DMS in the News
August 2004

National/International Media

U.S. News & World Report, August 26, 2004
Pap smears - Millions of women are undergoing unnecessary Pap tests
A Pap smear, which tests for cervical cancer, has become an automatic part of the annual checkup for most women over 18. That could be a problem, though, according to researchers at the VA Outcomes Group in Vermont and Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, who say millions of women are being given the test unnecessarily.

The Washington Post, August 17, 2004
Health and the Budget
Elliott S. Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School has demonstrated that some parts of the country spend twice as much as others per Medicare patient, even after adjusting for regional differences in patients' health status and the cost of medical care. Moreover, Dr. Fisher has shown that low-spending areas produced health outcomes at least as good as those in high-spending ones.

The Washington Post, August 15, 2004
The Tax Cuts Re-examined
Or, to take another example, Medicare reform could theoretically cut the system's costs by 30 percent, according to Elliott S. Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School.

Forbes, August 11, 2004
A Troubling Return for Iraq Vets
"They are actually getting information while people are still in the theater of operations," said Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, and author of an editorial that accompanied the study. (This article also appeared in Dr.Koop.com and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

The Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2004
DA's Withdrawal of AneuRx Paper Draws Criticism
"As editors, we are responsible for preserving the rights of authors to communicate appropriately reviewed scientific information and for preventing corporate influence of this process," said Jack Cronenwett, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School and one of the editors of the journal. "In this case we were unable to do so."

Other Media

Medical News Today, August 31, 2004
Probing the Surface of White Blood Cells to Enhance Immune System Medicine
Dartmouth Medical School researchers characterize the structure of white blood cells and challenge assumptions about how a certain immunodeficiency disorder affects the white blood cell surface in the September 1 issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. . . The researchers, led by Henry N. Higgs, assistant professor of biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School used scanning electron microscopy to analyze the finger-like projections coating white blood cells known as microvilli.

The Register Guard [Oregon], August 30, 2004
Smoke gets in your eyes: Depiction of tobacco use in movies is increasing
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire have found that the more teenagers watch actors smoking in films, the more likely they are to take up the habit themselves. "Films have a role in the initiation of smoking," according to James Sargent, associate professor at Dartmouth Medical School and lead author of the study.

Bradenton Herald [Florida], August 28, 2004
Disappearing Ink - Tattoo Removal a Painful Process
Dr. Jeffrey S. Dover agreed. The director of SkinCare Physicians in Chestnut Hill, Pa., and an adjunct professor at Dartmouth Medical School, he addressed the same point at an American Academy of Dermatology forum in New York. "Like all fads, tattoos may lose their appeal with people who have them in a matter of years," said Dover, in an article published by the AAD. "The problem is that, unlike a hairstyle or fashion trend, tattoos are much harder to reverse."

Connecticut Valley Spectator, August 26, 2004
VA Doc Challenges PAP Smears for Cervix-less Women
Recently, one of those ideas turned into reality and landed Sirovich and colleague Dr. H. Gilbert Welch in the national media. Their study looked at the rate of papanicolaou (PAP) smear screening, a test for cervical cancer, in women who have had their cervixes removed through hysterectomies.

The Washington Times, August 22, 2004
Benefits of lifting available for all
Scientists at Dartmouth Medical School set out to find out if there is any way to predict which atypical moles turn malignant. They showed that people who have many moles and at least one atypical mole are the ones most likely to have cancers. For example, those with 100 or more benign moles were 26 times more likely to have an atypical mole.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 20, 2004
Doctor Writes from the Heart About Her Medical Residency
You might think about it, after reading Emily Transue's memoir, "On Call: A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residency." The book is a personal account of a young woman's three-year residency - the initiation process of all doctors. Transue, 33 ((age)), practices internal medicine at The Polyclinic in Seattle. A native of Toledo, Ohio, she received her B.S. from Yale University and her M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School in 1996. She started writing during the transition between medical school and clinic work, where she saw her first death. And then came residency.

The Valley News, August 20, 2004
Advance Directives: A Good Start
James Bernat, chairman of the bioethics committee at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, called the article, which carries an almost sarcastic tone in places, "intentionally provocative," and suggested the authors' real point was that the living will has a range of shortcomings that aren't considered when people are urged to use it.

Medical News Today, August 19, 2004
New Clues to Hereditary Blinding Disease Found
"We have found if there is not enough zinc in the body or there is a mutation in the zinc binding site, the protein rhodopsin will misfold and break down, triggering cell death, degeneration of the retina and eventually blindness," said John Hwa, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School. (This article also appears in Tulsa World [Oklahoma] and Science Daily.)

News-Medical.Net, August 18, 2004
Workplace obesity intervention programs can reach millions of people
"ACOEM recognizes that the public health problem of obesity is one which goes beyond an individual's lifestyle choices, and is the result of a complex chain of events that includes socio-environmental factors," said Robert McLellan, MD, of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

The Hamilton Spectator, [Ontario]August 11, 2004
Smoke screen: See a movie, then light up?; Teens who see R-rated films more likely to smoke
The lead author, Dr. James D. Sargent of Dartmouth Medical School, said the study took into account differences in overall parental strictness, which did not appear to have a significant effect on experimenting with smoking.

HealthDayNews, August 11, 2004
A Troubling Return for Iraq Vets -Wired and tired combatants often overwhelmed by stress of war
"They are actually getting information while people are still in the theater of operations," said Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, and author of an editorial that accompanied the study. In addition, Friedman said, the researchers have obtained "predeployment" data, giving them something to compare post-combat figures to.

The Register-Guard, [Oregon] August 8, 2004
Artificial discs hold promise for back pain
Dr. Dilip Sengupta, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., said artificial disc surgery also poses significant short-term risks in those few cases when something goes wrong.

The Detroit News, August 4, 2004
Medicines, preparation ward off nausea
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., studied 18 people susceptible to motion sickness.

Star Banner, [Florida] August 2, 2004
Sound proof
"What we are tending toward are medications that are well-matched to the procedure," said Dr. George T. Blike, associate professor of anesthesia at Dartmouth. Across the country there is no consensus on which way works best, said Dr. Joseph P. Cravero, also of Dartmouth.

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