October 25, 2013

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

NBC Nightly News
Survival rates improve when police use defibrillators

A program in Rochester, Minn., has put defibrillators in every police car and first-responder vehicle. When so many police vehicles arrive on the scene before ambulances, having the right equipment on-hand can mean the difference between life and death. NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports…it's all because of this man, Dr. Roger White from Mayo Clinic, pioneered a program starting in 1990. Putting automated external defibrillators, AEDs, in every police car and other first responder vehicle in Rochester. He wanted to see if survival rates would increase if police were equipped to shock patients back to life within the critical first four to six minutes of an incident.

Reach: NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams continues to be the top rated evening newscast with more than 7.9 million viewers each night.

Context: Roger White, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist who has saved countless lives through groundbreaking work in cardiac resuscitation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His discoveries helped pave the way for the placement of defibrillators in airports and other public places, better CPR practices and education, and faster emergency response times. Mayo Clinic made headlines when Dr. White directed a helicopter flight crew that successfully performed CPR on a man with no pulse for 96 minutes. The patient, 54-year-old Howard Snitzer, recovered completely.

Public Affairs Contacts: Traci Klein, Glenn Lyden

NPR
NHL Concussions Cast Spotlight On Head Injuries And Hockey
by Arun Rath

While the NFL has been under a microscope for its handling of head injuries, professional hockey also has been dealing with high-profile concussions. Perhaps the league's best player, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has missed large stretches of play after concussions. And this year, the season's first eight days left three players sidelined with concussions. The Mayo Clinic's Aynsley Smith discusses head injuries and hockey, including the role that fist fighting plays in the professional ranks.

Reach: NPR creates and distributes news, information, and music programming to a network of 975 independent stations and reaches 26 million listeners every week.

Additional Coverage:

NY Times
Rangers Follow Concussion Protocol After Hit to Stepan
by Jeff Klein

Two bright spots emerged from Troy Brouwer’s blindside hit on Derek Stepan in the third period of Wednesday’s 2-0 Rangers victory in Washington. First, Stepan returned to the game and said afterward that he was O.K., and second, the Rangers scrupulously followed concussion treatment protocol… It bears watching to see if the Rangers’ scrupulousness Wednesday is repeated across the N.H.L. If it is, the turning point might have been the presentation on concussion protocol given by Mark Aubry, the Ottawa Senators’ team physician, at the Mayo Clinic’s hockey concussion conference Oct. 8, the morning after Nash’s injury.

Reach: The New York Times has a daily circulation of more than 735,000. Its website receives more than 16.2 million unique visitors each month.

Context: Mayo Clinic’s Sports Medicine Center held Ice Hockey Summit II: Action on Concussion on Oct. 8–9, 2013. The summit brought together top scientists, trainers, coaches, officials, retired professional players and manufacturers from across the United States, Canada and Europe to discuss concussion-related issues, including the science of concussion, impact on youth athletes and hockey community response.

Previous Coverage:
Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights October 18, 2013
Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights October 11, 2013

News Release: Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center to Host Second Concussion Summit

Mayo Clinic News Network: Youth Hockey Players: “Heads Up, Don’t Duck”

Mayo Clinic News Network: Water Sports and Concussions (pkg)

Public Affairs Contact: Bryan Anderson

FOX News
Doctors: Young men should be tested for prostate cancer

Mayo Clinic's Dr. Eugene Kwon speaks with Fox News reporter, Garrett Tenney,about the importance of young men testing for prostate cancer.

Reach:  Fox News Channel (FNC), is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. The channel is available to 102 million households in the United States and further to viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily from its New York studios. FoxNews.com has more than 13 million unique visitors each month.

Additional Coverage: Yahoo! News Canada

Context:Eugene Kwon, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic urologist.

Public Affairs Contact: Joe Dangor

HealthDay
Occupational Hazard for Teachers?
by Mary Dallas

Teachers are much more likely than people with other jobs to be diagnosed with progressive speech and language disorders, according to a new study. "Teachers are in daily communication," study senior author Dr. Keith Josephs, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a Mayo news release. "It's a demanding occupation, and teachers may be more sensitive to the development of speech and language impairments."

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 vistitors each month.

Additional Coverage: Business Standard

Previous Coverage:
Mayo Clinic in the News October 18, 2013

Context: Mayo Clinic researchers have found a surprising occupational hazard for teachers: progressive speech and language disorders. The research, recently published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, found that people with speech and language disorders are about 3.5 times more likely to be teachers than patients with Alzheimer’s dementia.

News Release: Teachers More Likely to Have Progressive Speech and Language Disorders

Mayo Clinic News Network: Teachers More Likely to Have Progressive Speech and Language Disorders

Public Affairs Contact: Nick Hanson

Star Tribune (front page)
Onetime charity patient gives Mayo Clinic $67.3 million
By Jackie Crosby

One of the largest philanthropic gifts in Minnesota history will propel the Mayo Clinic’s quest to build a center that uses medical data and scientific rigor to improve health care. The $67.3 million donation announced Wednesday from Wisconsin businessman Robert Kern and his wife, Patricia, is designated for Mayo’s Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

Additional Coverage:
Pioneer Press (front page)
Wisconsin couple sweeten gift to Mayo Clinic to total $100M

Post-Bulletin (front page)
$67 million gift to Mayo Clinic 'changes everything'

Minnesota Public Radio
Wis. couple donate another $67M to Mayo Clinic

Chronicle of Philanthropy
Wisc. Couple Gives $67-Million for Mayo Clinic Center

Modern Healthcare
Mayo Clinic receives $67 million gift to improve patient care

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Kerns donate another $67 million to Mayo Clinic

Associated Press (WJON, Crookston Times, WAOW, Kansas City Star, WTAQ, Pierce County Herald), Milwaukee Business Journal, Malaysia Sun, WDIO (Duluth), KAAL, KTTC, Phys.Org

Context: Mayo Clinic announced this week that benefactors Robert and Patricia Kern have given $100 million to Mayo, with more than $87 million dedicated to the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, a strategic initiative that uses quality and engineering principles to improve the way patients experience health care. To honor the Kerns, Mayo Clinic will name the center the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

"Our desire is that the center will establish new standards for more effective, efficient care — bringing the dream of health care for all to reality," says Mr. Kern.

