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

  • Sheik Points Muslim Route to HIV Prevention (AllAfrica.com)
    The Reporter newspaper in Gaborone, Botswana writes: "A Muslim missionary stationed in Gaborone, Sheikh Hategeaikimana Hassan, says that the government's ABC - Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise - model is not entirely compatible with the teachings of Islam. The 'C' is the problem." --- A study by Dr. Daniel Halperin of the University of California, San Francisco is mentioned.
  • Fresno girl, 6, fights brain tumor (Fresno Bee - Online)
    The Fresno Bee reports on fundraising efforts for the family of 6-year-old Natalia Valle-Sandoval, who is receiving treatment for an inoperable brain tumor at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.
  • China quake's trauma lingers (Los Angeles Times)
    The LA Times reports: "Psychology, psychiatry and grief counseling are relatively new fields in a culture where formality, Confucian hierarchy and decorum are highly valued and many families customarily don't talk much about their feelings, particularly fathers and sons. In a major turnaround, the government has embraced mental health issues almost from the beginning of [the earthquake] disaster, sending more than 500 volunteers and experts to the affected area, with more on the way. Although these efforts are sometimes amateur, on balance experts see this as a huge shift in society's view of trauma, stress and mental health." --- Francis Lu, clinical psychology professor at UC San Francisco, is quoted.
  • What should UC be? (Los Angeles Times)
    Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, who chaired the UC Committee on Planning and Budget in 2005-06, writes in an op-ed to the LA Times: "Mark Yudof should level with the people of California, so they understand that only public funding can restore the University of California's tradition of top quality and wide access."
  • McCain's Health Is Called Robust By His Doctors (New York Times)
    The New York Times reports: "Senator John McCain, 71, is in excellent health and shows no evidence of the recurrence of the melanoma skin cancer that led to extensive head and neck surgery in 2000, Mr. McCain’s doctors said Friday." --- Dr. Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, director of the Melanoma Center at the University of California, San Francisco, is quoted.
  • Many ignorant of heart attack signs-study (Reuters)
    Kathleen Dracup and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Nursing report in the Archives of Internal Medicine that "many people with heart disease do not know the symptoms of a heart attack, even though their risk of suffering one is five to seven times higher than those with no such history," said Reuters.
  • Cancer treatment can have dire side effects (Sacramento Bee)
    Joyce Ma, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis is using stem cells to stop tumors from regrowing without harming the health cells -- a revolutionary field of stem cell research, said the Sacramento Bee.
  • Regents allow UC Merced to proceed with plans for med school (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports: "Last week, the University of California regents green-lighted plans for UC Merced to move forward with establishing a medical school. The school now needs to raise $200,000 to $300,000 for planning. ... Under the school's proposal, medical students would take their first two years of classes on the Merced campus, then go to the UCSF campus in Fresno for clinical training in their third and fourth years."
  • Emeryville firm devises diabetes risk test (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports: "An Emeryville biomedical company is about to market a test that it hopes will reduce the terrible health toll of the U.S. diabetes epidemic and, at the same time, slash the nation's costs for medical care." --- Dr. Michael German, clinical director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, and Christian Vaisse, a UCSF associate professor of medicine who studies the genetics of diabete, are quoted.
  • Hospitals, patients clash on privacy rights (San Francisco Chronicle)
    The Chronicle reports: "Fundraising efforts by UCSF led to a recent privacy breach involving more than 6,300 patients whose names and other information were inadvertently posted on the Internet." --- Mark Laret, chief executive of the UCSF Medical Center, is quoted.
  • Turning cell phones into tools of medicine (San Jose Mercury News)
    The Mercury News reports: "Three Bay Area research teams are using cell phones to stretch the power of diagnostic equipment and medical services by devising simple, inexpensive ways to avert, treat and rehabilitate people after medical crises." --- Barbara Drew, a UC-San Francisco professor, who is finishing a five-year study of cell phones in heart attack treatment, is quoted.
  • Combat leads to brain injuries in one-fifth of veterans (San Mateo County Times)
    The Mercury News reported on the "Brain at War" symposium at SFVAMC on Friday. "Among the legacies of combat for up to 20 percent of veterans are brain injuries that can impair basic functions for months, years or decades, according to numerous medical experts who spoke at a recent conference here on combat-related brain injuries. While clinicians currently work with a sparse arsenal for treating these largely invisible injuries, the speakers also attested to the Bay Area's role as a hotbed of research and innovative treatments for combat-related neurological trauma."
  • Former Santa Cruz High star basketball player Cliff Sammet completes chemotherapy (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
    Cliff Sammet, 21, a former high school basketball star diagnosed last year with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, completed his last round of chemotherapy at UCSF, and looks forward to college and vacation with his family.
  • Dating gang member ups pregnancy rate (United Press International)
    Researchers at RTI International, the University of California San Francisco and the University of North Carolina report in the American Journal of Epidemiology that "teenage girls whose boyfriends are gang members are nearly twice as likely to become pregnant as girls not dating boys in gangs," said UPI.
  • National Spelling Bee can be life-changing for winners (USA Today)
    USA Today reports: "By Friday, the English-speaking world will have a new spelling champion. ... Outside the world of words, it's common to find former contestants -- winners or not -- thriving in fields from business and law to medicine and engineering." --- Raga Ramachandran, the 1988 champion who's now a surgical pathology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, is quoted.

UCSF TELEVISION COVERAGE

  • New tools for heart attack survivors (ABC 7 News -- San Francisco)
    ABC 7 reports: "Researchers at UCSF want to know whether a unique device could protect heart attack survivors once they're released from the hospital. These are patients in a dangerous grey area because they are healthy enough to go home, but still vulnerable to a second heart attack. ... Cardiologist Jeffery Olgin is heading up the study."
  • Allergies (Channel 4 News Midday - KNBC-TV -- Los Angeles)
    NBC reports: “Researchers at UC San Francisco tested the umbilical cords of newborns with families with history of asthma, and say they have suppressed T-cells. Researchers are speculating exposure to microbes in the birth canal may give natural birth babies a stronger immune system.”
  • Signs of heart trouble go unnoticed by those with a history of the illness (KTVU Morning News 6 AM - KTVU-TV)
    KTVU reports that a UCSF study found "many people do not know the symptoms of a heart attack, even those with a history of heart problems. Researchers say shorter hospital stays have lessened the amount of education patients get on the subject." --- Air time: 6 AM

UCSF RADIO COVERAGE

  • UC Walkout Could Begin in 10 Days (KCBS-AM)
    KCBS reports: "The union that represents 20,000 patient care and service workers in the UC system have voted to authorize a strike. ... Union member Judy McKeever, who works at UCSF... says she and her colleagues simply can't survive on their wages, which are sometimes as low as $10 per hour, they say below comparable workers' salaries at community college and other California hospitals."
  • Merced Medical School Preliminary Plans Approved (KCBS-AM)
    KCBS reports: "Last week, the University of California regents green-lighted plans for UC Merced to move forward with establishing a medical school. ... Under the school's proposal, medical students would take their first two years of classes on the Merced campus, then go to the UCSF campus in Fresno for clinical training in their third and fourth years."

UCSF HEADLINES

  • UCSF Awards Gold-Headed Cane to Advocate for Disabled (UCSF Today)
    The UCSF School of Medicine recognized graduating student Nathaniel “Nat” Gleason with the prestigious Gold-Headed Cane Award, at its commencement ceremony on May 19. ... This year, the award was presented by Kevin Grumbach, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, who received it in 1985.