Trillium Therapeutics Announces Formation of Scientific Advisory Board – GlobeNewswire

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (Trillium or the Company) (NASDAQ/TSX: TRIL), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, today announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), including Karen Ferrante, MD, Gordon Freeman, PhD, Tom Reynolds, MD, PhD, Steven Rosen, MD, and Jeff Settleman, PhD.

It is a true privilege to announce this SAB, comprised of leading experts who have had major formative impact on the field of oncology/immuno-oncology over the past 25 years, said Jan Skvarka, Trillium President and Chief Executive Officer. Their combined resume includes several of the most groundbreaking oncology drugs or underlying scientific discoveries, including the PD-1/PD-L1 class, Adcetris, interferon, Iressa, Lemtrada, Velcade, Tarceva, Taxol, and Xalkori, among others. We are looking forward to their guidance as we continue expanding our research and development activities.

Members of the Trilliums SAB include:

Karen J. Ferrante, MD Dr. Ferrante is a hematologist-oncologist with 25 years of experience in oncology drug development. She was the Head of R&D and CMO at Tokai Pharmaceuticals, and Head of the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Takeda and CMO at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, after holding a variety of roles in oncology clinical development at Pfizer and BMS. During her career she was involved in the clinical development of a number of important cancer therapeutics including Taxol, Tarceva and Velcade.

Gordon Freeman, PhD Dr. Freeman is an immunology researcher in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Freeman is best known for the discovery of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, which provided the foundation for developing immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. Dr. Freeman is the 2014 recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology, the 2017 recipient of the Warren Alpert Foundation award, and a 2020 co-recipient of the Richard V. Smalley, MD award, the highest award of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Tom Reynolds, MD, PhD Dr. Reynolds served as Chief Medical Officer of Seattle Genetics, where he was responsible for building and leading an integrated clinical development, regulatory and medical affairs organization, highlighted by the development and approval of Adcetris. Previously, Dr. Reynolds served at ZymoGenetics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2010), most recently as VP Medical Affairs, where he oversaw the clinical development and regulatory filing of recothrom, and VP Clinical Affairs at Targeted Genetics.

Steven T. Rosen, MD Dr. Rosen is the Provost and Chief Scientific Officer of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. In addition to directing City of Hopes Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Rosen leads the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope. Previously, Dr. Rosen was the director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University. In 2015, Dr. Rosen received a lifetime achievement award from the Israel Cancer Research Fund for his work in cancer research. His main areas of research involve the development of new treatments, particularly for hematologic malignancies.

Jeff Settleman, PhD Dr. Settleman is the Chief Scientific Officer for Oncology R&D at Pfizer, where he leads all oncology research from discovery to proof of concept clinical studies. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Settleman was the Head of Oncology Research at Calico Life Sciences, and the Head of Discovery Oncology at Genentech, following an 18 year career in academia as a Professor at the Harvard School of Medicine, a Director of the Center for Molecular Therapeutics and Scientific Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, as well as the Head of the Cancer Cell Biology program of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

About Trillium Therapeutics

Trillium is an immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer. The companys two clinical programs, TTI-621 and TTI-622,target CD47, a dont eat me signal that cancer cells frequently use to evade the immune system.

For more information visit: http://www.trilliumtherapeutics.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable United States securities laws and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements about, without limitation, the membership and our plans for our scientific advisory board. With respect to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Trillium has made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations, the effectiveness and timeliness of preclinical and clinical trials; and the completeness, accuracy and usefulness of the data. While Trillium considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant scientific, business, economic, competitive, market and social uncertainties and contingencies. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors that could cause Trillium's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. A discussion of risks and uncertainties facing Trillium appears in Trillium's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with Canadian securities authorities and on Form 40-F with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, each as updated by Trillium's continuous disclosure filings, which are available at http://www.sedar.comand at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements herein are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and Trillium disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statements or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.

Investor Relations:James ParsonsChief Financial OfficerTrillium Therapeutics Inc. 416-595-0627 x232james@trilliumtherapeutics.com http://www.trilliumtherapeutics.com

Media Relations:Mike BeyerSam Brown Inc.312-961-2502mikebeyer@sambrown.com

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54 million people in America face food insecurity during the pandemic. It could have dire consequences for their health. – AAMC

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When the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Revere HealthCare Center opened its therapeutic food pantry in January 2020, the plan was to start off with a three-month, 10-patient pilot program. The pantry would provide plenty of plant-based, healthy food to the patients, all of whom had nutrition-dependent chronic diseases, like diabetes and obesity, and were food insecure, meaning they lacked enough food to live a healthy and active life.

Of course, then COVID hit, says Jacob Mirsky, MD, a primary care physician at MGH Revere and the food pantrys medical director.

The number of community members in the Boston area struggling to access nutritious food jumped in March as the measures put in place to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic hit them economically. Mirsky and his team decided to rehaul the entire operation and expand service to every patient treated at the center and their families.

With funding from MGH Revere and partnerships with local food nonprofits, the pantry grew from operating out of a closet to filling a 1,000-square-foot storage space and feeding up to 80 patients and their families each week.

Food insecurity across the country has risen significantly since the pandemic sidelined 14 million workers in the United States from February to May, according to the Pew Research Center.

Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States, estimates that 17 million people in the country could become food insecure because of the pandemic, bringing the total to more than 54 million people in the country, including 18 million children. Before COVID-19, food insecurity was at its lowest since the Great Recession, but it still impacted 37 million people.

Since food insecurity and poor nutrition are associated with several chronic illnesses that put people at higher risk for the more severe complications of COVID-19, the food access crisis threatens to exacerbate the already glaring disparities in health outcomes for vulnerable people, including low-income people, children, older adults, and immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Though the factors underlying racial and ethnic disparities in Covid-19 in the United States are multifaceted and complex, long-standing disparities in nutrition and obesity play a crucial role in the health inequities unfolding during the pandemic, writes a cohort of physicians and researchers in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September. A healthy diet, rich in fruits and vegetables and low in sugar and calorie-dense processed foods, is essential to health. The ability to eat a healthy diet is largely determined by ones access to affordable, healthy foods a consequence of the conditions and environment in which one lives.

Mirsky believes that it is incumbent upon the health care system, and particularly academic medical centers, to take on a greater role in educating and connecting patients to healthy and tasty foods and consequently reduce the prevalence of nutrition-related illnesses.

Were now living in a world where it is abundantly clear that the power of doctors and medical students and trainees expands beyond the walls of a health care setting, Mirsky says. Building these types of solutions [that address social determinants of health] is just as important if not more important than prescribing them medicine.

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has linked poor nutrition to poor health outcomes, particularly in patients with chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. This can stem from not only a lack of food but also an excess of unhealthy food that can cause obesity and contribute to other health problems. For many, this could be because they live in a food desert, where there are no grocery stores within a mile of their home, or because unhealthy food may be cheaper and easier to access.

The research has birthed a movement known as Food is Medicine, where physicians, nutrition experts, and policymakers encourage the use of programs that provide medically-tailored food to prevent and treat serious illnesses in patients, as opposed to relying solely on pharmaceuticals and other health care interventions.

Food is really critically important for many of the diseases that are plaguing our country and the world, Mirsky says.

A report published by the United States Department of Agriculture in 2017 found that food insecurity was associated with 10 of the costliest and most deadly preventable diseases in the country, including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and stroke.

Conversely, a healthier diet, particularly one that focuses on plant-based meals, has been associated with reduced risk for several chronic diseases, depression, and decreased mental function.

But for millions of people in the United States, eating enough nutritious food is far easier said than done. Certain groups living in the United States face additional barriers and risks when it comes to nutrition and health, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children: Nearly 30 million children in the United States qualified for free or reduced-cost lunches at school in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated food insecurity among children, as the estimated number of food-insecure kids could jump from 11 million to an estimated 18 million, according to Feeding America. While many schools have continued to provide meals to children in need and food banks and pantries have amped up services, the disruption could have concerning long-term consequences. Studies have linked food insecurity in children to poor health, stunted development, behavioral issues, and difficulty keeping up in school, according to Feeding America.

Older adults: Seniors, generally defined as people age 65 and older, are at increased risk of the more severe complications that come with COVID-19. Consequently, those who live on low and fixed incomes face greater barriers to accessing adequate nutrition. This can, in turn, further increase their vulnerability to poor health outcomes.

A lot of older adults, unfortunately, dont have a generous retirement income, explains David Buys, PhD, MSPH, an associate professor at Mississippi State University Extension and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who has studied food insecurity in older adults. They might be living on nothing but Social Security. Some might not have Social Security. We know that we have an increasing number of grandparents raising grandchildren that can be a challenge.

Buys says that older adults who are frail or lack transportation may struggle to get to the grocery store or to a food pantry and that some are afraid to go out and risk exposing themselves to infection.

Food banks, food pantries, and other community outreach organizations have had to be creative in ways that they serve older adults since the pandemic hit, such as delivering food to their homes, drawing on long-standing programs like Meals on Wheels, Buys says.

One study from before the pandemic found that, in a group of older adults discharged from the hospital, those seniors that received meals delivered by Meals on Wheels had lower rates of hospital readmission in three and six months than expected.

Providing healthy meals can be a key to keeping older adults healthy and out of the hospital or congregate health care situations that might increase their risk of contracting COVID-19. Its an issue of particular concern since more than 84% of people over the age of 65 have at least one chronic condition and many face economic hardship as a result of medical debt, according to the National Council on Aging.

Immigrants in the United States illegally: While Latino communities in the United States in general have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, immigrants in the country without legal permission many of whom are Latino are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity because they are not eligible for many government relief programs. Even before the pandemic, 1 in 4 experienced food insecurity, according to a 2016 report by Bread for the World, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger.

While Medicaid programs in some states, including California and Massachusetts, are beginning to cover the cost of programs that provide food to patients, people living in the country illegally are not eligible for Medicaid. Nor are they eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, nor the $1,200 stimulus check that the federal government approved earlier this year.

We see a movement right now to integrate more food and nutrition services into health care delivery and financing, explains Sarah Downer, JD, associate director of whole person care at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School. But every gap that we have is a place where undocumented immigrants fall into that gap.

