April 29, 2016

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights

By Karl Oestreich

Mayo Clinic in the News LogoMayo 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.

Editor, Karl Oestreich;  Assistant Editor: Carmen Zwicker

 

 

Huffington Post
Melanoma Really Does Suck
by Brigitte Cutshall

Jimmy Carter is lucky. He was treated here in Atlanta at Emory for melanoma that had spread to his brain and was eligible to be involved with a new immunotherapy drug. My friend Rene is not so lucky. She’s been dealing with melanoma (multiple lesions) in the brain for about 18 months. The Mayo Clinic has been a great support to her and her family.HuffPost Healthy Living

Reach: The Huffington Post attracts over 28 million monthly unique visitors.

Other Mayo-related coverage in Huffington Post:

Huffington Post — 9 Superfoods You Should be Eating With Hypothyroidism

Huffington Post — 8 Seemingly Innocent Things That Are Sabotaging Your Sleep, Big Time

Huffington Post — 4 All-Natural Seasonal Allergy Remedies And One Big Myth

Huffington Post, 10 Things That Happen to Your Body When You Walk

Context: Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, develops in the cells (melanocytes) that produce melanin — the pigment that gives your skin its color. Melanoma can also form in your eyes and, rarely, in internal organs, such as your intestines. The exact cause of all melanomas isn't clear, but exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight or tanning lamps and beds increases your risk of developing melanoma. Limiting your exposure to UV radiation can help reduce your risk of melanoma. At Mayo Clinic, dermatologists,oncologists, pediatric oncologists, pathologists,general surgeons, and plastic and reconstructive surgeons form a multidisciplinary team to provide whole-person care for those with melanoma. 

Contacts: Rhoda Fukushima Madson, Joe Dangor

 

HealthLeaders Media
3 Hospitals Wooing Patients with Virtual Tours
by Marianne Aiello

Mayo Clinic created its Periscope account in June 2015 with the goal of using it to stream behind-the-scenes tours, educational discussions with Mayo specialists, and live events. In July, it broadcast a 22-minute HealthLeadersguided tour of its Rochester, MN campus that showed off facilities and shared facts about the health system's history. "Mayo Clinic has patients from every U.S. state and over 140 countries every year, and we saw the opportunity to help those considering Mayo Clinic get a preview of what they can expect when they come here," Lee Aase, director of Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, told HealthLeaders in July.

Reach:  HealthLeaders Media has more than 40,000 readers each month and is targeted to senior executives with leading hospitals, health systems, health plans, physician organizations, and allied and ancillary service providers and provides in-depth, informed reports on the nation's most innovative and entrepreneurial healthcare service organizations across the continuum of care.

Context: You can find a virtual tour of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Mayo's YouTube Channel. Other virtual Mayo tours can be accessed on Mayo's Periscope page.

Contact: Traci Klein

 

Wall Street Journal
New Tools Help Patients Make Tough Decisions In the ER
by Laura Landro

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is developing several such aids, including one for patients with low-risk chest pain. Dr. Hess and his team developed a decision aid, Chest PainWSJ Banner Choice, that includes information on the diagnosis, displays a patient’s 45-day risk of a heart attack and options for care. These include admission to an observation unit for tests, follow-up with a heart doctor within 24 to 72 hours—or letting the ER doctor make the decision. “Our goal is not to put the decisions in patient’s laps so they feel abandoned, but to involve them in the decision process to the degree they wish,” Dr. Hess says.

Reach: The Wall Street Journal, a US-based newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, has an average circulation of 2.3 million daily which includes print and digital versions.

Additional video coverage: WSJ interview with Dr. Hess

Other Mayo-related coverage in The Wall Street Journal:

Wall Street Journal — Telemedicine Advocates Look to Expand Nursing Licenses’ Range

Wall Street Journal — Clues to a Family’s Heart Disease

Context:  Patients who arrive at the emergency department with low-risk chest pain and talk through treatment options with a physician show improved knowledge of their health status and follow-up options, compared with patients who received standard counseling from a physician, according to Mayo Clinic research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 65th Annual Scientific Session. Chest pain accounts for about 8 million emergency department visits each year in the U.S., but more than 90 percent of those patients are not experiencing a heart attack, says Erik Hess, M.D., lead author and emergency medicine physician at Mayo Clinic. “An electrocardiogram and blood tests can tell us if a patient is having a heart attack. Further testing may be needed to tell us if a patient faces an increased risk of heart attack in the near future. We wanted to know if there is value in discussing this further testing with patients.” More information can be found on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Contacts: Traci Klein, Elizabeth Zimmerman Young

 

C-SPAN
Health Care in the U.S.

