May 19, 2017

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights

By Emily Blahnik

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.

Editor, Karl Oestreich;  Assistant Editor: Emily Blahnik

 

CNN
What snacks to eat for better sleep
by Jacqueline Howard

Tryptophan, an amino acid, might help you snooze because once it enters your body, it's converted into two brain chemicals associated with sleep: melatonin, which helps regulate your body's natural sleep and wake cycles, and serotonin, which causesCNN Logo relaxation and drowsiness. "Tryptophan is the reason why it is widely perceived that a Thanksgiving dinner causes drowsiness, because of the tryptophan in turkey. However, other foods contain tryptophan, and some have more tryptophan than turkey," said Dr. Donald Hensrud, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program and specialist in nutrition and preventive medicine.

Reach: Cable News Network (CNN) is a worldwide news and information network providing live, continuous coverage of news from around the globe, 24 hours a day. CNN online received more than 55 million unique visitors to its website each month.

Additional coverage: News4Jax

Context: The Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program is redefining healthy living. It’s a comprehensive, whole-body wellness experience guided by medical research and evidence-based medicine to offer guests trusted solutions to improve quality of life. Donald Hensrud, M.D. is the program’s medical director.

Contact: Kelley Luckstein

 

CNN
Are you getting the vaccines you need before going abroad?
by Jacqueline Howard

"People often underestimate the risk of getting infections," said Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious disease physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the new paper. The highest-risk group for CNN Logotravel-related illnesses tends to be people who think they are at a lower risk, Tosh said. For instance, "people who were from a country and come to the United States to live and then they visit their friends and relatives back in their country of origin and they often think, 'Well, when I was there, things were fine,' and they don't seek travel advice. They don't get medications to prevent malaria. They don't get vaccinations and these other things," he said. "So, the people who think they are the lowest risk actually have the highest risk of getting some sort of travel-related infection, mostly because they don't think they are at risk."

Reach: Cable News Network (CNN) is a worldwide news and information network providing live, continuous coverage of news from around the globe, 24 hours a day. CNN online received more than 55 million unique visitors to its website each month.

Context: Pritish Tosh, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist. Dr. Tosh is interested in emerging infections and preparedness activities related to them, ranging from collaborating with the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group in basic science vaccine development to hospital systems research related to pandemic preparedness. Influenza is a viral infection that attacks your respiratory system — your nose, throat and lungs. Influenza, commonly called the flu, is not the same as stomach "flu" viruses that cause diarrhea and vomiting.

Contact: Bob Nellis

 

CBS News
Chance meeting ends in life-saving kidney transplant for vet

On any given day, about 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant. About 5,000 people a year die waiting. Edgar Roberts will receive his transplant Tuesday after meeting his donor, John Branson, by complete chance at a Cracker BarrelCBS News logo restaurant in Georgia. In our series, A More Perfect Union, we meet these two strangers who changed each other's lives forever. Mark Strassmann reports.

Reach: CBSNEWS.com is part of CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation. The CBS web properties have more than 250 million people visit its properties each month.

Additional coverage: Washington Times-Herald

Context: Mayo Clinic surgeons perform more than 600 kidney transplants a year, including for people with very challenging kidney conditions who need special solutions and surgeries. And Mayo Clinic kidney transplant teams in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota are leaders in living-donor kidney transplants.

Contact: Paul Scotti

 

CBS News
Sushi parasite that embeds in the stomach is on the rise, doctors warn
by Mary Brophy Marcus

Dr. Donald Hensrud, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program and specialist in nutrition and preventive medicine, told CBS News that pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems, such as HIV patients or CBS News logoindividuals taking biologic drugs, should avoid raw or undercooked fish and seafood. They can carry a risk for other illnesses, too. "Two years ago, a salmonella outbreak was linked to raw tuna.," said Hensrud, the author of the Mayo Clinic Diet book. Don't eat raw fish at sketchy restaurants, either, Eiras recommended.  "I would not go to a restaurant with a 'C' rating in New York largely for this reason. It's a big red flag when a sushi restaurant can't maintain an 'A' rating, because one of the main things they get rated on is refrigeration. They're not cooking the fish so that is the only prevention method, keeping it cold," he said. Additional coverage: WDEF News 12

Reach: CBSNEWS.com is part of CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation. The CBS web properties have more than 250 million people visit its properties each month.

Context: The Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program is redefining healthy living. It’s a comprehensive, whole-body wellness experience guided by medical research and evidence-based medicine to offer guests trusted solutions to improve quality of life. Donald Hensrud, M.D. is the program’s medical director.

Contact: Kelley Luckstein

 

WCCO
Mayo Researchers: ACL Injuries Need 2 Years To Heal

It is amazing what the human body in its best form can do. But when an athlete gets hurt and the diagnosis is ruptured ACL, they know they have a long recovery process ahead of them. Dr. Timothy Hewett, the director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Research Center, has studied ACL injuries for nearly 30 years. “When you tear the ACL, it just splays apart. It looks like crab meat almost,” Hewett said. “And those mechanoreceptors, that nervous tissue, that sensory system is completely disrupted.”

Reach: WCCO 4 News is the most-watched newscast in the Twin Cities, in 5 out of 7 newscasts.