Instead, many rely on local food pantries for aid, which were stretched thin early in the pandemic while trying to accommodate millions of new clients, says David Velasquez, a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School who is also pursuing a master of business administration at Harvard Business School and a master in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Food is a basic human need. And its something that we all deserve.

David VelasquezFourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School

Velasquez, who experienced food insecurity himself as the child of Nicaraguan parents who originally came to the United States illegally before being granted asylum, decided during the early months of the pandemic to research policies that could support food access for immigrants during this crisis.

He teamed up with another Harvard medical student, Jordan Kondo, and two attorneys from the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Downer and Emily Broad Lieb, JD, to write a journal article that argued for policies that could help bring relief to immigrants who arent eligible for much government aid.

For example, they said the government should make it a priority to fund emergency food services programs that are accessible to those living in the country illegally, such as food banks and community health centers, and that health systems should ensure that they are not excluded from programs that integrate nutrition into health care delivery.

Food is a basic human need, Velasquez says. And its something that we all deserve.

When Mirsky was crafting the model for MGH Reveres therapeutic food pantry, it was important to him that the pantry provide not only nutritious food but also the means to enjoy it.

Patients who visited the pantry initially received pots and pans, a spatula, oil, spices, and consultations with a nutritionist who could help them come up with recipes that they enjoy. The goal is to foster self-motivated healthy lifestyles. When the pantry expanded to a greater number of patients due to the pandemic, they could no longer offer all these services, but they hope to reintroduce them in the future.

Food and eating are an essential part of the human experience, Mirsky says. Cooking and enjoying healthy food is a very powerful and respectful way of improving someones life.

The MGH Revere pantry in the Boston area is just one of many nutrition outreach programs that health care providers across the country have increasingly implemented in recent years, as the American Hospital Association highlights in its social determinants of health report series. More health care providers are screening for food insecurity regularly and helping connect their patients to resources.

Still, food insecurity persisted before the pandemic, and the pandemic has further stretched existing community resources, as NPR reported in September.

Mirsky notes that the pantry at MGH Revere is already feeling the strain and is leading an effort to raise funds for a permanent location for the pantry. Hes also concerned about how much food they will be able to acquire in the winter, when there will be less local produce available and as renewed COVID-19 surges threaten to further stress systems.

Our goal is to recognize that this is a very long-term problem that is going to require a long-term solution.

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54 million people in America face food insecurity during the pandemic. It could have dire consequences for their health. - AAMC

Michigan Medicine notifies patients of email information breach – University of Michigan Health System News

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. Michigan Medicine is notifying 1062 patients about an email that may have exposed their email addresses and health information to others.

Emails containing information about an Inflammatory Bowel Disease event were sent to patients in late September without the blind copy function being used to hide email addresses, so patients email addresses were visible to all recipients.

The patient information involved is limited, as the email only included an email address and an invitation for the event. The data did not contain addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card, debit card or bank account numbers so the risk of identity theft occurring is extremely low.

General medical records were not in the information that was emailed.

As soon as Michigan Medicine learned of the error, no additional emails were sent. Separate emails were sent to explain the error, and included a request that the recipients delete the prior email.

Affected patients were mailed letters Oct. 16 notifying them of the breach.

Patient privacy is extremely important to us, and we take this matter very seriously. Michigan Medicine took steps immediately to investigate this matter and is implementing additional safeguards to reduce risk to our patients and help prevent recurrence, said Jeanne Strickland, Michigan Medicine chief compliance officer.

To prevent future errors like this, the department involved will be adopting different processes for sending emails to patients.

Michigan Medicine officials believe the risk of identity theft is low because of the limited information involved. However, it is always recommended to monitor patient insurance statements for any transactions related to care or services that have not actually been received. Patients were sent a list of suggested steps to protect against identity theft.

Affected Michigan Medicine patients are expected to receive letters in the mail notifying them of this incident within the next few days. Patients who have concerns or questions may call the University of Michigan IBD Program at 734-647-2964 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or email debratan@med.umich.edu.About Michigan Medicine: At Michigan Medicine, we advance health to serve Michigan and the world. We pursue excellence every day in our three hospitals, 125 clinics and home care operations that handle more than 2.3 million outpatient visits a year, as well as educate the next generation of physicians, health professionals and scientists in our U-M Medical School.

Michigan Medicine includes the top ranked U-M Medical School and the University of Michigan Health System, which includes the C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital, Von Voigtlander Womens Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center and the Rogel Cancer Center. Michigan Medicines adult hospitals were ranked no. 11 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report in 2020-21 and C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital was the only childrens hospital in Michigan nationally ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties analyzed by U.S. News and World Report for 2020-21. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation's biomedical research powerhouses, with total research funding of more than $500 million.

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Michigan Medicine notifies patients of email information breach - University of Michigan Health System News

Seniors are forming pandemic pods to ward off winter isolation (and you can, too) – CNN

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He thinks they should, so long as people have been taking strict precautions during the coronavirus pandemic.

She's not convinced it's safe, given the heightened risk of viral transmission in indoor spaces.

Both are well positioned to weigh in on the question. Besdine, 80, was the longtime director of the division of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Brown University's Alpert Medical School. His wife, Terrie Wetle, 73, also an aging specialist, was the founding dean of Brown's School of Public Health.

"We differ, but I respect her hesitancy, so we don't argue," Besdine said.

Older adults in all kinds of circumstances those living alone and those who are partnered, those in good health and those who are not are similarly deliberating what to do as days and nights turn chilly and coronavirus cases rise across the country.

Judith Rosenmeier, 84, of Boston, a widow who has survived three bouts of breast cancer, doesn't intend to invite friends to her apartment or visit them in theirs.

"My oncologist said when all this started, 'You really have to stay home more than other people because the treatments you've had have destroyed a lot of your immune defenses,'" she said.

Since mid-March, Rosenmeier has been outside only three times: once, in September, to go to the eye doctor and twice since to walk with a few friends. After living in Denmark for most of her adult life, she doesn't have a lot of close contacts. Her son lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"There's a good chance I'll be alone on Thanksgiving and on Christmas, but I'll survive," she said.

A friend who lives nearby, Joan Doucette, 82, is determined to maintain in-person social contacts. With her husband, Harry Fisher, 84, she's formed a "pod" with two other couples in her nine-unit apartment building. All are members of Beacon Hill Village, an organization that provides various services to seniors aging in place. Doucette sees her pod almost every day.

"We're always running up and down the stairs or elevator and bringing each other cookies or soup," she said. "I don't think I would have survived this pandemic without that companionship."

About once a week, the couples have dinner together and "we don't wear masks," said Jerry Fielder, 74, who moved to Boston two years ago with his partner, Daniel, 73. But he said he feels safe because "we know where everyone goes and what they do: We're all on the same page. We go out for walks every day, all of us. Otherwise, we're very careful."

Eleanor Weiss, 86, and her husband are also members of the group. "I wear a mask, I socially distance myself, but I don't isolate myself," Weiss said. This winter, she said, she'll see "a few close friends" and three daughters who live in the Boston area.

One daughter is hosting Thanksgiving at her house, and everyone will get tested for the coronavirus beforehand. "We're all careful. We don't hug and kiss. We do the elbow thing," Weiss said.

In Chicago, Arthur Koff, 85, and his wife, Norma, 69, don't yet have plans for Thanksgiving or Christmas. "It's up in the air depending on what's happening with the virus," he said. The couple has a wide circle of friends.

"I think it's going to be a very hard winter," said Koff, who has diabetes and blood cancer. He doesn't plan to go to restaurants but hopes to meet some friends he trusts inside their homes or apartments when the weather turns bad.

Julie Freestone, 75, and her husband, Rudi Raab, 74, are "pretty fanatic" about staying safe during the pandemic. The couple invited six friends over for "Thanksgiving in October" earlier this month outside, in their backyard in Richmond, California.

"Instead of a seating chart, this year I had a plating chart and I plated everything in advance," Freestone said. "I asked everybody to tell me what they wanted white or dark meat? Brussels sprouts or broccoli?"

This winter, Freestone isn't planning to see people inside, but she'll visit with people in groups, virtually. One is her monthly women's group, which has been getting together over Zoom. "In some ways, I feel we've reached a new level of intimacy because people are struggling with so many issues and we're all talking about that," she said.

"I think you need to redefine bubbles," said Freestone, who's on the board of Ashby Village, a Berkeley, California-based organization for seniors aging in place that's hosting lots of virtual groups. "It should be something you feel a part of, but it doesn't have to be people who come into your house."

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in Minnesota, two psychologists Leni de Mik, 79, and Brenda Hartman, 65 are calling attention to what they call SILOS, an acronym for "single individuals left out of social circles," and their need for dependable social contact this winter and fall.

They recommend that older adults in this situation reach out to others with similar interests people they may have met at church or in book clubs or art classes, for instance and try to form a group. Similarly, they recommend that families or friends invite a single older friend into their pods or bubbles.

"Look around at who's in your community. Who used to come to your house that you haven't seen? Reach out," de Mik recommended.

Both psychologists are single and live alone. De Mik's pod will include two friends who are "super careful outside," as she is. Hartman's will include her sister, 67, and her father, 89, who also live alone. Because her daughter works in an elementary school, she'll see her only outside. Also, she'll be walking regularly with two friends over the winter.

"Covid brings life and death right up in front of us," Hartman said, "and when that happens, we have the opportunity to make crucial choices the opportunity to take care of each other."

Public health experts advise that thorough and frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public meeting in small groups and maintaining at least 6 feet of social distancing can help prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Faculty Positions at the SUSTech Medical School for Advanced Study job with Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) | 290090 – The…

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Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) (http://www.sustc.edu.cn/en) isoutstanding for its missions which require the university to seekout modern university systems and a cultivating mode of innovativetalents with Chinese characteristics for our highereducation.

Since its inception in 2012, SUSTech has quickly risen to a top 10university in mainland China. Located in Shenzhen, arguably themost dynamic and vibrant city in China, we have unique advantages,including but certainly not limited to: 1) a new university withinnovative spirits and little traditional barriers; 2) bilingualeducation with lectures conducted in English and/or Mandarin,attracting top global talents; 3) an internationally competitivestartup package that allows many PIs quickly build a team withdedicated researchers; 4) a highly collaborated environment withstrong administrative and scientific support.

