September 21, 2012

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights

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September 21, 2012

Mayo Clinic in the News is a weekly highlights summary of major media coverage. If you would like to be added to the weekly distribution list, send a note to Emily Blahnik with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News.

Thank you.

Karl Oestreich, manager enterprise media relations

CBS The Morning
Dangerous Weight: “Love Handles” can pose great risk

A new study suggests that normal-weight people who have excess fat around their stomach have a higher risk of dying than obese people. Michael Jensen, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, spoke to the "CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-hosts about the study.

Reach:  CBS This Morning airs from 7 to 9 am Monday through Saturday in markets across the United States.

Context: People who are of normal weight but have fat concentrated in their bellies have a higher death risk than those who are obese, according to Mayo Clinic research presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich. Those studied who had a normal body mass index but central obesity — a high waist-to-hip ratio — had the highest cardiovascular death risk and the highest death risk from all causes, the analysis found. A news release highlighting the study is here. Michael Jensen, M.D., a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist, is one of the authors on the study.

Public Affairs Contacts: Joe Dangor, Traci Klein

NY Times
Easy Detection for Those Who Exaggerate Results
by Gina Kolata

In fact, most people do not lie, said Michael Sachs, an exercise psychologist at Temple University. That is one reason athletes often are so outraged when they catch someone who fibs about his or her performance in a competition. And these lies are easily discovered now that race times are posted on the Internet. Often athletes are quite cognizant of these results, tracking one another’s successes and failures…“Everybody like me who has been doing sports at a high level since they were teenagers can give you four or five or six examples of extravagant liars,” said Dr. Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic researcher who competes in triathlons. But gross exaggerations seem to be the exception. More common are those who shave a few minutes off their times or perhaps add just a few pounds to the amount they can bench press.

Circulation: The New York Times has the third highest circulation nationally, behind USA Today (2nd) and The Wall Street Journal (1st) with 1,150,589 weekday copies circulated and 1,645,152 circulated on Sundays.

Context: Michael Joyner, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist. His research focuses on how how humans respond to various forms of physical and mental stress during activities such as exercise, hypoxia, standing up and blood loss. Dr. Joyner and his team study how the nervous system regulates blood pressure, heart rate and metabolism in response to these forms of stress. They are also interested in how blood flow to muscle and skin responds to these stressors. These responses are studied in young healthy subjects, healthy older subjects and people with conditions such as heart failure.

Public Affairs Contacts: Traci Klein, Bob Nellis

USA Today
Paralyzed NCAA football player starts foundation
by Michael Crowe

In his first therapy session after the accident, just nodding his head was a struggle.  “I couldn’t sit up because the spinal cord also regulates your blood pressure, internal heating, cooling and everything, so I couldn’t sit up very far because my body couldn’t adjust,” said Chris Norton, 21, a junior at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa… His freshman year, he was paralyzed from the neck down while halting the kick-off return during an Oct. 16, 2010 NCAA Division III game… When he was unable to rise from the field, he was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for emergency surgery. At first, he was not given a high chance of recovery.

Circulation: USA TODAY  has a circulation of 1.8 million and a readership of 3.1 million. USA TODAY websites have 26.3 million unique visitors a month.

Context: In October 2010, Chris Norton, a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, was injured during a college football game. During a kickoff return play, he went in for a tackle, and his head hit another player’s thigh. The impact left Chris with two broken vertebrae and a compressed spinal cord. He was airlifted to Mayo Clinic, where doctors said that he had just a 3 percent chance of regaining movement below the neck. But less than 24 hours after the accident, Chris could move his shoulder. And that first small movement marked the beginning of a series of steady, heroic steps forward. Chris continues to be an inspiration to many people as he goes through his recovery and rehabilitation. Previous coverage is here.

Public Affairs Contact: Bryan Anderson

Reuters
Quality-of-life program may help cancer patients
by Genevra Pittman

A therapy program focused on improving quality of life can help people being treated for advanced cancer, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, have found… "Dealing with a cancer diagnosis is a big stressor for lots of people. It's still a really scary health diagnosis," said psychologist Matthew Clark, the lead author on the new study.

Circulation: Thomson Reuters is the world’s largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms.

Context: This study was published online in Cancer August 28, 2012. Matthew Clark, LP, is a Mayo Clinic researcher.  His research focuses on behavioral interventions to improve adherence to health behavior change recommendations in medical patients and on strategies for helping patients cope with their health problems.

Additional coverage: Chicago Tribune, MedCity News, Yahoo! Canada, International Business Times

Public Affairs Contact: Sharon Theimer

Chicago Tribune
NorthShore, Mayo Clinic in multiyear pact
by Peter Frost

The power of a brand name plays an outsized role in how consumers choose to spend their money. That notion is taking hold in medicine, with one of the most famous names in the hospital business expanding to the Chicago area. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic plans to announce an affiliation Wednesday with NorthShore University HealthSystem, which operates four hospitals in the northern suburbs. The multiyear agreement, scheduled to begin Oct. 1, will give NorthShore physicians fast access to Mayo specialists and research targeting three areas of care: cardiovascular, cancer and neurological cases.

