Deyo seeks only physicians in those top-tier specialties.

GCU alumnus Thomas Varkey spoke to students about what its like being a med school student.

Medical students and GCU alumni Thomas Varkey, Zack Merhavy, Colton Zeitler and Cheney Huls all have spoken at NERD Hours about the application process.

Even myself, when I first came to college, I was like, Oh, THIS is how much medical school costs, THESE are the different specialties. I didnt know the whole extent of it. I wanted graduate students to sit down with us and tell us the reality, tell us the pricing, tell us what theyre learning.

Varkey, adjunct faculty in the Colangelo College of Business and a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, said it was a blast for him to get to speak to GCU students who are about to embark on the journey hes currently taking.

I was so glad to have been given the chance to provide practical advice I wish I had been given as an undergraduate.

Assistant Dean of Science Dr. Jon Valla spoke about letters of recommendation.

Another speaker, Dr. Jon Valla, Assistant Dean of Science in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, spoke to the students about the letters of recommendation process and how students should go about developing the relationships they need for strong faculty recommendations for graduate school.

Valla said Deyo approached him in August about coming up with a way to help students replace their experiential hours, or those real-life experience and observation hours, that are harder to find because of the pandemic.

While there essentially is no replacement for true experiential time, Valla said, Alyssas plan to bring in alumni and practitioners provides an invaluable service to our pre-health students. Its to her credit that she has been able to routinely bring in speakers with a valuable perspective and have them share with her classmates.

It also helps keep our famous GCU community alive, as well, giving students good cause to safely gather, learn some great information and be able to have casual but meaningful conversations with peers and future colleagues.

Hall agreed.

It is inspiring to see students take the initiative like this because they could have easily just used the current situation as an excuse to do less, he said. I love the passion for learning, for getting better, for gaining experience. That is the characteristic you want to see in someone pursuing medicine.

Another goal of NERD Hours is for students to network with professionals in the fields they want to enter.

Deyo said another goal of the series is to help students network, so we get our foot in the door, at least, so that we have them (physicians, medical students and other speakers) as a connection.

Ultimately, she wants to find health care professionals for NERD Hours who love what they do and can share that with her and her classmates.

I want to find physicians who are passionate, she said. If Im reading articles about someone and they seem passionate about what theyre doing, Im definitely reaching out to them.

One of the fun parts of NERD Hours, Deyo added, is hearing speakers just talk, casually, about their work and nonwork lives.

Hall spoke about how you might not want to be a surgeon if you dont want phone calls at 2 a.m. Instead, you might want to become an orthopedic physician, like him. His work hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. four days a week with one half day, along with working as a team physician for various high schools.

Im never on call. I dont work any weekends, which is not the same for the surgeons, he said.

Students at his NERD Hours talk wondered how hard medical school and his residency were.

A lot of times I feel like people want to describe it in a way that It was torture. But it wasnt really torture, he said. Though it was hard hours, as a resident, he got paid, and he got help from his fellow medical school students, who all were trying to reach their goals. To me, it was more a community of like-minded people. We went to the gym, we had parties, we did all the fun stuff.

In a way, no worries.

Its that sense of camaraderie, in the end, that Deyo wants her fellow students to find in her NERD Hours series.

Just because were speaking through a screen, she said, doesnt mean we cant have a heart-to-heart.

Contact GCU senior writer Lana Sweeten-Shults at [emailprotected] or at 602-639-7901.

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Related content:

GCU Today: Alumnus returns to help patients after COVID battle

GCU Today: GCU alumnas challenging med school journey

GCU Today: Pre-med students sharpen skills in mini-interviews

Read the original post:
Pre-med student has creative pandemic prescription - GCU Today

Hospitals in at least 25 states are critically short of nurses, doctors, and other staff as coronavirus cases surge across the United States, according to the industrys trade association and a tally conducted by STAT. The situation has gotten so bad that in some places, severely ill patients have been transferred hundreds of miles for an available bed from Texas to Arizona, and from central Missouri to Iowa.

Many of these hospitals spent months building up stockpiles of medical equipment and protective gear in response to Covid-19, but the supplies are of little use without adequate staffing.

Care is about more than a room with a hospital bed. Its about medical professionals taking care of patients, said John Henderson, chief executive of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH). If you dont have the staff to do that, people are going to die.

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Staffing shortages are a serious concern in multiple regions. Intensive care unit nurses, who typically oversee no more than two patients at a time, are now being pushed to care for six to eight patients to make up for the shortfall in parts of Texas, said Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians. In Ohio, some 20% of the 240 hospitals tied to the Ohio Hospital Association are reporting staffing shortages, according to spokesperson John Palmer.

The American Hospital Associations vice president of quality and patient safety, Nancy Foster, said shes heard from two dozen hospital leaders over the past two weeks, warning her of staffing shortages in states including Texas, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Health care providers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, and Utah said theyre facing the same problem, as do local reports from New Mexico, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Montana, California, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

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The shortages are primarily caused by overwhelming numbers of patients as coronavirus spreads, combined with decreasing staff levels as nurses and doctors themselves fall sick or have to quarantine after being exposed to infected people. Covid-19 is also prevalent in rural areas that have been struggling with a shortage of health professionals for years; hospitals in more remote regions dont have equipment such as ventilators, and so must transfer severely ill patients to already-overwhelmed urban health care systems. The scale of the problem makes it harder to address: Systems designed to offset shortages by bringing in backup from other areas dont work when so many states are affected simultaneously.

States that sent doctors and nurses to New York at the beginning of the pandemic now have no one to turn to as hospitals across the country experience the same problem. Early on, Texas was sending teams of caregivers to states like New York to help with their surge, said Henderson. You cant do that when 48 states are going through a surge in the wrong direction and they all need help. Where do you pull from?