SUSTech Medical School offers equal opportunity and welcomesapplicants of all ethnic backgrounds who can contribute to theexcellence and diversity of our academic community. Applicants mustpossess a Ph.D. and/or M.D. degree, demonstrated researchexcellence, and strong teaching ability. Candidates with clinicalbackground and a translational focus are encouraged to apply. Aglobally competitive start-up package will be provided tosuccessful candidates. Salary and rank will commensurate withqualifications and experience.

We sincerely invite you to join the medical school ofSUSTech.

Recruitment Field:Physiology, Neurobiology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Immunology,Pharmacology, Human Anatomy and Histoembryology, Pathology,Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Basic medicine, Clinicalmedicine,Life sciences and interdisciplinary fields.

All applicants should submit the following documents tohr-med@sustech.edu.cn and remember to mark your application emailby Name+Position:(1) Curriculum Vitae, (2) a Statement of Research and TeachingInterests.

Additional Information

Ms. Yajing Wang,Department of human Resources in School ofMedicine;+86-755-8801 8031

For more recruitment information, please visit:http://med.sustech.edu.cn/index.html?locale=en_US

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Nobel awarded to Charles Rice for hepatitis C discoveries at Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine -…

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Research fueled advances that have saved millions of lives

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday, Oct. 5, to three scientists for the discovery of hepatitis C virus, an insidious and deadly blood-borne virus. One of those scientists virologist Charles M. Rice, PhD conducted his seminal work while on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 1986 to 2000. Rice, now at Rockefeller University in New York City, was awarded the prize along with Harvey J. Alter, MD, of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Michael Houghton, PhD, of the University of Alberta in Canada.

In announcing the prize, the Nobel Assembly said the hepatitis C discovery had made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.

Rice remains an adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the School of Medicine.

He described his surprise in getting a phone call at 4:30 a.m. notifying him of the award. When the phone rang, Rice assumed it was a prank call and let it go. But when the phone rang a second time, he answered. [T]here was a voice with a Swedish accent on the phoneWhen he mentioned that my friends and colleagues Harvey Alter and Mike Houghton were also being recognized with this prize, it started to sink in that it might actually be real, said Rice during a press conference at Rockefeller University.

An estimated 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C virus infection, according to the World Health Organization. A significant number of those who are chronically infected will develop liver cancer or cirrhosis, scarring of the liver caused by long-term liver damage.

Charlie is an absolutely brilliant scientist and a wonderful human being who has made a deep impression on all those who have worked with him, said David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of Washington University School of Medicine. His work on hepatitis C has improved the lives of so many people, and he represents the best of what Washington University stands for.

Before the discovery of hepatitis C virus, physicians and researchers were concerned by unexplained cases of chronic hepatitis that developed years or decades after blood transfusions. At the time, only two viruses were known to cause hepatitis, and both had been ruled out. Hepatitis A virus does not spread through the blood, and while hepatitis B virus does, a blood test and vaccine had been developed to prevent infection.

According to the Nobel Assembly, Alter demonstrated that an unknown virus was a common cause of unexplained blood-borne chronic hepatitis, and Houghton isolated the genome of the new virus, which was named hepatitis C virus. Rice provided the critical final evidence showing that infection with hepatitis C virus alone could cause hepatitis.

The Nobel Laureates discovery of hepatitis C virus is a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases, the Nobel Assembly said in a statement. Thanks to their discovery, highly sensitive blood tests for the virus are now available, and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health. Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at hepatitis C. For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population. To achieve this goal, international efforts facilitating blood testing and making antiviral drugs available across the globe will be required.

Added Rice: Winning a prize is one thing, but the prize for all of us working in this fieldis just to have been a part of going from, basically, a mystery virus to having cocktails of drugs that can eliminate the virus without any side effects in more than 95% of people. At least in my case, anything we can contribute to this comes from an intrinsic curiosity about viruses and the chance opportunity of having an important human pathogen land in your family of viruses that you happen to be studying and go from, basically, the beginning to where it can be successfully treated. Its a rare treat for a basic scientist.

Hepatitis C virus caught Rices eye soon after the viral genetic sequence was published in 1989. From the sequence, it was clear that the virus was related to yellow fever virus, which he was already studying. But hepatitis C virus proved tricky. It wouldnt grow in a dish in the lab, and it wouldnt infect animals. One of Rices most important contributions was his recognition that the published viral sequence was incomplete. This breakthrough made it possible to engineer a version of hepatitis C virus capable of infecting animals and causing hepatitis. This work provided the final evidence that hepatitis C virus alone could cause the unexplained cases of transfusion-mediated hepatitis.

At Washington University, Charlie Rice recognized that one problem in developing genetic tools to study hepatitis C virus was that we lacked the correct sequence of the viral genome, said Sean Whelan, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Distinguished Professor and head of theDepartment of Molecular Microbiology. Extending on his studies from a related virus, yellow fever virus, he identified a highly conserved sequence element at one end of the viral genome. This allowed Dr. Rice to engineer a correct copy of the viral genome which turned out to be infectious in primates. This paved the way for fundamental studies of how the virus replicates, which led, ultimately, to drugs that interfere with its replication. His visionary research helped pave the way for development of a cure for HCV. He has inspired a generation of virologists.

Rice and others went on to identify the genetic and molecular machinery the virus employs to infect cells, multiply and cause disease all potential targets of antiviral drugs. Rice developed a system to screen drugs that block key steps in the viral life cycle, eventually leading to the development of curative drugs for hepatitis C virus infection.

Rice is the 19th scientist associated with Washington University School of Medicine to be honored with a Nobel Prize. Across Washington University, 25 current or former faculty members or trainees have received a Nobel.

Charlie Rice is an amazing person, a spectacular scientist, and a wonderful colleague, said Scott J. Hultgren, PhD, the Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology. He did work that led to the Nobel Prize here in the Department of Molecular Microbiology, creating the first infectious viral genome for in vitro replication. He was a phenomenal leader and colleague here at Washington University.

Added Washington University collaborator Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine: For many decades, Dr. Rice has been a pioneer in the field of molecular biology and genetics of many emerging RNA viruses including flaviviruses, alphaviruses, and hepaciviruses. His seminal studies on hepatitis C virus directly led to the screening and identification of direct-acting antiviral drugs that have resulted in a cure for so many people around the world. His creative research on cellular host-defense responses to viruses have triggered the development of new classes of host-directed antiviral agents. Moreover, he has mentored and trained a generation of virologists who are now at the vanguard of the field. This is truly a deserving honor for a visionary scientist.

Born in Sacramento, Calif., in 1952, Rice received his PhD in biochemistry in 1981 from the California Institute of Technology, where he was a postdoctoral research fellow from 1981 to 1985. After his 14 years at the School of Medicine, Rice moved to Rockefeller, where he now is the scientific and executive director of the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C, an interdisciplinary center established jointly by The Rockefeller University, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Weill Cornell Medicine.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His previous awards include the 2007 M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize, the 2015 Robert Koch Award, the 2016 InBev-Baillet Latour Health Prize, and the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. In 2019, he received an honorary degree from Washington University during Commencement.

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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Nobel awarded to Charles Rice for hepatitis C discoveries at Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine -...

City of Cambridge Publishes Manual on Trauma-Informed Policing Initiative | News – Harvard Crimson

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The City of Cambridge published a manual this month outlining its trauma-informed policing initiative and offering guidance on how to implement a similar program in municipalities around the country.

In 2015, the City of Cambridge collaborated with the Cambridge Police Department to create peer support resources and training programs that emphasize mindfulness practices, improve interviewing skills, and promote a better understanding of trauma.

Elizabeth M. Speakman, coordinator for the domestic and gender-based violence prevention initiative for the City of Cambridge, said the program first began when she and her team researched trauma-informed policing initiatives around the country. She said they found most departments focused on the impact of trauma either on the local community or within the police department, but none of them explored the intersection of the two.

There weren't departments who were holding both of those and the intersection of how being traumatized by your job impacts your ability to support trauma victims out in the community, she said.

James W. Hopper, a teaching associate in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and an instructor in the program, said his teaching often draws on neuroscience to demonstrate a connection between police officers own experiences and the experiences of survivors of sexual assault.

I draw a lot of parallels between how the human brain responds to being attacked in a sexual way to how the human brain responds to being attacked on the battlefield or police officers involved in a shooting or a domestic violence call that spiraled out of control, he said. I'm just constantly saying like, Hey, this is how evolution shaped our brains to respond to being attacked.

Katia Santiago-Taylor, the advocacy and legislative affairs manager for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, who participated in the program, said the training also focuses on helping officers understand how the past traumas of a survivor of sexual assault will influence their response to a present incident.

Trauma is like a brick wall, and each incident is one brick, and my brick wall looks different than your brick wall, she said. Because my brick wall and your brick wall look different, my reaction is going to be very different than yours.

That's what we want officers to understand that many survivors are responding to the brick wall, not to just the one incident, she added.

The idea of outlining the program in a widely accessible guide stemmed from community interest, Speakman said.

Once there's a good idea, and people learn about it, there's no hesitancy in terms of reaching out and trying to mimic that idea or apply it locally, CPD spokesperson Jeremy Warnick added.

Alyssa Donovan, a victim witness advocate for the CPD, said the team often invites other police departments including those from Boston, Somerville, Harvard, and MIT and other organizations in an effort to achieve a more well-rounded audience.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote in an emailed statement that several officers have attended training at the CPD and found it meaningful.

Hopper said one of the primary goals of implementing this trauma-informed approach anywhere is to change the culture of policing.

It's to change the culture of policing, so it's more, quote, trauma informed, he said. That includes not just understanding the trauma of the people they work with especially sexual assault victims who tend to be terribly misunderstood but acknowledging and recognizing their own traumas and seeing the connections.

I think all of our systems have a lot of work to do around supporting survivors of sexual assault and that is one of the focuses of the training, Speakman said. From the experience of offering this training several times and seeing service providers, officers, detectives, command staff go through the training and learn about how trauma affects the brain is really transformative.

