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 Heather Privett  with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News. Thank you.

Editor, Karl Oestreich;  Assistant Editor: Carmen Zwicker

 

Star Tribune
Mayo chief John Noseworthy talks about the future of health care
By Joe Carlson

Dr. John Noseworthy is best known as president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, but he’s also a governor with the World Economic Forum (WEF). At the group’s 46th annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month Noseworthy spoke on a WEF panel with U.S. Health and Human
Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and others about the future of health care. In a phone interview after the discussion, Noseworthy talked about Mayo’s work for Medicare’s value-based purchasing program on hip and knee surgeries, and whether the developing world can benefit from lessons learned in expensive health care systems in developed nations like the U.S.

Reach: The Star Tribune Sunday circulation is 518,745 copies and weekday circulation is 300,277. The Star Tribune is the state’s largest newspaper and ranks 16th nationally in circulation.

Additional coverage:

HealthLeaders Media — Mayo chief John Noseworthy talks about the future of healthcare

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

Contact: Duska Anastasijevic

 

Star Tribune
Device experiment program saves lives, speeds products to market: Mayo is part of a plan to get devices to market faster. 
By Jim Spencer

Ron Hall owes his life to Mayo Clinic surgeon Gustavo Oderich and a Food and Drug Administration early feasibility study that helps get medical devices to market faster. In December, the 80-year-old Blue Earth County man was preparing for a wrist operation when a test showed that the major artery carrying blood through his stomach was at high risk of rupturing. Hall and his wife first thought of going to the Department of Veterans Affairs for treatment. “Then my brain clicked on that we were near the Mayo Clinic,” said Val Hall, Ron’s spouse. “And we got referred there.”

Reach: The Star Tribune Sunday circulation is 518,745 copies and weekday circulation is 300,277. The Star Tribune is the state’s largest newspaper and ranks 16th nationally in circulation.

Context: Gustavo Oderich, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic vascular surgeon. Dr. Oderich conducts ongoing clinical research focused on complex aortic aneurysms and treatment of mesenteric artery disease.

 

Florida Times-Union
Mayo Clinic's new Jacoby Center for Breast Health consolidates services in one spot
by Charlie Patton

The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville’s new Robert and Monica Jacoby Center for Breast Health should create a more efficient, more integrated approach to breast care, said Sarah A. McLaughlin, a breast surgeon with Mayo. The new center, which consolidates all of Mayo’s operations involving breast health on one floor, was funded by a $5 million gift from philanthropists Robert E. and Monica Jacoby of Ponte Vedra Beach.

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

Additional coverage: Washington Times Online, Sun Herald Online, Tampa Tribune Online

Context: Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus today announced the opening of the Robert and Monica Jacoby Center for Breast Health, which was funded by a $5 million gift from Robert E. and Monica Jacoby of Ponte Vedra, Florida. The new 16,000-square-foot  multidisciplinary breast center offers patients a comprehensive array of diagnostic, treatment and after-care services for all types of breast disease, including breast cancer, in a single location. “As a state-designated Cancer Center of Excellence, Mayo Clinic continues to expand and enhance comprehensive cancer care services to make them available to more patients in Jacksonville as well as all of Florida and the Southeast,” says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., CEO, Mayo Clinic in Florida. “The Jacoby Center for Breast Health will have a positive impact on patients seeking high quality breast health care. We greatly appreciate the generous gift from the Jacoby family that has made the new breast health center possible on our Florida campus.” More information can be found on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Contact: Paul Scotti

 

New York Times blog
Pursuing the Dream of Healthy Aging
by Jane Brody

“Aging is by far the best predictor of whether people will develop a chronic disease like atherosclerotic heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia or osteoarthritis,” Dr. James L. Kirkland, director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview. “Aging way outstrips all other risk factors.”

Reach: The New York Times has a daily circulation of nearly 649,000 and a Sunday circulation of 1.18 million.

Context: James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D. leads the  Mayo Clinic Kogod Center on Aging. Dr. Kirkland's research focuses on the impact of cellular aging (senescence) on age-related dysfunction and chronic diseases, especially developing methods for removing these cells and alleviating their effects. Senescent cells accumulate with aging and in such diseases as dementias, atherosclerosis, cancers, diabetes and arthritis.

