FYI…UCSF in the News is a daily summary of news stories published worldwide that highlight UCSF, its affiliated programs, and issues that affect the University.  To read the full news story, click the individual headlines listed below.

On the second Wednesday of each month, FYI…UCSF in the News includes an additional "Research Roundup" section that lists research papers authored by UCSF faculty and published in the journals Cell, Health Services Research, JAMA, Lancet, Nature, NEJM, Nursing Research, and Science.

UCSF PRINT AND ONLINE COVERAGE

  • Heart disease a surprising diagnosis for many women (Centre Daily Times)
    The Centre Times reports: "Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States, claiming the lives of more women each year than men. But in doctors' offices across the country, heart disease in women often goes undiagnosed. Their symptoms don't mirror those seen in men, and women tend not to recognize the warning signs, doctors say." --- Dr. John Ambrose, chief of cardiology at the University of California at San Francisco-Fresno Medical Education Program, is quoted.
  • OBITUARIES / Frank W. Clark Jr., 1917 - 2008 (Los Angeles Times)
    The LA Times reports: "Frank W. Clark Jr., a lawyer and former chairman of the UC Board of Regents who also was a major donor to UCLA Medical Center, died March 14 at the center, his family said. He was 90. ... Among the 26 regents, Clark cast the sole vote in 1997 opposing the merger of the Stanford and UC San Francisco hospitals. He denounced the plan as the 'privatization' of a branch of state government and called it 'an outright violation of the state Constitution.' The joint venture collapsed two years later.
  • Nurses Earn DAISY Awards (Nurse.com)
    Nurse.com reports: "Janice Tahtinen, RN, CCRN, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Helen Moxley, RN, of Beverly Hospital’s outpatient surgical services unit, both received DAISY Awards for their compassion, caring, and expertise."
  • A Billion for Brains (Portfolio.com)
    Portfolio.com reports: "At a press conference in Washington last week, [Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D), Rhode Island] unveiled plans for a new National Neurotechnology Initiative that would spend $1 billion over five years to boost brain research, regulation, and drug development. --- Sam Barondes, director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and the author of Mood Genes and other popular books on psychiatry and drugs, is quoted.
  • ALS researcher with illness finds solace in his expertise (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports: "Dr. Richard Olney, Dr. Richard Olney and his wife, Paula, are treasuring a plateau in the progression of his ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease." --- Dr. Catherine Lomen-Hoerth, director of the ALS center at UCSF, which Dr. Olney headed before his diagnosis in 2004, is interviewed.
  • Evidence grows for exercise as aging deterrent (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports: "Perhaps you already know that taking a daily brisk walk can help keep you in shape, not to mention stave off heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. But new scientific evidence suggests that exercise is helpful because it keeps you younger on a cellular level. ... 'How we treat our body and our lifestyle is a huge predictor of biological age as opposed to chronological age,' Elissa Epel, a UCSF psychologist who studies stress and cell aging."
  • NIGHT SHIFT (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports on a "shift work disorder," a diagnosis describing problems, like insomnia and excessive sleepiness, people experience from working nights. --- Dr. Louis Ptacek, a UCSF neurologist studying genes and sleep behaviors, is quoted.
  • Miracle recovery for police officer (San Francisco Examiner -- Front page)
    The Examiner reports that thanks to the "sweet science practiced by trauma physicians at San Francisco General Hospital," San Francisco police Inspector Kevin Cleary has made a remarkable recovery after suffering a fractured skull and major brain injury from a fall at his home 6 weeks ago. "That’s largely due to the work of Dr. Shirley Stiver, a neurosurgeon at S.F. General, who operated on Cleary and managed his care -- under the wing of Dr. Geoffrey Manley, the hospital’s neuro-trauma chief -- through pneumonia, the onset of blood clots and what she described for me as one 'very angry brain,'" said the Examiner's Ken Garcia. --- Front page: http://sfpaper.examiner.com/edition/san_francisco/?haspdf=1. (enter 3/21)
  • Dietary risk factors linked to incidence of prostate cancer (Thaindian News, India)
    Thaindian News reports: "An oncologist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has found that dietary risk factors are closely associated with incidence of prostate cancer (CaP). June Chan from UCSF presented his study on Nutritional Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer."

UCSF TELEVISION COVERAGE

  • Parkinson's patients benefit from dancing (ABC7 At 5 PM- KGO San Francisco)
    UCSF neurologist Dr. Alec Glass, in an interview Friday with KGO TV, said studies suggest that for Parkinson’s patients, dance helps regain balance and fight depression…sometimes better than medication. .
  • Too few public hospitals provide for the nation's growing uninsured (KTSM-TV CH 9 (NBC) El Paso)
    Following is a transcript of the broadcast with a reporter and unidentified medical staff: "It's late afternoon in the emergency department at San Francisco General Hospital. Too many patients, too few rooms. Doctors and nurses stretched to the limit -- it's awful. Medical staff: ‘We have every nook and cranny filled with patients.’ Reporter: But by The General’s standards, it's a quiet afternoon. Medical staff: ‘This is pretty slow as far as things go here. Usually on Friday night and Saturday night is when things get exciting.’ Reporter: For more than a century, this hospital's provided medical treatment to anyone who comes through the door. Medical staff: ‘Public hospitals like San Francisco General make up 2% of America's hospitals, but they take care of 25% of patients with little or no medical coverage. And they're disappearing at an alarming rate, down almost 22% since 1990. It's a combination of budget cuts at almost every level of government, increased numbers of uninsured, increased demand on the emergency room and the trauma systems. Experts say without our public hospitals, private ones will assume the burden, breaking the backs and the bank of an all already fractured medical system. One study found the overall cost incurred by treating the uninsured, is about $922 added to the average family's insurance premium. Those are complicated patients to take care of. As the poorer have gotten poorer in America, things have escalated.’ Reporter: This man came here because this hospital offers the best trauma hospital in the area.” Air Time: 5:30, Duration: 00:22:12
  • Hospital back online after fire (NBC 11 News: The Bay Area at 5 PM - KNTV-TV)
    NBC 11 and the major Bay Area TV stations reported during the Saturday night and Sunday morning news hours that an electrical fire broke out at San Francisco General Hospital about 3pm Saturday, and was under control 2 hours later. “The hospital was forced to shut down power and run off generators; no new patients were admitted and ambulances were redirected. Smoke seeped into the lower floors of the Hospital, and was tracked to the electrical grid, and firefighters ventilated the affected floors. Some people were moved to other areas of the hospital, but no one was hurt,” said KNTV.

UCSF HEADLINES

  • UCSF Volunteers Help Build Playground in One Day (UCSF Today)
    Volunteers from Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at UCSF Medical Center joined the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the Friends of Balboa Park and the Neighborhood Parks Council on March 4 to build a safe, wheelchair-accessible playground — all in one day.