Dr. John Noseworthy talks about trends in health care and how the Affordable Care Act is affecting U.S. hospitals.

C-SpanReach: C-Span's Washington Journal focuses on the day's top Washington, D.C. public affairs stories. Some topics covered on the program include campaign finance, energy prices, and special interest groups. Washington Journal is watched predominantly by adults over 35 years old interested in public affairs.

Context: John Noseworthy, M.D. is Mayo Clinic President and CEO.

Contact: Sharon Theimer

 

HealthDay
Nipple-Preserving Mastectomies Appear Safe for High-Risk Women: Study

"Nipple-sparing mastectomy is gaining wide acceptance because of its superior cosmetic results, but pockets of the medical community remain skeptical that it is the right choice for the BRCA population," said study lead author Dr. James Jakub, a breast surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Reach: HealthDay distributes its health news to media outlets several times each day and also posts its news on its website, which receives more than 39,000 unique visitors each month.

Other coverage:

Medscape — More Proof: Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy Safe for BRCA Carriers

Health Day Logo

Context: Protective mastectomies that preserve the nipple and surrounding skin prevent breast cancer as effectively as more invasive surgeries for women with a genetic mutation calledBRCA that raises their risk of developing breast cancer, a multi-institution study led by Mayo Clinic found. The research should reassure patients and surgeons that nipple-sparing mastectomies, which leave women with more natural-looking breasts than other mastectomies, are a safe way to reduce breast cancer risk in BRCA carriers, the authors say. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Dallas. “Nipple-sparing mastectomy is gaining wide acceptance because of its superior cosmetic results, but pockets of the medical community remain skeptical that it is the right choice for the BRCA population,” says study lead author James Jakub, M.D., abreast surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “This is the largest study of its kind to address the controversy, and to show that nipple-sparing mastectomy is as effective at preventing breast cancer as traditional mastectomy.” More information can be found on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Contact: Sharon Theimer

 

Twin Cities Business
Mayo Clinic Ventures Firm Explores Commercialization Of Gut Microbe Treatment
by Don Jacobson

Despite the presence of 100 trillion bacteria and other microorganisms that make up the human microbiome, how or even whether they may have a role to play in combatting a litany of maladies has never really Twin Cities Business Magazine Logobeen seriously considered. But that is quickly changing as the Mayo Clinic and the pharmaceutical industry continue a pattern of ever-bigger venture capital investments into a growing coterie of biotech companies at the cutting edge of microbiome research, which some are actually calling the next big thing in biotech. One such company is San Francisco-based Second Genome, which first became a Mayo Clinic Ventures portfolio company in 2014 as part of a clinical research collaboration. Last week, it was announced Mayo extended its venture stake in Second Genome as part of a $42.6 million Series B financing round led by Big Pharma giants Pfizer and Roche.

Reach: Twin Cities Business is a monthly business magazine with a circulation of more than 30,000 and more than 74,000 readers. The magazine also posts daily business news on its website.

Context: Second Genome, Inc., a leader in the development of novel medicines through innovative microbiome science, entered into an extensive partnership with the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine in 2014 to support the development of therapeutic products for multiple disease indications, starting with inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic disorders, and colorectal cancer. "The microbiome is an important area of medical research for Mayo Clinic, and this collaboration represents a broad and significant effort in our attempt to develop therapeutics targeting microbiome-mediated pathways," says Heidi Nelson, M.D., director of the Microbiome Program in the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. "We believe that Second Genome's drug discovery capability complements our clinical expertise, and our hope is that together we can develop new treatment approaches for patients across a wide range of diseases with significant unmet clinical need. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of patients."

Contact: Duska Anastasijevic

 

Reuters — Patient preferences not often asked after stroke hospitalization by Kathryn Doyle — Less than half of stroke patients who were hospitalized and died within 30 days had their preferences for lifesaving measures recorded in a recent study of California hospitals. “All patients admitted to the hospital for a stroke should have a conversation with the clinical team about their goals of care, which should include a discussion about life-sustaining interventions,” said lead author Dr. Maisha T. Robinson of the neurology department at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. “Ideally, conversations about advance care planning should occur well in advance of hospitalizations for serious illnesses.” Additional coverage: Yahoo! News

US News & World Report — What Patients Should Know About Off-Label Drug Use by Lisa Esposito — One controversy is the use of antipsychotic medications for people with Alzheimer's disease. Sometimes there's little choice, says Dr. David Knopman, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and vice chair of the Alzheimer's Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Council. While four drugs are FDA-approved to treat the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, they don't relieve the behavioral disturbances that can occur among some people with dementia, says Knopman, who's also a consultant in neurology at the Mayo Clinic. "Virtually all of that treatment is off-label," he says.

