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Blog Topic: Match Day 2015

  • Getting Personal

    December 10, 2012

    Nathan Francis Mossell, MD, the first black student in Penn’s School of Medicine, received his medical degree in 1882. On his first day, he later wrote, he was “accompanied by a storm of protest” as his fellow incoming students sounded their displeasure. “I was not perturbed in the least,” wrote...

  • Penn Medicine and the Day in the Life Project: A Lesson in Scale

    December 07, 2012

    As a Digital Communications Editor, much — if not all — of my typical day is spent behind a keyboard in a regular office separate from our clinical facilities. For someone who is relatively new to Penn Medicine, this can create issues of scale. You’re told from the very beginning...

  • Preserving Fertility in the Face of Cancer

    November 30, 2012

    At any one time, Penn Medicine investigators run as many as 3,000 studies involving human subjects, generating knowledge about disease and finding new cures. And making sure these studies run smoothly are 700 clinical research coordinators who do everything from recruiting patients and administering medication to collecting the data that...

  • Penn Medicine Reaches Out

    November 29, 2012

    UCHCFrom providing screenings for high blood pressure in West Philadelphia barber shops to arming women who are recovering from addiction with the skills to build new lives with their children, Penn Medicine’s employees reach far beyond our campus community to help, care for, and inspire people to improve their health. Each year since 2007, Penn Medicine has highlighted the work of its faculty, staff and students in Philadelphia and its neighboring communities in Simply Because. Last year’s book is full of the faces and stories of everyone who comes together to be part of these programs.

  • In the Pink Shadow: Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month Needs the Spotlight Now

    November 27, 2012

    With each passing year the month of November loses more and more respect. On paper it looks good – All Saint’s, All Soul’s, Veteran’s and Election Day come right in a row within the first two weeks. But poor Thanksgiving. For several centuries it rose through the ranks as one...

  • After Carving the Turkey, Remember to Carve out Time for Your Health

    November 23, 2012

    Whether you indulged on Turkey Day, are watching your calories, or trying to avoid an annual weight gain during the holidays, Thanksgiving can be an important time to stay in control of your health. And the day after Thanksgiving can be a great opportunity to reinvest your energy and set...

  • A “Modest Proposal:” Spreading the Wealth from Intellectual Property to Encourage New Players in Drug Development

    November 21, 2012

    Garret FitzGerald, MD, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has long said the current drug-development system in the United States is in need of change, “representing an unsustainable model.” He suggests...

  • A Runner's Heart Healed

    November 16, 2012

    In April 2009, Penn patient Elliot Gordon suffered from an aortic dissection, and required almost immediate open-heart surgery. Less than four years later Gordon will attempt to complete the Philadelphia Half-Marathon Sunday.

  • Art and Insanity

    November 15, 2012

    Was modern art insane? Was modern art -– often defined as art that broke from classical traditions in Europe beginning in the mid-19th century –- created by artists with mental diseases, for appreciation by those with sick minds? To hear what some Penn psychiatrists had to say in the 1920s,...

  • Be a Hero. Donate Blood.

    November 07, 2012

    Do you donate blood? If you’re like the majority of Americans –- more than 90 percent -- the answer is no. Most people don’t think about it in their busy lives. Or they feel someone else will take up the slack. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Less than 40 percent...

  • Halloween Goes on at HUP's Intensive Care Nursery

    November 01, 2012

    Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the Philadelphia region did not dampen the Halloween celebration at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Intensive Care Nursery (ICN)! The Third Annual ICN Halloween Party provided a unique way for parents to celebrate the first Halloween of these tiny babies, many of whom were...

  • What Would Dr. Cohn Think?

    October 25, 2012

    This month marks three years since the late Mildred Cohn, PhD, the Benjamin Rush Professor Emerita of Physiological Chemistry at the time of her retirement from the Penn department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, passed away. Her early work using magnetic forces to study the structure of molecules led to the...

  • LVAD for Life

    October 25, 2012

    Two recent multicenter studies by Penn Medicine researchers have explored some of the issues involved in helping patients understand how receiving a destination LVAD will impact end-of-life planning and what is needed from a destination LVAD patient’s caregiver.

  • Psychiatry and Eugenics

    October 23, 2012

    The forthcoming Fall 2012 issue of Penn Medicine will include Part 1 of Marshall Ledger’s engrossing article on psychiatry at Penn. The article is timed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind, by Dr. Benjamin Rush, considered the...