News Release: Kern Family Gives $100 Million to Mayo Clinic, Signaling Confidence in Mayo to Transform Health Care

Mayo Clinic News Network: Improving the Way Patients Experience Health Care

Public Affairs Contact: Shelly Plutowski

MPR
Many parents not vaccinating kids for HPV
by Elizabeth Baier

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Many children are not being vaccinated against a cervical cancer virus because their parents don't know enough about the vaccine, a Mayo Clinic pediatrician warns… Because HPV isn't a pediatric disease, parents often think the vaccine isn't necessary or it's given to children when they're too young, said Dr. Robert Jacobson, a senior researcher and pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic Children's Center.

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.

Additional Coverage:
KAAL, Mayo Study Blames Perception for Fewer HPV Vaccines; News Medical, Medical Xpress, KSTP, Health News Digest

Context: A Mayo Clinic physician and two other pediatric experts say that parental perceptions pose a major barrier to acceptance of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination — and that many of those perceptions are wrong. Their comments are published in Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, in an editorial on why HPV vaccination rates remain poor.  

"The greatest misperception of parents is that the HPV vaccine isn't needed," says Mayo Clinic's Robert Jacobson, M.D., pediatrician in the Mayo Clinic Children's Center and lead author of the editorial. "Not only is that wrong, it's a dangerous idea to be spreading around. Recent figures show that at least 12,000 unvaccinated women develop cervical cancer from HPV every year." Other incorrect perceptions: The HPV vaccines are not safe, and they are given to children when they are too young.

News Release: Parental Perceptions are Preventing HPV Vaccination Success

Mayo Clinic News Network: Parental Perceptions are Preventing HPV Vaccination Success

Public Affairs Contact: Bob Nellis

Arizona Republic
Do celebs’ cancer stories help public’s treatment choices?
By Laura Martin

… Arizona breast-cancer specialists say the result has brought not only greater patient awareness but confusion. The result of celebrity announcements has “broadened the conversation we have with women,” said Dr. Donald Northfelt, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Clinic in Arizona. “They will specifically inquire about whether they have a genetic disposition to breast cancer.”

Circulation: The Arizona Republic reaches 1.1 million readers every Sunday. The newspaper’s website Arizona Central, averages 83 million pages views each month.

Context: Donald Northfelt, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic hematologist and oncologist who serves as medical director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Clinic in Arizona.

Public Affairs Contact: Julie Janovsky-Mason

WEAU Eau Claire
Mayo donates $25,000 to sponsor Boys and Girls Club program

Mayo Clinic Health System has announced it will grant $25,000 to support a program to promote healthy living and life skills for the kids who go to the Boys & Girls Club. It says that the money will go towards the “Triple Play” program, which the club says is designed to show youth that eating smart, keeping fit, and forming positive relationships can add up to a healthy lifestyle.

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: The Mayo Clinic Health System Foundation in Eau Claire recently granted the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Chippewa Valley $25,000 to sponsor the “Triple Play” Health & Life Skills program.  Representatives from Mayo Clinic will be coming to the Boys & Girls Club Wednesday, October 23, to present their generous donation to the organization. 

The goal of the Triple Play Program is to improve Club members’ knowledge of healthy habits; increase the number of hours per day they participate in physical activities; and strengthen their ability to interact positively with others and engage in positive relationships.  Mayo Clinic Health System will be the presenting sponsor of the Triple Play program, which aligns with the Foundation’s mission to support activities that improve the general health of those who live in our communities.

News Release: Mayo Clinic Grant Press Release

Public Affairs Contact: Paul Meznarich

Mankato Free Press
State workers to see cheaper rates for Mayo

It's sort of a tale of two outcomes, with one player quite happy with how things turned out, and the other, well, not so much…One of those providers is a company called Preferred One. And their pricing this year worked out beautifully for Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, and not so beautifully for the Mankato Clinic. After the annual negotiation process, Mayo found itself bumped from a cost level of tier 4 down to a much more inexpensive tier 2. Mankato Clinic, meanwhile, found itself bumped up to tier 3 from tier 2, even though its prices went down.

Reach: The Mankato Free Press covers local and state news that is relevant to South Central Minnesota as well as national and world news. The newspaper's daily cirdulation is about 19,000.

Context: Mayo Clinic Health System has been designated the low cost health care provider (Cost Level 2) for State of Minnesota employees in the Mankato area who enroll with PreferredOne. Mayo Clinic and the State of Minnesota agreed to the new arrangement with PreferredOne, which will mean lower deductibles and copays for employees in the State Employee Group Insurance Program (SEGIP) at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato facilities.   

During open enrollment from Nov. 1 to Nov. 14, State employees can enroll with PreferredOne, which offers Mayo Clinic care at local sites in Mankato, Lake Crystal, Le Sueur and St. Peter at the lowest copay and deductibles.

News Release: Mankato State Employee Insurance Options

Public Affairs Contact: Micah Dorfner

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