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

USA Today
Researchers raise concerns over chelation heart study
by Liz Szabo

A heart disease study presented Sunday is being called a $32 million waste of time — and even a danger to public health — by some of the country's leading health experts...Federal officials also ordered researchers to notify patients that the drug they were receiving had never been approved for lead poisoning, as implied in the consent form, and that the Food and Drug Administration had taken the study drug off of its list of approved medications. Stephen Kopecky, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who participated in the trial, says he's also concerned about the reliability of its findings.

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.

Additional Coverage: CBS News, Global Post

Context: Steven Kopecky, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist.

Public Affairs Contact: Traci Klein

HealthLeaders Media
4 Stories About Social Media's Awesome Power
by Scott Mace

When a CIO I spoke with recently stated that Twitter scared him, I doubled my efforts to seek out a good story about use of social media by a healthcare provider. Within a couple of weeks, I found four. Timimi, a cardiologist and the medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, uses social media strategically. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges in San Francisco, Farris Timimi, MD, he made those strategies come alive.

Circulation: HealthLeaders magazine focuses on the healthcare industry and has a monthly circulation of more than 40,000. HealthLeaders Online receives more than 43,000 unique visitors to its website each month.

Additional Coverage: Vancouver Sun, The Province, MedCity News

Context: The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media exists to improve health globally by accelerating effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and spurring broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients. Mayo Clinic is a social media pioneer with more than 171,000 "likes" on its FaceBook page, more than 429,000 followers on Twitter and 7,000 subscribers to its  YouTube channel. Farris Timimi, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and also the medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. Lee Aase is director of Mayo's Center for Social Media.

Public Affairs Contact: Lee Aase

Star Tribune
Music for a sound sleep
by Marisa Helms

Michael Gardos Reid hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep since 1999. For the 59-year-old Minneapolis man who suffers from obstructive sleep apnea, every night is the same: When he falls asleep, his tongue and throat muscles relax so much that his airway essentially collapses, cutting off oxygen. After several seconds, he wakes, startled and choking, his body tense with adrenaline… Dr. Eric J. Olson, co-director of the Mayo Clinic's Center for for Sleep Medicine in Rochester.

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 16^th nationally in circulation.

Context: Eric Olson, M.D. is co-director Mayo Clinic's Center for for Sleep Medicine. Mayo Clinic doctors trained in sleep disorders evaluate and treat adults and children in the Center for Sleep Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The Center for Sleep Medicine is one of the largest sleep medicine facilities in the United States. Staff in the center treat about 6,500 new people who have sleep disorders each year. The Center for Sleep Medicine is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Public Affairs Contact: Alyson Fleming

Arizona Family
Robot Doctors Meet Need, Offer Quicker Treatment

For Arizonans, who live in a small, rural towns, getting immediate professional care can be challenging. But thanks to a Mayo Clinic doctor in Phoenix and his "robots", stroke patients can be quickly be seen and treated, even if they're hundreds of miles away, from their doctor. Dr. Bart Demaerschalk is interviewed about telestroke.

Reach: Arizona Family receives more than 487,000 unique visitors to its website each month. The website includes news content from KTVK-3TV and KASW-CW6.

Context: Bart Demaerschalk, M.D. is a neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. In stroke telemedicine, also called telestroke, doctors who have advanced training in the nervous system (neurologists) remotely evaluate people who've had acute strokes and make diagnoses and treatment recommendations to emergency medicine doctors at other sites. Doctors communicate using digital video cameras, Internet telecommunications, robotic telepresence, smartphones and other technology.

Public Affairs Contact: Jim McVeigh

WEAU TV-13
Laugh your stress and worries away with "laughter yoga"

Whether it's from dealing with your difficult boss, a never-ending mortgage or just taking care of your kids, we all get stressed out. Now, experts say there's a cure, and it's as simple as laughing. It's called "laugher yoga" and students at Immaculate Conception in Eau Claire had the chance to try it out during their after school fitness program called COR. "My friends tell really fun jokes to each other and we write really funny books, comic books," says 3rd grader Henry Axelrod.

Reach: WEAU-TV is the NBC affiliate for much of western Wisconsin, including Eau Claire and La Crosse. WEAU is licensed to Eau Claire and its transmitter is located in Fairchild, Wisconsin.

Context:  Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire family medicine physician Jodi Ritsch, M.D., shared laughter yoga with Immaculate Conception students on Wednesday. She became a certified instructor at a wellness conference this summer and has shared this stress reliever at some Mayo Clinic Health System events, including Women Rock, Camp Wabi and the Women’s Wellness Camp.

Public Affairs Contact: Susan Barber Lindquist

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Tags: Arizona Family, Camp Wabi, Cardiology, Cardiology, CBS News, Dr Bart Demaerschalk, Dr. Eric Olson, Dr. Farris Timimi, Dr. Jodi Ritsch, Dr. Steven Kopecky, Eau Claire, Facebook, Global Post, HealthLeaders, KASW-CW6, KTVK-3TV, La Crosse, laughter, laughter yoga, Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Mayo Clinic in the News, Mayo Clinic Sleep Medicine Center, MedCity News, Neurology, Neurology, Phoenix, Pulmonary, Sleep Medicine, Social Media, Social Media, Star Tribune, Stroke Telemedicine, telestroke, The Province, Twin Cities, twitter, USA Today, Vancouver Sun, WEAU-TV, Women’s Wellness Camp, Yoga, Youtube