IN THE NEWS: Public radio station KPCC-FM aired a segment addressing Dr. Robert Bristow’s recent presentation about racial and economic disparities in ovarian cancer care:
Their study of 50,000 women with ovarian cancer found that race and income play a role in ovarian cancer survival, specifically that African American and poor women are less likely than white and affluent women to receive the top standard of treatment.
The University of California Irvine study found that five-year survival rates varied greatly. Poor women had survival rates 30 percent below those of more affluent women – regardless of ethnic background.
Hear the report >>
The Orange County Women’s Health Project is holding its first Women’s Health Policy Summit at UC Irvine on Tuesday, May 15, to identify needs and priorities related to women’s health issues in the nation’s sixth-largest county.
The event will unite diverse groups, people to determine local needs and priorities.
The event will take place at the Student Center on the UC Irvine campus and brings together a diverse group of health professionals and administrators, nonprofit and public agency staff, educators and researchers, and others concerned about women’s health in Orange County. The public is invited to attend.
Read More >>
Orange County Women’s Health Project >>
Dr. Robert Bristow, UC Irvine Healthcare
Poor women and African Americans with ovarian cancer are less likely to receive the highest standards of care, leading to worse outcomes than among white and affluent patients, according to a study of 50,000 women presented by UC Irvine’s Dr. Robert Bristow at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s recent annual meeting.
“Not all women are benefiting equally from improvements in ovarian cancer care,” said Bristow, UC Irvine’s director of gynecologic oncology services. “The reasons behind these disparities are not entirely clear, which is why we need additional research.”
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer, accounting for more than 15,000 deaths a year, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Read More >>
Nathan Wong, PhD, is director of the UC Irvine Heart Disease Prevention Program and is the editor and chief of "Preventive Cardiology."
A simple test for heart disease risk can go a long way toward determining the long-term prognosis for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to UC Irvine researchers.
Dr. Hwa Mu Lee and Nathan Wong of the UC Irvine Heart Disease Prevention Program found that individuals with moderate to severe COPD who had a low Framingham Heart Study 10-year risk assessment rate lived longer and healthier than COPD patients who scored high on the heart test.
Study results point to the importance of cardiovascular health for those with COPD and strongly suggest that heart disease risk evaluations be part of the diagnostic and treatment procedures for lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis that affect 64 million people worldwide and are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S.
“We’re learning that addressing cardiac risk factors may significantly improve outcomes in persons with COPD,” said Wong, program director and a professor of cardiology and epidemiology. “The connection between these two diseases is under appreciated.”
Read More >>
IN THE NEWS: The Web site HealthDay asked UC Irvine’s Dr. Carl Schultz to comment on a recent study about the use and over-use of CT scans:
Doctors use CT scans to look for signs of trouble in the body from a variety of causes, including cancer, heart, abdominal and lung problems, and trauma from accidents or other injuries. In some cases, patients may get multiple CT scans, even in one day, because doctors are looking for problems in different organs. Dr. Carl Schultz, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, said physicians probably order CT scans too much because they’re afraid of missing something. “There is no acceptable miss-rate other than zero,” he said, “so there’s tremendous pressure to do these scans.”
Read More >>
April 27, 2012 – 12:50 pm
Residents of nursing homes are among those most susceptible to elder abuse and neglect. Now, experts from UC Irvine’s Program in Geriatrics will provide training and support in Orange County nursing homes under the settlement terms of a class-action lawsuit alleging inadequate staffing at 22 long-term-care facilities in California.
Training will be handled by UC Irvine’s Elder Abuse Forensic Center and funded by a $375,000 grant from the trustee of the $62.8 million settlement in Vinnie Lavender et al. v. Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. et al.
“This grant allows us to fill a need that has distressed us for years – the recognition and integration of the needs of vulnerable older adults in long-term care into all aspects of our work,” said Kerry Burnight, Ph.D., associate professor of family medicine at UC Irvine and co-director of the Elder Abuse Forensic Center.
Read More >>
If you or a loved one are experiencing the symptoms of stroke or heart failure, UC Irvine Health is committed to providing the best treatment available.
Recently, the nation’s top accrediting organization for hospitals agreed, once again giving UC Irvine The Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval for its heart failure program and Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center. Both programs were among the first anywhere to receive this recognition.
Read More >>
More than 100 families attended Saturday’s biennial reunion of children delivered at UC Irvine Medical Center and treated in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Many of the children were more than two months premature and some weighed as little as a pound at birth.
“We have been doing a preemie reunion for more than 20 years so our families can come back and share their wonderful, joyous children,” said Gail Devaney, a nurse and director of UC Irvine Medical Center’s Women and Children’s Services. “Some have been coming for 10 or 15 years.
“The nurses love this – they can see how they’ve made a difference in someone’s life,” she said.
UC Irvine’s neonatal intensive care unit holds California’s highest designation is part of the county’s only combined high-risk obstetrics and Level III NICU.
The new UC Irvine Douglas Hospital features a 45-bed NICU and includes rooms specially designed to accommodate multiple births. UC Irvine delivers more multiple births than any local hospital – four sets of triplets attended Saturday’s reunion.
Read about the Bloom triplets and UC Irvine’s high-risk maternal fetal program >>
Linda Dickey, in background, leads UC Irvine Medical Center's efforts to prevent the spread of hospital-acquired infectious diseases. /UC Irvine Health
No one goes to the hospital to get sick, yet it happens each day at medical centers, clinics and private physicians offices across the U.S.
State and federal health officials have taken aim at eliminating hospital-acquired infectious diseases that range from the latest flu strain to the drug-resistant staph infection known as MRSA by requiring hospitals to report such infections.
At UC Irvine Medical Center, Linda Dickey keeps an eye on these infections and others and directs plans to reduce the likelihood that they will spread to patients and healthcare workers.
In 2009, when fears were running high about the bird flu virus, the facility began requiring that employees either get a flu shot or sign a written declination and wear a mask in medical areas. The mandatory policy was designed to protect patients, says Dickey, a nurse and director of the medical center’s epidemiology & infection prevention program.
It worked. Compliance, which had been voluntary, jumped from about 60 percent — the national average for hospitals — to more than 90 percent. “It’s a big win for us,” Dickey says. “Now other hospitals are following our lead.”
Read More >>
April 19, 2012 – 10:09 am
Dr. Manuel Porto
IN THE NEWS: UC Irvine’s Dr. Manuel Porto addressed the the 22nd annual Perinatal Symposium organized by Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s Women’s and Children’s Services at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:
For some time, health care professionals have known it’s best to allow a fetus to develop in its mother’s womb until its 39th week of gestation, but that doesn’t always happen. For various non-medical reasons, expectant mothers or their physicians will schedule a birth prior to the 39th week. Sometimes, a physician will schedule an early delivery at the patient’s request.
“As obstetricians, we feel pressured to schedule the delivery,” said Dr. Manuel Porto, chairman of UC Irvine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The woman may want to accommodate family members’ visits or is tired out from the pregnancy.
“Let’s face it. It just doesn’t feel great to be pregnant,” Porto said. Waiting until the 39th week, however, means better outcomes for mother and child, Porto told more than 600 health care professionals Wednesday.
Read More >>