Staff writer Taylor C. Peterman can be reached at taylor.peterman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @taylorcpeterman.

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Case Western Reserve University researchers to examine how COVID-19 ravaged America’s nursing homes – Newswise

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Newswise Almost from the moment COVID-19 reached this nations shores, nursing homes have experienced some of its most devastating effects.

Within a few months, federal officials reported that one of every five nursing homes had experienced a death from the novel coronavirus. Not long after, several media outlets published independent analysis finding that an estimated 40% of the fatalities related to COVID-19 took place in nursing homes.

Rather than surrender to the terrifying trend, Case Western Reserve researchers saw an opportunity to help. If they could understand more about how nursing home infections spreadand even be able to identify its presence earlierthousands of families might be spared painful losses. More, stemming nursing home infections could in turn reduce COVID-19s spread across communities across the country.

Thanks to a $2.3 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, they are going to try.

Well be looking at the magnitude of the problem and how long-term care residents transmit and cope with the disease, said David Canaday, a professor from the Division of Infectious Disease at the universitys School of Medicine. If we can better understand how to minimize spread in these facilities, we may also be able to optimize interventions.

The disease caused by the coronavirus is known to be particularly lethal to older adults and those with underlying conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are more than 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. providing housing to over 1.4 million individuals.

Tens of thousands in nursing homes have died during the pandemic from COVID-19.

One of the greatest challenges in an infectious disease outbreak is determining which patients are at risk forsevereforms of illness and require additional care or hospitalization in another facility, said Mark Cameron, associate professor from the medical schools Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences. This is especially important with COVID-19, where the elderly and those with co-occurring diseases need more immediate and personalized treatment.

Joining Cameron and Canaday in the study is with Stefan Gravenstein, a professor of medicine at Brown University.

Their research has three main areas of focus:

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there are many millions more within the U.S. who are at similar risk but live in assisted living or at home in contact with their families or care providers.

Its absolutely critical to understand our vulnerabilities and develop new therapeutic strategies for our communities under care, Canaday said.

Cameron added that this population will remain most at-risk if we continue to see surges this fall, or before a vaccine comes to market.

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SHE Initiative Shines Light on Gender Disparities in Oncology Workforce – Targeted Oncology

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The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) National Oncology Conference each year helps community oncologists approach both unique and typical challenges with innovative strategies. This year, one of the challenges addressed that has been increasingly raised throughout the year was the topic of disparities in the medical field.

To close out the ACCC 37th (Virtual) National Oncology Conference, keynote speaker Nick Smith-Stanley, MBA, addressed the topic of diversity and inclusion for women in medicine, and specifically in the field of oncology.

Smith-Stanley, associate director of finance and administration, Livestrong Cancer Institutes, Dell Medical School, associate director of administration and strategic planning, Department of Oncology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, explained the challenges faced by women in the oncology workplace and quantified the divide seen between the number of men and women in oncology and in positions of leadership in the medical field.

By discussing the lack of women in the field of oncology, he said, it will hopefully lead to developing strategies that address such challenges, which can then lead to real change.

He also presented how the Livestrong Cancer Institutes Dell Medical School has created a program that seeks to address this gap and give the future generation of women in medicine the tools they need to succeed.

The Growing Gender Divide Across a Medical Career Span

Oncology is known to be a male-dominated field in the healthcare space. Although the number of female students and physicians in the field has grown over the past few years, the proportion of women compared to men in medicine is still less than half. Further, the numbers get lower throughout the continuum of a medical career from medical student to physician to professor and then dean.

Smith-Stanley said that, encouragingly, for the first time in history, the number of female medical students is higher than the number of male students, but the difference is marginal. The rates decrease, however, over the course of a medical career. The number of female residents and fellows is below 50% and has not changed much in the last 10 years, and specific to oncology and hematology, the proportion of female residents and fellows is below about 45%.

Among practicing physicians, only 35% are female, and within the oncology/hematology field specifically, the rate is closer to one-third. However, this is increased from 10 years ago when the rate of female physicians was only about 28% overall and about 25% in the oncology field.

Within research in general, as of 2018, 50% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) positions were held by women, but specifically to science and engineering, only 28% of women hold positions in these fields.

Across all disciplines in science and oncology, we see women struggling to be considered for opportunities for promotion and leadership, Smith-Stanley said. One faculty member at Dell Medical School told us that throughout her career she has seen male colleagues with fewer accomplishments get promoted at the same time. In addition, she shared that at previous institutions, rules were not as rigid for promotion and tenure for men as they were for women, they were willing to bend the rules for men, but not for women. This shows that this is not only a personal or organizational issue, it is by far a systemic issue.

He pointed out that as a result, women hold fewer positions of leadership than men. Only 19% of department chairs were held by women in the year 2019 and only 21% of full professors are female.

This poses a greater problembecause of the lack of mentorship opportunities. If our students and junior faculty are unable to identify women in positions of leadership and mentorship to help guide their career then they are less likely to progress in their career as well, he commented.

He suggested that these rates reduce across the span of a medical career due to a lack of tools, mentorship, and support given to women in medicine.

Smith-Stanley offered some strategies to bridge the gender divide through organizational changes. Starting with culture, organizational leaders must embrace and promote an all-inclusive environment. Training on diversity and bias is one way to overcome these barriers and allow for change. Providing opportunities for professional development, including mentorship and networking, can also help to retain the women in the medical workforce.

Livestrong Cancer Institutes, he said, is one of the few cancer centers across the country that is led by a woman, S. Gail Eckhardt, MD, who is the director and associate dean of cancer programs at the company. As such, Dell Medical School is focused on addressing such healthcare disparities and leaders at the Livestrong Cancer Institutes feel that they have a responsibility to address the role that women play in cancer, research, and academics.

SHE Takes a Step Towards Overcoming Gender Disparities

The Livestrong Cancer Institute stressed the use of early education and mentorship to bridge the gender gap, which ultimately led to the development of the Summer Healthcare Experience (SHE) program in oncology. SHE is a free, immersive week-long program for introducing female-identifying high school juniors and seniors to a range of career opportunities in the cancer field. The program was launched in the summer of 2019 when 8 young women from Austin were selected with health program teachers and brought to the Dell Medical School to learn more about the various careers involved with cancer care.

The SHE program sought to empower young women to take control of their education and future careers by giving them tools to overcome challenges in the workplace. The high school students were given the opportunity to participate in research and interact with the clinical teams. Participating students also came away with a general knowledge of cancer, how it is treated, and the challenges that patients with cancer and their caregivers face. Additionally, the program promoted leadership skills and professionalism that could be used throughout their career, no matter the field.

During the week, the students worked with women in the cancer center to learn about cancer anatomy and how physicians work together for the care of patients with cancer. In the wet research lab, the students were able to see cell cultures and tumor slides and they also investigated different brain tumors in the neuro-oncology lab. The students were also able to join in on the molecular tumor boards to see the interaction between various departments for deciding on optimal care for a patient. In a survivorship session, the students were also able to meet with cancer survivors and their families and learn about their cancer journeys. Additionally, the students learned about health services research in the community and how health services researchers are investigating healthcare disparities in patients with cancer.

Throughout the week, the students were able to interact with female leaders from the cancer center, including center director Eckhardt, to hear about and learn from their experiences and the challenges they faced in their careers. They also met with a number of community organizations, from American Cancer Society to the Austin Center for Grief and Loss, to hear about how these organizations are assisting patients with cancer in the city.

Its not enough to just talk about equity and inclusion. You need to have people who are invested in the conversation and the desire to make a difference. Thats exactly what we saw in the first year of SHE, Smith-Stanley said.

The students were tasked with coming up with a comprehensive care plan for a cancer case based on all they learned during the week. These plans were then presented at the end of the week to faculty from Livestrong Cancer Institutes, Dell Medical Center, the students high school teachers, and their families.

We could not have been more thrilled with the results. They were confident, they were thoughtful, they were knowledgeable, they were compassionate. The transformation that we witnessed from Monday to Friday was remarkable, Smith-Stanley commented.

Moving forward, the Livestrong Cancer Institutes hopes to expand the SHE program to more students and extend the program to 2 weeks. The program also hopes to add in more biomedical research, entrepreneurship education, a college prep day, and even a post-program internship. Livestrong Cancer Institutes is also partnering with other organizations to spread the SHE program to 4 other cancer centers, and hopefully nationwide, although this expansion has been delayed by the coronavirus disease 2019.

Reference

Smith-Stanley N. Addressing the Disparities of Women in Oncology. Presented at: ACCC National Oncology Conference; September 14-18, 2020; Virtual.

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Laughlin says he’s been ‘effective voice’ for Erie region – GoErie.com

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Laughlin, of Millcreek Township, R-49th Dist., is seeking his second four-year term in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Dan Laughlin had plenty of doubts about politics and what he could accomplish in Harrisburg.

In January 2017, when the Millcreek Township contractor and former union steelworker was sworn in as the Erie regions newest state senator, Laughlin was still processing his successful bid, three months earlier, for the 49th District seat.

Laughlin derailed Democrat Sean Wileys bid for a second term with a campaign that emphasized Laughlins blue-collar background the candidate was rarely seen without his signature Carhartt jacket.

Laughlin also promised to bring a common-sense approach to state politics that would reject partisanship.

Heavily funded by then-Republican state senator and gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner, Laughlin cast Wiley as a tax-and-spend liberal who feasted on Harrisburgs perks while positioning himself as someone who would put the publics interests before partisan politics.

That message resonated with local voters.

But Laughlin admits he launched into his new job while grappling with lots of uncertainty.

"To be honest, I was not sure how effective I would be," said Laughlin, who is seeking a second four-year term in the Nov. 3 general election. His opponent is Democrat Julie Slomski, a former northwest regional director for Gov. Tom Wolf

"I come from the private sector. I am probably one of the most blue-collar guy we have in the Senate. I didnt just own my business, I was in the trenches with my guys. But I also had not done this before," he said.

"What I quickly found out was that this job, like everything, is about building relationships. Thats how you get stuff done in Harrisburg, and theres no magic to it," Laughlin said. "So I sat down, listened to people about what their issues were and put some effort into creating relationships."