Prevention magazine — 10 Things Cancer Experts Do To Avoid Getting The Disease by Hallie Levine — "A colonoscopy is the gold standard for detecting colon cancer, but many patients shy away from it because the prep is so time consuming and unpalatable. When I have to drink the liquid provided to speed things up down there, I mix it with lemon-lime Kool-Aid. It makes it taste so much better (don't use anything that's a stronger color, since it can stain your colon). If my patients really are adamant that they don't want a colonoscopy, I recommend Cologuard, which is a new noninvasive at-home colon cancer screening test that was approved by the FDA in 2014. It detects over 90% of colorectal cancers, compared to only about 75% that are detected by the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), a commonly used non-invasive screening test that detects blood in the stool. The only downside is if you have a false positive, you'll have to undergo a colonoscopy regardless." –Axel Grothey, MD, oncologist at the Mayo Clinic.

Forbes — The Pomodoro Technique, And 3 More Research-Backed Study Tips by Loren Dunn — There is some debate about what amount of sleep, exactly, is “adequate,” and it varies from person to person, but if you’re not waking up refreshed you may need more or better quality sleep. The Mayo Clinic provides some tips on improving sleep quality. Teenagers and children need more sleep than adults: some suggest that 8-10 hours is the appropriate amount for the average teenager, while 7-9 is the appropriate amount for adults under the age of 65, but it varies from person to person.

Forbes — Five Tips To Help You Handle Criticism And Become A Better Professional by Tori Utley — 4. Positive intent : An expert in wellness at Mayo Clinic , Dr. Amit Sood, has said, “Assume positive intent.” Though human nature may default us to believe the critic has negative intentions in mind, we can reframe our perception by assuming someone made a comment with positive intent. This will help avoid allowing negative feelings toward coworkers, supervisors or clients to fester, which helps keep you in a positive mindset to grow, learn, and be the best professional you can be.

Forbes — Why You Should Skip This New High Tech Pregnancy Test, Or At Least Wait To Take It by Kavin Senapathy — Early pregnancy tests work sooner because they are more sensitive, detecting lower levels of hCG than others. But as Mayo Clinic explains, while 10-20 percent of known pregnancies end in loss, “the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn’t even know she’s pregnant.”

Fortune — This Company Wants to Cure Pancreatic Cancer Using AI by Laura Lorenzetti — Berg is now moving the drug into Phase II trials, in which efficacy is the focus. The company expects to recruit 25 patients across partner sites—including Beth Israel, Mayo Clinic, and Medical College of Wisconsin—for a trial that will run about 18 months. There will be two indicators of success, says Ramesh Ramanathan, director of gastrointestinal medical oncology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and designer of Berg’s Phase II study: the shrinking of the tumor by standard criteria and the increase of patients’ life spans. “Phase II is a critical point,” he says. “Pancreatic cancer doesn’t have a standard approved second-line therapy for when patients fail initial chemotherapy.

NBC News — Stand Up! These Fitness Companies Want to Get You Healthy at Work by Diana Olick —Attention to workplace fitness really ramped up in just the last few years, after the Mayo Clinic published a study on the detrimental effects of sitting for long periods of time. Mayo's Dr. James Levine is credited with coining the term "sitting is the new smoking." He is also inventor of a treadmill desk.

AARP — Computers, Crafts, Games, Social Activities May Help Protect Memory by Elizabeth Agnvall — A new study finds that computer use — whether checking Facebook, sending emails or paying bills online — seems to be particularly effective for keeping your brain sharp. The study of about 2,000 men and women age 70 and older participating in the long-running Mayo Clinic Study of Aging showed that those who used the computer at least once a week were 42 percent less likely to develop memory and thinking problems than those who rarely logged on…. “The results show the importance of keeping the mind active as we age,” said study author Janina Krell-Roesch, with the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., who presented the study at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting this week in Vancouver, Canada.