Contacts: Bob Nellis, Megan Forliti

 

Wall Street Journal
The Small Warnings Before Cardiac Arrest
by Ron Winslow

…Say someone has a brief episode of chest pain during exercise for the first time and goes without further symptoms and, after having no further symptoms, suffers sudden cardiac arrest three weeks later. “Should that person have called 911, or sought assistance from his or her physician?” asks Roger White, an anesthesiologist and cardiac arrest expert at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. “That sort of question is left completely unanswered.”

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.

Context:  Roger White, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist. Dr. White's research focuses on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Contact: Traci Klein

 

NPR
Boosting Life Span By Clearing Out Cellular Clutter
by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Mice were much healthier and lived about 25 percent longer when scientists killed off a certain kind of cell that accumulates in the body with age… These are cells that have stopped dividing, though not necessarily because the cells themselves are old. "It's a normal cell that experienced an unusual amount of stress, and it decided to stop dividing," says Jan van Deursen, who studies senescent cells at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.

Reach: NPR's Shots blog provides news about health and medicine. The blog has more than 68,000 unique visitors each month.

Additional coverage: Fast Company, Newsweek, The Telegraph UK, The Atlantic, Yahoo News, HealthDay, nature.com, The Mirror UK, The Independent UK, Fortune

Context: Researchers at Mayo Clinic have shown that senescent cells – cells that no longer divide and accumulate with age – negatively impact health and shorten lifespan by as much as 35 percent in normal mice. The results, which appear today in Nature, demonstrate that clearance of senescent cells delays tumor formation, preserves tissue and organ function, and extends lifespan without observed adverse effects. “Cellular senescence is a biological mechanism that functions as an ‘emergency brake’ used by damaged cells to stop dividing,” says Jan van Deursen, Ph.D., Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular biology at Mayo Clinic, and senior author of the paper. “While halting cell division of these cells is important for cancer prevention, it has been theorized that once the ‘emergency brake’ has been pulled, these cells are no longer necessary.” More information can be found on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Contacts: Bob Nellis, Megan Forliti

New York Times — Drug Shortages Forcing Hard Decisions on Rationing Treatments by Sheri Fink…Dr. Ivan Hsia, an anesthesiologist in Ontario, Canada, said many physicians in his field adopt what he called “the paternalistic model — like I’ll inform them when I think it’s unsafe enough to inform them.” When he and his colleagues surveyed hundreds of patients at the Mayo Clinics in Arizona and Florida and others in Canada about their preferences, the results surprised him. Most wanted to know about a drug shortage that might affect their care during elective surgery, even if there was only a minor difference in potential side effects, and many said they would delay surgery.

New York Times — Microcephaly, Spotlighted by Zika Virus, Has Long Afflicted and Mystified by Catherine Saint Louis — An estimated 25,000 babies receive a microcephaly diagnosis each year in the United States. Microcephaly simply means that the baby’s head is abnormally small — sometimes just because the parents themselves have unusually small heads. “By itself, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a neurological problem,” said Dr. Marc C. Patterson, a pediatric neurologist at the Mayo Clinic Children’s Center in Rochester, Minn. Additional coverage: TodayOnline.com

New York Times — F.L. Great Ken Stabler Had Brain Disease C.T.E. — The former Raiders quarterback had high Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he died in July, researchers said…A study by the Mayo Clinic, released last fall, found C.T.E. in 21 of 66 men who played contact sports (mostly football), but found no traces of the disease in 198 other brains of men who had no exposure to contact sports.

NPR — Study Suggests Surgical Residents Can Safely Work Longer Shifts by Jordan Rau — Patients suffered no additional harm when doctors training to be surgeons were allowed to work longer shifts, a study published Tuesday concludes… "We're very encouraged by the findings," said Dr. Maya Babu, a neurological surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic and president of the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons. "We feel very strongly that flexibility is important to provide opportunities to learn and to have patient ownership, to see patients from the time they're admitted through surgery the next day." Additional coverage: Health News Florida, Salon, Miami Herald, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun blog, Kansas City Star, Star Tribune, ABC News

Yahoo! Health — Should You Really Worry About Getting Cancer From Cellphones? by Korin Miller — Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website is no stranger to attention-grabbing stories — last year it featured advice on vaginal steaming and why you may be yawning the wrong way. The latest: An article that claims our cellphones are toxic… “There is considerable controversy about a link between cellphone use and brain cancer,” oncologist Timothy Moynihan, MD, education chair of the Mayo Clinic’s Division of Medical Oncology, tells Yahoo Health. “However, there are no definitive studies that clarify that situation.”

