February 9, 2018

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights for February 9, 2018

By Emily Blahnik

 

 

 


Today.com
5 tips that helped 2 women lose 95 pounds combined, by Meghan Holohan — Both women saw an ad for the annual challenge in the magazine — and were excited to be chosen. It kicked off eight months ago, and they started an eating and exercise plan designed by Joy Bauer and the Mayo Clinic to help participants lose weight and improve their heart health.

NBC News, 1,200 security workers at 2018 Winter Olympics tested for norovirus — Norovirus is a contagious virus that causes stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea. The most effective way to stop the spread is to practice good hand-washing and personal hygiene. Symptoms of norovirus begin about 12 to 48 hours after exposure and last one to three days, according to the Mayo Clinic. Additional coverage: Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Business Insider

KABC-TV, CHLA launches new stem cell trial for babies born with half a heart by Denise Dador — Newborns with HLHS will have their umbilical cord blood harvested at birth. It'll then be sent to the Mayo Clinic, where it will undergo a special process. Dr. Timothy Nelson, director of the Mayo Clinic's Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, said, "This is free. This is subsidized by the philanthropy, and we make the storage free for every HLHS family in the country today." Additional coverage: Los Angeles Business Journal

ABC News, How Gisele Bundchen is turning her husband's Super Bowl loss into a lesson for their kids — "Our cover story is Gisele Bundchen trying to turn the Super Bowl loss for her husband Tom Brady into a lesson for their children and will talk about good sportsmanship. ... Experts at the Mayo Clinic say by age 13 if kids feel their performance doesn't meet their parents' expectations they'll want to quit. If young children are taught that sports are all about winning, it could cause them to give up."

New York Times, Review: Eve Ensler Goes Deep ‘In the Body of the World’ by Jesse Green — …As always, she laces her tales with humor, gallows or otherwise. Rochester, Minn., where she undergoes treatment at the Mayo Clinic, is called Tumor Town; her encounter there with Cindy the “fart deliverer” is destined to be a comic audition piece for decades. But unlike “The Vagina Monologues” and a later play, “The Good Body,” which were told in the voices of many different women, “In the Body of the World” is all Ms. Ensler all the time. Additional coverage: Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Entertainment Weekly

Washington Post, Why car horns, planes and sirens might be bad for your heart by Lindsey Bever — In researching the link between noise pollution and heart disease, experts warn that there are also factors that can complicate the findings. For instance, people who live in heavily populated areas more likely to be plagued by noise are also exposed to more particle pollution in the air, which can also cause heart problems…Still, said Steve Kopecky, a professor of medicine specializing in cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic, noise and how it affects health is something to consider. “I think it’s something we need to pay more attention to in terms of our everyday living,” he told The Post. Additional coverage: Chicago TribuneJalopnik, Science Alert

USA Today, Officials warn fans to prepare for what could be coldest Super Bowl ever by A.J. Perez — Sanj Kakar, a hand surgeon at the Mayo Clinic who frequently treats those suffering frostbite, had another suggestion: limit your alcohol intake because that warm feeling is very misleading. “Your judgment could be impaired, so you remain out in the cold longer than you should,” Kakar told USA TODAY Sports. “Alcohol also make the blood vessels in your body dilate, so the heat goes right up through your skin. When it’s cold, the blood should be diverted to your central core.” Additional coverage: Arizona Republic

CNN, Prostate cancer now kills more in UK than breast cancer by Ben Tinker — Unlike many other cancers, prostate cancer may not exhibit any early warning signs or symptoms. According to the Mayo Clinic, patients with more advanced prostate cancer may have trouble urinating, decreased force in the stream of urine, blood in semen, discomfort in the pelvic area and erectile dysfunction.

NPR, Gone With A Shot? Hopeful New Signs Of Relief For Migraine Sufferers by Lauren Gravitz — David Dodick, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Ariz., has been involved in multiple clinical trials with each of the four anti-CGRP antibody treatments in development. And, he admits, he's optimistic. He has good reason to be: Each of the therapies decreases migraine frequency by at least one to two days per month. "In a field where, over time, the progress and pace of research in understanding the underlying biology and mechanism of disease has been slow, this was very exciting," he says.