Houston Chronicle — Step up your summer beauty regimen with help from expert dermatologists — While magazines make summer beauty look simple, in reality it’s anything but. From bloat to breakouts, summer is wrought with beauty challenges. The experts at the Mayo Clinic offer advice on eight of the most common beauty and health concerns of summer. Additional coverage: San Francisco Chronicle

Chicago Tribune — Where will Hastert serve his sentence? — In handing down a 15-month sentence to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a federal judge on Wednesday said the once-powerful elected leader, now 74 and in declining health, should go to a Federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility to serve out his sentence. Five such medical centers serve male inmates with medical needs and provide a range of services from dialysis to chemotherapy….Affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester is the primary medical facility for inmates with end-stage liver disease, advanced HIV infection and other infectious diseases that require long-term management, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons publication. Additionally, the medical center provides psychiatric and psychology services.

MedPage Today — Study: Too Many Centers Doing Too Few Septal Myectomies by Nicole Lou — Given the results, however, Steve R. Ommen, MD, and Rick A. Nishimura, MD, both of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., raised the burning question: "Seriously, only 1 case per year? Why would we subject our patients to this?" "The low-volume safety data are unacceptable. The middle volume data are not good enough. Even the highest volume tertile safety data are dramatically inferior to that achieved at HCM Centers of Excellence," they wrote in an accompanying editorial.

South Florida Reporter — Mayo Clinic News Network: Spring Into Better Health With a Reconditioned Pantry — “There are many reasons to consider cleaning out your pantry,” says Amanda Leisenheimer, who is a registered dietitian with Mayo Clinic Health System. “You might have set a New Year’s resolution to start eating healthier, but still have old temptations waiting for you on the shelf. Removing those temptations from your grasp will help you stay on track with your goals.”

Florida Times-Union — Gabriel House Anniversary by Jackie Rooney — St. Andrew’s Lighthouse opened on Beach Boulevard in 2000 to provide an extended-stay facility for organ transplant and cancer patients and their families awaiting treatment and recovery. The need outgrew the facility, so St. Andrew’s partnered with Mayo Clinic Jacksonville to build Gabriel House of Care on Mayo’s campus. Jorge Bacardi, a Mayo double lung transplant recipient, and his wife, Leslie, were major initial donors for the project. Since Gabriel House opened its doors in 2011, it has served about 3,800 patients and caregivers and added programs that improve quality of life throughout the treatment process.

WTLV-TV Jacksonville — Making the Grade: Find out how your hospital scores on patient safety — A new report card on hospital safety gives good grades to most Jacksonville area medical centers,  but one received a "D" grade. Five local hospitals, St. Vincents Southside, Baptist Beaches, Baptist Nassau, Mayo Clinic, and SE Georgia Health-Camden, all scored "A" grades.  Three others, Memorial, Orange Park, and St. Vincents Riverside, received "B" grades. Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine also received a "B" grade. UF Health Jacksonville received the worst score of the 12 hospitals listed in a search of the "Jacksonville area" from hospitalsafetyscore.org.

FirstCoastNews — Zika virus could be tied to another brain disease by Keitha Nelson-Williams — Doctors are not sure which patients are more likely to see this auto immune response and currently there is no way to treat Zika. But there is some promising news, vaccine trials are underway and the Mayo Clinic is involved in developing a vaccine for the virus. Dr. Vandana Bhide with the Mayo Clinic says they're hoping to have it ready for use within a year.

Twin Cities Business — Why Downtown Minneapolis Is Becoming A Clinic Capital by Gene Rebeck — In the past couple of years, several major Minnesota health care providers have opened or announced plan to open clinics in Minneapolis’s central business district. The most notable is Mayo Clinic Square, in the old Block E space on Hennepin Avenue, which opened about a year ago. Suddenly, it seems, health care is a major industry downtown. What are the opportunities these providers see in downtown? How do these expansions reflect their business models and the changing economics of the downtown market generally? Those will be some of the questions representatives of those provider systems will discuss this Friday at a panel discussion held under the auspices of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. The speakers will be:  Jon Pryor, CEO of Hennepin County Medical Center; John Wald, medical director for public affairs and marketing, Mayo Clinic; Kelly Macken-Marble, president of population health and ambulatory services for North Memorial Health Care

KARE-11 TV — Mayo Clinic making most of tax suspension by Cory Hepola — Rochester's Mayo Clinic is making the most of a significant tax suspension. In December, the U.S. Congress temporarily lifted a 2.3 percent medical device tax that was burdening health technology companies around the nation. With this two-year suspension, Mayo's ventures have ramped up in 2016. Cory Hepola asks Dale Kurschner of Twin Cities Business about the tax suspension and how the Mayo Clinic is helping others.