Context: Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center is a global leader in sports and musculoskeletal injury prevention and rehabilitation, concussion research, diagnostic and interventional ultrasound, sports performance optimization, and surgical and nonsurgical management of sports-related injuries. Timothy Hewett, P.hD. studies human health, fitness and performance with a long-term perspective. Dr. Hewett's diverse research interests allow him to organize, execute and oversee large-scale investigations of in vivo, in vitro and in silico kinetics and kinematics.

Contact: Rhoda Fukushima Madson

 

Arizona Daily Star
Wyatt Decker: Funding is the lifeblood of medical research

To ask the question today, “Will there ever be a cure for cancer?” you may get the answer: “No, there will be cures for cancer.” What seemed so distant not long ago is fast becoming reality for different types of cancer. We have seen amazing advancements and momentum that is both encouraging to the medical community and provides hope for millions of patients. But that momentum is at risk. In Washington, D.C., there has been talk of cuts to research funding through the National Institutes of Health. This funding is the lifeblood of medical research and a catalyst for philanthropy and other research backing nationwide. — Wyatt Decker, M.D., vice president, Mayo Clinic, and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona

Reach: The Arizona Daily Star has a circulation of more than 65,000 readers in Tuscon, Arizona. Its website has more than 446,000 unique visitors each month.

Context: Wyatt Decker, M.D. is CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Contact: Jim McVeigh

 

Associated Press
Few doctors discuss cancer costs with patients, study finds
by Marilynn Marchione

Cancer patients are three times more likely to declare bankruptcy than people without cancer are, but many doctors are not having the conversations that might help prevent this and sometimes don't know the cost themselves, the results suggest.Associated Press Wire Service Logo "That would not occur in any other industry I can think of" where a service or product is sold, said the study leader, Dr. Rahma Warsame of the Mayo Clinic…The study has some limitations — it's not nationwide, and it includes newly diagnosed patients, where cost is most likely to come up, as well as others further along in treatment who may have discussed this earlier. But the larger point is clear, Warsame said: The "financial toxicity" of treatments that can cost more than $100,000 a year is growing, and talks about that aren't happening enough.

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

Additional coverage: Washington Post, Herald-Whig, Star Tribune, Seattle Times, Yahoo!, Voice of America, ABC News, New York Times, KTTC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CNBC

Context: Rahma Warsame, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic fellow who will join Mayo Clinic as a staff member this summer. Dr. Warsame's research is focused on amyloidosis and multiple myeloma. She is interested in investigating existing health care delivery systems to improve patient-reported outcomes and quality of life. She is also working on incorporating patient perspectives into clinical practice and determining its effect on clinical outcomes. Her How costs get discussed (or not) in routine oncology practice can be found here.

Contacts: Traci Klein, Joe Dangor

Reuters, Help brains by cooling bodies after cardiac arrest by Andrew M. Seaman — People who are left unconscious after their heart suddenly stops should be cooled in an effort to preserve brain function, according to the American Academy of Neurology. Reducing a comatose person's body temperature down to 32 to 34 degrees Celsius (C) - about 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit (F) - for 24 hours after rescuing them from cardiac arrest is highly likely to improve brain outcomes, says the organization's new guideline. "This issue with brain protection after cardiac resuscitation has been an active topic in the academic literature for a number of years," said Dr. Alejandro Rabinstein, a co-author of the new guideline and a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Rabinstein and his colleagues write in the journal Neurology that only about 6 percent to 10 percent of patients who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive long enough to eventually return home. Additional coverage: KFGO Fargo-Moorhead, WebMD

Los Angeles Times, Simple ways to add physical fitness to your daily routine — “For many people, the biggest obstacle to getting more exercise is time,” says Danielle Johnson, physical therapist and wellness physical therapist for the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. “People feel stretched between their career, child care demands and family commitments. Thinking of spending an hour extra at the gym may feel overwhelming.” If you don’t have time to fit in a scheduled workout, try using daily tasks to incorporate fitness, Johnson advises. “You’ll still be able to reap the benefits of exercise by using small bouts of movement throughout the day. Two 10-minute walks, a few sets of stairs and some five-minute intervals of bodyweight squats, lunges or push-ups can add up to big health benefits.” Additional coverage: Chicago Tribune

Reuters, Coroner says South Carolina teenager died after drinking caffeine quickly by Bernie Woodall — A South Carolina teenager who collapsed in a high school classroom last month died because he drank several highly caffeinated drinks too quickly, a coroner said on Monday. Davis Allen Cripe, 16, drank a latte from McDonald's, a large Mountain Dew soda, and a highly caffeinated energy drink in just under two hours, said Gary Watts, the coroner of Richland County, South Carolina…The Mayo Clinic said in a March report that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day "appears to be safe for most healthy adults."

Voice of America, Are You Getting Enough Sleep? — To stay in good health, experts at the Mayo Clinic say that adults should get seven to eight hours of sleep. Teenagers need nine to 10 hours. And school-aged children may need more than 10 hours of sleep a night. Experts say the quality and quantity of our sleep becomes poor as we age. This happens because brain circuits that control sleep slowly begin to weaken.

Vox, Researchers have ditched the autism-vaccine theory. Here’s what they think actually causes it. by Julia Belluz — Of all the issues doctors have explored in children’s health, none has been more exhaustively researched than the question of whether vaccines are linked to autism. After hundreds and hundreds of studies in thousands of children, “We can say with almost as much certainty than anybody could ever say that vaccines don’t cause autism,” Mayo Clinic autism researcher Dr. Sunil Mehta told me.