TIME, You Asked: Can Hanging Upside Down Relieve Back Pain? by Markham Heid — To understand why hanging upside-down doesn’t provide all those appealing spine-separating perks, it helps to understand how tightly the bones of your back are bound to one another. “There is so much muscle and tissue wrapped around the lumbar spine that it’s really hard to create separation [of the vertebrae] and decrease pressure,” says Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Simply dangling upside-down is unlikely to exert enough force to create meaningful separation, Laskowski says.

Globe and Mail, Cracks in the code: Why mapping your DNA may be less reliable than you think by Carolyn Abraham — In 2016, doctors at the Mayo Clinic detailed the troubling case of two dozen family members who were wrongly informed by a testing company that they carried a heart-related mutation that could cause sudden death. The family had lost a 13-year-old boy to an unexplained heart condition, and after receiving the test results, had a heart defibrillator surgically implanted in the chest of the boy's brother. Only after further investigation at the Mayo did the family learn that the variant they carry is harmless. Mayo doctors concluded that the 13-year-old had died of an unrelated heart problem, and that the defibrillator – which twice delivered painful shocks to the surviving brother's heart – had been implanted needlessly.

Reuters, Handle with care, suggests study on woodcutting tools and injuries by Natalie Grover — Dr. Matthew Hernandez and Dr. Johnathon Aho and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, report in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine that an “overwhelming majority” of patients sustained lacerations from power saw use. This type of injury, they say, is typically associated with the “kickback” phenomenon, in which a rotating chain comes into contact with a hard object, eliciting a sudden and powerful opposing force strong enough to cause the saw to ‘kickback’ toward the individual operating the device.

Men’s Health, 10 Myths About Erectile Dysfunction You Must Stop Believing by Christa Sgobba — Few guys bat a thousand in the bedroom, and an off night is usually nothing to worry about, says Tobias Köhler, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., urologist at the Mayo Clinic. Lots of times the cause can be traced to a temporary issue—say, you drank too much alcohol earlier that night, or were completely exhausted from a tough week at the office—that you don’t need to stress over.

Men’s Health, 6 Harrowing Signs a Heart Attack Might Be In Your Near Future by Mary Grace Taylor — A cramping or burning sensation in your calves that slowly moves up to your thighs and hips could be bad news. It’s a common sign of peripheral artery disease—a narrowing of the arteries that limits blood flow to your limbs, stomach, and head. PAD is similar to coronary artery disease, where plaque builds up around the heart’s major blood vessels. So the plaque buildup that contributes to the narrowing of your arteries in your limbs may also be occurring in arteries by your heart, too, the Mayo Clinic says.

Reader’s Digest, 9 Diabetes Myths That Could Be Sabotaging Your Health — If you take medication or insulin that can cause low blood sugar, says the Mayo Clinic, "test your blood sugar 30 minutes before exercising and approximately every 30 minutes during exercise. This will help you determine if your blood sugar level is stable, rising or falling and if it's safe to keep exercising."

SELF, Is It Normal to Be Out of Breath When Walking Up the Stairs? by Korin Miller — Dyspnea is the medical term for shortness of breath, and it basically feels like you have an intense tightening in your chest, need more air, or even as though you’re suffocating, according to the Mayo Clinic. There are plenty of reasons why you might experience this potentially scary difficulty breathing, some more serious than others.

HealthDay, It's a Century Since the 1918 Flu Pandemic – Could It Happen Again? by Dennis Thompson — The "Spanish" flu of 1918-19 infected an estimated one-third of the world's population and killed between 50 million and 100 million people, modern epidemiologists estimate. That raises the inevitable question as the United States battles its way through another severe flu season -- could a pandemic as devastating in scope occur in the future? It's "100 percent" certain that another global flu crisis will happen, said Dr. Greg Poland, a virologist and vaccine researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "There's absolutely no controversy that we will have another pandemic," Poland said. "What's unpredictable is the severity of it." Additional coverage: Medical Xpress, WebMD, Managed Care magazine

Undark magazine, Can Pregnancy Help Scientists Better Understand Cancer? by Olivia Campbell — Svetomir Markovic knew something was different. Sometime around 2010, a fellow scientist at the Mayo Clinic had agreed to donate her healthy blood for use in the research laboratory where Markovic studies the interface between cancer and the immune system. In previous testing of the woman’s blood, her immune cells functioned normally. But then something changed, and nobody knew why. “We thought our assays weren’t working,” recalls Markovic, a hematologist and oncologist whose research focuses on developing immunotherapies for melanoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Additional coverage: Scientific American

Chicago Tribune, Five activities to improve brain health — As we age, certain areas of the brain related to learning and complex mental activities begin to shrink. There can also be a decline in the communication between nerve cells and blood flow to the brain...There is no one sure way to prevent memory loss or dementia but there are activities that will help keep your brain healthy. Here are five suggestions for maintaining brain health from the Mayo Clinic.