As the crisis proliferates, several health care systems are struggling to transfer urgent patients to hospitals with adequate support. Hospitals in Lubbock, Texas, had to send severe Covid-19 patients to Arizona, said Henderson. A Missouri patient who urgently needed surgery to remove a mass in his brain was sent to a hospital in Iowa, said Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis regional pandemic task force and community health officer at SSM Health in St. Louis.

The mechanics of how you transport and accelerate care are broken at the moment, said Henderson. Even major cities in Texas, such as Houston, Dallas, and Austin, are facing their own staff limitations, and so many rural hospitals in Texas are forced to try and treat patients that they would typically transfer out.

Covid-19 has so overwhelmed parts of Texas, including El Paso and Lubbock, that hospitals are running short of both beds and staff. I treated a clinical patient in a recliner, because it was the only thing close to a bed we could find, said Hancock, who works at hospitals in Oklahoma, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, but declined to say where the incident happened. We knew the patient was sick and had nowhere to put them. You look at what resources youve got and make it happen.

The lack of staff reflects the dramatic increase in patients. There has been an average of 157,318 new cases per day over the past week, according to the STAT Covid-19 Tracker 74% more than two weeks ago and there simply arent enough ICU nurses, in particular, to meet the need. Hospitals currently have 2,000 ICU nurse jobs open on Trusted Health, a company that connects travel nurses, who hop from job to job around the country, with hospitals.

The situation is exacerbated as staff get sick with coronavirus themselves, or else have to quarantine after exposure. The staffing need is so dire, hospital workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic have been told to continue working in North Dakota.

One rural hospital in Texas is struggling with 30% of staff nurses out of commission because of infection with or exposure to Covid-19, said TORCHs Henderson. At one point earlier this month, more than 1,000 staff from the Mayo Clinic were out of work because of Covid-19, said Amy Williams, executive dean of Mayo Clinic Practice.

It could be caring for a family member who has Covid, it could be on quarantine because of being exposed in the community, or it could be because the staff member actually has Covid, Williams said. More than 90% of possible exposures occurred in the community as transmission picked up, she said, not in the hospital.

As health care systems compete for additional staff, salaries skyrocket. ICU nurses are a hot commodity, said Dan Weberg, a former emergency room nurse and head of clinical innovation at Trusted Health, and their fees are currently twice as much as pre-Covid rates, at around $5,000 to $6,000 per week.

This is how PPE was in the beginning of the pandemic. When youre competing with everyone else in town, and state, and the country, that creates a market thats not sustainable, said SSM Healths Garza.

In response to the staffing shortage, several hospitals are postponing elective surgeries as many did in the spring at the start of the pandemic. This decision carries risks: They call them elective but a lot are what Id call urgent cases, said Hancock, the Texas emergency physician. A surgeon recently had to cancel two intestinal surgeries for patients who were struggling to eat, said Kencee Graves, associate chief medical officer at University of Utah Health. Patients waiting for knee surgeries may well struggle to walk.

But there are few alternatives for health care systems. You can always add more beds. Its much more difficult to add more workforce, said Alan Morgan, chief executive of the National Rural Health Association. Some hospitals are turning to local dentists and Red Cross volunteers, and people with basic health experience to help with tasks that require less training, said the American Hospital Associations Foster.

The only other option is to ask existing staff to work more hours. University of Utah Health has been using additional ICU beds for months, which means nurses and providers are working extra shifts. Our numbers keep increasing but they are tired. Our nurses feel like theres no end in sight, said Graves. They get here, work 12 hour shifts in PPE, its just this churn of seeing critically ill patients. And then you go to your community and see peak numbers, and having people continue to go to bars and restaurants.

Trusted Health is trying to set a maximum of 60 hours per week in its nursing contracts. After working more than three 12-hour shifts in a row, error rates go up exponentially, said Weberg.

What most worries hospital officials is that Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak. What Im scared of, leading up to the holidays, is whats going to happen immediately after Thanksgiving, said Hancock. Then everyone gets into a crisis situation and theres nobody who can go help.

Their only hope is for demand to decrease by people reducing Covid-19 transmission through quarantining and wearing masks, they said. Many of us feel powerless because we feel people arent listening when we say dont gather for Thanksgiving or Christmas, said Graves. After months of dealing with the crisis, she worries that some nurses will be so burned out theyll quit, making the staffing shortage even worse.

Both hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators, meaning it takes a couple of weeks for newly diagnosed cases to translate into more ICU patients. Were in for a very rough Thanksgiving and Christmas, said Henderson.

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'People are going to die': Hospitals in half the states are facing a massive staffing shortage - STAT

CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) On this weeks Inside West Virginia Politics, we get to meet this years Miracle Network Champion Child, delve into West Virginia Wesleyan College and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicines Go D.O. program, and get an update on the states Jobs and Hope program.

In segment one, Amy Bush Marone, COO of WVU Medicine Childrens Hospital gives an update on the new facilitys construction, explains the benefits of partnering with Childrens Miracle Network, and introduces us to this years Miracle Network Champion Child.

In segment two, Dr. Joel Thierstein, president of West Virginia Wesleyan College explains how their new Go D.O. program will work, how high schools students can begin the process of getting into the program, and how the program can help to attract people to move to the Mountain State.

In segment three, Dr. James Nemitz, president of West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, continues the discussion of Go D.O. and their partnership with West Virginia Wesleyan College, how helping young students make their way to medical school is a win-win for everyone, and how the program will help the Mountain States medically underserved.