Pilot Tribune — BVU students receive summer fellowships to Mayo Clinic — Two Buena Vista University students have been awarded stipends and 10-week summer internships at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as part of the Mayo Clinic's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.  Jacob Braddock, a junior biology major from Swea City, was awarded a fellowship in the Virology and Gene Therapy Department at the Mayo Clinic. He will receive a stipend from the Mayo Foundation to support his research internship in the laboratory of Stephen J. Russell, M.D., Ph.D.

Live Science — Brain Hemorrhage: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment by Alina Bradford — A subarachnoid hemorrhage is usually caused by a rupture of an abnormal bulge in a blood vessel in your brain, according to the Mayo Clinic. This bulge is called a brain aneurysm… If there is a large amount of bleeding, surgery may be needed to drain the blood and repair damage, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Parents magazine — 10 Ways to Get Pregnant Faster by Holly Eagleson — 2. Stop smoking. You know you should kick the cigs for your future kiddo's health. Doing it right this minute can help preserve precious fertility that smoking destroys. "Smokers undergo menopause four years earlier than other women, on average," says Jani Jensen, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist and assistant professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

Medscape — Aspirin May Lower Risk for Bile Duct Cancer by Pam Harrison — People who take low-dose aspirin have a significantly lower risk of developing bile duct cancer than nonusers, new research shows. "Our study found that individuals who took aspirin had more than a two-and-a-half- to three-and-a-half-fold lesser chance of developing bile duct cancer compared to individuals who did not take aspirin," senior author Lewis Roberts, MB, ChB, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minneapolis, said in a statement.

Medscape — Multivessel Revascularization: Still the Surgeons' Domain? — Roundtable discussion with Rajiv Gulati, MD, PhD; Alberto Pochettino, MD; Charanjit Rihal, MD.

Healio — Dementia screening tool may help identify obstructive sleep apnea — Amber Gerber,  PsyD, LP, and Donn Dexter, MD, both with the Mayo Clinic Health System, wrote in their abstract that obstructive sleep apnea, which is a common and remediable condition, is a risk factor for cognitive dysfunction. "One in five geriatric patients referred to the Memory Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wis., have obstructive sleep apnea," Gerber told Healio Internal Medicine. "It is imperative to screen for sleep-disordered breathing that may negatively impact memory."

Star Tribune — Rural Minnesota factories spend big on perks, even buy companies to find workers by Dee DePas — Spiraling retirements and shrinking unemployment in rural Minnesota are driving worried factory owners to get creative so that current workers stay and future workers come. “We’re competing for employees, and it’s hard,” said Harmony President Steve Cremer. “The Mayo Clinic is 45 minutes away [and] sends buses to pick up employees [near our factory] … and there are a lot of small manufacturers up and down Hwy. 52 that are also competing with us.”

Oprah.com — 3 Things You Never Knew About Your Gut Bacteria by Dr. Memet Oz — The good news: More approaches are in the pipeline. One of them, called Cologuard, was developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic researchers and approved by the FDA in 2014. It's similar to FIT, but in an effort to improve sensitivity, it also looks for certain DNA mutations associated with cancerous and precancerous colorectal growths. A clinical trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine found that Cologuard's detection rate bested FIT's.

Star Tribune — UnitedHealth's pullback from exchange business could hit rural counties by Christopher Snowbeck — Are people in Mason City worried? Insurance agent Brenda Katalinich of Edwards-Brandt & Associates didn’t sound too troubled. UnitedHealthcare’s products haven’t been that popular in Mason City, she said, because the coverage didn’t include easy access to the Mayo Clinic, located about 90 miles away in Rochester, Minn.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal — Mayo Clinic names $1B tech project after big-thinking doc by Katharine Grayson — Mayo Clinic has a name for the $1 billion overhaul of its electronic medical records system: Plummer. The moniker isn't a misspelling of plumber, but it does have something to do with pipes of sorts. The name honors Dr. Henry Plummer, a well-known Mayo Clinic physician regarded as a champion for innovative ideas— including a pneumatic tube system that shuttles canisters around the clinic, the Rochester Post Bulletin reports. Additional coverage: Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review

MedPage Today — IV to SC Switch OK for Orencia in RA by Pam Harrison — Eric Matteson, MD, a rheumatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told MedPage Today that the study does demonstrate that the strategy maintains disease control. "It can also be useful for patients unable or unwilling to travel with their medications, recognizing how important it is to keep the medications cool," Matteson added.