The Doctors, A Groundbreaking Face Transplant — Lily lost Rudy, the love of her life, to suicide – but when she agreed to donate his organs to help others, she gave his legacy a chance to live on. Now Rudy’s face has been transplanted to a survivor of a suicide attempt…Plastic Surgeon Dr. Samir Mardini of the Mayo Clinic explains the procedure to The Doctors. He says the surgical team rehearsed the surgery over and over on 30 weekends, “So when we went to do the surgery everybody was very comfortable with what they needed to do. It was something magical to see.”

Middle East Health, Innovating in the brain — “Shocked,” was what Laura Fernandez-Ortiz remembers feeling three years ago when an MRI revealed she had a tumour at the base of her skull. “And also very scared,” she adds. The 46-year-old paediatrician had been in excellent health, running a bustling private practice in Miami, Florida. Her doctors decided to keep an eye on the tumour, but last year, when By chance, days before her scheduled surgery, she stumbled across a video about Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, M.D., and a patient of his with a skull-base tumour. Using a new technique that he pioneered, Dr Quiñones had removed the tumour through the patient’s eyelid. This was exactly the type of minimally-invasive approach that Dr Fernandez-Ortiz had hoped to find. That same day, she called Dr Quiñones at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, a five-hour drive from her home, to see if she would be a good candidate for the same surgery. a scan showed the mass had grown, they recommended she undergo surgery. Kate Ledger, Mayo Clinic, reports…

HuffPost, According To Nutritionists, Here’s What You Should Eat For Healthy Digestion — All of those summer treats could be packing a one-two punch to your gut. Given the plethora of sweet and salty summer snacks, it’s easy to overindulge. That’s why it’s important to take note of the foods that are easy on your tummy to help ensure you don’t miss out on any of the fun because of stomach problems…The one thing all of our experts had to say about gut health? Drink up. Drinking water before and after meals actually aids in digestion, according to the Mayo Clinic, by helping break down food.

Aviation Pros, Delta Adds More Service Connecting Rochester and MSP by Paul Walsh — Commercial airline service at the airport in Rochester continues to expand, with Delta announcing new flights between the home of the Mayo Clinic and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Starting July 5, a Rochester-to-Twin Cities flight scheduled for 5:45 p.m. will be offered, bringing to four the number of daily departures by Delta to the metro airport and a major jumping-off point for further travel. "This new flight offers later outbound trips for travelers who like to depart Rochester after the business workday," John Reed, the Rochester International Airport's executive director, said in a statement last week announcing the new departure.

HealthDay, Study Looks at Parkinson's Effect on Life Span — People with brain diseases such as Parkinson's and dementia with Lewy bodies die about two years earlier compared with people who don't have these conditions, a new study suggests. The report provides new clues about the survival of patients with degenerative brain diseases, researchers at the Mayo Clinic said. "Our results may be helpful to guide clinicians counseling patients and caregivers," Dr. Rodolfo Savica and colleagues wrote in the report published May 15 in JAMA Neurology. The study initially looked at all residents of Minnesota's Olmsted County. The investigators then compared survival rates between 461 people with certain degenerative brain diseases and 452 healthy people in the general population. Additional coverage: US News & World Report, MedPage Today, News-medical.net

CBS News, Physician burnout is on the rise — If you've ever worried that your doctor seems burned out on the job, you may be right. Physicians are busier than ever, and hospitals are worried that as their staff gets overwhelmed, the quality of care goes down and medical errors go up…A study at the Mayo Clinic found that more than half of American doctors have been in the same boat — exhausted and losing their sense of purpose.

KARE 11, Mayo: Skin cancer on the rise — Researchers at Mayo Clinic say new diagnoses for two types of skin cancer increased in recent years. The results have the study’s senior author arguing for sunscreen use – every day, year-round on all exposed skin… Doctor Christian Baum, a Mayo Clinic dermatologist and the study’s senior author says the damage accumulates. “Eventually, those blistering sunburns of your youth and hot, reddened skin, and peeling shoulders of your adulthood can add up to one or more skin cancers.” Additional coverage: Yahoo!, Managed Care magazine, Life Science Daily, Valley News Live, KIMT, KIMT part 2MSN, WCCO, EmaxHealthNew York Magazine,  Cosmopolitan

Healio, Direct anterior, mini-posterior approaches for THA associated with few complications — Patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty through either the direct anterior or mini-posterior approach experienced excellent early postoperative recovery with low complication rates, according to results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, here. “The anterior and posterior approach provided excellent early postoperative recovery with a low complication rate,” Michael J. Taunton, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said. “The anterior patients had a faster overall recovery rate with shorter times to achieve functional milestones and also as measured by quantitative activity monitoring at 2 weeks.”