Chicago Tribune — NHL starts using concussion test Oak Brook entrepreneur invented by David Haugh — The Mayo Clinic has endorsed the procedure, which measures impairments of eye movement, speech, language and concentration in comparison to a preseason baseline score… "The King-Devick Test accurately measures subtle neurological functions that are invariably affected immediately after a concussion is sustained and are otherwise very difficult to detect by a routine neurological examination, even by a trained specialist,'' Dodick said. "The test is unbiased.''

Washington Post — Minnesota governor hospitalized after fainting at event — Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton was taken to a hospital for testing after fainting Sunday during an event in the Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, his chief of staff said…The Democratic governor has had health troubles since taking office in 2011. He underwent elective lower back surgery in December at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

HealthDay — Weight Loss Starting at Midlife Tied to Later Dementia Risk in Study by Steven Reinberg — Declining weight from middle-age years to late life may be a sign of impending dementia, a new Mayo Clinic study suggests… "Unintended weight loss may be a signal to examine whether to increase efforts to engage in lifestyle measures that are beneficial to mental function," said lead researcher Dr. Rosebud Roberts, a professor of epidemiology and neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Additional coverage: The Telegraph UK, Science Codex, Huffington Post UK, News World India, Toronto Telegraph

Huffington Post — What Experts Say Not To Do When Trying To Get Pregnant After 35 by Emma Haak — Do not wait a year to go see a fertility specialist if you're having trouble conceiving -- go after six months. That's the advice we got from every expert we spoke with for this story. Here's why…Who we talked to: Elizabeth Stewart, MD, chair of the division of reproductive endocrinology and professor of obstetrics and gynecology and surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

Huffington Post Canada — Caffeine Won't Cause Irregular Heartbeats, Study Finds by Arti Patel — While the Mayo Clinic suggests most healthy adults can consume up to 400 mgs of caffeine a day, Dietitians of Canada notes for some, caffeine can cause sleep disturbance, headaches and make them irritable and nervous. It has also been related to heart, bone and fertility issues.

MSN.com — Mayo Clinic Doctor Weighs In On Sleep Cycles — Mayo Clinic physician Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler said when people wake up before their alarm goes off they need to ask themselves, "Am I done sleeping?"

Reuters — Council of Accountable Physician Practices Offers Resources in Developing Physician Leadership — Physician executives from the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), a coalition of leading American medical groups, have authored a five-part series on physician leadership that has been published as a special edition in Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation. The articles and their authors include: “Physician Leadership in Changing Times,” by Jack Cochran, M.D., The Permanente Federation; Gary S. Kaplan, M.D., Virginia Mason Medical Center; and Robert E. Nesse, M.D., Mayo Clinic Health System. Additional coverage: Bloomberg News Online

WKBT-TV LaCrosse — Gov. Kleefisch visits Mayo Clinic Health System in Sparta — As Governor Scott Walker continues his state-wide tour, the state's second in command is doing some sight seeing of her own. Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch visited Mayo Clinic Health System in Sparta Thursday. It's part of her Rural Wisconsin Initiative Tour. She learned about the clinic's telemedicine program during her visit. It's a way for people to get access to specialty care without the hassle of traveling.

MedScape (podcast) — Refractory Angina: Two Challenging Cases — R Jay Widmer, MD, PhD: Greetings. I'm, cardiology fellow at the Mayo Clinic. During today's Mayo Clinic Talks podcast, we'll be discussing invasive and noninvasive management of intractable angina. I'm joined today by my colleague, Dr Gurpreet Sandhu, director of the Mayo Clinic Cardiac Cath Lab. Welcome, Dr Sandhu.

Tri-City Herarld Online — Mayo Clinic News Network: Carbs and endurance training: tips for success — Registered dietitian and nutritionist Erica Goldstein offers a variety of tips to help athletes understand the best foods and options for carb loading during training. "The top question I'm usually asked is what I should be eating during training," says Goldstein, who sees patients on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus.

Post-Bulletin — If you get medical marijuana, it'll cost you by Heather Carlson — Mayo Clinic allows its health care providers to decide whether they want to certify patients for the medical cannabis program. "The Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program is a voluntary program for eligible health care providers. It is each doctor's decision whether to participate in the program. Mayo does have a policy to assist those providers who choose to participate in the program," Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said in a statement.

