School of Medicine

Employees, patients and visitors to the Washington University Medical Center have a new and improved commute with the Aug. 18 opening of the redesigned and rebuilt I-64/Kingshighway interchange.

A test of new hearing aid technology by School of Medicine researchers showed that the hearing aids worked well in a noisy environment — the most challenging test for a hearing aid.

Photo by Robert BostonThe School of Medicine Class of 2012’s 124 students were presented with a white coat, a long-time symbol of the medical profession, Aug. 15.

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but endurance exercise seems to make it younger, School of Medicine research found.

People have long prized silver as a precious metal. Now, silver-coated endotracheal tubes are giving critically ill patients another reason to value the lustrous metal. In a study published in the Aug. 20, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at the School of Medicine and the NASCENT Investigation Group, report that the silver-coated tubes led to a 36 percent reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

image courtesy of Advanced BionicsCochlear implantJill B. Firszt, a cochlear-implant specialist at the School of Medicine, was working on her doctoral dissertation when she met with a 47-year-old patient who been deaf in one ear since childhood. The patient was scheduled to get a cochlear implant in her deaf ear because she recently had a tumor operation that destroyed the hearing in her good ear. Firszt knew there wasn’t enough pertinent information to predict how well the woman would hear with the implant. That experience inspired Firszt to propose an in-depth study, now funded by the NIH, of one-sided hearing.

School of Medicine nutrition researchers have identified five common genetic variations that increase the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Courtesy PhotoThe frame of the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University continues to rise and expand across the two-acre construction site.

Military physicians treating solders with nerve injuries will soon be guided by a multimedia Web site under development by the School of Medicine.

Washington University faculty physicians assumed responsibility for providing medical care in the Emergency Department at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital July 1. The addition of Washington University emergency medicine physicians continues the enhancement of clinical services at Barnes-Jewish West County.