DMS in the News
May 2004

National/International Media

The New York Times, May 30, 2004
It Was Medical Gospel, but It Wasn't True
But some say it has resulted in way too much testing and way too many biopsies. Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth College . . . attributes the appeal of the number four to "digit preference." Doctors, he said, like whole numbers, they like clear results.

The New York Times, May 27, 2004
A Study Questions Blood-Test Results on Prostate Cancer
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine for the Department of Veterans Affairs and at Dartmouth, said the new study should make men reconsider whether they want a P.S.A. test at all. "The study begins to highlight that we really don't know what we're looking at," Dr. Welch said.

CNN: Live at Daybreak, May 26, 2004
Coffey Talk: Terri Schiavo Case; Low-Carb Diets, Your Heart
In culture, new research finds that junior high school students who see a lot of movies showing alcohol use are three times more likely to try drinking. The study was done by Dartmouth Medical School.

AP Newswires, May 25, 2004
Researchers Link Alcohol to Seeing Movies
Children in junior high school who watch lots of movies showing alcohol use are more likely to try drinking than those who aren't exposed to those films, Dartmouth Medical School researchers said in a symposium on substance abuse; the symposium touched on scientific research, public policy and personal stories on addictions. [Also appeared in the New York Times AP].

AP Newswires, May 22, 2004
N.E. Editorial Roundup
That year, half of 35 hospitals in the two states no longer performed VBACs, said Dr. Michele R. Lauria, one of the founders of the network. . .The doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, midwives and hospital officials began meeting regularly. Out of these meetings emerged a set of clear guidelines for VBACs.

AP Newswires, May 19, 2004
Experts seek more use of data in healthcare
Health care could become more data driven, and more of it is not always better, a Dartmouth expert says. Dr. John Wennberg directs the Center for Evaluative Clinical Science at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H. . .He spoke to health care administrators at the invitation of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota this week in Fargo and Bismarck.

The New York Times, May 18, 2004
When to Quit Medical Tests Remains Murky
While risk of cancer increases with age, heart disease and other age-prone killers increasingly take a bigger toll. Breast cancer causes 12 percent of deaths among 50-year-old women, but just 3 percent of deaths among 75-year-olds, Dr. Gilbert Welch with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Vermont notes in an editorial accompanying Walter's research.

The Canberra Times [Australia], May 13, 2004
Data
New tests that measure water, oxygen and other tissue properties could be more effective than mammograms in diagnosing breast cancer, according to scientists at Dartmouth Medical School in the US. . . Lead researcher Steven Poplack said another five years of intensive study was needed before broader studies could be undertaken.

The Times [London], May 11, 2004
Cancer scan: do we all need one?
"My point is not that you should never be tested for cancer", says the author, Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School.... "A woman with a breast lump, or a man with a mass on his testicles, should be scanned at once. But if you are apparently healthy, the benefits are not nearly as clear as scanning supporters make out."

Reuters, May 9, 2004
Lawmakers Examine Film Smoking, Copyright Act
Hollywood's top lobbyist, Jack Valenti, is scheduled to testify along with LeVar Burton, co-chair of the Directors Guild of America's social responsibility task force, Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and Stan Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine. Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. [This story also appeared on CNN.com].

The Guardian [London], May 8, 2004
Chemical World: Ian Sample and Sally Kinnes lift the lid on the everyday products we use on our bodies
It sounds like an Agatha Christie plot to say that arsenic is present in eye shadow, but the Consumer Agency and ombudsman in Finland detected very small amounts in 49 samples, and in 2001, a team at Dartmouth Medical School in the US found chronic exposure to very low levels of arsenic can cause hormone disruption.

AP Newswires, May 6, 2004
Harvard University to offer joint program for medical and business degrees
Harvard will join 41 universities who have such programs, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. They include Dartmouth, Tufts and Yale.

The Mercury [Australia], May 5, 2004
Move for reliable breast cancer check
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School used several types of electromagnetic waves to gauge the way normal breast tissue absorbed or scattered light. By first measuring healthy breasts, the new techniques can eventually help researchers better understand and detect changes that may signal cancer, said the study's lead author Steven Poplack.