Mankato Times — Mayo Clinic Health System offers Mindfulness-Based Stress — Mayo Clinic Health System will offer the eight-week “Living Life Mindfully: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” course on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 7 p.m. starting Feb. 23…Taught by Elizabeth Power Hawkinson, Mayo Clinic Health System licensed independent clinical social worker, the course introduces the fundamental techniques of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a clinically proven, complementary medicine program used to reduce stress and promote overall health and well-being.

Santa Maria Times — Mayo Clinic News Network: Warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest — “The study shows close to half of the patients in the study reported symptoms within a month prior to their arrest,” said Dr. Sharonne Hayes, Mayo Clinic cardiologist and the hospital's Women’s Heart Clinic Founder.

Nine MSN (Australia) — Five ways to torch belly fat by Kimberly Gillan — Back off the booze…"In general, alcohol intake is associated with bigger waists, because when you drink alcohol, the liver burns alcohol instead of fat," says Michael Jensen, MD, an endocrine expert and obesity researcher with the Mayo Clinic.

KAALtv.com — Twins Caravan Makes Special Stop at Mayo Clinic by Jessie Jonson — The Minnesota Twins visited Mayo Clinic Saint Marys to bring smiles to the younger residents. On Wednesday, a few of the players along with former player and Hall of Famer, Bert Blyleven, made a stop at Mayo Clinic Saint Marys. This is a part of 10 day long series of visits the players do called, The Twins Caravan.

MedPage Today — IQ Loss Cut With Proton Therapy for Brain Tumors by Charles Bankhead …An unmeasured socioeconomic factor might have come into play to affect the results, noted Sameer Keole, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. Consistent with data reported by Yock's group, Kahalley and colleagues found that children treated with PBRT had higher baseline IQ, which can suggest a number of points."Is it because patients with more 'means' are able to ask questions about protons and travel to centers for it?" Keole, a clinical spokesperson for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, posed in an email to MedPage Today.

WEAU Eau Claire — Health department says Zika virus not likely to spread to Wisconsin — Currently, Mayo Clinic Health System says there is no vaccine or treatment for Zika. Dr. Jennifer Bantz (OB-GYN) said, “Women who are pregnant and have been infected with the Zika virus, in all trimesters, there have been some babies born with small brains and some babies who have died from this.”

Mankato Free Press — Families come together for Baby & Kids Expo by Trey Mewes — If you want to know how a baby's heart works, just ask Dr. Jason DeWitt, medical director of women and children's services at Mayo Clinic Health System — Mankato.  DeWitt was on hand, along with dozens of other professionals, to give advice to families Saturday at the annual Baby & Kids Expo inside the Verizon Wireless Center."We want it to be engaging," DeWitt said. "We want the kids to be able to get their hands involved, literally, and get them connected with health care in a positive manner.

Louis Post-Dispatch Online — The truth behind standing desks by Aisha Sultan…Not everyone can find a convenient workaround to a design flaw in the workspace, and that hurdle can make changing an ingrained behavior even more of a challenge. The biggest obstacles that make it more difficult to implement standing desks usage are often related to leadership, work flow, finance and understanding the science, according to James Levine, an obesity expert at the Mayo Clinic and author of “Stand Up.”

Saudi Gazette — Makeover master — Saudi medical student in US training to be plastic surgeon by Nicole Hewitt — The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota is widely viewed as one of the best hospitals in the world… When most people think about doctors, it is not every time they think about plastic surgeons. But for Saad, his dream has always been to pursue his medical career in this particular field. Speaking to Saudi Gazette from Mayo Clinic headquarters in Rochester he said, “As a plastic surgeon your job is to restore not only the function but also the shape of the human body. Plastic surgery is about optimizing the quality of life.”

NeuroScientist News — Researchers use network science to help pinpoint source of seizures — For the third of all epilepsy patients who don’t respond to medication, an alternative is to locate the small cluster of neurons that act as the seed of a seizure’s aberrant electrical activity and surgically remove it… At the core of the research team’s findings is the International Epilepsy Electrophysiology Portal, founded by Litt; Zachary Ives, a professor and Markowitz Faculty Fellow in Penn Engineering’s Department of Computer & Information Science; and Gregory Worrell, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic.

Brainerd Daily Dispatch — Monday Momentum — Need to be motivated on a Monday for better health? To keep it simple, just pick from three things to get the week off to a healthy start…1. Drink at least one glass of water to start the day before breakfast…"Water is your body's principal chemical component and makes up about 60 percent of your body weight," the Mayo Clinic notes. "Every system in your body depends on water."