Post-Bulletin, Our View: Volunteers, grants make Super Bowl a statewide event — Among the many Rochester area people who have contributed to making Minnesota's Super Bowl a success are Mayor Ardell Brede and Mayo Clinic's Chris Gade, who serve on the Host Committee Advisory Board. Former Gophers and NFL running back Darrell Thompson is a star whenever he comes to town, as he did last week for a Super Bowl event at Friedell Middle School. To them and all the people who have volunteered to help in myriad ways in and around U.S. Bank Stadium this week, thank you and skol!

Post-Bulletin, Chamber honors foundation, Mayo Clinic housing collaboration at annual bash by Jeff Kiger — The Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce kicked off its first annual "celebration" in the expanded Mayo Civic Center with a new award. Interim President Kathleen Harrington told the crowd of about 870 people gathered for the event that she hopes the Community Collaboration award will become an annual feature…Mayo Clinic donated $4 million toward the program, which was two-thirds of the coalition's two-year fundraising goal.

KAAL, ABC 6 News Investigates: Responding to a Crisis — "The problem of opiates can begin with prescriptions but it's certainly not limited there. There are nonprescription medications that people are acquiring illegally or there are groups that are making these kinds of medications or drugs and releasing them into communities," said Dr. Venkatesh Bellamkonda. Dr. Venkatesh Bellamkonda is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

KAAL, Cancer-Stricken Teen, Family Given Tickets to Super Bowl LII — Medford teen and his family will be among the thousands watching the Super Bowl in person Sunday thanks to the generosity of the NFL and their community. Logan Pleschourt, 15, is a big football fan, but was sidelined in October when he was diagnosed with cancer. "They treated him for 2-3 weeks for anemia and then he started to get fevers," his mom Heather Lique said. Logan was then taken to Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Mary's Campus where his parents heard the news no parent wants to hear.

KAAL, ABC 6 News Investigates: Possible Hidden Risks with Life-Saving Drug Narcan — "Naloxone - or Narcan - is a well-recognized long-standing anecdotal treatment, and it's actually one of the few that is truly effective and lifesaving," Dr. Matthew Sztajnkrycer said. Sztajnkrycer is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic.  He is in charge of training first responders how to administer naloxone in the field. He says the opioid crisis is far from over.  "We had a system that highly emphasized pain management as a vital sign," he said, "You think you're doing the right thing, but it turns out that it has downstream side effects that no one ever expected."

KIMT, States looking to raise awareness about postpartum depression by Emily Boster — According to Mayo Clinic, postpartum depression can include depressed moods or severe mood swings, difficulty bonding with your baby and withdrawing from family and friends. If left untreated it could last for months.

KIMT, Emojis & Cancer Treatment by Amy Fleming — Mayo Clinic study shows communicating how a patient is managing treatment may be as simple as a scale of emoji faces. A Mayo Clinic hematologist led the study and says the results should lead to be better patient care. "The scale works really well, and that's one of the things we wanted to determine was, is this a valid scale," says Dr. Thompson. "Is this something that is scientifically proven to say what we think patients are trying to say? And we found that it did, and it works very, very well."

Twin Cities Business, Mayo Clinic Ventures Partners with Wearable Medtech Startup Targeting Blood Clots by Don Jacobson — The Mayo Clinic’s venture capital and commercialization arm has established a relationship with an Indiana-based wearable medtech startup seeking to revolutionize how compression is used to prevent deadly blood clots. Recovery Force LLC of Fishers, Indiana revealed last week it had set up a collaboration with the Rochester institution to be “managed” by Mayo Clinic Ventures. The Mayo division is in charge of commercializing clinic-developed research as well as making equity investments in companies deemed promising for improving patient care.

Star Tribune, Tracking lung cancer more closely by Joe Carlson — A guide on nodules from the Mayo Clinic says nodules in the lungs are relatively common, and most are not cancerous. A larger nodule, such as one more than 30 mm wide, is more likely to be cancerous than a smaller one. If the nodule hasn’t changed in size or appears after two years, it’s probably by cancerous, the Mayo Clinic guide says.