NBC news, May 5, 2004
Vitamin D Gets A For Effort
In addition to bone health, new studies from Dartmouth Medical School show that along with calcium, vitamin D may help reduce colon polyps, a common precursor to colon cancer.

Western Daily Press [UK], May 4, 2004
Scientists Near Breast Cancer Breakthrough
The study's author, Professor Steven Poplack, said the new techniques may soon help researchers detect changes that result in cancer. . .. He is leading research at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire in the United States. His team has been using infrared light, microwaves and low-level electrical currents to investigate breast tissue.

CNBC: Early Today, May 4, 2004
Newscast: Top health headlines
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School say new tests that measure water, oxygen and other breast tissue properties could be more effective than mammograms in diagnosing breast cancer.

The Irish Times, May 4, 2004
New tests may be better at spotting breast cancer
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School. . .said breast cancer tissue was "more active" and therefore used more oxygen and blood to survive. They believe if these levels are monitored, they may lead to the early detection of breast cancer in a way which would be less invasive and more effective than mammography. The study's lead author, Dr Steven Poplack, said commercial versions of their tests were, however, at least 10 years away.

The Herald [Glasgow], May 3, 2004
New method to detect breast cancer developed
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School in the US have gauged how normal breast tissue scatters several types of electromagnetic waves. By measuring healthy breasts, the techniques will help researchers better understand and detect changes that could signal cancer, said the study's lead author, Steven Poplack.

CBS Morning News, May 3, 2004
Newscast: New tactics to detect early signs of breast cancer
On the CBS HealthWatch, new tactics to detect early signs of breast cancer. Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School found new tests that measure water, oxygen and other breast tissue properties are better able to detect cancerous tumors than traditional mammograms.

Reuters Health, May 3, 2004
New Methods to Detect Breast Cancer Show Promise
New tests that measure water, oxygen and other breast tissue properties could be more effective than mammograms in diagnosing breast cancer, scientists said on Monday. Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School used several types of electromagnetic waves to also gauge how normal breast tissue absorbed or scattered light.

CNN.com, May 3, 2004
New Breast Cancer Detection Method Promising
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School used several types of electromagnetic waves to gauge how normal breast tissue absorbed or scattered light. By first measuring healthy breasts, the new techniques can eventually help researchers better understand and detect changes that could signal cancer, said the study's lead author, Steven Poplack.

Other Media

The Toledo Blade [Ohio], May 31, 2004
Weight gain in a pill: Some common prescription drugs can make patients put on pounds
A 2003 study at Dartmouth Medical School, for instance, focused on patients who gained an average of 65 pounds while taking SGAs. Lifestyle and medication changes enabled them to shed about two-thirds of the weight.

The Valley News, May 28, 2004
Dartmouth-VA Medical Study: Tell Benefits of Drugs, Too
A team of Dartmouth Medical School researchers thinks prescription drug advertisements should reveal more than possible side effects. They should also state how well the drugs work. The researchers' solution is a "prescription drug benefits box" that would appear in print ads, modeled after nutrition information boxes on food packaging. . .

NHPR - The Exchange, May 27, 2004
Kids and War
If and when your children start asking questions, what do you say to them and how do you explain what war is? Mike's guest is Dr. Steven Atkins, a licensed clinical psychologist and school consultant in the Department of Child Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School and the author of several books.

The Boston Herald, May 26, 2004
Big-screen boozing may lure middle school kids to drink
Middle-school kids who watch grown-ups boozing on the big screen are more likely to try it themselves than kids with PG viewing habits, Dartmouth Medical School researcherssay.

The Union Leader, May 26, 2004
Dartmouth's Buckey Leads Space Research
Dr. Jay C. Buckey Jr., associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth (N.H.) Medical School, has been appointed team leader for the Technology Development Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). As team leader, Buckey will manage scientists at six institutions working on nine NSBRI technology projects.

The Union Leader, May 26, 2004
Kids and film: Garbage in, garbage out
Dr. James Sargent, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, said last week that Vermont and New Hampshire middle school students who watch movies depicting alcohol use are more than three times as likely to drink than their peers who don't watch such movies. Sargent released a similar study last summer on teen smoking.

