DMS in the News
June 2004

National/International Media

Reuters, June 30, 2004
Stress Disorders Hit U.S. Troops in Iraq -Study
In a journal editorial, Matthew Friedman of the Department of Veterans Affairs said there is concern that the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder will increase in coming years because the disorder can take a few years to surface.

USA Today, June 27, 2004
Hospitals strive to soothe children's pain
A generation ago, many health care providers bought into the misconception that children don't feel pain as adults do. But youngsters deserve - and parents now expect - better, said Dr. Joe Cravero, an anesthesiologist and medical director of the program. [Also appeared in CNN.com, L.A. Times, and The NY Times]

The New York Times, June 23, 2004
10 Million Women Who Lack Cervix Get Pap Tests
As many as 10 million women who have had hysterectomies and who no longer have a cervix are still getting Pap tests, a new study finds. . . But testing most women without a cervix makes little sense, leads to false positives and wastes money, said Dr. Brenda E. Sirovich, a research associate at the Outcomes Group at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and the study's lead author. [Also appeared in the L.A. Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswire, NPR, The Washington Times, WebMD, the Montgomery County Herald, and Reuters Health]

NBC News, June 23, 2004
Women who have had hysterectomies having pap smears done unnecessarily
ROBERT BAZELL reporting: The pap smear is an excellent test. It has drastically reduced the incidence of cervical cancer. But the latest study finds that more than 10 million women are getting it unnecessarily. Who are these women? They've had a hysterectomy, removing their uterus and cervix, so they can't possibly get cervical cancer. Why do they get the test?
Dr. BRENDA SIROVICH (Dartmouth Medical School): They may not know that the only reason we do pap smears is to detect cervical cancer.

The Boston Globe, June 23, 2004
Millions of women who have had hysterectomies get needless Pap tests
"I actually was quite surprised because, in this case, women are being screened for cancer in an organ they don't have," said Dr. Brenda Sirovich of the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth College.

AP Newswires, June 22, 2004
Millions of women who have had hysterectomies get needless Pap tests
"I actually was quite surprised because, in this case, women are being screened for cancer in an organ they don't have," said Dr. Brenda Sirovich of the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth College.

The New York Times, June 21, 2004
Cancer Tests: the Good, the Bad, the Confusing
Dr. Welch, a professor at the Dartmouth Medical School and co-director of the V.A. Outcomes Group in the Department of Veterans Affairs in White River Junction, Vt., admits that his views fly in the face of medical dogma.

AP Newswire, June 26, 2004
Fighting an unknown syndrome
"It's been around for a long time," Dr. Neal Mahutte says, a reproductive endocrinologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. "But during the last 10 years it's become clearer that this is more than a reproductive disorder." [Also appeared in The Nashua Telegraph]

Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2004
Teens heed warnings; only 1 in 10 smoking, study shows
Several studies suggest that actors are smoking in movies teenagers are most likely to see. The more depictions of smoking, the more youths are likely to take up smoking, Dartmouth University researchers have found.

The Sydney Morning Herald, June 17, 2004
News Scan
Now a study by Dartmouth Medical School in the US suggests that supplementation may have a more protective effect on advanced adenomas than on other types of colorectal polyps.

New Kerala [India], June 16, 2004
Calcium supplements reduce colorectal cancer risk: Study
A new research conducted by Dartmouth Medical School shows that calcium has the greatest effect on advanced colorectal adenomas, considered to be most strongly associated with invasive colorectal cancer.

Reuters Health, June 15, 2004
Calcium curbs risk of colon polyps
"These new data makes it increasingly likely that calcium will have a protective effect on cancer itself, not just" on polyps, Dr. John A. Baron, from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, told Reuters Health.

The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2004
Tobacco Makers Want Cigarettes Cut From Films
A study published last June by Dartmouth Medical School cited "strong evidence" that adolescents who see smoking in films are more likely to try it.

The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2004
Weakness in Numbers
Researchers at Dartmouth's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences have repeatedly described a "supplier-induced demand" phenomenon, wherein the number of tests ordered, visits made and hospitalizations incurred is driven by the supply of physicians and hospital beds. . .Dartmouth's Elliott Fisher and colleagues recently demonstrated that more care is, ironically, associated with worse health outcomes. [Written by Drs. Weeks and Wallace of Dartmouth Medical School]

The New York Times, June 7, 2004
Reagan's next victory
Though the commission is silent on research based on biomedical cloning, Dartmouth's Michael Gazzaniga, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, would go further than his colleagues: "Congress could vote to outlaw reproductive cloning. At the same time, they could allow biomedical cloning to go forward." [Also appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

NBC's The Today Show, June 7, 2004
Why cancer screenings can't always protect you
Getting tested to detect cancer early is one of the best ways to stay healthy - or is it? In his book, "Should I Be Tested for Cancer?," Dr. H. Gilbert Welch makes the case that testing healthy people for cancer is really a double-edged sword: while these tests may help, they often have surprisingly little effect and are sometimes even harmful."

