Medicine & Health

Mistrust toward breast cancer treatment and the health care system at large were expressed by African Americans who participated in Chicago focus groups, suggests new research led by an expert on the health of vulnerable populations at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Most cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) are preventable with a vaccine. Yet the infection is responsible for 27,000 cancer diagnoses each year in the U.S. Siteman Cancer Center and the School of Medicine is joining with the 68 other National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers to promote HPV vaccination and reduce that number.

A team of neurosurgeons from the School of Medicine and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed wireless brain sensors that monitor intracranial pressure and temperature and then are absorbed by the body, negating the need for surgery to remove the devices.

Many negative consequences are linked to growing up poor, and researchers at Washington University St. Louis have identified one more: altered brain connectivity.

The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will receive $60 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the genetics of common diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, autism and epilepsy.

Studying mice and tissue samples from the arteries of patients with atherosclerosis, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest this plaque accumulation is driven, at least in part, by processes similar to the plaque formation implicated in brain diseases such Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Sam Bhayani, MD, who recently was appointed chief medical officer of the Faculty Practice Plan at Washington University School of Medicine, has been named the Holekamp Family Chair in Urology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) and the School of Medicine. The honor recognizes his leadership in collaborative research aimed at developing better standards of care and outcomes for patients.

Researchers involved in the treatment of children infected with Ebola have developed a set of guidelines aimed at improving how Ebola-infected children are treated.

Clayco’s chairman and CEO, Robert G. Clark, along with the company’s partners, have committed $4.1 million to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to advance research into a rare blood vessel disease that results in death five to 10 years following diagnosis.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital are offering a newly approved, nonsurgical therapy to help people lose weight. Shelby Sullivan, MD, holding models of the two systems being used, said the therapy involves placing special balloons into the stomach and inflating them to give patients the feeling of being full after eating small meals.