  • Breast Cancer Awareness – Beyond the Pink Ribbon

    October 19, 2012

    Ah, the fabulous colors of fall. A time when those of us inhabiting the more northern parts of the hemisphere are treated to a natural environment rich in russet, gold and burgundy hues. Then, come October: PINK. There are all the little ribbons, t-shirts and caps. There’s pink neon lights...

  • Early Observations: A Hospice Volunteer’s Journey

    October 18, 2012

    Last month, I wrote a post in anticipation of starting the training necessary to become a volunteer with Penn Wissahickon Hospice. Since that time, I’ve completed training to become an inpatient hospice greeter and actually volunteered twice. Although it’s still very early on in my experience, I think I’ve gleaned a few insights that I wanted to share.

  • Penn Medicine CAREs Grant Helps Fight Homelessness in South Jersey

    October 15, 2012

    "The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped," said former U.S. Vice-President...

  • Image Wizardry: Penn Med’s Prize-Winning Algorithm Speeds Radiologic Testing Process

    October 15, 2012

    Modern day medical imaging exams have become a critical diagnostic tool for conditions of all kinds – from detecting the earliest breast cancers, long before a tumor could grow large enough for a woman to feel a lump in her own body, to finding malformations in the hearts of tiny...

  • Are You at Risk for Breast Cancer?

    October 10, 2012

    Genetic Counseling Can Help Identify Clues Confusion and fears surrounding breast cancer abound. While researchers have long since put some myths to rest -– such as ideas that using anti-perspirant, drinking caffeine, and wearing an underwire bra will all increase your risk -- others issues related to breast cancer risk...

  • 140 Miles of Grace

    October 09, 2012

    On October 20th, 2012, HUP traumatic brain injury survivor Candace Gantt will participate in an Ironman Triathlon in Wilmington, North Carolina called Beach to Battleship to raise funds for brain injury research in Penn’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair (CBIR).

  • Collaboration Does a Body Good

    October 05, 2012

    During the first Presidential debate of the 2012 election season earlier this week, President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney went to the mat to discuss – among other topics – the future of health care in the United States. Though the two have opposing views on how to...

  • First Look: Working Through OCD

    October 05, 2012

    A team of Perelman School of Medicine researchers, led by Edna Foa PhD, director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, are conducting the first study that examines whether one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP), can help people with OCD achieve and maintain wellness after they stop taking the medications their doctors prescribe for their OCD.

  • Lowering the Age of Scientific Independence

    October 04, 2012

    Greg Sonnenberg, PhD, research associate in the Division of Gastroenterology and the Institute for Immunology, is one of 14 early-career scientists supported this year with an NIH Director's Early Independence Award. These support exceptional early-career scientists to move directly into independent research positions by essentially omitting the traditional post-doctoral training period.

  • Deadly Choices: A Penn virologist takes on the anti-vaccine movement

    October 01, 2012

    Exhibit A: This year’s incoming class of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania was assigned to read Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, by Paul A. Offit, MD. Issued by Basic Books in 2011, the book came out this year in paperback. During...

  • On Bodies and Minds: Effects of the Civil War

    September 28, 2012

    It’s hard to fathom, but to this day one startling Civil War statistic stands: approximately 625,000 American men – the equivalent of 6 million men today – were killed in action or died of disease between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865. That’s more than in World War I,...

  • Connecting Kids to Careers

    September 24, 2012

    Janelle Harris, CNII, Jaime Thomas, CN IV, Maria Nicolas, CNII, Sitha Dy, CNS and Jocelyn Blaisdell, NM Two years ago, a group of HUP nurses on Ravdin 9, a surgical unit, joined the hospital-wide Community Outreach Committee. The committee would help the Hospital renew its prestigious nursing Magnet certification, but...

  • Celebrating Every Moment

    September 21, 2012

    Chemo luauBeach Boys music, hot dogs, sheet cake and feather boas aren’t the tools oncologists usually use to attack cancer. But along with powerful drugs and targeted radiation treatments, they’ve all played a big role in helping Debbie Hemmes, a 52-year-old Abramson Cancer Center patient from Westampton, NJ, fight lung cancer. Debbie’s daughter, Kelly McCollister, quickly added her own prescription to the list: a special party during each chemo session to help her mom count down the days until she finished her treatment.