Scientific American, New Drugs for Lou Gehrig's Disease Head for Clinical Trials by Leonard Petrucelli — Research has advanced in the past couple of decades since then, and recent findings are providing renewed hope today for patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, as it is commonly known, and for their families. In “Unlocking the Mystery of ALS,” Leonard Petrucelli of the Mayo Clinic and Aaron D. Gitler of the Stanford University School of Medicine describe newly discovered genetic mutations that play key roles in a person's susceptibility to ALS. More exciting yet, it is possible that a technique called “gene silencing” could lead to promising therapeutics.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Chronic pain remains cruel challenge to treat by Jill Daly — Low back pain, neck pain and osteoarthritis are among the leading nine causes of disability, according to the opinion by Kurt Kroenke of the Indiana University School of Medicine and Andrea Cheville of the Mayo Clinic. Drs. Kroenke and Cheville recommended more research into pain-relief methods, including non-drug solutions, and fewer references to an “opioid epidemic,” saying the term disproportionately focuses on reducing opioid use. They wrote, “only a small fraction of patients prescribed opioids progress to long-term use.”

WPVI Philadelphia, Go bananas for bananas, nutritionists say — They're well known for being high in potassium. But bananas are also high in magnesium, vitamin C, and vitamin B-6. And they're low in fat. They sometimes get criticized for being high in carbs with 27 grams. "Some of that carbohydrate is a unique carbohydrate that's digested further down in the lower intestines, so it also helps us maintain healthy gut bacteria," dietitian Angie Murad of the Mayo Clinic said.

Medical Xpress, Link found between donor, infection in heart, lung transplant recipients — The way in which heart and lung transplant recipients acquired a specific species of bacteria, Mycoplasma hominis, had been previously undefined, and the bacterium was difficult to test. Originally, this bacterium was considered to reside exclusively in, and be a potential pathogen of, the area of the reproductive and urinary organs - the genitourinary tract. "This finding could affect how we approach the evaluation of organ donors," says Mark Wylam, M.D., who led the team of Mayo Clinic researchers on this study. "If potential transmission of these harmful bacteria can be identified and addressed, the recipient will face a decreased risk of infection and its serious complications. This study shows us that surveillance of both donor and recipient are important in recognizing M. hominis and the infection it can cause."

Runner’s World, How (and Why) to Add Extra Interval Reps by Alex Hutchinson — A few years ago, a team of researchers combed through four decades of training studies to determine the most effective type of interval workout. The sweet spot for boosting aerobic fitness, they determined, was repeats that lasted three to five minutes each. So it was a surprise when the leader of that team, Mayo Clinic physiologist and training guru Michael Joyner, promoted a very different workout in a recent blog post. Joyner suggested building up to doing 20 x 400 meters with a 200-meter jog after each repeat. Depending on your pace, each repeat might take somewhere between one and two minutes—shorter than the “optimal” length. But the benefits, he argued, are “as much spiritual or philosophical as they are physiological.”

MedPage Today, Untreated Penile Curvature Gets Better Over Time by Mike Bassett — Out of more than 700 patients, 162 (23%) responded to a mail-in survey and, among them, the median duration of disease was 8.4 years at the time of the survey completion. When asked to evaluate how their disease had progressed since diagnosis, 38% of patients said it was somewhat or much better, 36% reported no change, and 26% said it was worse, according to Matthew Ziegelmann, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues. "Given the few studies that have been reported to date, we sought to characterize long-term, conservatively managed Peyronie's disease, particularly from the patient's perspective," Ziegelmann said.

MedPage Today, High Serum B2M Possible Ischemic Stroke Marker in Middle-aged Women — Asked for his perspective, Gyanendra Kumar, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was not affiliated with the study, said via email that this finding "is not a complete surprise, given that thrombotic stroke is primarily a vascular disease." He noted that in previous studies, B2M, in combination with C-reactive protein (CRP) has been shown to be an independent predictor of peripheral vascular disease and to correlate with peripheral vascular disease severity. "B2M levels have also been shown to correlate with all-cause cardiovascular disease mortality." In addition, the study "was limited to middle-aged predominantly white women," Kumar continued. "Therefore, the findings of the study, albeit important, are limited in their generalizability. Future studies would need to be more inclusive and representative of the larger stroke population, drawing from both sexes and including those with and without kidney disease."

MedPage Today, Studies Explain What 'Good' Microbiota Do to Clear C. Diff by John Gever — In a DDW presentation, Sahil Khanna, MBBS, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., gave results of a secondary analysis of a randomized trial of fecal transplantation in 127 C.diff patients, using a standardized product based on donor stool called RBX2660. Khanna spent most of his talk on the secondary analysis, which examined the degree of difference in gut microbial composition between the following groups: Patients at baseline versus those responding to treatment (placebo or fecal material); Patients at baseline versus nonresponders; Responders versus nonresponders.

Drug Store News, Truth Initiative, Mayo Clinic introduce new smoking cessation program by Michael Johnsen — Truth Initiative, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, on Thursday announced the EX Program, a quit-smoking program designed for employers, health systems and health plans to offer to their employees and members. The fully digital program expands upon EX, the consumer platform launched in 2008 that has helped more than 800,000 smokers. Research shows that following the EX plan quadruples a smoker's chance of quitting. EX Program participants receive digital coaching and medication support from tobacco treatment specialists at the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and Truth Initiative, along with proven quitting tools and an online community of thousands of smokers and ex-smokers.