In segment four, Del. Mike Pushkin (d) Kanawha explains why he believes everyone in the West Virginia government should work together to better the lives of West Virginians, gives an update on the Jobs and Hope Program, and why he cautions state Republicans, who now hold a supermajority.

Follow Mark Curtis on Facebook and Twitter for the latest local and breaking news.

For local and breaking news, weather alerts, video and more, download the FREE WOWK 13 News App from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

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IWVP: The future of medicine and the West Virginia state government - WOWK 13 News

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If, for example, I test positive, then any member of my household could be eligible for this treatment provided that they havent begun experiencing symptoms, Sethi said.

Those interested in treatment must be 18 or older, live with someone recently tested positive with the coronavirus and be free of Covid-19 symptoms, said Kelly Green, clinical research coordinator with the Clinical Research Office.

Those who do, can call Green at 888-4764 or email kjk22@buffalo.edu for more information and to see if they meet other eligibility guidelines for treatment.

Regeneron sought 2,000 patients when the study started several weeks ago in the region. There are 700 slots still available and more may be added depending on interest, Green said.

The drugmaker decided to provide treatment because Dr. Michael Cain, Jacobs School dean, was able to provide space in an unused medical school clinic in Amherst where participants could be treated discretely and safely without exposing other health care patients, Sethi said.

Those selected for the study will get a rapid test for Covid-19. They will be able to participate whether they test positive or negative. Those who are symptomatic will not be eligible but could consider participating in treatment trials being conducted at UB for mild to moderate cases of Covid-19.

Link:
Experimental Covid antibody treatment that Trump lauded now available in WNY - Buffalo News

When Rachael Goldsmith 19 left Bethel, she had no idea what the first year after graduation would turn into. The biology major entered the workforce just weeks after returning from Guatemala, a semester she spent abroad to finish her Spanish minor, and the only thing she had officially decided was taking a break before heading to medical school.

She had no idea that shed eventually work three jobsas a medical scribe, barista, and clinical research intern. She had no idea shed be furloughed as a medical scribe due to the pandemic, or that a short time later shed be hired as a full-time research assistant for a COVID-19 treatment trial at Hennepin Healthcare Infectious Disease Research Department. She had no idea that shed be using her Spanish daily as she formed relationships with patients in the months-long trial.

Goldsmith ultimately had no idea shed love her job as a research assistant so much. Its really a dream come true, she says. I love this position. I wouldnt want to be spending my time doing anything else.

As the world waits for the development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine, Goldsmith and her team of fellow RAs are working on three different trials to treat the virus. One trial focuses on the inflammation accompanying COVID-19, while two other trials examine antibody treatments. She and her coworker work on treatment trials, and every other week, they rotate who enrolls patients in the trial and who collects and enters data into their system. They stay in touch with patients for two to three months as theyre in the hospital and then once they return home to see how they continue to respond to the medication.

Goldsmith had always been interested in clinical research, and that interest only grew during her time at Bethel. Through the C. Weldon Jones Memorial Research Scholarship, she studied breast cancer with Professor of Biology Paula Soneral. Because of this project, Goldsmith stepped right into the COVID-19 research processshe knew what questions to ask as well as how to work hard and efficiently. I think I had an advantage by understanding research as a whole, Goldsmith says. I was well-prepared to do a lot of work, and Bethels arduous biology and chemistry classes helped me understand the foundations of science really well.

Bethel also shaped Goldsmiths perspective of treating patients as human beings first rather than focusing on their role in a clinical study. Especially as she interacts with people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, she does her best to be gentle and a comfort to those in isolation from their families. Knowing that somebody is comfortable talking to me about how theyre actually feeling and how theyre doing is something that Im super grateful for, Goldsmith says. I was well prepared for this by going to a college that emphasized people as whole and holy humans.

And part of honoring their humanity is meeting them where they are, and Goldsmith is thrilled to use Spanish to connect with patients as they cope with COVID-19. While she hadnt taken this position expecting to use her minor, she has been grateful and surprised by how frequently the opportunities arise, and now she uses Spanish daily as she meets patients, checks in on them during their hospital stay, and then when she calls to hear how theyre recovering. Because of her time in Guatemala and taking Languages and Cultures classes, she was well-prepared to utilize her skills to make the Spanish-speaking community in Minneapolis feel seen.

While Goldsmith invests in her jobwhich serves individuals both on a personal level as they receive treatment and on a global scale as researchers aim to produce an effective COVID-19 vaccineshes learning how to appreciate this season between graduating from Bethel and starting medical school. Although she initially felt restless as she navigated three jobs and wondered what would become of her gap year, she has since realized that each of those jobs helped her find her purpose. There is truly purpose in the everyday and the mundane and the journey, Goldsmith says. To people who graduate and feel like theyre not in their dream position right away, all things come in time. For the first year, you will get through it, especially if you have plans to go back to school in the future. Theres purpose to the whole pre-med track even if I dont go to medical school. Its all part of growing me into the human and the person I am supposed to be.

Goldsmiths future is full of countless opportunities. Some, like medical school, are part of her planwhile other dreams are wilder and still somewhat hazy, like owning a bakery in France. Ive always loved cooking and baking, and if I could own a bakerya fun little mix of American classics and French pastriesthat would be my ultimate dream. It would be kind of a stretch, and Id push myself to my limits, but over something a little less stressful, like croissants, rather than healthcare, Goldsmith laughs.

However, she is certainly in no rush to continue her education or move across the world, especially as she finds great fulfillment in her role right now. I dont know how much time Ill be taking off with this job, she says. I really, really like this period of life right now. Im just excited to take my time.