The Valley News, May 24, 2004
Dartmouth Researchers Link Childhood Movies to Alcohol Use
Dartmouth Medical School researchers presented at the first annual Dartmouth Symposium on Substance Use last week. The symposium -- intended to showcase Dartmouth's efforts to address drug problems -- touched on many aspects of addictions, from scientific research to public policy to personal stories.

The Valley News, May 23, 2004
Kicking the Heroin Habit
The Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon now treats 24 patients with buprenorphine, an alternative to methadone, said Dr. Donald West, who heads the hospital's alcohol and drug services. The department has a waiting list because it has the capacity to do about three intakes a week.

The Standard-Times [New Bedford, MA], May 22, 2004
N.E. Editorial Roundup
That year, half of 35 hospitals in the two states no longer performed VBACs, said Dr. Michele R. Lauria, one of the founders of the network and a doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, N.H. . .. Out of these meetings emerged a set of clear guidelines for VBACs.

The Bismarck Tribune [ND], May 20, 2004
Experts seek health care data use
Dr. John Wennberg directs the Center for Evaluative Clinical Science at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., and edits the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care... He spoke to health care administrators at the invitation of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota this week in Fargo and Bismarck.

The Minot Daily News [ND], May 19, 2004
Doctor- vs. Data- Driven: Medical Data Expert Calls for Change in the Way Hospitals deliver healthcare
Dr. John Wennberg, director of the Center for Evaluative Clinical Science at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., said North Dakota's rate of medical utilization looks good compared to much of the country. However, there are areas where the state's regional medical centers are over-using certain services.

WPTV [West Palm Beach, FL], May 17, 2004
Lawnwood Chief: Not enough heart patients to go around
A study at Dartmouth Medical School the same year found that bypass surgery patients had lower death rates when operated on by high-volume surgeons, or those who performed about 162 surgeries a year.

The Valley News, May 16, 2004
People in the News
Dr. James N. Weinstein, chairman of the Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery at DHMC, has been named chairman of the Council on Academic Affairs of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. . .Dr. Thomas N. Ward, a neurologist at DHMC, will be awarded a distinguished clinician researcher award by the American Headache Society.

The Valley News, May 16, 2004
Who will train the Upper Valley's new workers?
Op-ed piece authored by Ron Sliwinski. . . .We also need to think creatively. When DHMC recognized that there was a severe shortage of radiologic technicians in the region, we and representatives of seven other area hospitals met with administrators at Lebanon College. Working together, we developed a degree program. . .

The Connecticut Valley Spectator, May 13, 2004
Med Schoolers propose 'drug benefits box'
Pharmaceutical ads marketed directly to the consumer may minimize the risks and exaggerate the benefits of medications, often confusing the public about what drugs are most effective, but Dartmouth Medical School researchers said they have found a remedy.

The Valley News, May 13, 2004
Blue Cross Puts Vt. Cost Program on Hold
David Nierenberg, the section chief of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a senior associate dean for medical education at Dartmouth Medical School, said insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield are trying to control drug costs that are increasing by as much as 35 percent a year. . .

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 12, 2004
Ensign says films need to cut smoking scenes
Madeline Dalton, an associate professor at Dartmouth Medical School, said 85 percent of the 600 top blockbuster hits released during the past decade contained smoking. Dalton supervised a survey of 10- to 14 year-old nonsmokers. Ten percent of those contacted two years later had taken up smoking.

The Daily Variety [Hollywood], May 11, 2004
Solons kick Hollywood's butts
The comments came during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing called to explore the relationship between teens seeing people smoke on the big screen and deciding to light up themselves. A recent study conducted by Dr.Madeline Dalton of Dartmouth Medical School found that smoking in movies entices young people to start.

WebMD Health, May 11, 2004
Lawmakers urge smoking-related film rating
The study also showed that adolescents who viewed the most smoking portrayals in movies were 2.7 times more likely to try smoking than those who viewed the least amount of smoking. The finding held even when researchers factored out other influences such as age, sex, personality characteristics, or whether the child's parents smoke, says Madeline A. Dalton, PhD, a pediatrics researcher at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H.

