Blog List - Penn Medicine

Plain Peril: Reducing Buggy Accidents in Amish Country

July 16, 2018

More than 630 accidents involving vehicles and horse-drawn buggies occurred in Pennsylvania over the last decade, according to state data. Most of those accidents occurred in Lancaster County, home to nearly 37,000 Amish residents.

Public Health

CRISPR: Potential & Problems

July 13, 2018

Whether academic or athletic, there is a limit to what modern humans are capable of. The reasons for this have a lot to do with our genetic makeup. But what if that changed?

Genetics

How Penn Medicine Data Scientists are Improving Care by Learning How to Learn

July 11, 2018

By taking a look at Palliative Connect, a project the team highlights as a particularly well designed one, we can peek into the principles that are filling the pages of that playbook—principles that can help practitioners across the health care landscape who will increasingly have the chance to use machine learning and other sophisticated digital tools to improve health care.

Patient Care Education

A Story that Sticks to Your Ribs

July 09, 2018

“It was a monumental sneeze, for sure,” said Lou, who remembers feeling what he describes as, “a twinge in my chest, but no great pain.” Twelve hours later, that twinge grew into “pain that was through the roof,” and Lou and his wife Cathy headed to the Emergency Room at their local hospital where an x-ray revealed that that “twinge” was due to blood pooling in his chest because of a severed artery.

Emergency Medicine General Interest

Tales from the Ward

July 06, 2018

In medicine, stories often hold the keys to making a diagnosis or improving patient care. But, central to storytelling is the ability to effectively communicate, not just with patients and their families, but also with colleagues and mentors.

Patient Care Education

How Cumulative Trauma Could Shape the Lives of Migrant Children

July 02, 2018

On June 20, President Trump issued an executive order rolling back the separations of undocumented families in favor of family detention. However, for the thousands of kids who remain detained separately or in foster care, physicians warn their experiences with cumulative trauma and chronic stress could cause irreparable lifelong harm.

In the News Psychiatry Psychology Public Health General Interest

A New Milestone for Chester County Hospital’s Largest-Ever Expansion

June 29, 2018

The beams are creating the framework for a 250,000-square foot expansion of the hospital and a 26,000-square foot renovation of its Emergency Department. The steel framework is on track to be completed in July.

Patient Care

Streamlining and Accelerating Good Ideas into the Clinic

June 27, 2018

To make sure that good ideas to enhance healthcare are not lost due to a lack of resources, a growing number of centers at Penn Medicine organize forums to pitch ideas to improve medical devices and technology, hold annual competitions to fund studies to improve patient care while keeping costs down, and sponsor seed grants for programs focused on patients.

Health Care Quality and Safety

The Critical Role Your Neighborhood Library Could be Playing in Public Health

June 25, 2018

Homelessness, mental health, and more recently, the opioid crisis: Librarians across the country have been on the front lines tackling these issues for years. They guide patrons towards health literature. They connect them to the right care. And they even administer the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone, when necessary.