Post Bulletin — Downtown-Saint Marys streetcar on track? by Jeff Kiger — A private company appears to be testing the waters for an ambitious fixed electric railcar system along Second Street Southwest between Saint Marys Hospital and downtown Rochester. Earlier this week a group calling itself Zumbro Transit Co. launched a website and a Facebook page announcing detailed plans for what would be the city's first-ever streetcar system. However, there are no individuals named and the Minnesota Secretary of State's office has no record of such a company.

Post Bulletin — Rochester home sales up by about 24 percent by Jeff Kiger — Local real estate agents have a message for anyone thinking of selling their southeastern Minnesota home in the spring: Don't wait…. The excitement and hype surrounding Mayo Clinic's Destination Medical Center seems to be pushing up commercial real estate prices, while spurring more development.

Jacksonville Business Journal — How Mayo Clinic is preparing for the Zika virus by Alexa Epitropoulos — Mayo Clinic Jacksonville's Dr. Jane Hata said Florida could start seeing cases of the Zika virus as soon as this summer… "There are no self-sustaining infections in the U.S. right now," said Hata, director of Clinical Microbiology and Serology Laboratories at Mayo. "That could change because this virus is transmitted by two species of mosquitos we have here in the U.S." Additional coverage: Argentina News

WJXT Jacksonville — Mayo Clinic: Florida could see locally-transmitted Zika virus by summer by Francesca Amiker — The World Health Organization is now upping its concern over Zika virus – declaring it a global public health emergency Monday. So far Florida has three confirmed cases of the virus, but those cases were contracted oversees. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic said Monday that Florida could see locally-transmitted cases of the virus by the summer. “It's a warm weather infection so it's mosquitoes that like to live in warm weather so it's a question of sometime probably in the summer,” Dr. Vandana Bhide, internist and pediatrician, Mayo Clinic.

TIME — The Best Way to Survive a Heart Attack Without Drugs by Alice Park — … In a study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, they found that people who had better fitness before their first heart attack are more likely to survive the attack than those with lower fitness. The researchers studied the electronic health records of more than 2,000 men and women who took a treadmill test as a way to measure how fit they were. Additional coverage: CBS News, Medical Daily

Star Tribune — High-profile Minnesotans' full-page ad decries bigotry toward Muslims by Paul Walsh — Responding to concerns about prejudice toward Muslims, many Minnesota leaders in politics, higher education, health care and business lent their names to a full-page advertisement in Monday's Star Tribune calling on citizens to reject such behavior as "un-Minnesotan."… From business, names on the ad's list include: CEOs Hubert Joly of Best Buy, Ken Powell of General Mills, David MacLennan of Cargill, Andrew Duff of Piper Jaffray, Omar Ishrak of Medtronic, Randall Hogan of Pentair, and the Pohlads. Also listed: CEOs Mary Brainerd of HealthPartners and John Noseworthy of the Mayo Clinic.

Pioneer Press — Gopher football recruits multi-talented, multi-sport guys by Andy Greder — … In January, the NCAA looked — for the first time — at the number of athletes specializing in one sport. According to the study, 33 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision players specialized in football by age 12. Of the 11 sports tracked, soccer had the most specialization (68 percent), followed by tennis (66), hockey (55) and basketball (49).“There is definitely more single-sport specialization; that is an overall societal trend,” said Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, medical director of Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine. Additional coverage: West Central Tribune

Post Bulletin — Mayo Clinic: No reason for 'generalized panic' over Zika virus by Brett Boese — Dr. Pritish Tosh, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist, says that 80 percent of people who get infected with the virus show no symptoms, and those that do have mild symptoms that typically resolve within a week. The virus is marked by a fever with a rash, joint pain and red eyes, but also creates special concerns for pregnant women because it may be linked to potentially fatal birth defects.

WXOW.com La Crosse — Dermatologists recommend to frequently moisturize your skin during winter months by Jimmy Kruckow — "At least twice a day, moisturizing lotion should be put on, so every morning, every night.  We recommend bathing or showering once a day using luke warm comfortable water. Avoid really hot water cause that drys out the skin even more so," says Mary Duh, a Physician Assistant in Dermatology at Mayo Clinic Health Systems.

MPR — 'Destination' unknown: Rochester wants Mayo to move on massive project by Elizabeth Baier — Sitting in the heart of downtown Rochester, there's an empty lot and three vacant buildings. It's supposed to be the first piece of Mayo Clinic's Destination Medical Center, a massive 20-year project, funded partly by the Legislature, intended to remake the downtown, generate $5 billion in private investment and draw 32,000 new residents to the city. City officials hope that project breaks ground soon. But nothing has happened here since developers unveiled plans for a 20-plus-story, mixed-used project on the site a few blocks away from Mayo Clinic headquarters.

