Medicine & Health

When Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, went to medical school, he was struck by the kinds of patients he saw in the hospital. Too many were suffering from heart attacks or lung cancer — conditions linked to smoking. “It made me wonder: Couldn’t we do a better job at prevention?” he says.

Standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) involves alternating chest compressions with rescue breaths. But heart attack patients who receive CPR from bystanders fare better if their resuscitators skip the rescue breaths and do only chest compression, according to a study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine will join hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide in celebrating Campus Sustainability Day Oct. 20. The day is also being celebrated university-wide on the Danforth Campus.

This fall’s health fair, held from 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building atrium at the School of Medicine, will include guidance on using a treadmill and proper shoe selection.

The Grove neighborhood, the “front door” to Washington University Medical Center, gets an entry sign Oct. 12.

Ralph G. Dacey Jr., MD, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in health and medicine that medical scientists in the United States can receive.

A new $4.27 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute will enable Washington University School of Medicine researchers at the Siteman Cancer Center’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) to extend its work to eliminate racial and economic gaps in cancer care.

Washington University neurosurgeons used a new tool last month for the treatment of brain tumors that were previously deemed inoperable.

A genetic condition that increases risk of brain tumors may also impair development of the brain system that facilitates attention, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

When Kerry Kornfeld, MD, PhD, says his life began at the School of Medicine, he means that literally.