Adweek, May 10, 2004
Latest anti-smoking target: cigarettes in the cinema: Hollywood comes under fire as more tobacco brands appear in films
The attorneys general and the American Legacy Association, however, point to recent Dartmouth Medical School studies that found cigarette brands are making more appearances in films and that teenagers who see smoking in movies are more likely to start smoking.

The Valley News, May 8, 2004
Plan Could Expand White River VA
The plan -- dubbed CARES, for Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Service -- also calls for the construction of 156 new community-based outpatient clinics in 37 states. Vermont and New Hampshire, however, are not among the states that will get the new clinics, according to Gary De Gasta, Director of Medical Services at the White River Junction VA.

The Boston Globe, May 6, 2004
Harvard to Offer Joint MD-MBA Degree
But other schools are adding these programs at an increasing pace. The Association of American Medical Colleges now lists such programs at 41 universities including Dartmouth and Tufts.

The Chicago Sun-Times, May 6, 2004
How much water is enough? Let thirst be your guide
Heinz Valtin, a professor emeritus at Dartmouth University, thinks it stems from a misinterpretation of an old National Research Council recommendation that people need to get "1 milliliter of water for each calorie of food." That would come to roughly 64 to 80 ounces -- or at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 6, 2004
Patient death spurs probe; FDA investigates hospital, blood bag
Between one dozen and two dozen people in the United States die annually because they receive the wrong type of blood, usually in emergency and operating rooms because of staff mistakes, said Dr. James AuBuchon of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., and a board member on the American Association of Blood Banks.

The Valley News, May 5, 2004
Big Green Gets Part of $9 Million Grant
Genetics researchers at Dartmouth Medical School are among the recipients of a $9 million grant from the National Institute of Health that will be used to analyze the roles and functions of genes found in bread mold and other fungi. . .Dr. Jay Dunlap and Dr. Jennifer Loros, both professors of genetics and biochemistry at Dartmouth, will lead two of four collaborations.

The Boston Globe, May 4, 2004
What you should know before being screened for cancer
"I'm not sure it's always in an individual's best interest to go looking for things to be wrong," said Dr. H. Gilbert Welch cq, of Dartmouth and the Department of Veterans Affairs. . .Welch, who recently wrote a book on the topic, and his peers at the medical school don't want people to reject cancer tests outright, just to recognize that they can sometimes cause false alarms, miss cancers, and identify cancers that will not turn deadly.

The Nashua Telegraph, May 4, 2004
They've got the plan
Grand-prize winner Woomera is a startup biopharmaceutical company based on 30 years of research by Dartmouth.
Medical School physiology Professor William North. The first product for Woomera, the antibody, has unique features, one of which is that it minimizes toxicity to the patient, Pang said.

Adweek, May 3, 2004
Attorneys General warn ad groups of coming fight: national lawyer group investigating DTC drug ads, cigarettes in movies
First, the lawyers want Hollywood to stop glorifying smoking in movies directed at young audiences. "We are seeing an increase in tobacco product placement in movies," Sorrell said, citing recent Dartmouth Medical School studies that examine tobacco brands in movies and the effect on teens.

The Connecticut Post, May 3, 2004
Alternatives to Mammograms on Horizon
In a study in the May issue of Radiology, Dartmouth Medical School researchers used a combination of the three techniques to image the breasts of 23 women. Electrical impedance spectroscopy, microwave-imaging spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy used low-frequency electrical currents, microwaves and infrared light, respectively, to create a computerized cross section image of breast tissue.

The Union Leader, May 3, 2004
John Clayton: Story behind the story
After completing all of the pre-surgical testing, Doug and Jamie traveled to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon where Dr. Richard Dow did the honors - Jamie's medical insurance covered the costs for both donor and recipient - and two months after the fact, all is going well in the post-operative world.

The Valley News, May 2, 2004
People in the News
Nancy Formella of Hanover, senior nurse executive at DHMC has been selected the winner of the New Hampshire Nurses Association Leadership Award. The award goes to a Granite State nurse who demonstrates leadership skills.

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