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Service in Action

Fighting Philly’s Food Insecurity, One Grocery Bag at a Time

Eden Engel-Rebitzer was in her third year at PSOM and had started her sub-internship when COVID-19 hit the region. Eager to find “a concrete thing [she] could do to alleviate suffering,” she and a group of compassionate peers created One Extra Bag, a grocery delivery program that aims to address food insecurities caused or worsened by the pandemic. Though the program began as a way to assist Penn Medicine housestaff, it quickly grew to include home-bound geriatric patients and individuals who became home-bound due to positive COVID-19 diagnoses. This is just one of the stories you’ll find in Service in Action, our community impact report for 2020. We invite you to read the stories, watch the videos, and learn about the people who are shaping the way Penn Medicine serves the communities that make us who we are.

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On the News Blog

COVID-101: Medical Students Get a Crash Course in Coronavirus

August 13, 2020

For 80 rising fourth-year medical students eager to play their part in the pandemic, the path forward was clear — educate themselves, fast. But with the news updating by the minute and their go-to experts and mentors also trying to catch up, where would they even begin?
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#BlackInNeuro Builds Connections and Community Around the World

August 11, 2020

A new initiative hopes to address the disparities in diversity in neuroscience — Black in Neuro. Debuted on Twitter this summer, the initiative was organized by 22 graduate students, postdocs and professionals from universities and institutions around the world to highlight Black excellence in the field.
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Answering the Call: How the COVID Hotline Became Penn Medicines Front Line Against the Outbreak

August 06, 2020

In facing COVID-19, clinicians at least have the benefit of knowing the identity of the enemy they face, but the unknowns — a lack of a cure, what the best treatment course is, how much worse things can get — are similar to those Beck-Dougherty encountered in 1976.
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Uncovering the Neurological Connections to COVID-19

August 04, 2020

Why does COVID-19 cause some patients to lose their sense of smell and taste? What are the psychiatric and neurological complications now associated with COVID-19 infections—and can these issues be prevented?
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How Coronavirus Complicates the Grieving Process

July 30, 2020

Rituals like funerals, shivas and memorial celebrations can often help ease the pain associated with the death of a loved one and allow those left behind to begin healing. But due to social distancing requirements to stem the spread of the virus, the pandemic has forced many people to change the way they say goodbye, complicating the grieving process, though making it no less important.
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Cancer Care in the Time of COVID

July 28, 2020

Whether or not people are actually avoiding going to the doctor when they’re sick — or to the hospital if they’re having a true emergency — is still a matter of some debate. But while no study has shown it definitively, there are two trends that are cause for concern.
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Penn Medicine In the News

Rare Genetic Mutation Implicated in Familial Cancers in Ashkenazi Jews
August 07, 2020
Reuters Health via MD Alert
Five-Minute Coronavirus Stress Resets
August 06, 2020
New York Times
Doctors Move from Hospitals to COVID-19 Testing Sites to Treat Communities of Color
August 06, 2020
ABC News

Americans Are Hitting the COVID-19 Wall — Here Are Some Ways to Cope
August 06, 2020
Philadelphia Inquirer
New Protocol Reduces Post-Op Opioid Use
August 06, 2020
Penn Medicine News Release Psych Central
Another COVID inequity: Low-Income and Rural Communities Lack Access to ICU Beds, Penn Study Finds
August 05, 2020
Philadelphia Inquirer Well+Good