VolumeOne, Healing Your Body After Having a Baby by Laura Lash — There are common issues that arise for the postpartum mother. And as previously mentioned, there is a heightened awareness now that women are allowed, even encouraged, to seek help in improving the function of their core/abdominal muscles, pelvic floor (the muscular base of the abdomen supporting the bladder, intestines, and uterus) or any other body area that has been affected, and is perhaps dysfunctioning, after the pregnancy and birth experience. Stephanie Powell, P.T., a physical therapist with Mayo Clinic Health System, has been working with women on these issues for 11 years, nine of them as a specialist working with the pelvic floor: “I just always encourage women to let their providers know any concerns they have postpartum, even if symptoms ‘are not a big deal.’

TCTMD, Fellow Talk: Early Career Tips from a Master Interventionalist by Ankur Kalra, MD — Visiting the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center for a Grand Rounds talk on left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion last month, I had the immense privilege of spending an hour over lunch with the celebrated, seasoned interventional cardiologist and past president of the American College of Cardiology David R. Holmes Jr, MD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN). Among other topics, we discussed career path options following an advanced interventional and structural cardiology fellowship training year, and I requested his advice for the early career interventional cardiologist beginning an independent practice. Here’s what he had to offer…

MobiHealthNews, Mayo Clinic teams up with virtual medical assistant company Sensely and 9 more digital health deals by Heather Mack — Virtual medical assistant company Sensely is collaborating with the Mayo Clinic to ascertain how to leverage patient engagement and chronic disease monitoring technology. The partnership will blend the Mayo Clinic’s triage algorithms and clinical expertise with Sensely’s patient engagement platform in hopes of assessing and predicting which resources can be best used at the right time to help patients without requiring them to leave their homes.

HIT Consultant, Mayo Clinic, Medibio Partner to Jointly Develop Digital Mental Health Platform — Mayo Clinic has signed a three year agreement with Melbourne, Australia-based Medibio to jointly develop new digital health solutions for mental illness. As part of the agreement, Mayo Clinic will utilize Medibio’s proprietary analytic platform that utilizes a patented panel of circadian, sleep and autonomic system biomarkers to objectively quantify and characterize mental illness.  Mayo Clinic will work with Medibio’s team to provide clinical expertise to validate its platform in the assessment and diagnosis of depression and other mental illnesses.

GenomeWeb, Mayo Clinic Lab Launches Clinical Mate-Pair Sequencing Test for Balanced Rearrangements by Andrea Anderson — The Mayo Clinic's laboratory medicine and pathology department has taken a step towards making next-generation sequencing a more routine aspect of clinical cytogenetics. Last week, the Mayo Clinic announced that the laboratory medicine and pathology department's reference lab, the Mayo Medical Laboratories, will now offer a clinical version of a mate-pair sequencing-based chromosomal breakpoint detection test, developed in partnership with the Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine. The reference lab performs clinical tests and pathology services for thousands of healthcare centers in around the world that will now have access to the test.

WNDU Indiana, Mayo Clinic Expertise: Shot in the arm for Beacon Health patients — When you think of cutting-edge medical care, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, ranks among the world's best, and that's a real shot in the arm for those of us living hundreds of miles to the south. For the last year, Beacon Health Systems' Memorial and Elkhart General Hospitals have been partners with the Mayo Clinic Care Network, meaning hundreds of patients from our area have been able to benefit from second opinions from Mayo experts without ever leaving Michiana. Mark Larson traveled to South Bend from Mayo this week to celebrate that one-year partnership and meet with local doctors who consult with Mayo experts via E-consults, and he explained to us how it works. “The patient's story might include the mammogram or other imaging or perhaps the pathology information, and just package that electronically and send that to a very secure portal to Mayo Clinic team,” he explains.

Star Tribune, Stopping traffic in downtown Rochester by Matthew Stolle — Every so often, Mayo Clinic facilities chief Tom Behrens will get a call telling him that one of his birds has landed on a downtown Rochester street and is blocking traffic. All of Second Street will be backed up. And Behrens will know that one of his young peregrine falcons, testing out its new wings, will have swooped to the ground and has yet to figure out how to get itself back aloft."It happens in the spring when they start flying around," Behrens said. Such inconvenient moments are really an auspicious sign. No one notices when something is disappearing. But when a bird is blocking traffic, you know the falcon is on the rebound. It is also one sign of Mayo Clinic's involvement in a program that has contributed to that revival in the Midwest over the decades.

Twin Cities Business, Aussie Firm Medibio Deepens Minnesota Ties with Mayo Development Deal by Don Jacobson — Australian medtech Medibio Ltd. is deepening its presence in Minnesota with a new technology commercialization agreement with Mayo Clinic and the recent hires of locally based chief executive and financial officers. Medibio (ASX: MEB) was founded in Sydney in 1998 and first established a presence here in 2015, citing Minnesota as “the heart of the USA’s leading medical technology community.”