Newsweek — Doctor Ready to Perform First Human Head Transplant by Ross Kenneth Urken — Dr. Michael Sarr, professor emeritus of surgery at the Mayo Clinic and co-editor-in-chief of Surgery, recently accepted one of Canavero’s head transplant papers for his publication. “He’s a little bit fantastic, but he’s a serious guy,” Sarr says. “He’s not just a showboat. This is not science fiction. This is now science. There’s experimental work that supports the concept of nerve membrane fusion.” Sarr is particularly interested in how this technique could be applied more widely to treat traumatic spinal cord injury patients.

Twin Cities Business — Rochester Expected To End Its Food Truck Parking Dilemma Next Week by Sam Schaust — Rochester city officials hope to settle a nearly yearlong feud between established restaurants and food trucks over downtown parking at a meeting next week… Under the current proposal, three zones will be established for food trucks to operate within. During the lunchtime rush—from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.—trucks will be allowed to function in marked zones outside Mayo Clinic’s headquarters. Those available spaces will shift in the evening hours—from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.—to a different side of the Mayo campus along 2nd Avenue. Reeves said the city is likely to open a third zone without time restrictions that is a half-mile away from Mayo, in an area adjacent to the public library and Central Park.

KAAL-TV — Entrepreneurs Show-Off Their Products at Mayo Clinic by Karsen Forsman — Entrepreneurs from around the world visited Mayo Clinic on Monday to show-off their medical products to doctors and other Mayo Clinic leaders. This is the first time Mayo Clinic Ventures has hosted the program called “Mayo Clinic Global Medical Business Immersion.” The week-long program will run from April 24 to April 29 and will gather participants from five companies and four continents. “What we are doing at Mayo Clinic is it’s a great opportunity for us to get feedback on our product in amongst a whole range of people from Mayo Clinic,” said cofounder of Snap40 David Bowie.

Post Bulletin — Answer Man: Epic project named for epic Mayo doc — Dear Answer Man, let's see how good you are. I've heard that Mayo Clinic has a nickname for its big electronic records project with Epic Systems. What's it called?....It's called Plummer, a hat tip to the doc who many people believe was the brains of the Mayo operation about a hundred years ago. Dr. Henry Plummer is credited with devising the "integrated multispecialty group practice" at Mayo in 1910, which the clinic's website calls "Mayo's greatest contribution to medicine."

Post Bulletin — Paralyzed Cannon Falls woman still dreaming big by Brett Boese — Pfohl, 27, underwent a 20-hour surgery at Mayo Clinic in Aug. 2014 to remove a cancerous tumor that had wrapped itself around her spine. She opted for the risky procedure knowing it would make her a paraplegic and still didn't guarantee her long-term health. Her affliction is so rare that Mayo Clinic surgeon Dr. Michael Yaszemski declined to speculate on Pfohl's odds of survival before leading the complicated surgery that required nine specialists. However, all signs have been positive thus far — and friends leaped at the chance to celebrate with their friend about a month after her birthday.

Post Bulletin — TapImmune teams up with pharma giant — Pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca is intrigued by the technology of a company with Mayo Clinic ties that uses immune therapy to attack cancer. Astra Zeneca is holding a phase 2 trial in conjunction with TapImmune, a clinical-stage company developing immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of cancer based on technology developed at Mayo Clinic, according to a press release from the companies. Additional coverage: Twin Cities Business

Post Bulletin — Letter: Gonda Singers should be allowed to provide regular performances — After months of tests then receiving a serious diagnosis, I took a Mayo Clinic elevator to the subway and found Jane Belau playing the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." How uplifting! A well-known singer recently said, "Music can't heal disease, but it can heal the soul, and it can give people a sense of hope." Jane healed my soul that day at such a vulnerable time.

Post Bulletin — Mayo Clinic, U of M eye 'new frontier' in managing football-related concussions by Brett Boese — A new research project headlined by Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota aims to learn more about the brains of healthy football players who have no history of concussions.The partnership was announced Wednesday in New York by Thorne Research and ChromaDex Corp., with the study expected to begin next month and data collection continuing until March 2017.

