Patrick Basile, MD: Upstate medical graduate performs high profile double arm transplant
Dr. Richard O’Neill’s Check-Up From The Neck-Up: Who, What, Where, When, How, or… what I learned on my vacation to China
Richard Cantor, MD: PEDS to Parents – How to keep kids safe in summer
Harold Smulyan, MD: What killed Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum?
Deirdre Neilen, PhD: The Healing Muse – ‘Snow’ and ‘Things My Daughter Lost in Hospitals’
Rosemary Rochford, PhD, recently appointed vice president for research at Upstate, is joined by researchers Barry Knox, PhD, and Debashis Ghosh, MSc, PhD, to discuss how the National Institutes for Health’s (NIH) grant funding sequester will impact current and future research.
Upstate nurse practitioner and palliative care specialist Patricia Lippincott Knox, MSN, FNP, helps us understand the importance of advance directives – the planning and documents that instruct others about your medical care should you be unable to make decisions on your own – including a living will, health care proxy, and do not resuscitate order (DNR).
Resources: Caring Connections – provides free advance directives and instructions; Advance care planning, from the NYS Department of Health; Respecting Choices
Upstate dietitian Terry Podolak, RD, introduces ‘Healthy Eats’, a new segment focusing on nutrition and ‘mindful eating’. In this edition, Podolak shares one of her favorite books, “The Jungle Effect” by Daphne Miller, MD, and explains how it can help you eat right and improve your health and mood. The book suggests moving away from the standard American diet, and to look at ancestral recipes and traditions. Read more: The Center for Mindful Eating (TCME).
Joel Potash, MD, retired Upstate family physician and medical ethicist, explores the possibility of adventure as people age without denying that aging can be challenging as well. Dr. Potash is sponsoring an upcoming seminar on end-of-life issues titled ‘Age-ing is an Adventure in Spiritual Growth – Are You Ready for the Journey?‘. For more information, call 315-413-3272.
A more precise technique to determine non-reimbursed costs of preauthorizations – also referred to as prior authorizations – to physician practices has been used in a study by researchers from the Department of Family Medicine at Upstate Medical University. Christopher Morley, PhD, vice-chair for research in Family Medicine, will join us to talk about their findings.
Read the study: The impact of prior authorization requirements on primary care physicians’ offices: report of two parallel network studies
In response to a recent study that links increased consumption of sugar with higher diabetes rates independent of rates of obesity, Dr. Richard O’Neill delves into the psychology behind the problem – how to go about changing what you eat, changing your kids’ diet, school lunch offerings and more.
Read the study: The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric Analysis of Repeated Cross-Sectional Data
Read the New York Times summary article: It’s the Sugar, Folks
Watch Dr. O’Neill on YouTube!
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Rosemary Rochford PhD is widely known for her research on Burkitt’s Lymphoma, the most common childhood cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. She will talk about the cancer challenges in developing countries, how the cancer registry programs work, the main types of cancers that exist in Africa and how they differ from those in the United States. Rochford is professor & chair of Microbiology & Immunology and recently appointed vice president for research at Upstate.
Cynthia Morrow, MD, MPH, commissioner of health for Onondaga County, joins us to talk about infant mortality in the black community, and what Onondaga County is doing to address the needs of women and children. Onondaga County’s Syracuse Healthy Start Program offers services for infants, children, new moms and families. For more resources and information visit onhealthyfamilies.com.
Jay Scott, director of education programs for Upstate’s Emergency Medicine Department, is joined by Dr. Arthur Vercillo, local surgeon and regional president of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, to discuss a $30,000 grant from Excellus that will pay for EKG machines for volunteer rescue squads across Central New York. The grant will provide life-saving cardiac care equipment for ambulance and rescue squads across five counties.
Read the story: Ambulances get new life-saving equipment
Upstate trauma surgeon 
Dr. Fahd Ali too often sees the results of violence in our community. He suggests that those violent behaviors are just a symptom of the underlying problems that face our society today, including mental health issues and video games and movies that desensitize and glamorize violence. Dr. Ali has established a program within the correctional system that works to educate youthful offenders before it’s too late to turn their lives around.
Dr. Usha Satish talks about a recent study that Upstate is involved in, looking at how carbon dioxide levels impact thinking and decision making. Dr. Satish directs the Strategic Management Simulation laboratories at Upstate Medical University, where her work is centered on the application of simulation technology to assess “how” people make decisions and in enhancing the quality of critical thinking.
Read more about The Institute for Decision Excellence & Leadership at Upstate.
National heart disease and cholesterol expert Dr. John LaRosa discusses the newest and most powerful class of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, and the role they play in the decline of heart disease and stroke.