KAAL, Saving Lives with Gus — Mayo Clinic is teaching area high school students how to save lives. Dr. David Farley works at Mayo Clinic’s Stimulation Center in Rochester. He and his team of educators started a video series called “Saving Lives with Gus." Many, many people drop from an arrhythmia or a heart attack, and there are many times when their defibrillator is not used properly or the battery is dead,” said Farley. “So that was the ultimate stimulus to try to get young men and women to know how to do this." Additional coverage: KTTC

KAAL, A Big 'Thank You' to All Nurses — Wednesday morning nurses at Mayo Clinic were honored for the exceptional work they do in their field. Julie Oss, an Orthopedic Nurse at Mayo Clinic, said that every year this week is a special one for her and her colleagues. "It makes nurses you know feel honored, it’s a great profession to go into and I’m thankful every day that I did," said Oss. Additional coverage: KTTC

KAAL, A Fatal First: From Athlete to Addict, Examining the Opioid Crisis — As the opioid epidemic continues to sweep through southeast Minnesota, the medical community is talking about the problem. “We are seeing patients who are coming through our offices every day who have gotten hooked on these drugs,” said Dr. Terry Schneekloth. Dr. Schneekloth specializes in addiction of pain psychiatry. He says many patients like Joe shift from painkillers to heroin. “This is worse than the heroin epidemic in the past, the methamphetamine epidemic, crack cocaine epidemic, so the numbers of people dying is huge,” added Dr. Schneekloth.

KIMT, Stress resilience — Dr. Sood speaks to Rochester School district students about resilience.

KIMT, Albert Lea Greater Education Project — Albert Lea Greater Education Project job shadows at Mayo Clinic Health System.

Post-Bulletin, Answer Man: No female-to-male 'reassignment' surgery at Mayo yet — Dear Answer Man, as someone who fought and won a court battle last year for coverage of gender confirmation surgery by Minnesota's state-run insurance programs, I'm delighted to see that Minnesotans finally have access to these procedures (in particular, "bottom surgery") without having to leave the state.Does Mayo currently offer care for female-to-male transgender patients?...As the PB reported last weekend, Mayo Clinic performed its first-ever "sex reassignment" surgery in February, a male who transitioned to female. I checked with the World Famous and here's what spokesman Ethan Grove came up with, courtesy of Dr. Todd Nippoldt and Dr. Caroline Davidge-Pitts: "Mayo Clinic is not currently offering female-to-male genital procedures; however, this is a goal we would like to achieve in the near future."

Post-Bulletin, Answer Man: Art Center hasn't tapped city for emergency help — Dear Answer Man, I've heard that the Rochester Art Center has asked Mayo Clinic or the city for emergency help to get it through its financial problems. Can you confirm this?...No. This is closely held information, as you can imagine, and while I and my I-Team members have been trying to pry loose facts, they remain cemented in place. One of my associates checked with Mayo on whether a request and/or emergency gift has been made, but I believe that question was forward to the Mayo sleep clinic, where it's been put comfortably to sleep. We also checked with Rochester City Council President Randy Staver, who said by email Friday, "I had heard that the RAC submitted a request to Mayo Clinic for funding. If so, I wasn't privy to those discussions so I can't say one way or the other.

KTTC, A mother's love: Finleigh's early arrival by Jess Abrahamson — When the work day is done, there is nothing Lisa and Chad Strike enjoy more than loving on their little Finleigh… Mayo Clinic became Finleigh's first home, her caregivers almost a second family. Lisa found strength at Mayo Clinic. "I knew being at Mayo, there was not a better place we could have right at our finger tips. The staff, every day for 87 days, every single person I met, which was a lot, was great."

KJZZ, Mayo Clinic In Arizona Med School Starting By Late Summer by Heather van Blokland — The Mayo Clinic in Arizona will have a new medical school by the end of the summer. It’s the next development after the academic institution was the only school in the nation to receive two awards. Richard Zimmerman is with the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Mayo’s quality, he says, ranks better than about 2,000 hospitals measured each year.  “If you have a higher death rate than you should, you are going to have a ratio greater than one. Mayo Clinic hospital in Arizona is about 60 percent lower mortality than the national average,” Zimmerman said. Mayo Clinic’s Minnesota medical school is expanding the campus here to Arizona and will begin its first class in summer. The school will operate as one campus, with classes in both locations.

Valley News Live, A second opinions could save your life — Should you get a second opinion after being diagnosed with a complex illness? Just last month research from the Mayo Clinic said yes because, often times, the first ones are usually wrong. The Rochester Mayo Clinic found as many as 88% of patients who came to the clinic for a second opinion left with a new or more refined diagnosis. The study looked at nearly 300 patients.

Becker’s Hospital Review, The 19 double-5-star hospitals by Heathe Punke — CMS assigns hospitals two major star ratings: the HCAHPS summary star rating, based exclusively on patient survey scores; and the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating, which incorporates outcomes measures as well as patient experience scores. The following 19 hospitals are a rare breed, as they are the only hospitals in the nation that currently have the highest possible rating — five stars — in both of those rating programs. They are listed alphabetically below… Mayo Clinic Hospital (Phoenix).

News4Jax, Mother's Day good time to talk family health history by Ashley Mitchum — To honor Mother's Day this year, News4Jax spoke with a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic about tips to keep moms ahead of any heart issues. Heart disease and stroke cause 1 in 3 deaths among women each year, according to American Heart Association. The Go Red for Women movement encourages women and their families to take action and live a healthier life. Mother’s Day is the perfect opportunity to talk to moms about their health and to learn about problems that could run in your family. Dr. Amy Pollack, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, said knowing one’s family history is very important. It could considerably help control things like blood pressure.