KIMT-TV — Living with MS and the treatments available by Megan Hoffman — One Mayo Clinic neurologist says there’s about 12 FDA approved medications that can be effective. “Some of the more robust anti-inflammatory medications that we have can have side effects so that aggressiveness in therapy has to be balanced in individual patients,” Dr. Mark Keegan said.

KIMT-TV — Mayo Clinic Proceedings celebrates 90 years by Adam Sallet — medical giant in our area is celebrating yet another milestone — but this one isn’t in the operating room. People gathered on Thursday to mark 90 years since the first issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a medical journal, came out. “Our message is to communicate with people not only in the medical profession, but also other interested parties who may not be trained in health science delivery,” said Dr. William Lanier. Additional coverage: KTTC-TV

KIMT-TV — Health professionals talk on the impacts of pornography by Adam Sallet — On Monday, Dr. Arne Graff with the Mayo Clinic Child and Family Advocacy Program, discussed the issues with pornography in front of a crowded room in Rochester. “Just like with any addiction, at some point barriers that would normally stop you and me from doing things or doing that habit start to get eroded away because of what happens with the addiction process,” he says.

KIMT-TV — Health assessments are available for residents by Hannah Funk — Freeborn County Public Health is teaming up with Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin to conduct a community health needs assessment. “Everywhere you go you see things about being healthier, health and wellness programs and all kinds of things,” said Patti Hareid, Mayo Clinic Health System-Albert Lea. “That’s what we should be promoting as public health and Mayo Clinic Health Systems. That’s our role in the community and it’s what we do to make a difference.”

WEAU-TV — Teen drinking prevention campaign launches in Eau Claire County by Noelle Anderson — “April is known as Teen Alcohol Use and Abuse Awareness Month in Wisconsin, and it comes in conjunction with some of the biggest parties of the season for teens... prom and graduation. .There was a study done by Mayo Clinic not too long ago that revealed in the previous year, $755 million was spent on hospital costs for underage drinking. Car crashes, injuries, and that doesn't even include the emotional toll,” says Mayo Clinic Pediatrician Gregg Kishaba.

OncLive — Bekaii-Saab on Active Agents for the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer — Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses 2 new agents, regorafenib and TAS-102, for the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer.

Waseca County News — Mayo Clinic Health System hosting bike rally by Debbie Zimmerman — Mayo Clinic Health System in Waseca will host a Bicycle Safety Rally from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11. The event will take place at the medical center, 501 N. State Street in Waseca. Bicycle education and head protection are extremely important to keep riders safe.

Chippewa Herald — Stroke care: What's America's grade in 2016? by Felix Chukwudelunzu M.D., Mayo Clinic Health System — Just about everyone knows someone that has had a stroke or has heard about stroke. Do you know the chance of dying from a stroke is on the decline? From 2001 to 2011, the actual number of stroke deaths declined by 21.2 percent. The chances of someone having a second stroke within a year also fell by almost 5 percent from 1994 to 2002. Compared to just five years ago, stroke has fallen to No. 5 among the leading causes of death, behind heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases and accidents.

Refinery29.com — What You Need To Know About Melanoma — While melanoma can affect people of any skin color, if you have pale skin, you have a greater risk, explains Aleksander Sekulic, MD, Principal for Stand Up To Cancer's Melanoma Research Alliance Dream Team and a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic…. On top of that, a history of sunburns is a major risk factor for melanoma, and those tend to be more common for people with lighter skin, Dr. Sekulic says.

MedCity News — Apps help emergency rooms offer shared decision-making by Neil Versel — One, a Mayo app, Chest Pain Choice, was built with input from a patient advisory group. It goes over each patient’s diagnosis, lists treatment options and discusses risks. A paper presented this month at an American College of Cardiology showed that Chest Pain Choice helped reduce unnecessary testing at Mayo, according to the Journal.

Naperville Sun — Fundraiser Saturday for scary heart condition that's struck two local moms by Jane Donahue — Coordinated by nonprofit organization SCAD Research (www.scadresearch.org), funds raised will go directly to a research study being led by Dr. Sharonne Hayes, founder of the Women's Heart Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "Making a proper diagnosis is critical because the treatments and outcomes for SCAD need to be different than heart attacks due to plaque or atherosclerosis," Hayes said in a written press release. "We don't know enough about SCAD and it's not clear what causes it."

