Medicine & Health

Two new studies from the School of Medicine suggest ways to improve surgical treatment for a debilitating condition caused by compressed nerves in the neck and shoulder. The condition, neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, causes pain, numbness or tingling in the shoulder, arm or hand and is perhaps best known for affecting baseball pitchers and other athletes.

People who grew up in states where it was legal to drink alcohol before the age of 21 are more likely to be binge drinkers later in life. Washington University researchers found that people who lived in states with lower minimum drinking ages weren’t more likely to consume more alcohol overall, but when they did drink, they were more likely to drink heavily.

The Obama administration has proposed letting religiously affiliated non-profit businesses and institutions opt-out of the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act. “The Obama administration has bent over backward to accommodate the concerns of some religiously affiliated businesses,” says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and professor of law at Washington University In St. Louis.

If you have a coworker in the School of Medicine who deserves recognition for what he or she does, consider nominating that person for this year’s Dean’s Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor awarded to a medical school staff member.

Beginning Monday, Feb. 4, there will be a new WUSM ride-home service, offering students and employees free transportation to their homes in the DeBaliviere Place and Skinker/DeBaliviere/Parkview neighborhoods. The white, 15-passenger vans operated by Veolia Transportation will depart from the Olin Circle on the hour and half-hour from 5 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Mondays through […]

Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-butter based food than children who are treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Indi Trehan, MD, the study’s lead author, shows parents in Malawi how to measure medication.

A study of young twins in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of a form of severe acute childhood malnutrition.

Todd H. Wasserman, MD, professor emeritus of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, died Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, after a long illness. Wasserman, 66, made important contributions to the field of radiation oncology.

Several of the School of Medicine’s musically talented students, faculty and staff recently performed their second annual winter concert in the lobby of the Center for Advanced Medicine. Shown are laboratory technician Rowan Karvas on clarinet and graduate student Mo Lee on piano in a performance of Paul Jeanjean’s “Arabesques.”

Steven Cheng, MD, and Will Ross, MD, have received the 2012 Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Student Education.