WOKV Jacksonville, Local health providers keeping an eye out for measles symptoms by Troy Neumann — A measles outbreak in the Twin Cities area is causing treatment and financial concerns across the state. Symptoms of the infectious disease include a painful headache, red eyes, fatigue, a fever and sores. Local health care providers say if you think you have the measles, call your doctor before coming to the clinic. "The one thing we don't want you to do is to come into the office and sit in the waiting room for a while while we are getting you in to a room. We want to know you're coming so that we can quarantine you as quickly as possible and hopefully tell you you don't have measles,” said Mayo Clinic Health System Pediatrician CJ Menagh.

KEYC Mankato, Tricks To Keep Ticks Off You by Angela Rogers — Specialists say tick season began in early April and while we know they're a normal part of Minnesota summers, you'll want to protect yourself. Here are the A-B-C's to keeping the ticks off. A is for avoiding tall grasses, and wooded areas. All places ticks love to hide. B is for bug spray with DEET. That is a necessary agent to keep those nasty bugs away. C is for clothing. Long shirts, pant and high socks are all tools to protect yourself from ticks. "And I would add another C, and that would be to check yourself after you've been in that kind of environment. Take a look and see if there are any ticks that landed on you or come to rest on you somewhere that you weren't expecting,"Sara Beske said, a Nurse Practitioner at Mayo Clinic Health System's Express Clinic in the HyVee on Hilltop.

WXOW La Crosse, Conference brings attention to child abuse, trafficking by Tianna Vanderhei — Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare hosted their 20th Annual Child Maltreatment Conference at the Radisson Hotel Thursday. Dr. Arne Graff, Medical Director for Mayo Clinic's Child and Family Advocacy Program, said there's a lot of different factors people in the community can watch out for, in an effort to prevent these things from happening. "The internet just allows for marketing for the bad guys. We've done operations where we've watched on the internet and you post on certain websites and fifteen to twenty people respond in half a day on a website that you can post. So the internet makes them more accessible locally and also on a national level," said Graff.

WXOW La Crosse, Area hospitals show appreciation for nurses by Sam Shilts — It can be rough and even taken for granted but the reward, they said, is more than worth it. "Being on the other side of the bed made me realize there's just a lot of compassion and empathy that can be given to people," said Traci Kokke, an RN from Mayo Clinic Health System. Mayo Clinic said that nearly a third of their employees are nurses and nurse assistants. A study recently found Wisconsin ranked number one as the best state for the nursing profession based on opportunity, competition and work environment.

KEYC Mankato, Lowering Stress May Help Your Heart — While more research is needed to determine how stress contributes to heart disease, according to the American Heart Association if it goes unmanaged it could increase the risk for some individuals. Between work, family and home life stressors are everywhere, but it's how you handle them that makes all the difference. "Management of stress often involves being aware of it. So first and foremost we have to recognize some of our triggers and often times it may manifest itself in a physical way so headaches or stomachaches, irritability so things that we might not typically associate with stress, I'm tired, not sleeping can actually be stress symptoms. So recognition is the first step in management," Clinical Psychologist with Mayo Clinic Health System Lisa Hardesty said.

WXOW La Crosse, Mother and daughter help new moms at Mayo Clinic Health System — One mother-daughter duo at Mayo Clinic Health System spent Mother's Day like many other days, helping new moms together. Patients at Mayo Clinic Health System know Tish Olson as a Labor, Delivery, and Post-Partum Nurse. Her kids call her mom. "I went back to school as a non-traditional student," Tish said. "I had five little kids at home when I went back." One of those kids, Taylar Olson, watched her mom and followed in her footsteps. "Of all five of my children, she's the only one," Tish said. "The rest of them are not interested whatsoever." Olson chose her daughter to pin her when she graduated from nursing school.

Fairmont Sentinel, Local ER scoring positive marks by Judy Bryan — The $4.5 million remodeled emergency department at Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont has been open for just one year, but it already has shown a positive impact on patient care and satisfaction… “We were 40 in April 2016. We are currently at 85,” said Sandee Vaske, nurse manger, of the overall emergency department score. “I’m also proud of the nursing team and the hard work that they do. They have taken their rank from 45 up to 92.”

Next Big Future, Accurately detecting heartattacks and strokes with Apple Watch and fitbits — The Mobile EKG sticks onto the back of a smartphone and uses the Kardia app to determine abnormal heart rhythm, and determined it was as good as other EKG devices used in the doctor’s office. The Mayo Clinic felt invested in AliveCor’s latest $30 million round. Together, the Mountain View, CA-based company and Mayo will apply AliveCor’s machine learning technology to 10 million ECG recordings taken by users of the company’s Kardia product, an FDA-cleared mobile device that pairs with smrtphones to measure electrical activity in the heart. The goal is to “uncover hidden physiological signals to improve heart and overall human health,” according to a press release. “Working with Mayo Clinic, we are hopeful that soon physicians will be turning to ECG data for the care of many types of patients, not just those with typical cardiovascular issues,” Dave Albert, MD, AliveCor’s chief medical officer, said in the press release.

KEYC Mankato, Mayo Clinic Health System Gives Away Free Bike Helmets by Angela Rogers — Mayo Clinic Health System gave away bike helmets to a ton of kids, for free, at the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota Saturday. Families lined up, almost around the block, to get a properly fitted bike helmets for the family. Mayo Clinic Health System also gave away adult sized helmets too.Their primary goal was to educate the kids on how to properly wear their helmets and give them tips on how to stay safe from common injuries. Emergency Medicine staff say they often see bike injuries ranging from a bad scrape to severe head injuries.