  • Medical image

    NIH MERIT Awards Give Researchers Long-term Stability

    September 20, 2012

    Earlier this summer, Sarah Millar, PhD, professor of Dermatology and Cell and Developmental Biology, received an unusual phone call from Carl Baker, MD PhD, Health Scientist Administrator at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

  • A Pipeline To Promising Careers

    September 20, 2012

    “Thanks for pushing me to do my best … I believe in myself more than I ever did.” Local students in Penn Medicine’s High School Pipeline Program work hard. Indeed, they’re responsible for keeping up their grades in school while taking college-level courses and working within the University of Pennsylvania...

  • Reconciling ENCODE and CODIS

    September 18, 2012

    The use of DNA in forensics is powerful yet subject to uncertainties. Jennifer Wagner, JD, PhD, a Research Associate at the Center for the Integration of Genetic Healthcare Technologies at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn CIGHT), and Sara Katsanis, MS, an Associate in Research at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University (Duke IGSP) conducted an exhaustive search of the literature and genome databases to put forensic markers used in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) into a context of current understanding of the human genome. Their findings are available in an early online issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

  • Blinded by the Light

    September 14, 2012

    One man’s refusal to let choroideremia slow him down Image courtesy of E.J. Scott Earlier this year, the world paused to watch its greatest athletes take center stage and compete for the gold in the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The United States’ Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian...

  • Scientists Who Bridge the Gap: “Rare Birds Indeed”

    September 14, 2012

    This summer, Garret FitzGerald, MD, chair of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT), testified at a briefing on the Hill organized by American Association for the Advancement of Science that the current drug-development system in the United States is flawed and in need of change.

  • Learning the Art of Compassionate Care: A Hospice Volunteer’s Journey

    September 11, 2012

    Tonight I’m taking part in my first volunteer training session for Penn Wissahickon Hospice, where I’ll be learning how to greet visitors and answer incoming calls to our inpatient hospice unit. This unit was the first such inpatient unit opened in the Philadelphia-area back in 2008. I’m excited and nervous....

  • A Strong Start for Kids When they Need it Most

    September 11, 2012

    It’s 8:30 a.m. at Infant Friendship Center (IFC) of the Montgomery Early Learning Centers (MELC). Already bustling with activity, storytime on one floor, kids learning letters and numbers in the next room, sing-a-longs on another floor, the center has been hopping since it opened at 7 a.m. Chris Ambrose, MELC...

  • A New Use for an Existing Technology Improves the Lives of Incontinence Sufferers

    September 11, 2012

    Life is full of embarrassing moments. Who among us hasn’t suffered the mild mortification of unknowingly walking around with toilet paper trailing from a shoe? Or an unzipped fly? How many of us know what it’s like to emerge from an underwater dive only to discover that part of our...

  • Good Ideas, Both Old and New

    September 07, 2012

    As I was reading about the early years of the Department of Psychiatry of the Perelman School of Medicine recently, I came upon a surprising case of anticipation. Learning about a new program -- in 1949 -- reminded me once again that some ideas are good enough to go around more than once.

  • Art Meets Science in the Office of Biomedical Art and Design

    August 31, 2012

    Groundbreaking research at Penn Medicine improves quality of life for many and saves countless lives every day, so it is easy to imagine how presenting these critical studies in journals and to various audiences can always be a challenge. So, what is the most effective way to display complex medical...

  • From Flip Flops to Stilettos, How Heel Height Impacts Feet

    August 30, 2012

    Al D'Angelantonio, III, DPM, looks at feet as the foundation for the rest of the body. Like the structure of a house, if support isn’t there, the structure will start to fail. As such, everything from precariously high heels to unsupported flip-flops can have short- and long-term consequences on your joints, bones and quality of life.

  • Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center Stands Up To Cancer

    August 29, 2012

    Armed with $18 million in funding, a group of Penn Medicine investigators who are a key part of the pancreatic cancer Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team are leading the nation’s most innovative pancreatic cancer research projects, which together have enrolled more than a thousand patients – nearly half the number who are participating in clinical trials for the disease across the board.

  • You Have the Power to Save a Life

    August 29, 2012

    When it comes to organ transplants, the closer the match between donor and recipient, the better the outcome. This is especially true for bone marrow transplants, which have more stringent requirements for matching than solid organs since they aim to rebuild all the bone marrow in the patients after treatment...

  • A New Vision for Better Eyesight in East Parkside

    August 27, 2012

    (From left to right: Hugh Hamilton, Peter Chansky, Ranjoo Prasad, OD, and Douglas Worrall) Serving the East Parkside community since 1995, the United Community Clinic (UCC) draws from skills and resources of students and staff from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Social Work to offer many free critical...