WQOW.com Eau Claire — WI Supreme Court to hear case involving accused former Eau Claire doctor by Kristen Shill — Van de Loo was charged in 2012 with sexually assaulting male patients, but a jury found him not guilty of 14 charges, and could not reach a verdict on two others. Two of his former patients then sued Van de Loo and the Mayo Clinic for medical malpractice, alleging they suffered profound psychological damage as a result of Van de Loo's conduct.  A circuit dismissed their suit, agreeing with Van de Loo and Mayo that the statute of limitations had expired…The state supreme court will hear arguments in the case on February 24th.

Health Data Management — Epic shift: Demand for cloud EHR service is soaring by Greg Slabodkin — When Epic Systems announced that it was buying a Mayo Clinic data center for $46 million, it put the health IT vendor’s growing data hosting business into the spotlight. The electronic health record giant offers both on-premise and hosted data solutions for its customers.

Post Bulletin — Zumbro Transit: 'Let's start figuring this out' by Jeff Kiger — Organizers behind a fixed rail transit proposal on Rochester's Second Street say it is time to start making something happen… He points out that a 2009 Second Street corridor study said transit is needed to connect Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus to Mayo Clinic's downtown campus.

Eau Claire Leader-Telegram — Remaking the Valley: The growing business of keeping healthy by Christena T. O’Brien — Some of the larger projects completed or kicked off in 2015 in the Eau Claire area…The completion of construction on Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire’s new laboratory and pathology area in the lower level of its Luther Building to accommodate growth in services for northwestern Wisconsin and many areas of southeastern Minnesota, said John Dickey, chief administrative officer for Mayo in northwestern Wisconsin.

Space.com — Shuttle Commander, Spacewalker to Enter Astronaut Hall of Fame by Robert Z. Pearlman — NASA astronauts Brian Duffy and Scott Parazynski will be honored as the Hall's 2016 class of inductees on May 14 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. After leaving NASA's astronaut corps in 2009, Parazynski joined the faculty at Arizona State University and founded a human performance program with the Mayo Clinic. He previously served as chairman of the board of directors of the Challenger Center, helping to inspire 400,000 students and teachers annually. Additional coverage: Yahoo! News UK & Ireland

Latinos Health — 6 Fast & Easy Ways to Avoid Heartburn — 1. Watch what you eat….Reflux is commonly caused by consuming large, fatty meals, Dr. Jeffrey Alexander, head of the Esophageal Clinic at the Mayo Clinic told ABC News. The sphincter muscles in the lower esophagus seals it off, but when a meal is high in fat, the fat softens the sphincter muscles, disabling it from sealing off the stomach and enabling the food to travel back up,

Men’s Health Singapore — How To Have The Ultimate ZoukOut Experience — The day after a party night can almost make you regret the act of partying itself, but it doesn’t have to be…Before falling into bed, down a 500ml bottle of water, says Daniel K.Hall-Flavin, M.D., a consultant in addiction psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic. And if one of your mates suggests more alcohol to deal with the hangover, ignore him. “Bad idea”, the good doctor adds. “It will provide a numbing effect, but all you’re doing is prolonging the inevitable, and will likely make your headache worse.”

Winona Daily News — Mayo Clinic project off to a slow start in Rochester — It's been nearly three years since Minnesota legislators approved state funding for Mayo Clinic's Destination Medical Center, a massive project that will overhaul the face of downtown Rochester. But movement has been slow on one of the first pieces of the project, a mixed-use building of more than 20 stories a few blocks from Mayo headquarters, and some residents are beginning to wonder why. Additional coverage: La Crosse Tribune, KTTC,

The Record.com — Do ear infections always need to be treated with antibiotics? — "An ear infection is a bacterial or viral infection that affects the ear. It becomes painful when buildups of fluid and inflammation occur in the air-filled space behind the eardrum," says Mayo Clinic Health System nurse practitioner Leanna Munoz. "Signs and symptoms of infection often quickly show."

Daily Mail UK — Could ketamine be prescribed to treat depression? Party drug hailed as the 'next big thing in psychiatry' by Lizzy Parry — Patients battling depression could soon be prescribed ketamine, as experts claim the drug is the 'next big thing in psychiatry'…Since 2006, a number of institutions across the US, including Yale, the University of California San Diego and the Mayo Clinic have begun to offer treatments using ketamine - for those patients with severe depression.