Red Wing Repbulican Eagle, MCHS honors local volunteers — As part of National Volunteer Week, Mayo Clinic Health System hosted "Hats Off to Volunteers" for its volunteers April 11 at the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls. The event included dinner, recognition by staff who wore fun hats and entertainment by Michael Riddel. "Our recognition event is really just a small token of our deep gratitude for our volunteers," says Brian Whited, CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System in Cannon Falls, Lake City and Red Wing. "The work they do each day really enhances our patient and resident experience while they're in our care. It also provides a great deal of help to our staff."

La Crosse Tribune, Mayo-Franciscan scheduled hospice volunteer training by Mike Tighe — Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse, which is seeking volunteers for its hospice program, will provide volunteer training from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays on June 1, 8, 15 and 22 in Room 501 of Mayo-Franciscan’s St. Ann Building at 620 11th St. Hospice volunteers provide social support and respite for adults who are facing terminal illnesses and to their families. The volunteers may visit patients and families in their homes, apartments or in nursing facilities.

WEAU Eau Claire, Memorial Day Marinades — Health educator Katie Johnson with Mayo Clinic Health System shares ideas for some memorable, Memorial Day marinades. Adding in new flavors can make dining exciting and tasty.

WEAU Eau Claire, Caffeine overdose kills 16-year-old, doctors warn parents — After drinking three different types of caffeinated drinks: a large Diet Mountain Dew, a café latte from McDonalds, and an energy drink, David Allen Cripe, who was only 16-years-old, died of a heart arrhythmia. “It absolutely can happen,” Paul Horvath, an emergency physician at Mayo Clinic System, said about this sort of tragedy. Just 3 caffeinated drinks took away 1 life; a scary and rare scenario, but something that could happen to your kids. “Caffeine has a lot of effects, not only the physiological effects, the complications, the overdose kind of stuff, but it really messes with your sleep cycle,” Horvath said. “As a parent, I would worry about kids functioning well in school and having other effects.”

KEYC Mankato, Quitting Smoking Greatly Reduces Threat of Heart Disease — When it comes to heart disease, there are modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Family history of heart disease and age can't be changed but things like high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking can be. "The moment a person quits smoking their risk of having a heart attack or stroke actually starts decreasing immediately, you won't feel that but your risk of heart disease actually starts dropping immediately. The risk of lung cancer actually takes about 10 years to actually level out to as If they never smoked but you can feel the change very, very quickly," Mayo Clinic Health System cardiologist Dr. Benjamin Wong said. "Nicotine causes certain changes in your body and impacts on your brain, how it works. It actually brings about pleasure and that's why most people smoke. It makes you feel good, it makes you feel calm but unfortunately your body gets hooked on that and it's actually not the nicotine that kills you, it's the nicotine that gets you addicted its all the other stuff they mix in, the tar that actually kills you," Wong added.

WQOW Eau Claire, Barron, Rice Lake hospitals treat several people injured in severe storm, tornado by Jesse Yang — Severe weather has sent several people with injuries to an area hospital. News 18 spoke with Kristin Everett, a spokesperson with Mayo Clinic Health System, who said as of Tuesday night, there were 15 people treated at the Mayo Clinic hospital in Barron, for injuries. She said at this hour, at least five people are still at the hospital.

WKBT La Crosse, Register now for cancer survivor event in La Crosse — La Crosse's major health care providers are teaming up with the Loggers to celebrate local cancer survivors. Mayo Clinic and Gundersen Health Systems hold a Celebrate Life event each year. Instead of having an inside picnic in 2017 the plan is to take the celebration outdoors, to a La Crosse Loggers game. Attendees will receive a ballpark meal. "To celebrate with them, to plan a fun event where they are doing something that doesn't involve them getting treatment, or going through some of the side effects that they experience," says Diane Otte, the Director of Mayo's Cancer Center. "We just want to bring them out and have some fun together."

Winona Daily News, Former sun-worshiping La Crosse dermatologist: Cancer spikes prove sunscreen need — Pay no attention to the reckless attitude that Franki Lambert sported as a 17-year-old, when her mantra was, “I hate sunscreen.” Instead, heed the advice of Dr. Franki Lambert Smith, who is wiser now, a smidge over twice that age and a sunscreen advocate — especially in light of research showing that new diagnoses of two types of skin cancer are rising and summer’s temptation to go bare or be square. “I think some (of the increase) is early detection, and a lot of sun damage,” said Lambert Smith, a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse.

Waseca County News, Pizza fundraiser supports hospice care in Waseca by Jacob Stark — Proceeds from an upcoming fundraiser will go to support hospice patients and their families in Waseca. Mayo Clinic Health System hosts the fundraiser 5:30 p.m. June 1 at Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm, 41142 160th St., Waseca. "Hospice is a benefit that people choose when they have end-of-life prognosis," said Greg Kutcher,regional director for Hospice - Mayo Clinic Health System. As Mayo continues to expand the services it offers, such as pet and music therapy, costs can add up. One of the offerings that Kutcher says families love involves making a plaster mold of a patient and their loved one holding hands so a casting can be made.

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