Forging those relationships, Laughlin said, was key to helping secure an additional $14 million annually for the Erie School District at a time when the district was on the brink of financial collapse.

Erie County native Tom Ridge, the former Republican governor and the nations first director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, cited Laughlins work on the Erie School District issue this past week when he endorsed Laughlin for re-election.

Laughlin called his work on the districts fiscal woes "probably the single most significant thing I accomplished in my four years. ... I was meeting with (state Education Secretary) Pedro Rivera about this before I was even sworn in."

That approach, Laughlin said, has brought other successes as well, several of which are listed on Laughlins campaign website, http://www.votelaughlin.com.

They include helping to facilitate conversations between Millcreek Township and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine that kept the medical school from relocating to Florida; pushing for tax incentive programs like the states City Revitalization and Improvement Zones, which allows certain tax revenues generated by businesses to be used to fund development; and working to lower prescription drug costs statewide.

"I didnt know what to expect, but I knew I had a good work ethic and that I could apply it to this job," Laughlin said. "I think I have been an effective voice for our region in Harrisburg and Ive worked in a fairly bipartisan manner down there."

Verel Salmon, chairman of the Erie County Republican Party, called Laughlin "the ideal candidate" and an excellent legislator.

Salmon said Laughlins financial advocacy on behalf of the Erie School District funding and his work to craft child care-specific legislation following a 2019 fire at the Harris Family Daycare in Erie that killed five children were both "remarkable" examples "and they say a lot about the man.

"That was a wrestling match to get that state funding for the Erie School District. For a Republican to take that active of a stand for the city says a lot," Salmon said.

If re-elected, Laughlin said a bill he co-sponsored, Senate Bill 580, will be among his top priorities.

If passed, the bill would allow for paid family leave for working Pennsylvanians.

Asked about his opponent, Laughlin said "I got to know Julie Slomski four years ago when I was campaigning. She was a pretty good staffer for (Wolf)"

However, Laughlin said, Slomski would be in lock-step with Wolf if elected. A Laughlin television ad proclaims that "Erie doesnt need another Harrisburg lifer in office."

Laughlin, who is married with three children, said he expects to need about $1 million for his re-election campaign and that he has raised about $700,000 so far.

Most of that is being spent on media advertising for digital, television, print and direct mail. His campaign has also been going door-to-door to reach voters, with the candidate and volunteers wearing masks to adhere to COVID-19-related safety guidelines.

"I think were also up to about 40,.000 people that weve reached by phone," Laughlin said.

The message, Laughlin said, is simple.

"There is still work to be done," Laughlin said.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.

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Senate bill would nix geographic, site restrictions on telehealth – American Medical Association

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Whats the news: The AMA is supporting S. 4375, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2020, which would permanently remove many of the regulatory restrictions on telehealth that were temporarily lifted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have enabled patients to receive care without leaving their homes.

During the pandemic, telemedicine has allowed physicians to provide care to patients while supporting physical distancing efforts and reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases by avoiding unnecessary outpatient visits, AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote in a letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the sponsor of the bill and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Earlier this year, theCoronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act enacteda general waiver provision enablingthe Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)to temporarily lift outdated originating site and geographic restrictions onMedicare's coverage of telehealth-enabled services.Before this action, Medicare physicians were prohibited from offeringmosttelehealth services outside of rural areas, and Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas were not able to receivemost ofthose services unless they traveled to a health care facility.

Alexanders bill would permanently remove Medicares telehealth geographic and site restrictions.

It would also give the HHS secretary the authority to help patients access telehealth from physical therapists, speech pathologists and other health professionals, and allow Medicare hospice and home dialysis patients to begin receiving care through a telehealth appointment without an initial in-person visit.

Learn why theAMA presented its Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service to Alexander.

Why it matters: It is critically important that Medicare beneficiaries continue to be able to access telehealth services from their physicians without arbitrary restrictions throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency and beyond, Dr. Madara wrote.

Alexander noted in a press release that, in his home state, Nashvilles Vanderbilt University Medical Center went from 10 telehealth visits a day before the pandemic to more than 2,000 daily telehealth visits during the emergency.

Similar anecdotes are being shared throughout the nations health care system.

Physicians and other health professionals are seeing 50 to 175 times the number of patients via telehealth than they did before the pandemic, according to a report from McKinsey & Company Health Care Systems & Services. The report also states that virtual visits could potentially account for $250 billion, or about 20%, of what Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers spend on outpatient, office and home health.

In remarks made while introducing his bill, Alexander noted the explosive adoption of telehealth services during the pandemic.

Because of COVID-19, the health care sector and federal and state governments have been forced to cram 10 years worth of telehealth experience into almost 5 months, Alexander said.

Dr. Madara said there should be no turning back now that telehealth has proved its value.

The success of telehealth technology adoption during the COVID-19 public health emergency has made it abundantly clear that this technology should be available to all Medicare patients regardless of where they live or how they access telehealth services, Dr. Madara wrote.

Telehealth technologies allow physicians to increase continuity of care, extend access beyond normal clinic hours, and help overcome clinician shortages, especially in rural and other underserved populations, Dr. Madaras letter adds. This ultimately helps health systems and physician practices focus more on chronic disease management while enhancing patient wellness, improving efficiency, providing higher quality of care, and increasing patient satisfaction.

The bill would also give the HHS secretary authority to give Medicare flexibility in paying for more telehealth services. Alexander noted that, during the pandemic, Medicare is covering 135 telehealth servicesmore than double what it did before. This includes emergency department and home visits, plus physical, occupational and speech therapy services.

Learn more: Congress took swift and decisive actions to ensure that telehealth services would beavailable to all Medicare patientsearly in the COVID-19 pandemic. But these actions will expire when the public health emergency is over. The AMA has told Congress that theprogress seen in the use of telehealth services will be erasedif it fails to act.

Alexander noted that his bill incorporates recommendations he received after asking health care experts which of the 31 federal health policy changes made during the public health emergency should be made permanent.

The AMA responded to Alexander with a 20-page letter telling the senator that the AMA strongly supports all efforts to increase, maintain, and expand patients access to telehealth services.

Previously, the AMA joined more than 70 other health care-related organizations, advocacy groups and companies ina letter to Congressional leadersto permanently remove geographic and site restrictions and other statutory limits on telehealth.

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Hinshaw receives National Academy of Medicine’s Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health – UCSF News Services

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By Dana Korsen

The National Academy of Medicine today announced Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, as the recipient of the 2020 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health, for basic and applied research on individuals with externalizing disorders, and for efforts to reduce mental illness stigma through youth-based programs and the promotion of humanization. The award, which recognizes Hinshaws achievements with a medal and $20,000, will be presented at the National Academy of Medicines virtual annual meeting on October19, 2020. Hinshaw is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, and a professor and vice chair for child and adolescent psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Hinshaws work spans developmental psychopathology, clinical interventions with children and adolescents, and program development related to reducing the pervasive stigmatization of mental illness. He has led research programs and conducted studies investigating inattention and impulse-control problems in children, including the largest prospective investigation in existence of girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), now more than 20 years post-baseline. These studies have countered the contention that ADHD is an exclusively male condition and have galvanized the field regarding the confluence of heritable and contextual mechanisms.

Hinshaw has been principal investigator of the Berkeley site for the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD since 1992, and his core work with this study revealed the mediation of behavior change at school by enhanced parenting practices. The overall impact of his work has been far-reaching, spurring revisions of national and international guidelines for ADHD assessment/treatment by organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.K.s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Additional research conducted in collaboration with health economist Richard Scheffler, PhD, revealed that in states enacting consequential accountability legislation to boost achievement test scores, rates of ADHD diagnosis quickly increased for youth at or near the poverty level. This work has received international acclaim, integrating the psychobiological underpinnings of ADHD with the reality of school-based policies that may spuriously increase rates of diagnosed prevalence.

Hinshaws teaching and mentoring have also had major impact. He has mentored new generations of innovative investigators in child/adolescent mental health, having taught thousands of undergraduates (many of whom have gone on to leadership roles in clinical, research, and policy-related efforts) and hundreds of doctoral students.

Before attending graduate school, Hinshaw directed residential summer camps and alternative schools for youth with mental and developmental disabilities. He has continued to direct summer treatment and research programs for youth with ADHD, as well as longitudinal investigations into adulthood. Linking efforts with foundations and nonprofit organizations, Hinshaw has developed models of action- and contact-based high-school clubs to overcome mental illness stigma and formally evaluated such efforts, in addition to publication of narrative works on his familys experiences with serious mental illness.

In addition, Hinshaw has spurred the development of innovations in multidisciplinary research and training initiatives across UC campuses and beyond. Hinshaw is co-director of the UCSF-UC Berkeley Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center, and he directs the UCLA-UC Berkeley Awareness and Hope (stigma reduction) component of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge.

Dr. Hinshaws work on ADHD has truly changed the field in many ways, impacting the treatment for millions of youth with ADHD in the U.S., let alone others internationally, said National Academy of Medicine President Victor J. Dzau, MD. His rigorous, multilevel research on child and adolescent mental health, deep engagement in treatment-related efforts, and his essential work regarding mental-health stigma and related policy in addition to remarkable leadership and mentorship of young scientists make him most deserving of this important recognition.

Hinshaw has also received top international awards for his work in clinical psychology, applied psychology, child development, basic research in psychology, and child/adolescent psychiatry.

Since 1992, the Sarnat Prize has been presented to individuals, groups, or organizations that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in improving mental health. The prize recognizes without regard for professional discipline or nationality achievements in basic science, clinical application, and public policy that lead to progress in the understanding, etiology, prevention, treatment, or cure of mental disorders, or to the promotion of mental health. As defined by the nominating criteria, the field of mental health encompasses neuroscience, psychology, social work, nursing, psychiatry, and advocacy.

The award is supported by an endowment created by Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat of Los Angeles. Rhoda Sarnat was a licensed clinical social worker, and Bernard Sarnat was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and researcher. The Sarnats concern about the destructive effects of mental illness inspired them to establish the award. This years selection committee was chaired by Gary L. Gottlieb, MD, MBA, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

The National Academy of Medicine(NAM), established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond. It serves alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering as an adviser to the nation and the international community. Through its domestic and global initiatives, the NAM works to address critical issues in health, medicine, and related policy and inspire positive action across sectors. The NAM collaborates closely with its peer academies and other divisions within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.

UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics; UCSF Medical Centers at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion; UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.

The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSFs unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departmentsNeurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgerythat are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimers disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinsons disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSFs primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.

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Radiology’s work-life balance wins over many med students, but not all are impressed – Health Imaging

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Last years Association of American Medical Colleges report on residents found only 1 in 8 stuck with radiology from the beginning to the end of med school.

Using this as a launching point, Ali et al. analyzed national data from the AAMC, which included 1,965 students who pursued radiology. Individuals were divided into three groups: 281 students who chose radiology in the first and last years of school or the committed group; 625 who opted into imaging early, but later switched to another field (switched-away); and 1,059 who started in a specific specialty, but then moved over to radiology (switched-to).

Students cited work-life balance (64%) as one of the top three factors influencing their decision, only behind individual fit (87%) and content of the specialty (80%). Income expectations came in seventh, the authors noted, with 27% citing salary as a top consideration.

Radiology is traditionally considered as a life-style specialty and continues to rank in the top five for work-life balance and thus it is no surprise that it continues to influence students, the authors wrote.

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Radiology's work-life balance wins over many med students, but not all are impressed - Health Imaging

Seeing COVID-19 through a cloud of cigarette smoke The Cancer Letter – The Cancer Letter

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publication date: Sep. 18, 2020

Alan Blum, MD

Professor and Endowed Chair in Family Medicine,

Director, The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society,

University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa

Eric Solberg, MS

Vice president, academic & research affairs,

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston;

Faculty associate, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics,

McGovern School of Medicine, Houston

This story is part of The Cancer Letters ongoing coverage of COVID-19s impact on oncology. A full list of our coverage is availablehere.

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic makes it possible to compare and contrast the public health and political responses to previous health crises.

The most obvious comparison is to the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which took the lives of 675,000 Americans in less than two years.

Yet a comparison with cigarette smoking, which has killed untold millions of Americans in the 20th century and continues to take the lives of 500,000 a year, is arguably more illuminating. At first glance, comparing COVID-19 to cigarettes seems illogical. Yes, people who take up smoking do so willingly, although most do so before they reach adulthood. And yes, those who contract COVID-19 do not willingly seek out the virus.

Disease and death from smoking take years, even decades to occur. Deaths from COVID-19 can occur within days or weeks, albeit in less than 2.9% of victims, most of whom have comorbid conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and emphysema.

As we assess the 50-year War on Cancer that was declared when President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, some parallels and lessons from the past that can be gleaned from anti-smoking campaigns and applied to the efforts against COVID-19.

As defiant and skeptical as President Trump may be of the preventive behavioral measures that all health agencies agree are the first step to contain the spread of the virus, his magical-thinking approach mirrors the playbook of previous presidents to ending the cigarette pandemic, even decades after it was recognized as the nations leading avoidable cause of death and disease.

Should anyone really be surprised that when it comes to public health and health care, money and politics take precedence over science?

In early April, no sooner had Anthony Fauci, of the White House COVID-19 Task Force, come to the conclusion that all Americans, not just front-line health workers and patients, needed to wear face masks, practice social distancing, and wash their hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19, President Trump began subverting this message by retweeting Faucis original assertion in March that mask-wearing by the general public was not yet necessary.

By mid-summer, Trump had rejected the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on protecting meat processing plant workers, teachers, other school personnel, and children from COVID-19. Trump not only muted, muzzled, and marginalized the CDC, he had also become its de facto spokesperson.

Even as he has publicly played down the ease of spread and the adverse health consequences of COVID-19, last week we listened to the recording of his February interview by reporter Bob Woodward, in which Trump acknowledged the ferocity of the new virus.

This called to mind the response by another president to the efforts by the top health official in his administration to launch the federal governments first anti-smoking campaign. In January 1978, U.S. Secretary of Health Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, Jr., announced that HEW would place the weight of its scientific authority behind programs to inform the publicespecially the youngabout why they should not smoke and how they can quit if they wish. As the chief health officer of government, I have the duty to see that we do just that.

Within weeks, Califanos efforts were being undermined by President Jimmy Carter, who traveled to North Carolina to assure tobacco famers that the government would make cigarette smoking even safer than it is today. As Califanos campaign continued to gain momentum, and after HEW published the most comprehensive indictment yet of cigarette smoking in its 1979 Surgeon Generals Report, Carter fired Califano. There was little doubt that the main reason was his fervent anti-smoking stance.

The present-day Republican-led opposition to state and local ordinances mandating the wearing of face masks in public places is akin to the vocal opposition in 1964 to federal legislation to require an understated warning on the side of cigarette packs (Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health).

The staunchest opponents of the warning were not just the cigarette manufacturers and tobacco state congressmen, but also the American Medical Association, which claimed that the public was already well informed about the dangers of smoking.

In those days, Republican Sen. Jesse Helms were beating back anti-smoking bills introduced by Democratic Sens. Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin and Reps. Henry Waxman and Ron Wyden. Today, we can take in the spectacle of Republican Sen. Rand Paul (a physician) and Republican House Members Matt Goetz, Luis Gohmert, and Mark Meadows deriding the recommendation to wear face masks.

All four contracted COVID-19, with Gohmert blaming his infection on having to wear a mask.

At his nationally televised town meeting on Sept. 15, in which he claimed that herd mentality could make the virus disappear, Trump also claimed that the repeated putting on and taking off a mask could increase the chances of becoming infected with COVID-19.

The other two physicians in the Senate, Republicans John Barrasso and Bill Cassidy, have stood behind Trump every step of the pandemic. In May, Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon until he was appointed to the Senate in 2007, cited his medical background to support Trumps call to end COVID-19 containment shutdowns and echoed Trumps comment that we cannot allow the cure to be worse than the disease.

Granted, oversimplifying the comparison between the response to COVID-19 and the fight against smoking risks reducing it to a body count competition. Yet, that is just what Stanford historian Robert Proctor did in a book review in the July 7 issue of JAMA:

It all seems so February. Cigarettes remain the leading preventable cause of death, but that morbid fact is easily lost in more pressing pandemics. It is worth keeping in mind that even if the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) ends up killing 200,000 people in the U.S., that number will not be even half the annual toll from cigarettes, which still kill half a million Americans every year.

Such a comment is as simplistic and cold-hearted as any of Trumps unempathetic pronouncements downplaying the catastrophic impact of COVID-19. One hears echoes of the claim that the virus will just disappear, but smoking will remain.

Sadly, this is the same narrative that all too many individuals who work in the field of tobacco control have used for other emerging health crises such as the rapid rise in obesity, namely that smoking is always the bigger killer.

They seem to see other health issues as a threat to their turf. Proctor calls the assertion that his smoking dog is bigger than your COVID dog an enduring constancy and insists that scholars need to pay more attention to cigarettes, even in these distressing days of plague.

Any focus on disease that ignores the cigarette or the cigarette industry is like pretending to have an interest in malaria while paying no attention to mosquitoes or swamps. Nicotine addiction is likely to outlive coronavirus, shackling millions in chains that lead to suffering and death. The havoc wreaked on human health is worse than any virus.

Nathan Schachtman, an attorney and lecturer at Columbia Law School who has written on tobacco litigation, is appalled by Proctors claim. This type of comparison between COVID-19 and smoking is inapposite, he says. COVID puts me at risk from even a brief encounter with an infected person. I have no control as an individual over the risk of this infectious disease; it absolutely requires coordinated action by government. We can all agree that both smoking and COVID are public health problems, while refraining from making inane comparisons. The thing about COVID-19 is that a pandemic ensures that there will be innocent victimspeople who did not assume the risk, but had the risk of death and disability foisted upon them by fellow citizens.

Two hundred thousand deathsin addition to hundreds of thousands of potential long-haulers suffering from crushing fatigue, lung and heart damage, and other problemscaused by a single pathogen in just six months extrapolates to 300,000 deaths this year, plus a lingering morbidity comparable to that caused by cigarette smoking. And there is no cure in sight, but rather false promises by the president of a breakthrough vaccine just around the corner before Election Day.

Instead of trying to make the case that smoking is worse than COVID-19, we should instead be applying the lessons weve learned from anti-smoking efforts to reduce the toll of COVID-19, argues Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. Most obviously, the chronic conditions of emphysema and cardiovascular disease that help COVID take hold are frequently due to smoking. The successes and failures of the past five decades of anti-smoking actions are playing out now in the daily COVID-19 death tallies.

Writing in Financial Times on Aug. 4, Sir Richard Feachem, who served as under-secretary-general of the United Nations and founding executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, warns that counting on a COVID-19 vaccine to come to our rescue soon is not only unlikely but is a dangerous assumption on which to plan the overall response to the pandemic.

Politicians and vaccine developers have incentives to reinforce this assumption, he notes, in spite of the long odds against a vaccine with high efficacy, a protracted duration of protection, a convenient dosing schedule, and the ability to administer billions of doses.

Is this not reminiscent of the never-ending quest for the Holy Grail of the safe cigarette? Can anyone doubt that the biggest failure in the history of the National Cancer Institute is not to have dispelled the myth that filtered cigarettes can prevent lung cancer?

The tobacco industrys view, as reflected in the Tobacco Observer, a publication of the Tobacco Institute, April 1982.

Following the release of the 1964 Surgeon Generals Report, there was a dramatic increase in advertising claims by the tobacco companies implying that filtered cigarettes were safer than non-filtered ones.

This campaign extended to Hollywood, where TV and movie heroes and heroines smoked filtered brands while the crooks and tramps smoked non-filters. Alas, the history of the filter is at the heart of why the reduction in smoking has been so slow.

Beginning in the early-1950s, when the devastating reports of the impact of smoking on health were making front-page news and beginning to drive down cigarette sales, the tobacco industry took the upper hand by proclaiming in full-page newspaper advertisements across the U.S. that it would fund research to identify and remove any harmful ingredients from cigarette smoke.

