Medicine & Health

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are performing a new procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heartbeat. Available at only a handful of U.S. medical centers, this “hybrid” procedure combines minimally invasive surgical techniques with the latest advances in catheter ablation. The two-pronged approach gives doctors access to both the inside and outside of the heart at the same time, helping to more completely block the erratic electrical signals that cause atrial fibrillation.

Rather than count sheep, drink warm milk or listen to soothing music, many insomniacs probably wish for a switch they can flick to put themselves to sleep. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Paul Shaw, PhD, have discovered such a switch in the brains of fruit flies.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has chosen Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to create an innovative, Internet-accessible database of millions of cancer images.

In conjunction with National HIV Testing Day Monday, June 27, Washington University School of Medicine is teaming with the City of St. Louis Department of Health to offer free, confidential tests for HIV and syphilis.

Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience: A Primer, is the second book in 18 months from Charles F. Zorumski, MD, the Samuel B. Guze Professor and Head of Psychiatry, and Eugene H. Rubin, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry. It is about how the brain works and what the growing understanding of neuroscience will mean to future diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illnesses. 

Two related studies at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital are looking at whether medication can prevent respiratory infections in young children from becoming more serious.

Gary K. Ackers, PhD, professor emeritus, died from problems related to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease Friday, May 20, 2011, in Oro Valley, Ariz. He was 71.

Washington University physicians and surgeons at St. Louis Children’s Hospital , including Avihu Gazit, MD, collaborated to make several strategic and innovative decisions that led to the first successful use of an artificial lung in a toddler. The treatment is published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Hundreds of employees were recognized for their years of service to the School of Medicine June 9, 2011.

Lifestyles and emotions play important roles in many medical illnesses, and when scientists study potential treatments to help people stop smoking, get more exercise, overcome depression or improve their diet, they often compare patients who get a certain treatment to others who don’t. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led by Ken Freedland, MD, say to accurately measure a new therapy’s the effectiveness, it is critical to carefully define comparison — or control — groups in those studies.