See more here:
A Clinical Researcher's Guide to Finding Purpose in Everything - Bethel University News

Los Angeles, California, Nov. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, around 21,000 applicants were accepted to U.S. medical schools in 2018-2019. Medical admissions continue to rise. However, residency programs are not growing at the same rate.

The Residency Problem

Data from the National Resident Matching Program shows that thousands of medical students fail to match with a residency program every year. Failing to match can be the biggest disappointment in your medical career. After all the hard work and the thousands of dollars that have been spent in pursuit of medical education, it can be depressing when you learn that you failed to match with a residency program.

For the last few years, the number of graduates has exceeded the number of residences available. The residency shortage is because of funding restrictions. The Medicare program provides funds for residencies at $10 billion each year. This allocation was determined by Congress in 1997. Since then, it has not been revised. There have been efforts to pass bills to increase the allocation, without success.

The Residency Shortage & Physician Shortage

U.S Census data predicts that by 2025 there will be a shortage of over 130,000 doctors. A third of all doctors are expected to retire in the next decade. In the face of this looming shortage, there has been an increasing demand for doctors because of an aging population and the increase in insured people due to the Affordable Care Act.

The shortage of residency positions will present public health problems. When qualified doctors are not matched, it delays opportunities for them to practice and this hinders efforts to combat the projected physician shortage.

The Residency Shortage Means That Some Graduates Will Not Be Matched

It is all about supply and demand. Because there are limited positions, these positions will go to the best candidates. That matching process has become very competitive. In an ideal situation, each graduate would get a residency. However, this is not the case.

If you apply for a competitive residency such as dermatology or emergency medicine, you might fail to get a match if you didn't have high scores.

Most graduates are applying for residencies in big cities. Therefore, it is easy to miss a spot if you apply for a residency in a city hospital. Contrary, applying for a position in a rural hospital increases the chances of qualifying. That will also help in addressing the medical needs of disenfranchised rural communities.

What Should You Do if You Don't Match?

Don't panic. You should remember that you are not the first and you will not be the last medical student not to match with a resident program. Many students who failed in the first attempt succeeded in subsequent trials.

Failing to match doesn't mean that you are incompetent. The fact that you were admitted to medical school and you completed your studies shows you are qualified. A big part of the problem is the shortage of residency positions versus the high number of graduates.

It is normal to feel depressed. Therefore, you should find a support network. This can be your family members or friends. If you start having symptoms of clinical depression, you should seek professional help.

You might want to evaluate whether to continue in clinical medicine or to pursue other healthcare careers. If being a doctor is a dream that you can't brush away, you need to figure out why you didn't match. At this stage, you require mentorship and support.

Get the Mentorship You Need from Residents Medical

Qualifying for residency in these competitive times has less to do with your academic qualifications and more to do with other factors. Residents Medical will mentor you on how to navigate the murky world of residency admission. You will be empowered with skills that you cannot learn in class. These skills include:

Soft skills

Sound judgment

Physical and mental stamina

Empathy for others

Emotional stability

Learning and functioning in various settings

With Residents Medical, a mentor will guide you by hand until you are matched. For more information, visit https://residentsmedical.com/.

View post:
Residents Medical Combating Shortage In Residency Positions In The US - GlobeNewswire

The Altrui Foundation was founded by Wharton first year Sourish Jasti. (Sourish Jasti)

A Penn first-year co-founded the Altrui Foundation, which has helped facilitate the distribution of $15,000,000 worth of unused medication to underserved communities in just four months.

The Altrui Foundation transfers unused medications from manufacturers to charitable organizations so they do not become wasted. The organization was founded by Wharton first-year Sourish Jasti, senior at St. Pauls School in Concord, N.H. Shreya Kavuru, and St. Pauls School junior Rahul Kavuru.

After hearing from an executive in the pharmaceutical industry about the problem of manufacturers destroying billions of dollars worth of unused medications each year and the large underserved community in need of medication, Jasti said the team was inspired to take on this project.

The Altrui Foundation is led primarily by young college and high school students and is advised by a board of business, tech, and pharmaceutical industry professionals.

The Altrui team is working with companies including Rising Pharmaceuticals and Ingenus Pharmaceuticals to redistribute unused medications that they manufacture through charity organizations.

The foundation works with charities to help these underserved communities both domestically and internationally. One organization is Kingsway Charities, a Christian charity that supplies medicines all over the world.

They have mission trips that they plan out, Jasti said. They are able to take certain amounts of medicine to the doctors that go on the mission trips and go to these places and supply it there.

While the medications that Altrui facilitates are unable to be sold at pharmacies like CVS, they are usable and unexpired medications that help communities, such as the uninsured, and communities after natural disasters, Jasti said.

In addition to preventing the destruction of usable medications, the Altrui Foundation also has a sector called Altrui Education that helps mentor high school students applying to college. Altrui Educations mentorship program hopes to break the systematic systemic barriers that contribute to the cyclic nature of poverty, violence, and addiction, according to its website.

The team said their organization is unique because most of their mentors are students who recently applied to or started college.

It gives a different perspective than a counselor or a parent, said Princeton University first-year and Altrui Education Manager Maxime Lahlou. It is someone who just applied and can relate to the stress of applying.

The Altrui founders believe that the youth of their team across both the medical and educational sectors is an asset. Engineering first-year and Altrui member Justin Zhang said he believes their youth has added to the success of the venture.

We are inspired and passionate about what we do, Zhang said. We are really committed to this initiative going far. This is not a short term kind of spiel that will end when COVID-19 ends. We plan on continuing for years to come. I think having that motivation and commitment helps the organization run.