WQOW TV Eau Claire — Tips for safe snow shoveling by Bridget Curran…Wayne Street, a trauma nurse at Mayo Clinic Health System, says many people try to do too much too fast…"Unfortunately every year during these big winter snow storms, we actually see people with serious injuries or serious heart issues that come to our emergency department," he said. "With heart issues, they overdo it. They think they can shovel harder and faster, and in reality it's a lot of work and if you're not used to it and you don't do it everyday, it puts a strain on your heath that you're not used to and you can have a major heart attack."

Eau Claire Leader Telegram — Living to tell: Woman to share heart-health story by Jennifer Schmidt — Gayle Kleppe has a message she’d like to share with as many women as possible: listen to your body and get any unusual symptoms checked out quickly. She did and, thanks to an attentive medical team at Mayo Clinic Health System, she’s living to tell about her experience. “Everything fell into place at Mayo, which I think was the lifesaver,” says Kleppe, 65, of Eau Claire.

Chippewa Herald — Medical threat by Brock Fritz — A patient at Mayo Clinic Health System-Red Cedar was arrested after he threatened to “blow up” the medical facility. At 7 a.m. on Jan. 25, a staff member was scheduling an appointment for a 57-year-old Menomonie man who became upset when his request couldn’t be fulfilled and claimed that they were withholding a cure so it could charge for unnecessary services.

Post Bulletin — City report supports Holiday Inn TIF by Andrew Setterholm — The city of Rochester administrative staff has put its support firmly behind the use of tax-increment financing in conjunction with one of the city's most public development proposals, a Holiday Inn at Second Street Southwest…Mayo Clinic staff indicate there "might be support" for a subway connection to the St. Marys Campus, and the owner of other hotels in the immediately area has expressed "strong interest" in a subway system.

Science Codex — Study determines saliva gland test can spot early Parkinson's disease — Researchers from Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Banner Sun Health Research Institute have determined that testing a portion of a person's submandibular gland may be a way to diagnose early Parkinson's disease. The study was published this month in Movement Disorders, the official journal of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society. Additional coverage: Science Newsline

Jacksonville.com — Senoritas — On Jan. 25, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville’s top cancer researcher Al Copland was presented with a check for $45,000 from the committee that ran the October SenioRITAs at Sawgrass women’s doubles tennis tourney and silent auction party…Copland expressed optimism about the MCJB2 Cell Development research that is being conducted in cooperation with the Mayo Clinic Arizona.

Post Bulletin — Ask Mayo Clinic: Chronic hives persist for more than six weeks — DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I woke up this morning with itchy, red welts covering my arms and legs. These have shown up every now and then over the past few months, and now they seem worse than usual. What could be causing this? How is it treated?... What you may be experiencing is chronic hives. Hives (urticaria) are raised, red or white itchy welts on your skin.

Star Tribune — Why we need a different kind of diversity on our courts by Kevin Carpenter — Diversity of culture is great. But I wish we would also try to empanel appellate courts with a diversity of legal experience...If the Mayo Clinic were run like our Court of Appeals, they’d have one big department. They’d sometimes assign a cardiologist to do a hip replacement surgery. After all, cardiologists are smart; some may even have watched a hip replacement surgery in medical school.

WJXT Jacksonville — CDC: No birth control, no booze by Francesca Amiker — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a health alert to all women in their childbearing years to not drink unless they're on birth control…. Dr. Vandana Bhide at the Mayo Clinic sides with the findings and says drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome, which is characterized by lifelong physical, behavioral and intellectual disabilities in children. "The safest thing is to drink no alcohol whatsoever during pregnancy," said Bhide.

Medical Daily — Childhood ADHD May Be Linked To Obesity — But Only In Women by Ed Cara — New research released Thursday by the Mayo Clinic suggests childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be tied to the development of obesity, particularly in women… "Females with ADHD are at risk of developing obesity during adulthood, and stimulant medications used to treat ADHD do not appear to alter that risk," said lead author Dr. Seema Kumar, pediatrician and researcher at Mayo Clinic Children's Research Center in a statement.

