UCLAhealth.org Health News

Statement by Gerald Levey

2009-11-04T00:00:00.0000000-08:00

Statement from Gerald S. Levey, vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, on the naming of his successor:

I believe the selection of A. Eugene Washington to serve as the next dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and vice chancellor of health sciences at UCLA is an inspired choice and signals a strong commitment to the issues of greatest importance to academic medicine in the coming...

A. Eugene Washington appointed as dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences at UCLA

2009-11-04T00:00:00.0000000-08:00

Message to UCLA administrative officers, deans, department chairs, directors, vice chancellors and faculty of the medical echool and medical sciences from Scott Waugh, executive vice chancellor and provost:

Dear Colleagues:

I am very pleased to inform you that Chancellor Block and I have proposed for UC Regents’ approval the appointment of A. Eugene Washington as dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine...

Astellas, Medivation to develop, commercialize MDV3100 for treatment of prostate cancer

2009-11-04T00:00:00.0000000-08:00

Astellas Pharma Inc. of Japan and California's Medivation Inc. have announced a global agreement to develop and commercialize MDV3100, a chemical compound developed in UCLA science laboratories that is now Medivation's investigational drug for the treatment of prostate cancer.

MDV3100 is currently being evaluated in the Phase 3 AFFIRM clinical trial in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer who were previously treated with docetaxel-based...

Statement on UCLA's organ transplantation program

2009-11-02T00:00:00.0000000-08:00

CBS's "60 Minutes" ran a story Sunday, Nov. 1, on the Japanese Yakuza that included numerous inaccuracies relating to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and organ transplants in general. Unfortunately, the program failed to air the complete statement provided by UCLA, which directly refuted a number of the segment's allegations.

The U.S. organ allocation system is completely transparent. In 2008, both federal legislative investigators and Centers for...

Kaiser Permanente gives $5.2 million to endow Center for Health Equity at UCLA

2009-10-29T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The UCLA School of Public Health has received a $5.2 million gift from Kaiser Permanente to endow the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. The center, formerly known as the Center to Eliminate Health Disparities, is dedicated to improving the health of underserved populations through research, community collaboration and leadership development.

"This generous funding from Kaiser Permanente will enable the center to expand...

Pediatric patients experience Halloween fun at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA

2009-10-27T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

WHAT:

Despite being in the hospital, pediatric patients at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA will still get to celebrate Halloween by dressing up in costumes, face-painting and watching a magic show. In addition, five canine teams from UCLA's People-Animal Connection (PAC), an animal-assisted therapy program, will don costumes and accompany the kids while they trick-or-treat through the hospital...

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center receives award for excellence in heart care

2009-10-21T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been honored by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association for its commitment to and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients.

The medical center was one of only 121 hospitals nationwide to be recognized for achieving the aggressive goal of treating acute myocardial infarction patients with high compliance to levels of care outlined by these two leading national...

Feelings of stigmatization may discourage HIV patients from proper care, study finds

2009-10-21T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The feeling of stigmatization that people living with HIV often experience doesn't only exact a psychological toll — new UCLA research suggests it can also lead to quantifiably negative health outcomes.

In a study published in the October issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers from the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA found that a large number of...

First-time Internet users find boost in brain function after just one week

2009-10-19T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web.

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially...

Nearly all Californians would potentially be insured under national health care reform

2009-10-19T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

If national health care reform is enacted, 93 percent of California's non-elderly population would have access to health insurance — a nearly 13 percentage-point increase in statewide coverage — according to a new fact sheet released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

About 4...

Higher resource use at hospitals means reduced mortality among heart patients

2009-10-13T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Variations in how hospital resources are used across the United States have been a central component of the current discussion on health care reform. A new study by the University of California's five medical centers and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles that examined variations in medical treatment, cost and patient outcomes between hospitals has some surprising new findings to add to the debate.

The study, "Looking...

UCLA gets $4.8M to create Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center

2009-10-13T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The UCLA School of Public Health has received a major grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish a center that will facilitate research to strengthen the ability of federal, state and local public health agencies to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and human-induced disasters, including terrorism.

The award, which totals $4.8 million over four years, will allow the school's Center for Public...

Breast tenderness during hormone replacement therapy linked to elevated cancer risk

2009-10-12T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Women who developed new-onset breast tenderness after starting estrogen plus progestin hormone replacement therapy were at significantly higher risk for developing breast cancer than women on the combination therapy who didn't experience such tenderness, according to a new UCLA study.

The research, published in the Oct. 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, is based on data from more than 16,000 participants in the Women's Health Initiative...

Cardiologist honored for research on effect of air pollution on heart health

2009-10-07T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Thanks to the work of Dr. Jesus Araujo, director of environmental cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, patients with high cholesterol and those at risk for heart disease may one day be told by their doctors to avoid not only fatty foods and smoking but air pollution too.

Araujo's ongoing research on the effect of air pollution on cardiovascular health has revealed that the smallest particles from...

Insured African Americans more likely to use emergency room than other insured groups

2009-10-07T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Health insurance, and the access it provides to a primary care physician, should reduce the use of a major driver of health care costs: the emergency room.

