University of Chicago Medical Center News

University of Chicago Medicine, CeaseFire partner to address violence

cheryl.reed@uchospitals.edu (Cheryl Reed) — Tue, 7 February 2012 13:00:00 CST

In an effort to address urban violence on the South Side, the University of Chicago Medicine is partnering with CeaseFire Chicago to sponsor a "Violence Interrupter" who will focus on monitoring, mediating and defusing disputes in neighborhoods that the medical campus serves.

Antidepressant-suicide link in youths absent in new analysis

robert.mitchum@uchospitals.edu (Rob Mitchum) — Mon, 6 February 2012 15:00:00 CST

In 2004, concerns about antidepressant drugs increasing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young patients prompted the FDA to issue a rare "black box warning." Now, a new analysis of clinical trial data finds that treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine did not increase -- or decrease -- suicidality in children compared to placebo treatment.

Do patients pay when they leave against medical advice?

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Fri, 3 February 2012 14:00:00 CST

There are ways in which patients who leave the hospital against medical advice wind up paying for that decision. Being saddled with the full cost of their hospital stay, however, is not one of them.

Lung transplant system often skips over those most in need

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Tue, 31 January 2012 17:15:00 CDT

The system for allocating donated lungs based on proximity and not on need appears to decrease the potential benefits of lung transplantation and increase the number of patients who die waiting.

Janet Rowley, MD, to receive Japan Prize for her role in the development of targeted cancer therapy

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Wed, 25 January 2012 09:00:00 CDT

Janet Davison Rowley, MD, the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, will share the 2012 Japan Prize for Healthcare and Medical Technology.

University of Chicago Medicine looks ahead to new brand, new hospital

lorna.wong@uchospitals.edu (Lorna W.S. (Lim) Wong) — Mon, 23 January 2012 06:00:00 CDT

The University of Chicago Medical Center, one of the leading academic medical institutions in the country, is introducing a new brand as it prepares to open a modern 10-story hospital on its South Side campus next January.

Study: Communicating health risk is a risky task for FDA

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Thu, 19 January 2012 12:00:00 CDT

The impact of efforts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to notify the general public and health care providers about unanticipated risks from approved medications has been "varied and unpredictable," according to a systematic review of published studies about FDA warnings and alerts over the last 20 years.

Four faculty members in Pritzker, BSD receive named appointments

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Tue, 17 January 2012 13:00:00 CDT

Four members of the faculty in the Biological Sciences Division -- Habibul Ahsan, Peter Angelos, David Song and Jerrold Turner -- have received named professorships.

Neural balls and strikes: where categories live in the brain

john.easton@uchospitals.edu (John Easton) — Mon, 16 January 2012 08:00:00 CDT

Hundreds of times during a baseball game, the home plate umpire must instantaneously categorize a fast-moving pitch as a ball or a strike. In new research from the University of Chicago, scientists have pinpointed an area in the brain where these kinds of visual categories are encoded.