Other Media

Ivanhoe Newswire, June 18, 2004
Calcium Keeps Colon Happy
Investigators at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H. found supplemental calcium slightly decreased the risk of all types of colorectal polyps, but the greatest effect was on the most advanced colorectal lesions.

The Ledger, June 17, 2004 [Florida]
Smoke Screens
Dartmouth College pediatrician Madeline Dalton, who participated in the study, said about half the adolescents who started smoking did so because of viewing smoking in the movies.

Health and Age, June 16, 2004
Calcium can lower risk of colon polyps
In the Calcium Polyp Prevention Study, run by researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, a group of 913 patients received either a 1200 milligram calcium supplement or a placebo and received a follow up colonoscopy one and four years after enrolling in the trial.

Vermont Public Radio, June 16, 2004
Veterans' health care providers prepare for PTSD
Dr. Andy Pomerantz is chief of mental health and behavioral sciences at the VA Hospital in White River Junction. He's spent the past 20 years working with veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

The Washington Times, June 15, 2004
Calcium can reduce colon cancer risk
The risk of colorectal adenomas, considered to be most strongly associated with invasive colorectal cancer, can be reduced by the supplements, said researchers at Dartmouth Medical School.

WebMD, June 15, 2004
Calcium More Protective Against Some Polyps
"Our results suggest that calcium supplementation may have a more pronounced. . . effect on advanced [colon polyps] than on other types of polyps," writes lead researcher Kristin Wallace, MS, with Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H.

The Valley News, June 11, 2004
Obesity Surgery Begins Journey of Adjustment
The operation has among the fastest growth rates of any in the country, according to William Laycock, a DHMC surgeon and head of the bariatric program there. . .In most bariatric programs in the country, according to Laycock, patients have a lot of work to do before the operation. . .Before the surgery will be scheduled, the patient must lose 15 pounds on her own. For someone who weighs 350 or 400 pounds -- or more, in some cases -- losing 15 pounds doesn't make much difference in health risk. But it can help people begin to think about eating better, and it offers a sign of patients' willingness to do the work that comes after the surgery, according to Maureen Quigley, the DHMC bariatric program's nurse practitioner, and Jennifer Heinz, one of the program's dieticians.

The Newark Star-Ledger [NJ], June 8, 2004
Online quiz delves into what ails us
John Wasson, a physician based at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, has developed an online survey that asks users question after question about their aches and pains, moods, eating habits, weight and feelings about their medical care.

The Valley News, June 7, 2004
Dartmouth hospital program seeks to spare children's pain
A generation ago, many health care providers bought into the misconception that children don't feel pain as adults do. But youngsters deserve -- and parents now expect -- better, said Dr. Joe Cravero, an anesthesiologist and medical director of the program. [Also appeared in AP Newswires]

The Daily Oklahoman, June 6, 2004
Straighten up and fry right - using self-tanners
If you think tanning salons are a safer alternative to frying outside, consider this: A study from Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H., links tanning device use to basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, the most common forms of skin cancer.

The Union Leader, June 4, 2004
Alzheimer's author emphasizes habilitation
Dr. Robert Santulli, who specializes in geriatric psychiatry, is the president of the Vermont-New Hampshire Alzheimer's Association. Santulli praised Koenig Coste's book as "one of the very, very best about Alzheimer's that has been written."

Business Wire, June 3, 2004
Multi-Center Clinical Study Uses Metrx Technology to Evaluate Rupture Risk in Aortic Aneurysm Patients; Medical Metrx Solutions Provides Technology and Core Lab Support
The multicenter study builds on the pioneering work of Mark Fillinger, M.D., and others in this field who have shown that a sophisticated evaluation of AAA wall stress is superior to the standard method that uses aneurysm diameter to evaluate the aneurysm's risk of rupture.

Genomics and Proteomics, June 1, 2004
Bread Mold as Fungi Model Receives Grant for $9 Million
"Neurospora is a model for filamentous fungi," says Jay Dunlap, PhD, professor of genetics and biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School, and principal investigator for the grant, titled "Functional Analysis of a Model Filamentous Fungus."

Harvard Business Review, June 1, 2004
Redefining Competition in Health Care
According to studies by Dartmouth Medical School's John Wennberg and the school's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, the higher costs are not associated with better medical outcomes and cannot be explained by differences in age, sex, race, rates of illness (which affect the need for care) or cost of living (which affects the cost of delivering care).

The Nashua Telegraph, June 1, 2004
Resiliency: A valuable survival secret for families of children with disabilities
In the past, studies of the ways in which parents adjust to having a child with a disability have emphasized mostly negative consequences: disbelief, denial, anger, grief, and, so-called, chronic sorrow. Though many parents experience these emotions temporarily, newer research has provided a more positive perspective. [Written by Dr. Carl Cooley]

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