KARE 11, Let’s talk about menopause, for real by Jana Shortal — The things women whisper about are often Kerri Miller’s favorite topics to bring to her MPR radio show or her SmartSex podcast, but menopause? “I have never done a show about this because it's a bit of a lift,” Miller said. Well times up on that, Kerri is going to lift this topic to the front and center next week with Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Carol Kuhle.

ABC 15 Arizona, Here's when doctors say you should go to the hospital with the flu — For children, it depends on the age of the child and the duration of the fever. According to the Mayo Clinic, anything above 100.4 degrees in newborns warrants a call to your doctor. For kids 6 months and older, a fever higher than 102 degrees is a cause for concern.

First Coast News, Transplant recipient music minister sings praise on donated lungs by Jeff Valin — As minister of music, Shirley Brill has been sitting in the same seat - the organ bench - at St. Stephen AME Church in Jacksonville for many years. But had it not been for an organ transplant, she says she'd be long gone by now…After a referral from UF Health, the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville added Shirley's name to a waiting list, to replace not one but both of her lungs. On May 6, 2008, she had her surgery, and since then has been singing on borrowed time and borrowed lungs ... but not borrowed faith.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Video ‘gaming disorder’ to be officially labeled a disease — …Also hailing the designation is Amber Sherman, addiction treatment supervisor at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, who said, “I think that is a big step forward in treatment. We see that type of addiction, and hopefully that will help.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Doctor: You’re washing your hands wrong — Children are taught at a young age to wash their hands before eating and after using the restroom. It's an easy and effective way to stay healthy and avoid spreading disease. Dr. Gregory Poland, director of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, said adults, however, could do much better at the sink. "People go to the bathroom, and they run their fingers under the water. Well, that does nothing. And then they grab the dirty faucet, and they touch the dirty handle on the way out of the bathroom."

WKBT La Crosse, Mayo Clinic donates $50,000 to Arcadia Ambulance Service by Jordan Fremstad —  Mayo Clinic Health System is giving a serious financial boost to Arcadia's Ambulance service.  A check for $50,000 is going to the city of Arcadia's effort to raise money for a new emergency medical technician facility. "This will be a great kickoff to our fundraiser," said Cletus Foegen, president of the Arcadia Ambulance Service.

Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse Nuns, Health Provider Want To Help Human Trafficking Victims by John Davis — As part of the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee, the Mayo Clinic, based in Rochester, chose human trafficking as an issue it wanted to draw attention to as part of pro football's biggest game of the year. he affiliated Mayo Clinic Health System based in La Crosse is planning to work with health providers at its regional hospital and clinics to recognize victims of human trafficking in the La Crosse area, said Phillip Nielsen, who is a social worker at the La Crosse hospital.

WQOW Eau Claire, Her Story, Her Heart" panel on heart attacks, heart failure — Mayo Clinic Health System is hosting a special panel to help you better understand heart disease and how it may affect your family, friends, or even yourself. On February 15, you can attend "Her Story, Her Heart" at the Mayo Clinic Health System auditorium in Eau Claire at 6:30 p.m.

WKBT La Crosse, Officials see rise in sports gambling ahead of Super Bowl by Ryan Hennessy — Sports gambling is a massive industry, and officials said they see an increase during the Super bowl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic say almost $5 billion will be gambled on the Super Bowl this year. In Wisconsin and Minnesota sports gambling is illegal, but many get away with it through online loopholes. They also said that this is a dangerous time for those susceptible to sports gambling, with March Madness just weeks away.

WQOW Eau Claire, Winter Safety Day teaches residents about helmets during winter sports by Camille Walter — Eau Claire's Parks and Recreation Department held its Winter Safety Day event Thursday evening at Pinehurst Park, even though it was bitterly cold outside. The event was held to teach the public the importance of remembering safety while enjoying winter activities like sledding, skiing and snowboarding. Mayo Clinic Health System and the Eau Claire Fire and Rescue Department joined in on the fun to educate people on proper helmet wearing tips.

WXOW La Crosse, Digging Deeper: Human Trafficking by Brittany Lake — Activities that the La Crosse community doesn't want here so institutions like Mayo Clinic Health System are doing their part to get people to realize this is an issue. "It will take a recognition by everybody in society that this is an issue," said Mayo Clinic Health System Perinatal Social Worker Phillip Nielsen. Medical professionals at Mayo said almost 90% of people being trafficked visit a hospital emergency room. "What that tells me is we're seeing them, are we asking the right questions?" asked Nielsen.