Circulation: The Tribune’s average weekday circulation is more about 425,000. Average Sunday circulation is more than 781,000. According to the Tribune, its newspaper reaches more than five million consumers while covering 76% of the market.

Context:  NorthShore University HealthSystem is the newsest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. This unique collaboration, the only one of its kind in the Chicago region, will provide NorthShore patients with access to medical resources and experts from both systems working together on their behalf. The agreement formalizes a long-standing relationship between the two institutions and promotes the collaborative efforts of physicians dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of complex medical conditions, including neurological, cancer and cardiovascular cases. More information is here in the news release.

Additional coverage: Crain’s Business Journal, NBC 5 Chicago, Star Tribune, Northbrook Star Ill., La Crosse Tribune, Glencoe News, Highland Park News, Digital Journal, Wilmette Life Ill., Northbrook Star Ill., FOX News Chicago, FOX Mankato, KAAL (AP), Finance & Commerce, Becker’s Hospital Review, CBS Atlanta, ModernPhysician, : MedCity News, Crain’s Business Journal, Post-Bulletin, Skokie Review, WKBT La Crosse, Sacramento Bee, KAAL, WAND Ill, Lake County News, Becker’s Hospital Review, Evanston Now, HealthLeaders Media, West Central Tribune Minn. , Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MyFoxChicago

Public Affairs Contact: Bryan Anderson

Star Tribune
IT, health care come together

by James Walsh

The BodyGuardian's technology is almost elegant in its apparent simplicity. A sensor taped to the chest securely transmits a patient's ECG, heart rate, respiration and activity rate over a cellphone, to the Cloud to a doctor's iPad or laptop for real-time monitoring… It just so happened that when Otterstatter took his idea to the Mayo Clinic, the health care icon based in Rochester, Minn., he also was looking at ways to take its services mobile. Specifically, a Mayo team led by Dr. Charles Bruce had been working on ways to provide an early warning system for people at high risk for atrial fibrillation.

Circulation: The Star Tribune Sunday circulation is 514,457 copies and weekday circulation is 300,330. The Star Tribune is the state’s largest newspaper and ranks 16th nationally in circulation.

Context:  Mayo Clinic licensed wireless patient monitoring technology (BodyGuardian) to Preventice for commercialization, with the goal of advancing medicine and improving patient care. Preventice and Mayo Clinic also are working together on other initiatives that unleash the power of today’s technology in the field of medicine. Through the licensing agreement, Mayo Clinic has equity ownership in Preventice. Both Mayo and the inventors will receive royalties from BodyGuardian. Revenue Mayo receives is used to support education and research. Charles Bruce, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, is one of the inventors.

News release: NR_BodyGuardian FDA approval_FINAL_090612

Previous coverage

Public Affairs Contacts: Traci Klein, Suzanne Leaf-Brock

Florida Times-Union
Jolt to the head carries risk of becoming a concussion
by Daniel Kantor

Robert Sefcik and Jennifer Roth Maynard, who is a family medicine and sports medicine consultant at Mayo Clinic Florida, Thousands of young athletes are competing in sports representing their schools or clubs. While the majority will have an enjoyable, injury-free sports season, parents, caregivers and a community still must maintain a laser focus on promoting safety…

Circulation: The Florida Times-Union reaches more than 120,000 daily and 173,000 readers Sunday.

Context: Mayo Clinic in Florida issued an expert alert July 18 to raise awareness of a new law that pertains to concussions and the ability of student athletes to return to play if they suffer a head injury. Mayo Clinic family and sports medicine physician Jennifer Roth Maynard, M.D., who is also chair of the Northeast Florida Regional Sports Concussion Task Force, offered her perspective to journalists in a bylinecd piece by her and two colleagues. Daniel Kantor, M.D. is president of the Florida Society of Neurology, secretary of the Duval County Medical Society Board of Directors, chair of the Subcommittee on Concussion and Sports Medicine Advisory Committee of the FHSAA. Robert Sefcik, ATC is executive director of the Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program, a member of the Subcommittee on Concussion and Sports Medicine Advisory Committee of the FHSAA.

Previous coverage

Public Affairs Contact: Cindy Weiss

MPR, (Audio)
Minn. obesity rate expected to hit 55 percent by 2030

Guest: Michael Joyner: Caywood professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic.

Reach: Minnesota Public Radio operates 43 stations and serves virtually all of Minnesota and parts of the surrounding states. MPR has more than 100,000 members and more than 900,000 listeners each week, which is the largest audience of any regional public radio network. The Daily Circuit airs weekdays from 9 am to noon Central time.

Context: Michael Joyner, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic physician-scientist often sought for his expertise in how humans respond to various forms of physical and mental stress during activities such as exercise, hypoxia, standing up and blood loss.