These students also solicit advice form Whartons Management Clubs Applied Management Program and the Altrui Foundations Advisory Board.

Gopichand Katragadda, a member of the Altrui Advisory Board and CEO of artificial intelligence technology startup Myelin Foundry, said he is impressed by the foundation and enjoys his advisory role.

I am very happy that the team has come together in this manner to contribute to society, Katragadda said. They could pick a huge money-making opportunity. [But they] are doing all that they do free of cost with a passion to serve humanity. I think there should be more such organizations, and I am happy to be a part of this.

Get our newsletter, Dear Penn, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

Moving forward, the foundation hopes to serve as the link between more charities and pharmaceutical companies with leftover medication.

First-year student at New Jersey Medical School and Altrui member Swathi Pavuluri said she has learned much from the experience of being on the Altrui medical team and admires the younger people she is able to work with.

I am really grateful to be a part of this. I hoped that I would be a part of something like this in the future, but as a med school first year student I am able to be a part of something that is making such a profound impact on both a medical level, which I am professionally interested in, and on a social level," Pavuluri said.

See more here:
Wharton first year distributes $15M in unused medicine to charities through new foundation - The Daily Pennsylvanian

Campus News

UB librarians have repeatedly answered the call to rapidly and accurately inform the public, both on campus and on the frontlines.

By MARCENE ROBINSON

Published November 20, 2020

In times of crisis, information is a vital and sometimes lifesaving resource. And librarians who are often the guides and curators of educational materials are crucial to rapidly and accurately informing the public and key decision-makers.

UB librarians have repeatedly answered this call, ensuring crucial resources reach people in need.

In the aftermath of the horrific explosion in Beirut in August that generated seismic waves the equivalent of a 3.3 magnitude earthquake, the University Libraries were the only library available to quickly provide an engineering professor at the American University of Beirut with a copy of a field manual for evaluating building safety after earthquakes.

When UB transitioned to remote learning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, UB librarians rushed to help faculty shift classes online and provide researchers across the globe with critical data.

After assessing the situation caused by the pandemic, our staff searched for creative solutions ensuring that individuals, whether on campus or across the globe, could have timely access to our collections and expertise, says Evviva Weinraub Lajoie, vice provost for university libraries.

Supporting the frontlines

Pamela Rose, a web services and library promotion coordinator in the Health Sciences Library, has volunteered since the start of the pandemic to help the World Health Organization (WHO) index more than a thousand scientific reports on COVID-19.

Through the Librarian Reserve Corps, a group of health science librarians who respond to information needs in public health emergencies, Rose reviewed and organized research publications for the WHOs Global Outreach Alert and Response Network, ensuring the data was rapidly available and easily accessible for frontline public health workers in need of the latest medical research and protocols.

Rose joined the Librarian Reserve Corps in March, and was among the first volunteers. The effort, which was created by Tulane University librarian Elaine Hicks, recruited more than 100 librarians around the world. The team indexed up to 1,200 research articles each day. Rose worked through lunch hours and during evenings, and to date has indexed more than 1,000 articles.

The nature of COVID was unknown. The health community has never seen this number of publications in such a short time, says Rose. I have always been interested in international health initiatives. When Elaine posted the message that she needed help, I was on board immediately.

The Librarian Reserve Corps was recently donated a software program that reviews and organizes the bulk of research articles. The volunteers now manually sort less than 200 articles each day.

Prepared for the digital future

UB librarians worked diligently to help the university transition to remote learning.

Anticipating that many students would need to learn online this semester, the Law Library subscribed to the LexisNexis Digital Library, providing law students with free digital access to textbooks, study aids and legal materials that would otherwise only be available by visiting the library in person.

This service has saved our students time and money and the risk of further exposure during what has been a very difficult and uncertain year. It also helps us reduce population density in OBrian Hall as we continue our efforts as a campus community to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19, says Elizabeth Adelman, director of the Law Library and vice dean for legal information services in the School of Law.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, UB librarians Erin Rowley and Robin Sullivan developed a workshop on preparing for remote instruction for the UB Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. Realizing the topic is more critical than ever for the campus community, the librarians repeated the workshop throughout the year for UB schools and programs.

Rowley, head of science and engineering library services, and Sullivan, teaching and learning strategist for the Educational Services Team, also included the Alternative Access to Articles Guide in the workshop. The guide informs faculty and students of how to access research articles when off campus.

Service above and beyond

Several UB librarians gathered data on the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences class that was pressed into service during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Among them was Rose, who combed through yearbooks for hours to track down and record the names of each member of the class, along with their graduation dates and hospital appointments. While researching the class online, Rose discovered that one of the students, Carl S. Benson, recorded an oral history where he detailed receiving a position as a doctor at the Erie County Penitentiary after just three weeks of medical school.

I find almost anything I research to be a fascinating topic, so I really dove into it, Rose says. Service is a big thing with me and has been all my career. I was happy to help, given the limitations we were in.

Nell Aronoff, a librarian and liaison to the Jacobs School, also helped faculty gather vast amounts of information on the 1918 flu pandemic.

I want to recognize Nell for her expertise as a librarian extraordinaire, says Howard Faden, professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School. As a professor for 44 years, I have always had need of the library and the help of librarians. Her response goes well over and above what you might expect of your typical librarian; however, it represents what Nell does on a daily basis.

A trusted resource

Each year, social sciences librarian Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell serves as a resource for students in School of Management clinical assistant professor Dorothy Siaw-Asamoahs global perspectives program. The course typically allows students to travel around the world to perform case studies that help companies solve real issues; however, the pandemic forced the program to adopt a virtual setting.