  • Football Season Begins as Study of Retired NFL Players Looks for Symptoms and Biomarkers of Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury

    August 24, 2012

    The fear that athletes who suffer repeated blows to the head may end up with a preventable cause of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is leading neurodegeneration researchers at Penn to join in a collaborative study of retired NFL players, to see if there are any clinical symptoms (such as depression, disinhibition, cognitive or motor impairment) and biomarkers present that can be measured and tracked over time. The ultimate goal is to use the clinical symptoms and biomarkers to be able to diagnose CTE during lifetime, as the only way to diagnose CTE currently is through an examination of brain tissue after death.

  • The CPAP Conundrum

    August 17, 2012

    To CPAP or not to CPAP, that is the question that an estimated 100 million Americans who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might face in their quest for a better night's sleep. And for many of these patients, this CPAP conundrum -- whether or not and when to wear...

  • Integrating Knowledge – of All Sorts

    August 17, 2012

    If it wasn’t for Jonathan Moreno, PhD, bioethicist and historian of science, I might never have heard about Clyven, “The First Transgenic Mouse with Human Intelligence.” This “hu-mouse” is said to be so intelligent that he’ll answer your questions at the Web site of RYT Hospital. In the course of...

  • Penn Medicine Mother and Daughter Part of HERO Team

    August 16, 2012

    From Left to Right: Wanda Rogers, RN; Aliya Rogers, RN BSN; Darlene Andrews, LPN; and Dolores Stanford, RN. Aliya Rogers, RN, BSN, is well versed in Hospice care. As a nurse case manager at Penn Wissahickon Hospice, Rogers manages a census of hospice or pre-hospice patients, including visiting them three...

  • If Hippocrates Had a Touch Screen: Perelman School of Medicine Equips New Students with an iPad

    August 14, 2012

    In August, 163 first-year medical students at the Perelman School of Medicine started their journey to becoming doctors at the annual White Coat Ceremony. And for the first time in school history, in addition to receiving two of medicine’s most time honored symbols -- the white coat and stethoscope -- Penn Medicine also equipped these budding doctors with an Apple iPad 3.

  • News Travels Fast: Penn Medicine News in Front of 30 Million People a Day

    August 03, 2012

    Now that Penn Medicine's new fiscal year, for 2013, is underway, we took a look back at our last year’s worth of media activities to see how our efforts to promote the research and clinical care work by our amazing faculty and staff made an impact from July 2011 through June 2012.

  • Penn Medicine Takes a Leading Role in Training Nurses; Receives $36 Million Grant

    August 01, 2012

    On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, along with four other hospitals across the nation, have been selected to participate in an initiative to train additional advanced-practice registered nurses (APRN). Nurses with this designation generally have post-graduate training and are able to diagnose illnesses, prescribe medication and treatment regimens, and perform procedures consistent with their scope of practice.

  • Taking Advantage of Mother Nature, Delivering Drugs using Red Blood Cells

    July 31, 2012

    Vladimir R. Muzykantov, MD, PhD, professor of Pharmacology and Medicine, at the Perelman School of Medicine, is devising a recombinant version of thrombomodulin -- a natural anticoagulant present in human blood vessels -- that can be injected in the bloodstream of animals, where it binds to RBCs and circulates for a long time as a prodrug that gets activated at sites of thrombosis, preventing closing up of blood vessels.

  • Coping with the Colorado Shooting Tragedy: Penn Medicine Mental Health Experts Weigh In

    July 27, 2012

    In the wake of the tragic shootings in Colorado last week, people across the country are still in shock as they try to contemplate the meaning behind such an evil act of human nature. Twelve people were killed and 59 more are struggling to recover from the injuries they sustained in the violent attack. And while many of them will make full physical recoveries, the memories of the shootings will persist. Penn Medicine mental health experts are now weighing in to help both the victims and the general public cope with the inevitable fear, anxiety and depression that can follow traumatic events like this.

About this Blog

This blog is written and produced by Penn Medicine’s Department of Communications. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive an e-mail notification when new content goes live!

Views expressed are those of the author or other attributed individual and do not necessarily represent the official opinion of the related Department(s), University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine), or the University of Pennsylvania, unless explicitly stated with the authority to do so.

Health information is provided for educational purposes and should not be used as a source of personal medical advice.

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