WEAU Eau Claire, Her Story, Her Heart by Abigail Hantke — Thomas Carmody, M.D., discusses the “Her Story, Her Heart” event and other Heart Month topics with WEAU 13 News 5pm anchor Abigail Hantke.

WKBT La Crosse, Health Science Academy students get hands-on at Mayo Clinic Health System — Our future doctors and health workers are getting some first-hand experience in a hospital setting. Students from the Health Science Academy visited Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse Tuesday. The academy is made up of students from area high schools who are thinking about going into a career in the healthcare industry. Additional coverage: WXOW La Crosse

La Crosse Tribune, Mayo-Franciscan donates $50,000 to Arcadia Ambulance facility — Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare donated $50,000 to Arcadia Ambulance Service to be used for its new facility. Paul Winey, physician assistant at Mayo-Franciscan in Arcadia, said the donation is a natural extension of the relationship the two have built as partners in caring for people in the Arcadia area.

La Crosse Tribune, Mom credits La Crosse doctor: 'She saved my daughter's life' by Mike Tighe — …The medicine stabilized Marbree enough for surgery, and Dr. Sameh Said, a Mayo cardiothoracic surgeon, repaired the coarctation and opened the narrowed aorta when the infant was 10 days old. Marbree was able to go home, with a feeding tube, two weeks later, with plans for weekly visits with Brumm to monitor the situation.

WEAU Eau Claire, Health experts say to monitor kids as flu season expected to get worse by Jessica Bringe — In a statement from Mayo Clinic Health System the hospital says while there are no extra restrictions for visitors at this time patients are always asked to wear a mask if they have flu-like symptoms as are those who are visiting someone who have flu-like symptoms.

MedPage Today, Abatacept Shows Promise for RA-ILD by Nancy Walsh — Asked to comment on the study, Eric Matteson, MD, a rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, said that the study "certainly suggests the possibility that abatacept may influence the course of RA-ILD." Still, he said, that is not conclusive -- "the main reason is that most patients with RA-ILD remain stable, as was the case here."

Science Daily, Tickling the brain with electrical stimulation improves memory — "The most exciting finding of this research is that our memory for language information can be improved by directly stimulating this underexplored brain area," says Michal Kucewicz, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher in the Department of Neurology and co-first author. Dr. Kucewicz compares the stimulation to "tickling" the brain. Additional coverage: Reliawire, Siver TimesEpilepsy Research UK,  New Atlas

Mason City Globe Gazette, Playing with heart at Hampton-Dumont: The Kaci Arjes story by Leah Vann — In August, the family decided to get a second opinion from Dr. Michael J. Ackerman, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic’s Long QT Syndrome/Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic and researcher for the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory. Ackerman currently treats 250 athletes like Kaci, who were told by other doctors that they couldn’t play sports. “In the past, in North America, cardiologists were under the common practice that it was their duty to disqualify,” Ackerman said. “If you have a a sudden-death predisposing disease, then our role was to prevent from engaging in any competitive sport. What we do so much in medicine now, however, is shared-decision making.”

Fierce Healthcare, Mayo Clinic's new social media campaign highlights the patient experience in patients' own voices by Paige Minemyer — Mayo Clinic has launched a new social media campaign that revolves around patient experience—both positive and negative—featuring articles written by patients and their caregivers. Experts by Experience, which is a partnership between the health system and healthcare social network Inspire, will include posts from patients and caregivers from across the globe, according to Mayo Clinic.

Becker’s Hospital Review, 5 health system Super Bowl ads to know by Kelly Gooch — 2. As one of the sponsors of the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and other committee groups spearheaded a sex trafficking awareness initiative called RiseUpGifts.org. An ad for the initiative, which encourages people to purchase gifts to help sex trafficking victims, ran during the Super Bowl on NBC affiliates in the Rochester and La Crosse/Eau Claire, Wis., markets.

Business Insider, Tom Brady claims an extreme diet and fitness regimen keep him playing at age 40 — but science says it's mostly bogus by Kevin Loria — As one review of research on "alkaline diets" points out, most experiments conducted so far have found that you can't alter blood pH in a significant way with diet. In fact, As Mayo Clinic sports performance expert Michael Joyner told Vox, "If you actually eat a bunch of baking soda — even if you do that — you don't change [the pH level] that much."