Given the new restraints, Klotzbach-Russell took on a larger role, helping Siaw-Asamoah design new case studies on crisis management. The pair worked with Chicago-based School of Management alumni in the health care and airline industries to develop the cases, and Klotzbach-Russell also used her marketing background to serve as a judge during student presentations.

The program experienced an increase in students, says Klotzbach-Russell, noting that the virtual component may remain after the pandemic.

It was incredibly important that our team provide students with an experiential component to their virtual trips, says Klotzbach-Russell. Without these case studies, you lose experiences that make the global perspectives program so valuable.

Klotzbach-Russell and Rowley also serve as a resource to Blackstone LaunchPad, guiding students on how to perform market research for their companies and for pitch competitions. Because many students are learning remotely, they regularly engage with students in the program through digital technologies, including on the messaging platform Slack.

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Answer: The way they are taught is out of date.

By Physicians Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel

A guy named Steven Levitt is tired of helping his teenagers with their quadratic equations and imaginary zeros. Because they will never use these skills again, he thinks teaching these calculations is futile.

Who is Steven Levitt? He is the University of Chicago economist who wrote the book Freakonomics. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal said Levitt thinks the way math is taught in schools is outdated and impractical in preparing students for todays data-driven world.

Substitute the word medicine for math, and you will echo what many medical educators think is true.

Levitt and Stanford math-education professor, Jo Boaler, are trying to modernize math. Instead of the current Algebra II as a third-year of high school math, they suggest allowing high school students to study data science.

British technologist and math education reformer Conrad Wolfram thinks we no longer need to teach hand calculations and that the fundamental problem with todays math curriculum is that it doesnt acknowledge that computers exist. He said students should know when to use quadratic equations but let the computer do the calculating. The savings in time could be used to teach data literacy.

Likewise, Boaler said, What we dont need is to make them memorize the times tables.

The Journal piece said, Math curriculum has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s. The same is true of medicine. In 2012, I blogged, Now that a resident can carry a computer in her pocket and access everything there is to know instantly, why should she have to memorize formulas, chemical reactions and other minutia? With the exception of the rules limiting work hours, medical school and resident curricula have changed very little since I was a student and resident some 40 years ago.

Educators in the state of Washington are restructuring Algebra II to include only what colleges and industries feel is necessary for students to prepare for higher education. They want to emphasize things like mathematical modeling, data science, quantitative reasoning, and statistics.

We in medicine have the same problem as the mathematicians. There is a lot of talk, but no one does anything about it. Maybe when Levitt, Boaler, and others are done restructuring math education, they can help us bring medical education into the 21st century.

Skeptical Scalpel is a retired surgeon and was a surgical department chair and residency program director for many years. He is board-certified in general surgery and a surgical sub-specialty and has re-certified in both several times.For the last 9years, he has been blogging atSkepticalScalpel.blogspot.comand tweeting as@SkepticScalpel.His blog has had more than 3,700,000 page views, and he has over 21,000 followers on Twitter.

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$5 million grant to fund saliva tests for students, teachers, staff in schools operated by Special School District of St. Louis County

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a grant allowing them to offer 50,000 saliva tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to students, teachers and staff in the six special education schools operated by the Special School District of St. Louis County.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a two-year, $5 million grant to offer 50,000 saliva tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to students, teachers and staff in the six special education schools operated by the Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD).

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted students with special needs, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, in part because they rely on daily structure and in-person support for learning and social growth. The researchers also will assess educational disparities affecting families whose children have intellectual, emotional and developmental disabilities. Due to underlying medical conditions experienced by many such students, this population of students is at a higher risk for developing COVID-19 and severe complications of the virus.

The grant will serve about 750 families in the district who have children in kindergarten through the 12th grade. The saliva tests will be voluntary and offered weekly to teachers, staff and students over the next year, starting this fall.

Our partnership with the Special School District strives to remove the obstacles related to testing and decrease the burden of COVID-19 for this vulnerable segment of the population, said grant co-investigator Christina A. Gurnett, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology and director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology.

The funding stems from $500 million awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to 32 medical centers as part of the agencys Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative to provide underserved communities with rapid testing for COVID-19. This award supplements the Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), which aims to advance research in neurodevelopmental disorders and is funded by NIHs Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Remote school is difficult for most families, but particularly so for parents who have children with disabilities, said Gurnett, who serves as neurologist-in-chief at St. Louis Childrens Hospital. Parents, especially if theyre working and if they have other children, may not be able to provide full-time caregiving. Their children may have trouble interacting with computer screens, and their behavior may be negatively affected by feelings of confusion and isolation. Children with disabilities may also require ongoing assistance with basic skills such as eating or using the bathroom.

Such caregiving duties also put teachers at an increased risk of exposure to the coronavirus and present additional hurdles if families and teachers need to quarantine for two weeks.

The widespread closure of schools has significantly impacted the well-being of children in general and this population in particular, saidJason Newland, MD, co-principal investigator of the grant and a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. He has advised multiple school districts in Missouri on plans for reopening schools.

It is a major priority to get children with disabilities back into the schools while providing a safe environment for the students and staff, said Newland, who treats patients at St. Louis Childrens Hospital. A key component of achieving this goal in this vulnerable population is ample testing that can rapidly detect COVID-19 infections within the school community.

The saliva test provides easy and fast testing with same-day results, ideal for screening large communities. It was developed by the School of Medicines Department of Genetics and the McDonnell Genome Institute, in collaboration with a biotechnology company.

The Special School District is eager to partner with Washington University to improve the lives of students with disabilities, especially during this time of COVID, said Elizabeth Keenan, PhD, SSDs superintendent.