Time — 20 Everyday Habits That Sabotage Weight Loss Goals by Dana Leigh Smith — … According to one study, getting eight and a half hours of shut-eye each night can drop cravings for junk food a whopping 62 percent and decrease overall appetite by 14 percent! Mayo Clinic researchers note similar findings: In their study, adults who slept an hour and twenty minutes less than a control group consumed an average of 549 additional calories daily.

The Washington Post Online — Five moves to get the most out of your elliptical workout by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel — Ellipticals combine the fluidity of running and low-impact motion of cycling, making them ideal for people with joint pain or who are overweight, according to the American Council on Exercise. While a Mayo Clinic study found that jogging on a treadmill burns more calories than a steady-state workout on an elliptical, seeing results from using either machine ultimately depends on your level of exertion.

TheSpec.com — Mayo Clinic News Network: Screenings, awareness help prevent cervical cancer — Once the leading cause of cancer death in women, cervical cancer cases have lessened in recent years… Mayo Clinic Health System obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Sonal Grover answers common questions about cervical cancer.

Mankato Free Press — 'Destination' unknown: Rochester wants more action on huge Mayo Project — Sitting in the heart of downtown Rochester, there’s an empty lot and three vacant buildings. It’s supposed to be the first piece of Mayo Clinic’s Destination Medical Center, a massive 20-year project, funded partly by the Legislature, intended to remake the downtown, generate $5 billion in private investment and draw 32,000 new residents to the city.

Post Bulletin — Dear Answer Man, there was a story in the paper Tuesday about how much Rochester has spent on Destination Medical Center so far ($9.6 million), but how much has Mayo Clinic spent that's considered DMC related? — Mayo has reported to the state that it spent $39.2 million in 2014 and $6.9 million in 2013, for a total of about $46.2 million. Presumably more was spent in 2015 that hasn't been certified by the state. A total of $200 million in private investment has to occur before state money is released for DMC related projects. FYI, Olmsted County didn't spend a dime on DMC in 2015, as far as I can tell.

Austin Daily Herald — Clinics ready to Go for Red for Women — Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States and Mayo Clinic Health System wants to raise awareness and urge women to take steps in the fight against heart disease in women. Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin and Albert Lea are once again participating in the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign on Feb. 5. Staff at all the medical centers in both communities will wear red that day and will encourage others to do the same.

Las Vegas Review Journal — Conquering the top 5 reasons people fail at fitness — Everyone can agree that regular exercise is important, so why do so many people struggle to stick with their fitness goals? If you’ve encountered barriers holding you back from committing to a fitness routine, you’re not alone. The health experts at the Mayo Clinic offer simple ideas for overcoming the five most common hurdles to fitness commitment.  Additional coverage: Houston Chronicle Online, San Francisco Chronicle Online, Times Union Online

Entorno Inteligente — Estudio no descubre vinculación entre anestesia quirúrgica y deterioro cognitivo leve — "Posiblemente esto no sorprenda a nadie porque cada vez hay más pruebas respecto a que algunos problemas que se observan en la cognición de los ancianos pueden ser fruto de problemas vasculares que ocasionan accidentes cerebrovasculares y otro tipo de problemas similares", asegura el Dr. Warner y luego añade que es necesario investigar más.Los investigadores de Mayo también estudian los efectos de la anestesia en los niños pequeños.

El Nacional.com — Datos y consejos para enfrentar el zika — El doctor Pritish Tosh, especialista en enfermedades infecciosas de la Clínica Mayo, explica que “para infectarse con el Zika es necesaria la picadura de un mosquito portador”. Agregó,  que “no se puede contraer la infección por tan solo sentarse junto a alguien que está contagiado,  sino que es necesario exponerse a los insectos”.

AtuSalud — Estenosis espinal. Reduce el dolor sin operarte — Por. Dr. Paul Huddleston III, Cirugía Ortopédica, Mayo Clinic de Rochester, Minnesota. Normalmente no es necesaria una cirugía para tratar la estenosis espinal, sino que por lo general una combinación de cambios en el estilo de vida, fisioterapia y medicamentos logra reducir el dolor y las molestias fruto de este problema común de la espalda.

El Universal — Ssa pide a embarazadas acudir al médico en primer trimester —Pritish Tosh, especialista de Enfermedades Infecciosas de la Clínica Mayo, en Estados Unidos, dijo que las mujeres embarazadas que viven en zonas endémicas en donde se encuentra el vector transmisor del zika, es necesario que se protejan con ropa de manga larga, usen repelentes y eliminen sitios que puedan servir de criaderos para evitar ser infectadas, para prevenir la picadura del mosquito portador del virus.

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