YouGov, Mayo Clinic, Amazon, and Google lead brands women most proud to work for by Ted Marzilli — Mayo Clinic, Amazon, and Google top YouGov BrandIndex's ranking of the brands women say they would be most proud to work for. To generate this ranking, YouGov BrandIndex used its Reputation score, which asks respondents: “Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for this brand?”

WRVO Public Media, Changing a child's life: Treating cleft in developing countries — To get a better idea of the causes, complications and treatment of cleft lip and palate, we’re joined by Dr. Christopher Viozzi on “Take Care.” Viozzi is an oral surgeon with The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He specializes in pediatric and adolescent medicine, among other things. Viozzi has been in practice over 20 years and has helped not only children, but also fellow passengers when he’s over 30,000 feet in the air.

KEYC Mankato, Heart Health Awareness Flows Through River Hills Mall by Temi Adeleye — Mayo Clinic Health Systems held a "Love Your Heart" event in River Hills Mall on Saturday. The event was the kick- off for February's Heart Health Month. Waseca's Emergency Room Physician Assistant Lori Schumacher was present and happy to speak on the importance of the event. "Helping the community learn about CPR, earn about stroke and other heart health related issues," said Lori. "The community is always a good place to start to learn about some of these things."

Fairmont Sentinel, Students team up with Mayo by Brooke Wohlrabe — Fairmont High School students with an interest in the medical field recently began shadowing different departments at Mayo Clinic Health System-Fairmont…“We want to broaden their understanding of opportunities, not just in the health care field, but in their own community,” added Amy Long, administrator at Mayo in Fairmont. “It fit in line with some of our priorities as well in trying to focus our efforts more on creating that pipeline for future recruitment and wanting to identify the future generation of workers that are already in our town and have a connection to the community.”

Cure, Super Bowl Challenge Starts Off the Field With Lung Cancer Awareness by Kristie L. Kahl — Wortman, a Minnesota native, will have 80 percent of the funds she raised during the Challenge go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “Jan. 11, 2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of my lung cancer surgery and of being a survivor,” she said. “I am honored to be a 2018 Super Bowl Challenge winner and I want to be a strong advocate and positive presence representing all survivors throughout the remaining weeks of the Challenge.”

WDIO-TV, Future of Football Takes Center Stage at Super Bowl Competition — “Some of the new technologies and products they’re talking about really have the potential to change the game, reduce injury risk and improve recovery,” Jonathan Finnoff of the Mayo Clinic said. Each of the three winners won $50,000 and two tickets to the Super Bowl.

IEEE Spectrum, In Super Bowl of Startups, NFL Looks to Tackle Football Safety by Elie Dolgin —“There’s lots of amazing technology out there,” says Jennifer Wethe, lead neuropsychologist for the Mayo Clinic Arizona Concussion Program and one of the competition judges. But not everything is necessary impactful, novel, practical, and carries the science to back it up—all things Wethe will be looking for at Saturday’s startup showdown. “Hopefully, some of best ideas and research projects will come to the top,” she says. The Mayo Clinic, with its flagship Minnesota hospital located fewer than 100 miles from the site of Sunday’s action, is co-sponsoring the event alongside the NFL and Comcast-NBCUniversal.

San Luis Obispo Tribune, 3 companies receive grants in NFL's startup competition — Three companies received $50,000 grants for winning the NFL's annual Super Bowl startup competition designed to spur novel advancements in athlete safety and performance. Denver-based Impressio, Inc., RecoverX of Mountain View, California, and Toronto-based Curv.ai won the grants Saturday in a competition run by the NFL, Comcast NBCUniversal and Mayo Clinic. Additional coverage: Chicago Daily Herald, Albert Lea Tribune

Alzforum, No Amyloid, No Memory Problem—Even with ApoE4? — “The unique and valuable contribution of the AIBL study is the long clinical follow-up of participants, which strengthens confidence in conclusions about the relationships among amyloid, ApoE, and cognitive decline,” noted Clifford Jack from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He had suspected as much after analyzing data from longitudinal studies at the Mayo Clinic. “The main mechanism by which ApoE4 negatively affects cognition is mediated through amyloidosis,” he wrote to Alzforum.