By the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the National Cancer Institutes research efforts on smoking were almost entirely directed toward finding a safer cigarette. This dead-end research didnt get the ax until 1980, when Vincent DeVita became director of NCI and began shifting the focus of smoking research to getting heavy smokers to quit.

Even then, a far more heavily funded NCI research project in the 1980s was chemoprevention, which aimed to reduce lung cancer in smokers with large doses of vitamin A. The highly promoted study was halted when it was found that this caused an increase in lung cancer.

The unequivocal conclusion of the landmark 1964 U.S. Surgeon Generals report on smoking and health that cigarettes cause lung cancer and other diseases was to have ended a debate that had raged for decades.

Instead, the tobacco industry made a preemptive strike by funneling a total of $18 million over 14 years to the American Medical Associationthe only major health organization to withhold its endorsement of the reportin a research program to identify and remove any possible harmful components of cigarette smoke.

Why did the AMA choose not to campaign against smoking, but rather to conduct the same kind of research that the report had already found sufficient for its indictment of smoking?

It did so in order to remain in the good graces of tobacco state senators, whom it counted on to help prevent the creation of Medicare by Congress. This, in turn, leads to another villain that has gone unnoticed: the insurance industry, which never lifted a finger to fight smoking, even long after a small Massachusetts insurer, State Mutual Life Assurance Company, offered the first non-smoker discount after the SG report came out in 1964.

Because the anti-smoking narrative has been revised as a great victory instead of an abject failure, the rogues gallery is endless. One of the genuine leaders was the fearless Sen. Maureen Neuberger, who castigated not just the tobacco companies but also the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil AMA in her 1964 book Smoke Screen: Tobacco and the Public Welfare.

The AMA/tobacco industry collaboration distributed research funds to dozens of universities to keep scientists in their laboratories and not out testifying to the need to end smoking now. Columbia University, although not a participant as an institution with the AMA program, went so far as to market a patented super-filter that it claimed would remove the cancer-causing tar and prevent lung cancer. It didnt.

The filter con endures to the present day. Ninety-nine percent of cigarettes sold are filtered brands, in spite of the fact that filters likely increase the risk of death and disease from smoking by virtue of the smoker needing to inhale more deeplyand by fostering complacency about the dangers of smoking.

Essentially the same kind of players that fought efforts to pass clean indoor air legislation or bills to ban or restrict cigarette advertising and promotion are at it again with COVID-19. The cigarette companies filter and low-tar hucksterism is not unlike the touting by Trump of oleander, hydroxychloroquine, zinc, bleach, Lysol, and UV light for the prevention of COVID infections.

Meanwhile, Trumps COVID-19 advisers include individuals untrained in infectious disease, notably retired Stanford radiologist Scott Atlas. In a scathing op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 10 by Stanford epidemiologists Steven Goodman and Melissa Bondy, co-signed by all of their epidemiology colleagues at the university, the authors castigate Atlas for recommending less COVID-19 testing and less mask-wearing in indoor public spaces, as well as for downplaying the nonfatal health risks of the virus and its transmissibility by children.

The Washington Post and The New York Times were criticized by an editorialist at The Wall Street Journal for questioning Atlas fitness and credentials, even though Atlas got the job after espousing his unconventional views on Fox News. Both the Journal and Fox News are controlled by the pro-Trump Murdoch family, whose patriarch Rupert Murdoch served on the board of Philip Morris from 1989 to 1998; Philip Morris executives in turn have served on the board of Murdochs News Corp.

To think that in 1854, fully 40 years before Robert Koch discovered the bacterium that causes cholera, a lone London obstetrician named John Snow identified the source of a cholera outbreak with pencil, paper, and shoe leather.

By interviewing surviving family members of many of the more than 500 victims, he realized that the fatalities were clustered around a single water pump in Broad Street, from which most of the victims had obtained their household supply.

Countless lives were saved when the pump was ordered shut, over the objections of the water companies, which blamed the cholera epidemic on bad air, or miasma. Religious zealots blamed divine intervention.

Ironically, it was a minister, Rev. Henry Whitehead, who at first contended that the outbreak was not caused by tainted water but by Gods will, who surprised himself to discover that the cause was a soiled diaper emptied into a leaky cesspool near the pump.

More than half a century after the causes of the epidemic of lung cancer and emphysema became known through epidemiologic studies, the tobacco industry, like the water companies of Snows London, insisted that their product was not to blame. They were backed up by administration after administration as the cigaretteand its tax revenuesbecame a mainstay of the economy.

Arguably the best single summary of government policy on smoking came from the United Kingdoms Royal College of Physicians in the 1971 sequel Smoking and Health Now to its pioneering report on smoking and health in 1962: Castigating the government for spending little to educate the public about the dangers of smokinga tenth of the amount spent on traffic safety.

The report dryly observes, It seems that Ministers, while accepting the evidence that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health, are guided in their actions by the view that the risks are regrettable but inevitable consequences of a habit which they believe to be an essential source of revenue.

The economy-over-lives approach to COVID-19 by the current president is reminiscent of other administrations approach to curbing smoking.

College football, get out there and play football, Trump said on Aug. 11, when the only major universities left whose officials had given the season a green lightin the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferencesare located in the very region with the least adherence to personal COVID-19 health precautions and a steady rise in the number of cases.

By his masks-be-damned rallies and his tweets to Liberate Michigan! and other battleground states with Democratic governors from the inconvenience of wearing a mask and washing hands, Trump has become a 21st century Typhoid Mary, a super-spreader of COVID-19 through his crowded campaign rallies.

By stoking the embers of anti-scientific thinking for years in regard to the safest and most effective vaccines, by mocking the wearing of masks and social distancing, and by claiming that there is a COVID-19 vaccine just around the corner, Trump has undermined confidence in the safety and efficacy of any such rushed-out vaccine by those who would normally support vaccination.

In addition, HHS and FDA have been corrupted by political pressure to approve hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma as treatments for COVID-19 in spite of the absence of safety data. Fauci has been told to refrain from stating that children can transmit COVID-19. And CDC has been forced to walk back recommendations on school reopening and contact tracing, and its venerable publication, MMWR has been censored by the administration.

On June 23, Financial Times published the marvelously understated headline, Resistance is low at U.S. disease-control body. This week we finally learned that the source of this chaos and the sharp decline in the publics and health professionals confidence in the CDC has been a troubled Trump appointee, Michael Caputo, a far-right conspiracy-monger and protg of convicted felon Roger Stone.

It is dj vu all over again. In 1987, one of us (AB) would be told upon assuming a faculty position at Baylor College of Medicine that he could not use his academic affiliation when speaking publicly on smoking and that he should consider getting into something more socially acceptable, like cocaine.

This meant, of course, that studying illicit drugsnot cigaretteswas where the grant funding wasand dont you keep messing with the folks at the tobacco companies who have influence over Capitol Hill and the NIH!

One year later, he would be offered the editorship of the journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Family Physiciancontingent on his not speaking publicly on the subject of smoking.

The AAFP was a recipient of advertising revenue from food subsidiaries of RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris. AB turned down the job.

What is the fairest way to compare strategies to contain the virus with the efforts to reduce cigarette smoking? Why not begin with those who are made ill by a known agent through no fault of their own, as well as through willfully misleading directives by elected officials?

The turning point in the effort to reduce cigarette smoking came in the early 1980s, when studies in Japan and Greece found that long-term exposure to cigarette smoke could cause lung cancer in a person who did not smoke.

Certainly, those individuals who were involuntarily exposed to cigarette smoke over many years at the workplace and who developed terminal lung cancer or emphysema would be unequivocal innocent victims of smoking.

What about those who contract COVID-19?

The only ones in this population who arent unequivocally innocent victims are those who refuse to wear masks, practice physical distancing, wash hands frequently, and refrain from participating in social gatherings, political rallies, or protest demonstrations.

Another way to look at smoking-related deaths is through the number of those who had chosen to continue to smoke in spite of knowing that it could kill them.

One could argue that nicotine addiction is too powerful to overcome, and that, therefore, all of the blame must be laid at the feet of tobacco industry executives and the leaders of allied businesses that have engaged in the promotion of cigarettes in spite of the dangers.

But what about the accountability of public health agencies, which are tasked both with curbing infectious outbreaks and improving the health of the entire population? If a commissioner of health were found to have failed to allocate funds to mosquito control after an outbreak of West Nile, dengue, St. Louis encephalitis, or zika, then that individual would be held partially responsible for the cases that resultedand criminally negligent if the funds were deliberately withheld because the commissioner didnt believe that mosquitoes were the vector, or if he or she pocketed the money.

Analogously, why shouldnt a health commissioner or health agency that chooses not to allocate funding to discourage smoking be held accountable for a failure to reduce tobacco-related deaths and diseases and/or cigarette consumption? Fanciful? But if the number one avoidable cause of death and disease in the health district doesnt receive sufficient funding, then why shouldnt there be accountability?

Although Surgeon General Luther Terry called for appropriate remedial action on smoking in 1964, it would be fully 25 years before every state had even a single individual assigned to reduce smoking.

Nor were health department commissioners permitted to endorse efforts to pass clean indoor air regulations to protect nonsmokers.

And what about academia, organized medicine, and the voluntary health organizations, such as the American Cancer Society? What did they do as the battles over restrictions on cigarette advertising heated up in the 1980s? Most were nowhere to be found.

Individual tobacco product liability lawsuits brought against the tobacco industry beginning in 1983 by New Jersey attorney Mark Edell (Cipollone v Liggett Tobacco Group Inc.), followed by class action suits brought by several state attorneys general in the mid-1990s, began to expose the myth of organized medicine as an enemy of Big Tobacco.

In a TV interview in 1996, the president of the American Medical Association, Lonnie Bristow, famously claimed, We were duped.

This is in spite of the AMA having accepted cigarette ads in its journal from the early-1930s to the mid-1950s, the same time period when the epidemiological and pathological research showing the association between smoking and disease was being published.

This was also in spite of the publication of the Surgeon Generals Report in 1964, following which the AMA, as noted here, spent 14 years conducting research funded by the tobacco industry in lieu of taking action or even calling for action against smoking, apart from advising the public not to smoke in bed.