Public Affairs Contacts: Brian Kilen, Bob Nellis

Post-Bulletin
Mayo Clinic, city, RAEDI join forces to speed business growth
by Jeff Kiger

To help launch fledgling companies, Mayo Clinic, the city of Rochester and Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. are creating a new "accelerator center." The Rochester City Council gave the green light Monday night to move ahead with a proposal to create 2,500 square feet of office space on the second floor of the Minnesota Biobusiness Center in downtown Rochester…"It is a great collaboration," says Jim Rogers, chair of the for-profit Mayo Clinic Ventures, which manages the clinic's intellectual property and patents. "It is something we are very excited about."

Circulation: The Post-Bulletin has a weekend readership of nearly 45,000 people and daily readership of more than 41,000 people. The newspaper serves Rochester, Minn., and southeast Minnesota.

Additional coverage: KAAL

Context: This is an initiative between Mayo Clinic, the City of Rochester and Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI). This accelerator project will support entrepreneurs who have licensed Mayo Clinic's innovative technologies to advance medicine and make available for patient care. This space will enable bio-business companies to obtain short-term leases quickly and affordably in a space dedicated to small start-ups.  Space provides for collaboration between start-ups and accessibility to ancillary infrastructure services (i.e. venture capital). Mayo Clinic Ventures is dedicated to quickly bringing answers to the people who need them most: the patients living with diseases and conditions that threaten to limit or even end their lives. The Mayo Clinic Ventures team works closely with Mayo physicians and scientists to mine inventions, ideas and discoveries that will truly transform health care. Their dedicated efforts bring significant financial support to Mayo's patient care, education and research efforts. Mayo Clinic Ventures is part of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research and not a separate legal entity. Mayo Clinic Ventures is an activity of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, which is a non-profit legal entity.

Public Affairs Contact: Karl Oestreich

MPR, Obesity could double in Minnesota if patterns hold
by Lorna Benson

Anyone who thinks Minnesota has a serious obesity problem now should look ahead 20 years. It could get a whole lot worse. A new analysis of government health data suggests that Minnesota's obesity rate could climb to a staggering 54.7 percent by 2030 if the state's current weight-related trends don't change. Currently 25.7 percent of Minnesota adults are obese… The percentages are startling, but they may not reflect the best way to estimate future obesity trends. "The major limitation here is when you're using past projections to predict the future," said Dr. Donald Hensrud, a preventive medicine and nutrition specialist at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

Reach: Minnesota Public Radio operates 43 stations and serves virtually all of Minnesota and parts of the surrounding states. MPR has more than 100,000 members and more than 900,000 listeners each week, which is the largest audience of any regional public radio network.

Context: Donald Hensrud, M.D., a Mayo Clinic preventive medicine physician and endocrinologist, is often sought out for his expertise in obesity, nutrition and disease prevention, physical activity and health promotion, and clinical preventive medicine.

Public Affairs Contacts: Sharon Theimer, Brian Kilen

AP TV
Doctor: It's Hard to Predict Superbug Infections

A doctor with the Mayo Clinic (Dr. Priya Sampathkumar)  says an antibiotic-resistant superbug, that has killed 19 people at a National Institutes of Health facility in Maryland, is most likely transferred between patients and, or medical professionals.

Additional coverage: USA Today

Reach: The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative, owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members. News collected by the AP is published and republished by newspaper and broadcast outlets worldwide.

Context: Priya Sampathkumar, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic physician with joint appointments in Infectious Diseases and the Travel Clinic.

Public Affairs Contact: Sharon Theimer

KAAL
Will New Health Measures Work?
By Brittany Lewis

Obesity rates are an issue across the country leaving many wondering what can be done about it. In New York City, some measures are being taken that some are calling extreme: it is now illegal to sell sodas and sugary drinks over 16 ounces. And McDonald's announced Wednesday it will start putting calorie counts on their menus. But will these things work? "There is virtually no health benefit to regular soda," said Dr. Donald Hensrud, an obesity expert and Dietician at Mayo Clinic.

Reach: KAAL is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., which owns all ABC Affiliates in Minnesota including KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul and WDIO in Duluth. KAAL, which operates from Austin, also has ABC satellite stations in Alexandria and Redwood Falls. KAAL serves Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa.

Context: Donald Hensrud, M.D., a Mayo Clinic preventive medicine physician and endocrinologist, is often sought out for his expertise in obesity, nutrition and disease prevention, physical activity and health promotion, and clinical preventive medicine.

Public Affairs Contact: Sharon Theimer

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Tags: Business Relations, Cardiology, CBS This Morning, Chicago Tribune, Chris Norton, concussions, Dr. Donald Hensrud, Dr. Jennifer Roth Maynard, Dr. John Noseworthy, Dr. Michael Jensen, Dr. Michael Joyner, Endocrinology / Diabetes, Florida Times-Union, Infectious Diseases, innovation, inventions, Jim Rogers, KAAL, love handles, Luther College, Mark Neaman, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Care Network, Mayo Clinic in the News, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Mayo Clinic Ventures, Minnesota Public Radio, MPR, normal weight obesity, NorthShore University Health System, Nutrition, Obesity, Post Bulletin, Reuters, Sports Medicine, The Daily Circuit, The New York Times, USA Today

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