Yet in a policy brief released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, researchers found that in California, privately insured African Americans enrolled in HMOs are far more likely to use the ER and to delay getting needed prescription drugs than HMO-insured...

Shawn, Larry King to be honored at 'Party on the Pier' benefiting Mattel Children's Hospital

2009-10-07T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

CNN talk show host Larry King and his wife, Shawn, will be honored at the 10th annual Mattel Party on the Pier, which benefits Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA. The event takes Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.

The Kings will each be presented with an honorary white doctor's coat during a special ceremony. In addition, Mattel Inc. will present Shawn with a one-of-a-kind doll made in her image to recognize her...

Where religious belief and disbelief meet

2009-10-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

When it comes to religion, believers and nonbelievers appear to think very differently. But at the level of the brain, is believing in God different from believing that the sun is a star or that 4 is an even number?

While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life, little is known about its relationship to ordinary belief. Nor is it known whether religious believers differ from nonbelievers in how they evaluate statements of...

Half-million low-income elderly affected by sweeping cuts to state safety net

2009-10-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

An 81-year-old San Francisco woman with dementia, little money and an equally aged caregiver sister who is suffering from cancer.

A 72-year-old Riverside woman with Alzheimer's who cannot be left safely on her own, forcing her son to cut back his working hours to care for her.

A 78-year-old Los Angeles man with Alzheimer's whose daughter will have to quit her job to take care of him if day care services are...

Jonsson Cancer Researcher Appointed to Prestigious Pontifical Academy OF Sciences by Pope Benedict XVI

2009-10-01T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Dr. Edward De Robertis has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a lifetime term on the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a 406-year-old organization of 80 scientists who work to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences.

Dr. Edward De Robertis

The UCLA School of Nursing is well on its way to fulfilling one of they key goals Dean Courtney Lyder set when he took the reins a year ago: enhancing the school's research structure. In 2008–09, the school received 26 research grants totaling more than $18 million — a 300 percent increase over the previous year.

Many of the grants, most of which come from the National Institutes of Health, are...

Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA presents 2009 holiday card collection

2009-09-24T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Young patients, plus celebrity designer, create meaningful cards

Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA announced the arrival of the 2009 holiday card collection created by pediatric patients at a kick-off event on Sept. 15.

Two Jonsson Cancer Center Researchers Win Prestigious NIH New Innovator Awards To Fund Leading-Edge Research

2009-09-23T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Two researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have won prestigious New Innovator Awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund their leading-edge research.

Rethinking Alzheimer's disease and its treatment targets

2009-09-22T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the brain and become the sticky plaques that have defined Alzheimer's for more than 100 years.

Billions of dollars are spent yearly targeting this toxic peptide — but what if this is the wrong target? What if...

Top structural biologists to discuss cryo-electron micoscopy at UCLA symposium

2009-09-22T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

WHAT:

The two-day Advanced Electron Microscopy in NanoMedicine Symposium at the California NanoSystems (CNSI) at UCLA brings together researchers from academia and industry to discuss cryo-electron microscopy, or cryoEM, an important new imaging tool with major applications for nanobiology and nanomedicine, particularly for understanding viruses and other macromolecular...

Study of UCLA hospital relocation provides insights for disaster planning

2009-09-21T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

By restricting elective surgeries, limiting incoming transfers and enhancing the efficiency of the discharge process, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was able to reduce capacity before its relocation without interrupting emergency or trauma services, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

UCLA scientists make paralyzed rats walk again after spinal cord injury

2009-09-20T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.

Published Sept. 20 in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest that the regeneration of severed nerve fibers is not required for paraplegic rats to learn to walk again. The research may hold implications for...

UCLA Experts Offer Tips to Help Protect Against Flu

2009-09-18T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Schools as well as the flu season have officially started, so this is a great time to follow some simple health tips that will help provide protection from not only H1N1 (swine flu), but seasonal influenza as well.

"H1N1 is a new virus and people lack immunity to it. We encourage everyone to be extra careful this year in taking precautions to prevent the spread of flu," said Dr. David A. Pegues,...

UCLA Breathmobile hits the road to help kids with asthma

2009-09-18T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Children in Southern California may soon be breathing a little easier, thanks to the UCLA Breathmobile, an asthma clinic on wheels that provides free diagnosis, treatment, medication and education at school sites for children with asthma.

Staffed by a physician, a registered nurse and a patient-service worker, the RV-style UCLA Breathmobile will be...

UCLA School of Dentistry to build new cancer research facility

2009-09-14T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

Federal economic stimulus efforts will soon add muscle to the fight against cancer.

The UCLA School of Dentistry consistently ranks among the country's top dental schools in National Institutes of Health funding. During the past three fiscal years, the school has secured nearly $30 million in grants for oral cancer research and research training. Now, the dental school has received a major infusion of construction funding for the...

UCLA researchers develop biomarker for rapid relief of major depression

2009-09-10T00:00:00.0000000-07:00

It is a long, slow slog to treat major depression. Many antidepressant medications are available, but no single biomarker or diagnostic test exists to predict which one is right for an individual. As a result, for more than half of all patients, the first drug prescribed doesn't work, and it can take months to figure out what does.

Now, based on the final results of a nationwide study led by UCLA, clinicians may be able to accurately predict within a week whether a...