SUMC in the News (08/20/07)

Print media coverage

Ventura County Star (Ventura County, Calif.), 08/20/07
Early treatment promises to keep Alzheimer's patients maintain their quality of life
J. Wesson Ashford, senior research scientist at the Stanford/VA Aging Clinical Research Center, provides comment in this article on Alzheimer's disease. The story, which originally appeared in the Orange County Register (Orange County, Calif.), also appears in the Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.).

Houston Chronicle, 08/20/07
Chasing away the pain
This article on chronic pain references a USA Today/ABC News/Stanford University Medical Center poll that found more than half of all American adults suffer from it.

Illinois Daily Herald, 08/20/07
Wilderness medicine a growing trend
Paul Auerbach, a clinical professor of surgery, is quoted in this article on wilderness medicine, a fast-emerging medical specialty that covers conditions ranging from altitude-induced mountain sickness to deep-sea decompression. The story originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 08/20/07
Exercising '30 and five' valid advice, report says
The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recently released a report recommending 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week. William Haskell, professor of medicine, emeritus, is quoted in this story.

Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y.), 08/20/07
Living proof
William Hurlbut, a consulting professor of neurology, is referenced in this opinion piece on stem cell therapy.

Oakland Tribune, 08/20/07
Animal therapy
This article discusses pet therapy - the therapeutic use of pets as visitors to hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities. Stanford Hospital & Clinics is mentioned here.

Washington Post, 08/19/07
Multiple births raise ethical, medical issues (No online version available)
This San Jose Mercury News article discusses a national increase in births of "high-order multiples" - triplets or more - caused by assisted reproductive technologies. David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, provides comment.

San Francisco Chronicle, 08/19/07
It smells fishy - and that's good
In this piece, Nayer Khazeni, a medical school fellow, discusses the health benefits of fish oil.

Seattle Times, 08/18/07
Fungus infection killed Targeted Genetics patient
This article discusses the recent death of a patient in a gene therapy clinical trial. Mark Kay, the Dennis Farrey Family Professor in Pediatrics, is quoted here.

Hobart Mercury (Australia), 08/18/07
Some foods just taste better (No online version available)
Asked to sample two identical foods from McDonald's, children in a Stanford/Lucile Packard Children's Hospital study preferred the taste of the version branded with the restaurant's familiar "Golden Arches" to one extracted from unmarked paper packaging. The study was led by Thomas Robinson, associate professor of pediatrics and of medicine and director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Packard Children's. The study is also discussed in the South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Ind.).

Oakland Tribune, 08/17/07
Scientists analyze the power of music's pauses
Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies, a Stanford research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. Vinod Menon, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurosciences, and Devarajan Sridharan, a neurosciences graduate student trained in Indian percussion and first author, are quoted in this San Jose Mercury News article.

Palo Alto Online, 08/17/07
Stanford plan may mean big bump in traffic
The application for plans to expand the hospitals has been officially filed with the city of Palo Alto. Mark Tortorich, vice president of planning, design and construction at SHC, provides comment in this article, which also appears in the Menlo Park Almanac.

Broadcast media coverage

All Things Considered (NPR), 08/17/07
The FDA issued an advisory Friday to physicians and nursing mothers about codeine, the painkiller most widely used after childbirth. Alan Garber, the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor, was featured during this segment.