SSDs special education schools serve students from all school districts in St. Louis County, including those residing in socioeconomically stressed neighborhoods, where many families have heightened exposure to COVID-19, as well as disproportionate vulnerability to its most serious consequences. SSDs students returned part time to in-person learning in November.

The project will be shaped by ongoing advice from a community advisory board made up of diverse members of the public and convened by the Institute for Public Health, the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and the IDDRC. The grant also involves faculty members from the Brown School and investigators at the University of Missouri-Kansas Citys Institute for Human Development, and Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore to survey national attitudes about the impact of COVID-19 on the health, wellness and education of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

John N. Constantino, MD, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics and psychiatrist-in-chief at St. Louis Childrens Hospital, is a co-principal investigator. He and Gurnett co-direct the IDDRC, which is one of 15 research centers funded by the NICHD to advance understanding of conditions related to intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Among noninfected people in the United States, few are more adversely affected by COVID-19 than individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, given that a vast proportion require in-person care or critical therapeutic support within their living environments, with little backup or systematic coverage for prolonged interruption of services, wrote Constantino in a letter published Aug. 28 in The American Journal of Psychiatry, on behalf of the directors of the nations 15 Eunice Kennedy Shriver IDDRCs. Many have temporarily lost access to trained caregivers or community service providers and now face evolving threats to the return of baseline service, given uncertainties in state and agency budgets. Therefore, a first priority relates to restoration of in-person support services or comparable alternatives.

This research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers P50HD103525 and P50HD103525S1, and the NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant number UL1TR002345 to the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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Young people with disabilities focus of COVID-19 testing grant - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday announced $298,317,492 has been awarded to Public School and College Authority (PSCA) projects to 20 entities around the state.

The Public School and College Authority was established with the intent on tackling long-standing school infrastructure projects or educational upgrades that have been delayed due to limited funding, Governor Ivey said. Im pleased to announce these 20 projects with the people of Alabama in full transparency. The announcement today marks a significant investment in the future of this state. Im grateful to the Alabama Legislature for the enabling legislation which established the PSCA and the astute work of State Finance Director Kelly Butler for positioning the bond sale in the best way possible.

During the 2019 State of the State, Governor Ivey announced her support of SB 242, the PSCA Bond Issue for public schools to use toward construction, safety improvement or technology upgrades. The PSCA is comprised of Governor Kay Ivey, State Finance Director Kelly Butler and Alabama Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey.

I am thrilled that the PSCA is able to provide these funds to worthwhile projects throughout the state, Director Butler said. I am grateful to the legislature for authorizing the sale and to Governor Ivey for her leadership in supporting this transaction. The successful sale is the result of outstanding work by the financing team, and I thank them for all of their efforts.

SB 242 authorized the PSCA to sell up to $1,250,000,000 in bonds and allocated money to every city and county K-12 school system and to higher education institutions. The money was divided with 73% going to K-12 schools and 27% going to two-and four-year colleges.

Because of very low interest rates, the bond sale resulted in the PSCA receiving over $300 million in premium revenues. The true interest cost of the bonds is 2.145% over the 20-year repayment period.

The PSCA projects funded from the premium revenue and announced today are as follows:

University of Alabama Huntsville

Huntsville Regional Lab and Morgue 11,000,000

HudsonAlpha

Expansion of Biotech Campus/designate Alabama the Discovery

Life Sciences Global Headquarters 15,000,000

Auburn University

New STEM & Agricultural Sciences Complex 50,000,000

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Genomic Medical & Data Sciences Building 50,000,000

Troy University

Center for Materials and Manufacturing 9,450,000

Alabama Center for Arts

Dorm 15,000,000

University of South Alabama

New Medical School Building 50,000,000

University of North Alabama

Computer Science & Mathematics Building 15,000,000

Alabama School of Deaf and Blind

North Alabama Campus 28,519,992

Alabama Aviation College

Phase 2 renovations of Barnett Building and upgrade the hanger floor 500,000

Lauderdale County

Workforce Development Center 8,000,000

Alabama Shakespeare Festival

Renovations & Repairs 5,000,000

Alabama School of Math & Science

Science Research Center 6,000,000

Outdoor Classrooms 235,000

AIDT

Toyota/Mazda 8,000,000

Jacksonville State University

Randy Owen Performance Center 15,000,000

The American Village

Central Independence Hall & Tower Classrooms and Experiences 5,000,000

Alabama A&M University

Library Roofing 907,500

Wilson Hall, Drake Hall, Carnegie Hall wood restoration project 605,000

University of Montevallo

Residence Halls HVAC/Roof Repair 1,000,000

University of West Alabama

Brock Hall 2ndFloor Renovation 2,600,000

Alabama State University

Friendship Manor 1,500,000

Total298,317,492

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Governor Ivey Awards Nearly $300 Million to 20 High Schools and College Across Alabama - Alabama News Network

Newswise The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Department of Medicines Clinical Trials Office in collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim today announced the first patient has enrolled in a new clinical study to investigate the effect of nintedanib in adult patients having acute lung injury following COVID-19 infection.

A significant percentage of COVID-19 patients with acute lung injury may develop lung fibrosis based on clinical observations, said Maria Padilla, M.D., primary investigator, director of the Advanced Lung & Interstitial Lung Disease Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Our team of researchers and our partner Boehringer Ingelheim share a commitment to improving outcomes in this vulnerable patient population.

The study, called ENDCOV-I (Early Nintedanib Deployment in COVID-19 Interstitial Fibrosis) [NCT04619680], is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine to investigate the development and course of pulmonary fibrosis in 120 patients receiving nintedanib or placebo who have acute lung injury secondary to COVID-19 infection, and who required invasive or noninvasive respiratory support.