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Seeing COVID-19 through a cloud of cigarette smoke The Cancer Letter - The Cancer Letter

How medical students are innovating during COVID-19 – American Medical Association

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The pandemic has been an all-hands-on-deck situation for health care. That has meant channeling the brainpower and energy of those who are just starting their careers in medicine: medical students.

Medical students have contributed in the clinical realm, through volunteer work and through embracing challenges in the digital health realm. That has been evident in the work done by Sling Health, an innovation incubator led by medical students and engineering students. The incubator aims to bridge the divide between clinicians and clinical problems.

A recent episode of the AMA COVID-19 Update highlights the way in which student innovation has driven solutions during the pandemic.

For students interested in contributing to innovation during the pandemicand with most internship and development opportunities limitedSling Health offered a digital boot camp. Vithika Nag, a graduate student at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, was among the attendees.

It was very fast paced, but I think the pressure kept us all on a really good timeline, kept us really productive, so it was just a very rewarding experience, she said. At the end of every week, we had some design reviews as well that kept us on a really nice milestone, and just checking all the things off our list.

Here's how medical student entrepreneurs can find out whether their idea has investor appeal.

Avik Som, MD, is co-founder of CareSignal Health. Both he and his company are Sling Health alumni. The pandemic forced CareSignala digital health company that focuses on deviceless remote patient monitoringto adapt on the fly.

When COVID really struck the United States, we rapidly saw that there was an immediate need among clinicians and hospital systems to get information out there for patients that are potentially experiencing some variation of symptoms, Dr. Som said. We generated, effectively, a text messaging support line, something we call the COVID Suite, and that we ended up giving for free to anyone.

Some medical students may be hesitant to get involved in innovation during their undergraduate medical training. Dr. Som advises students not to let their place in the pecking order work as a deterrent.

As a student, it can sometimes be very intimidating to go into clinic and make the claim, or think, that you can make it better, he said. The game is: Be proactive and don't ever be intimidated by titles. Don't be intimidated by all of the venture capital firms versus the chief medical officers. I found out as a student that just asking questions and bringing itpeople are so excited for the initiative and everybody wants to make it better for the patients.

The AMA has curateda selection of resourcesto assist residents, medical students and faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic to help manage the shifting timelines, cancellations and adjustments to testing, rotations and other events at this time.

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How medical students are innovating during COVID-19 - American Medical Association

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

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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...

Health department to use new Ohio University medical school site for immunizations – Athens NEWS

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The Athens City-County Health Department, in collaboration with Ohio University, will use the newly opened headquarters of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine as its primary site for administering COVID-19 vaccinations, Health Department Administrator Jack Pepper said.

Beginning on Friday, the first of the new year, the department will begin immunizations at Heritage Hall, a medical education facility located on West Union Street near the Shafer Street intersection.

We are grateful to Ohio University for the quick planning that will allow us to offer vaccines toPhase 1a recipientsin Athens County, Pepper said in a university press release. We value the continued collaboration, which will provide a facility to help our department administer the vaccine as quickly as possible.

Local health departments are primarily tasked by the state with vaccinating EMS responders and health care workers who arent necessarily on the frontline, including dentists and hospice workers.

Theyre also responsible for inoculating residents and staff of long-term care facilities that arent enrolled in the federal governments plan to vaccinate them though a number of private pharmacies.

The health department last week received 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine, 190 of which were immediately given to Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare, a psychiatric hospital for mentally ill adults in southeast Ohio. It received an additional 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine Monday, but doesnt expect more shipments until Jan 11, Pepper said.

The department also began immunizing EMS workers and select congregate care facilities last week at the Athens Community Center. Athens County EMS employs 66 people who are all eligible to receive the vaccine.

To date 505 Athens County residents, less than 1 percent of the population, have received their first of two doses of a vaccine, according to The Ohio Department of Health.

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What is osteopathic medicine? A D.O. explains – The Conversation US

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When President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, many Americans noticed that his physician had the title D.O. stitched onto his white coat. Much confusion ensued about doctors of osteopathic medicine. As of a 2018 census, they made up 9.1% of physicians in the United States. How do they fit into the broader medical field?

Andrea Amalfitano is a D.O. and dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He explains some of the foundations of the profession and its guiding principle: to use holistic approaches to care for and guide patients. And dont worry, yes, D.O.s are real doctors and have full practice rights across the U.S.

In the years after the Civil War, without antibiotics and vaccines, many clinicians of the day relied on techniques like arsenic, castor oil, mercury and bloodletting to treat the ill. Unsanitary surgical practices were standard. These treatments promised cures but often led to more sickness and pain.

In response to that dreadful state of affairs, a group of American physicians founded the osteopathic medical profession. They asserted that maintaining wellness and preventing disease was paramount. They believed that preserving health was best achieved via a holistic medical understanding of the individual patients, their families and their communities in mind, body and spirit. They rejected reductionist interactions meant to rapidly address only acute symptoms or problems.

They also embraced the concept that the human body has an inherent capacity to heal itself decades before the immune systems complexities were understood and called for this ability to be respected and harnessed.

Doctors of osteopathic medicine D.O.s, for short can prescribe medication and practice all medical and surgical specialties just as their M.D. counterparts do. Because of the focus on preserving wellness rather than waiting to treat symptoms as they arise, more than half of D.O.s gravitate to primary care, including family practice and pediatrics, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

D.O. training embraces the logic that understanding anatomic structures can allow one to better understand how they function. For example, alongside contemporary medical and surgical preventive and treatment knowledge, all osteopathic physicians also learn strategies to treat musculoskeletal pain and disease. These techniques are known as manual medicine, or osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). They can provide patients an alternative to medications, including opioids, or invasive surgical interventions.

D.O.s pride themselves on making sure their patients feel theyre treated as a whole person and not simply reduced to a symptom or blood test to be rapidly dealt with and then dismissed. We say we aspire to care for people, not patients, with an empathetic attitude and an emphasis on making sure those closest to those in their care, such as family and loved ones, as well as other social factors, are all taken into account.

The osteopathic philosophy around prevention and wellness might seem like common sense today, but it was revolutionary. Aspects of osteopathic medicine, including the use of alternative therapies such as OMT, were originally met with skepticism or outright hostility by some medical doctors who questioned their scientific bases. Indeed, in 1961, the American Medical Associations code of ethics declared it unethical for an M.D. physician to professionally associate with doctors of osteopathy.

So with the guidance of the American Osteopathic Association, D.O.s created their own D.O. hospitals, residency and fellowship programs, and four-year D.O. degree-granting medical schools. Instruction around the current science of health and illness is similar between D.O.s and M.D.s its the philosophical delivery of that knowledge thats different.

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Certainly a holistic approach to health is no longer exclusive to D.O.s. In fact, many M.D., nursing, physician assistant and other health professional schools now embrace parts of it as they deliver care. And now, D.O.s and M.D.s often work side by side in medical settings across the country. More recently, the AMA has recently recognized the D.O. licensing exams as equivalent to the exams M.D.s take. D.O.s compete for the same training residencies as M.D.s and, eventually, the same jobs.

Osteopathic medicine is now one of the fastest-growing health professions, with over 150,000 D.O.s and D.O. medical students practicing in the U.S. and internationally. One in four newly minted U.S. physicians in the class of 2019 graduated from an osteopathic medical school.

Osteopathic medicine is now a mainstay of contemporary medical practice, with D.O.s active in all aspects of the nations health care systems.

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What is osteopathic medicine? A D.O. explains - The Conversation US

Medical Education Market projected to expand at a CAGR of more than 4% from 2019 to 2027 – The Think Curiouser

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report on the medical education market for the period of 20192027. According to the report, the globalmedical education marketwas valued at nearly US$ 31 Bn in 2018, and is projected to expand at a CAGR of more than 4% from 2019 to 2027. Rise in the number of medical schools and increase in cost of medical education are the major factors expected to drive the global medical education market from 2019 to 2027.

Increase in Number of Medical Schools to Drive the Medical Education Market

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Asia Pacific Medical Education Market to Expand at a Rapid Pace

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Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Siemens Healthineers to Lead the Global Medical Education Market

The report provides the profiles of leading players operating in the global medical education market. These include Gundersen Health System, GE Healthcare Institute, American College of Radiology, Healthcare Training Institute, New Jersey, Olympus America, TACT Academy for clinical training, Zimmer Biomet Institute, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Apollo Hospitals, CAE Healthcare, and Siemens Healthineers.

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Medical Education Market projected to expand at a CAGR of more than 4% from 2019 to 2027 - The Think Curiouser

First-Year Harvard Medical Students Will Return to Campus for the Spring | News – Harvard Crimson

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First year students at Harvard Medical School will join upperclassmen on campus this spring, Dean George Q. Daley 82 said in an interview Friday.

We decided that we will bring the students back for the spring semester and have them return to some of these in-person, patient-oriented, clinical examination skill building, he said.

Hands-on experience in the clinic working directly with patients is key to students training, according to Daley: after returning students restarted their clinical rotations in the summer, they have integrated as essential members of healthcare delivery teams at various hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

The decision to return all medical students to Longwood contrasts with recent moves at many of Harvards other professional schools. The Law School, School of Public Health, Divinity School, and Graduate School of Design each announced they had elected to continue virtual classes last week.

Daley said that split stems from the Medical Schools unique charge.

In many ways, we have a different mission than a lot of other schools. Our mission of education also includes service service to the patients that these students will ultimately be treating for their careers as physicians, Daley said.

Several first-year students said they found classroom learning effective in a virtual format. They said the clinical courses Daley referenced, however, went less smoothly.

[The instructors] are doing the best they can, and they've adopted well, but there are some things you truly can't learn online for medicine, first-year Medical School student Abigail M. Kempf told The Crimson earlier this month.

Recognizing those challenges, Daley said the school made the decision to bring back additional students with care.

We're doing it with a tremendous amount of forethought and planning, he said. This has required, again, a tremendous collaborative effort across our students and our staff and our faculty, in order to be sure that we can do this as safely as possible.

Staff writer Virginia L. Ma can be reached at virginia.ma@thecrimson.com.

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First-Year Harvard Medical Students Will Return to Campus for the Spring | News - Harvard Crimson