LaCrosse Tribune — Franciscan auxiliary to sell geraniums for nursing scholarships — Franciscan Healthcare Auxiliary members spent much of Tuesday prepping thousands of pots with tens of thousands of petals to peddle at their 36th annual geranium sale kicking off at three Mayo sites today. The event, with proceeds going to scholarships for nursing students at Viterbo University and Western Technical College in La Crosse, usually sells 3,500 to 4,000 geraniums, said Carey Kroner, who co-chairs the sale with Joanne Degenhardt.

Orlando magazine — Head Banger by Loraine O’Connell — Many people are thought to be genetically susceptible to the cascade, says neurologist Dr. Ronald Davis, director of the Epilepsy Surgery Department at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. In fact, the Mayo Clinic reports that up to 90 percent of migraine sufferers have a family history of migraine attacks.

Tomah Journal — Tomah VA on track, officials say by Steve Rundio — Officials at the Tomah Veterans Administration Medical Center are happy with the results of a 100-day plan to improve the operations of the facility but are still looking for personnel to reopen the psychiatric unit and a permanent director… Gowan said hospitals statewide are having difficulty hiring psychiatrists and noted that Mayo Clinic will be diverting patients from its La Crosse inpatient behavioral health unit starting in mid-June.

Duluth News Tribune — Mayo Clinic News Network: Midwest outbreak of Elizabethkingia spreads to Illinois, Michigan — An outbreak of infections caused by a bacterium called Elizabethkingia anophelis, first reported in Wisconsin, has now spread to Illinois and Michigan. “This is a bacteria we find in the soil and in the environment,” Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist Dr. Pritish Tosh said. “It’s not incredibly unique. However, it is unusual to see it causing infections in humans.”

Consumer Reports — Up in Smoke: Does Medical Marijuana Work? — But to study the whole plant, scientists have had to clear a bureaucratic thicket far denser than for other prospective medications. Not only must the FDA approve the proposed research plan, but the Drug Enforcement Administration also needs to issue a Schedule I license and the National Institute on Drug Abuse has to agree to supply the actual plant materials. “Any one of these agencies can stop a research project in its tracks,” says J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic who has studied the history of marijuana’s use. As a result, he says, high-quality research has been at a near standstill for almost half a century.

Philadelphia Business Journal — Montco pharma firm partners with Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute on study by John George — Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is teaming up with the National Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic to test its experimental immunotherapy as a potential treatment for hepatitis C. The Plymouth Meeting, Pa., biopharmaceutical company's new drug candidate, called INO-8000, will be evaluated in a phase-I clinical trial involving patients who are in the early stages of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

WQOW-TV — Eau Claire hospital concerned about dangers of laundry detergent packets by Jesse Yang — Dr. Sue Cullinan, an emergency room physician at Mayo Clinic Health System, said laundry pods have a soluble exterior, which can easily be broken down once in contact with saliva or water. "These pods are high concentrated detergent and often that makes it more serious when a child or a pet even ingests the pods,” Dr. Cullinan said. “Just the number of calls have gone up, and this year alone, there's greater than 3,000 calls at the poison center for ingestion of these pods. And, that in itself is just huge. It's really a problem."

LaCrosse WXOW-TV — Mississippi Valley Conservancy leads bluff hike by Ginna Roe — Earth Day Weekend activities continued with a bluff hike in La Crosse. Mayo Clinic Health System teamed up with the Mississippi Valley Conservancy to lead a hike up to Miller's Bluff, part of the Hixon Forrest Trail System. Dozens of hikers, young and old, gathered to climb to the top.

Mankato Times — New Mayo Clinic Book Guides Women through Menopause with Clinically Proven, Practical by Joe Steck — “This book serves to inform women about what’s happening to their bodies, what treatment options are available and how to remain healthy in the years past menopause,” says Stephanie Faubion, M.D., medical editor of The Menopause Solution and director of the Women’s Health Clinic and Office of Women’s Health at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Faubion, a North American Menopause Society-certified menopause practitioner, is one of the nation’s leading experts on menopause and regularly treats women with menopause-related conditions. Additional coverage: WOWK-TV, MyInforms, Benzinga

Vanidades — Cirugía menos arriesgada para perder peso by Omar Amador — El doctor Barham Abu Dayyeh, de la Clínica Mayo en Rochester, Minnesota, dice que con la operación “hay un riesgo bajo de sufrir deficiencia nutritiva, porque el tracto gastrointestinal se deja intacto. Los pacientes podrán seguir una dieta baja en calorías sin sentir hambre”.

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