The primary endpoint of the study is percent change in forced vital capacity (FVC), a measurement of lung function, compared to baseline over six months (180 days). Secondary endpoints include change from baseline FVC at 90 days, death within 90 days and 180 days from enrollment due to respiratory or any cause and qualitative and quantitative change in chest CT fibrosis score graded by blinded chest radiologists.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to fighting COVID-19 and proud to partner with Mount Sinai on this important clinical initiative, said Craig Conoscenti, M.D., medical expert, Interstitial Lung Disease Medical Leader, Chronic Fibrosing ILD Program, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Boehringer Ingelheim. The insights gained from this collaborative research program will help our understanding patients at high risk of pulmonary fibrosis in the COVID-19 patient population.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to fighting COVID-19 and proud to partner with Mount Sinai on this important clinical initiative, said Craig Conoscenti, M.D., medical expert, Interstitial Lung Disease Medical Leader, Chronic Fibrosing ILD Program Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Boehringer Ingelheim. The insights that we learn from this collaborative research program will be critical to understanding whether treatment can help patients at high risk of pulmonary complications resulting from COVID-19.

Mount Sinais commitment against COVID-19Throughout the course of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York, Mount Sinai has been at the forefront of understanding, researching and treating the disease. We have helped large numbers of people recover from the virus, and we have learned and enhanced the knowledge of this infection and manifestations along the way. We have recognized the multi-systemic nature of the disease and the lingering effects that continue to impact the patients. This has led to the establishment of the multidisciplinaryCenter For Post-COVID Care. We are committed to bringing information as it comes to light and to pursue investigation and scientifically based modalities of treatment and care.

Find out what Mount Sinai researchers, doctors, and service providers are learning and doing about the novel coronavirushere.

BI commitment against COVID-19As a research-driven company, Boehringer Ingelheim is part of the collective effort in fighting COVID-19. Drawing from its areas of scientific expertise, the company has engaged in a number of activities to find medical solutions to this pandemic, working closely with academic researchers, international institutions, and others in the pharma industry.

Boehringer Ingelheim is currently involved in a broad set of initiatives to fight the disease and save patients lives, including the research and development of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that can neutralize the virus, small molecules to inhibit its replication, and therapy development to prevent microcoagulation (blood clots). The company recently began aPhase 2 clinical trialof a novel, targeted therapy to help people with severe respiratory illness from COVID-19.

Boehringer Ingelheim is also an active participant in the global access initiative with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as global development initiatives including the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator (CTA) and the CARE Consortium.

About nintedanibNintedanib is approved in the U.S. for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and available as Ofev. In September 2019, nintedanib was approved in the U.S. to slow the rate of decline in pulmonary function in patients with SSc-ILD, and then in March 2020 to treat chronic fibrosing ILDs with a progressive phenotype.

About The Mount Sinai Department of Medicine Clinical Trials Office (MCTO)Established in 2004, the mission of the MCTO is to provide centralized services for infrastructure and operational support to carry out industry and multicenter network clinical trials with the partnership of the Department of Medicine faculty. The staff have clinical research expertise to provide institutional and federal guidelines for clinical research.

For more information about this study, please emailENDCOVI@mssm.eduor call 646-819-1662.

About Boehringer IngelheimMaking new and better medicines for humans and animals is at the heart of what we do. Our mission is to create breakthrough therapies that change lives. Since its founding in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is independent and family-owned. We have the freedom to pursue our long-term vision, looking ahead to identify the health challenges of the future and targeting those areas of need where we can do the most good.

As a world-leading, research-driven pharmaceutical company, more than 51,000 employees create value through innovation daily for our three business areas: Human Pharma, Animal Health, and Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing. In 2019, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of around $21.3 billion (19 billion euros). Our significant investment of over $3.9 billion (3.5 billion euros) in R&D drives innovation, enabling the next generation of medicines that save lives and improve quality of life.

We realize more scientific opportunities by embracing the power of partnership and diversity of experts across the life-science community. By working together, we accelerate the delivery of the next medical breakthrough that will transform the lives of patients now, and in generations to come.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Ridgefield, CT, is the largest U.S. subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation and is part of the Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies. In addition, there are Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health in Duluth, GA and Boehringer Ingelheim Fremont, Inc. in Fremont, CA.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving lives and strengthening our communities. Please visit http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.us/csr to learn more about Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

For more information, please visit http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.us, or follow us on Twitter@BoehringerUS.

About the Mount Sinai Health SystemThe Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality carefrom prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 onU.S. News & World Report's"Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally byU.S. News & World Report.

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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Boehringer Ingelheim Collaborate on First Study to Evaluate nintedanib in Patients with Fibrosing ILD...

Q. My partner says I've been snoring lately. Are there any home remedies I can use to help me stop?

A. Snoring occurs when muscles in your airway relax during sleep, narrowing the airway and making your breath sounds louder as the air forces its way through. There are a number of strategies that can help. Try sleeping on your side instead of your back, which pushes your tongue to the back of your mouth. Clear nasal congestion resulting from allergies or a stuffy nose. Avoid alcohol (which may act as a sedative) and sleep medications known as benzodiazepines, which may cause your airway tissues to relax, making snoring worse. Losing weight can also help, because surplus tissue, caused by weight gain, can put pressure on and compress the airway, making snoring worse. However, if your snoring does not improve, your partner notices that you have periods during the night where your breathing -appears to stop, or you regularly feel drowsy during the day, it may be time to pay a visit to your doctor. You could have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea, which may require treatment.

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