Cardiovascular Business, Practice variation: Why it matters and where it's headed by Anicka Slachta — Medical professionals from senior clinicians to nurse practitioners believe that practice variation needs to be reduced in the clinical setting, but they aren’t optimistic about change any time soon, research published in PLOS ONE this month suggests. Lead author David A. Cook, MD, MHPE, and colleagues at Mayo Clinic surveyed 178 board-certified physicians, 60 nurse practitioners and 12 physician assistants in an attempt to gauge the field’s perception about practice variation—the idea that while standards and guidelines exist, clinicians often differ in their medical practices.

Medscape, Left Axis Deviation May Not Require Workup in Asymptomatic Children by Marilynn Larkin — “With more pediatric electrocardiograms (ECGs) being done for a wide variety of indications, we are encountering ECG abnormalities with unclear significance more frequently,” Dr. Philip Wackel of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Reuters Health. “We were encountering left axis deviation often and it was unclear, based on the previously available literature, if further workup was necessary,” he said by email. “Furthermore, there was a high degree of variability among providers in the recommended response.”

Medscape, Should Hospitalists Pursue the Focused Practice Option? by Shelly Reese — Dr Umesh Sharma, chair of the division of community hospital medicine for the Mayo Clinic Health System in Rochester, Minnesota, opted to stick with the traditional internal medicine designation when he recertified in 2015, as have most of the hospitalists he knows. Dr Sharma says the physicians he's spoken with feel that the general certification affords them greater flexibility should they decide to return to outpatient care. "I think the bottom line is that since hospital medicine is not a separate specialty, like emergency medicine or critical care, a lot of physicians don't see the FPHM as beneficial yet," says Dr Sharma, whose group includes 80 hospitalists. "I'd like to see ABIM recognize hospital medicine as a separate specialty; I think that would drive a lot of physicians and providers to pursue it."

Medscape, Gluten-Free Diets: Healthy or Potentially Toxic? by David A. Johnson,  M.D. — A Toxic Diet? Let's look at the recent study from the Mayo Clinic. They used a national database and a health examination survey that is administered every year to focus on population data from 2009 to 2012. They took a dietary survey as well, finding that 11,000-plus patients were not following a gluten-free diet and 115 were. Interestingly, only 11 of those 115 actually had the diagnosis of celiac disease.

Healio, Surgeons must do better job ‘policing themselves’ regarding retirement — A majority of neurosurgeons believe aging members of their field should undergo additional testing or evaluation beyond standard Maintenance of Certification examinations, according to results of a survey published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Members of some professions — including pilots, air traffic controllers and certain judges — face mandatory retirement ages, but there is no specified age cutoff for surgeons.

Healio, Obesity increases risk for surgery in patients with ulcerative colitis by Amanda Lynn — Amanda M. Lynn, MD, gastroenterology and hepatology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues tested obesity as a proposed factor for adverse outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They found that patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) did not have similar outcomes regarding risk for surgery. “There is a growing prevalence of obesity within the IBD population, a shift from the historical belief that IBD patients are plagued with weight loss and cachexia,” Lynn told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “However, little is known about the effects this has on the natural history of disease.”

KRWG New Mexico, PED Memo Points Out Flawed System of Punishing Teachers for Being Sick — Medical best practices which discourage medical visits for the flu, except in severe cases, but the PED sends teachers to doctors regardless.  Dr. James M. Steckelberg of the Mayo Clinic, says that for most people the flu is a mild illness, and a visit to the doctor is not needed.  The new PED directive requires teachers to make an unnecessary and costly trip to the doctor, otherwise it will impact your performance evaluation!

National Post, Why surgeons are trying to convince you to donate your face by Sharon Kirkley — …Norris’s transformation was celebrated as a medical tour de force — the first full face transplant in American history. Since then, more have followed, including Andy Sandness, who had an emotional reunion last year with the widow of his face donor, and Mississippi volunteer firefighter Patrick Hardison, who lost his ears, eyelids, lips and most of his nose when a burning roof collapsed on his head.

Independent UK, How to Ease Anxiety with the ‘54321’ Mindfulness Trick by Chelsea Ritschel — The Mayo Clinic Health System also suggests trying out the exercise to minimise the feelings of anxiety - as the exercise can “shift your focus to your surroundings in the present moment and away from what is causing you to feel anxious. It can help interrupt unhealthy thought patterns.”

Decouverte, Immortalité — Dr. James Kirkland is featured on French CBC program.

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