Newsroom Stories

The United States has attempted to pass major health reform legislation eight times in the last century, starting in the mid 1910s up through 1993-94 with the failed Clinton health reform effort. “Only once in that period was any legislation passed — in 1964-65 when Medicare and Medicaid were passed,” says Timothy McBride, Ph.D., associate dean of public health at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Yet, for many reasons, I feel that it is much more likely that legislation will pass this year.” At this point, McBride believes that President Obama has the political support necessary to make health reform happen, and he has made it his top domestic priority. McBride has been active in testifying before Congress and consulting with important policy constituencies on Medicare, insurance and health policy issues. He is a member of the Rural Policy Research Institute Health Panel that provides expert advice on rural health issues to the U.S. Congress and other policymakers.

Image courtesy of United States Department of AgricultureHuman gut bacterium *Enterococcus faecalis*The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis four grants totaling $19 million to explore the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body and determine how they contribute to good health and disease. The grants are part of the Human Microbiome Project, an ongoing, ambitious effort to catalog the bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms that naturally coexist in or on the body.

Windows on IranAn Iranian-American scholar at Washington University in St. Louis has been posting daily updates on election-related turmoil in Iran as part of her long-running electronic newsletter on cultural, political and social issues in Iran. Fatemeh Keshavarz, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences, posts news, filled with cell phone videos and firsthand anecdotes from friends and academic contacts within Iran, at Windows on Iran Web site. She is available for media interviews on the day-to-day news reports she’s receiving from contacts within Iran and for broader discussions of the cultural context of these events, including the role of women and the unique ways that this protest is being shaped by the use of cell phones, instant messaging and other online social media.

New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found substantial reductions in binge drinking since the national drinking age was set at 21 two decades ago, with one exception: college students. The rates of binge drinking in male collegians remain unchanged, but the rates in female collegians have increased dramatically.

WHEN: Thursday, June 18, 2009 WHAT: Program on “The truth about how women become leaders” Presented by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Assoc.; hosted by Olin Business School WHO: Linda L. Carli, co-author of Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. WHERE: Charles F. Knight Center, Washington University in St. Louis, Forrest Park Parkway and Troop Drive.

C. Michael Crowder has been named the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor in Anesthesiology at the School of Medicine. The new appointment was announced by Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and by Larry J. Shapiro executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.

Managers face new challenges with multiple generations working together as baby boomers delay retirement and members of Gen X and Gen Y enter the workforce. A seminar at the Olin Business School is designed to help executives juggle the needs and talents of employees in the 20 to 60 year-old age range.

Three School of Medicine employees were recognized this spring by Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine, for their outstanding contributions and exceptional commitment and dedication to the school.

Installation artist Allison Smith will serve as the inaugural Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Smith is known for creating large-scale works that critically engage popular forms of historical reenactment along with crafts and other traditional cultural conventions to redo, restage and refigure historical memories. Launched in partnership with Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Freund Visiting Artist program joins a similar collaboration between the Sam Fox School and the Saint Louis Art Museum, which was initiated in 1995.

Summertime is beach time, swimming pool time and gardening time. Most of us spend a lot more time in the sun during the summer months than during the rest of the year, and Washington University dermatologists say it’s very important to protect ourselves from the sun’s damaging rays.