DMS in the News
September 2004

National/International Media

CBSNews - September 29, 2004
Boomer Health Care Dilemma
"Medical expenditures are higher in Miami than in any other major American city, yet its residents don't live any longer or healthier than other Americans," says Jonathan Skinner, PhD, professor of economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. In fact, he says research shows that there's a negative association between how much a state spends on health care and the quality of heath care its residents receive. "Places that spend more money get lower quality care than those that spend less," says Skinner.

U.S. News & World Report - September 10, 2004
Milk, it does a body good - Calcium may decrease your risk of colon and rectal cancer
Milk can do more than build strong bones; it may also create resistance to colorectal cancer. Years of studies have looked at the link between calcium and colon cancer, the third most common type of cancer. Two new studies, one led by doctors at Dartmouth Medical School and the other led by doctors from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, come to the conclusion that milk does a body good in more ways than one.

Reuters - September 9, 2004
Zinc Shortage May Underlie Serious Vision Problem
Without binding to zinc, "rhodopsin is very unstable, a feature that is typical of retinitis pigmentosa," Dr. John Hwa from Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire, told Reuters Health. "This has implications for therapy for retinitis pigmentosa where zinc concentration in the retina may be important."

The Washington Post - September 8, 2004
The Medicare Challenge
Whoever gets elected in November needs to grapple seriously with this cost explosion. Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School have demonstrated that Medicare's costs could be cut by about 30 percent if the nation were to match the efficiency of its most cost-effective regions. Because Medicare costs are projected to grow rapidly as the baby boomers retire and as new technology expands the range of health services, opportunities to save money need to seized -- and this is not something the Bush administration has done.

Other Media

Detroit Free Press - September 29, 2004
War takes mental health toll - U.S. to incur a lifetime of disability costs
Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the VA's National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a Dartmouth professor of psychiatry, said the ambush tactics of the insurgency potentially expose a greater percentage of soldiers to the kinds of stresses that cause PTSD. Only time will tell, he said, exactly how many veterans of the Iraq war will be afflicted.

Medical News Today - September 28, 2004
DMS offers guidance on educational research
Reflecting the school's commitment to educational research and collaboration, Dartmouth Medical School educators offer models of support structures for educational research and address some future challenges medical schools will face in the October issue of Academic Medicine. "We are particularly proud of the impressive faculty productivity in research which, we believe, is due in large part to the encouraging, collaborative environment that we have nurtured at DMS," said Patricia Carney, PhD, associate professor of community and family medicine and co-author of the article.

Medical News Today - September 26, 2004
New Arsenic Drinking Water Standard May Still be Toxic
The new standard, however, might still be too close to arsenic levels related to known health effects to offer a protective margin for most members of the public, says Joshua Hamilton, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School and one of the authors of the new study. The research team includes lead author and Research Associate Professor of Physiology Jack Bodwell, PhD, and Lauren Kingsley, who was a Dartmouth undergraduate when the work was done.

Concord Monitor - September 26, 2004
Advance directives: a good start - It helps to think about the end of life long before it comes
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. It's true, for instance, that people cannot anticipate all that might happen to them, or how they would react when it does, he said.

WMUR - Manchester News Channel 9 and TheWMURChannel.com - September 23, 2004
DHMC Nurse Rides To Support Cancer Clinical Trials - Group Joined By Armstrong In Effort
A Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center nurse is hitting the road with Lance Armstrong to raise awareness about clinical cancer trials. Brian Highhouse, of Meridan, N.H., was picked from 1,200 applicants to be part of a 3,500-mile, cross-country bike trip called the Tour of Hope. Armstrong will join the team at the start, finish and points along the way. [This also appeared on WNNE 31 Connect River Valley News and TheChamplainChannel.com.]

WebMDHealth - September 23, 2004
Mild Back Pain: Advice as Good as Therapy - Do-It-Yourself Treatment Provides Same Results as Physical Therapy in Minor Cases
A likely explanation: The type of mild to moderate back pain in Frost's patients, which affects most Americans, usually resolves itself on its own -- no matter what you do, says James Weinstein, DO, chairman of orthopedics at Dartmouth Medical School and spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. However, it recurs in about 70% of people.

Concord Monitor - September 23, 2004
State restricts Medicaid drug menu - 'Preferred' brand list expected to save state millions
Dr. Bryan King, a child psychiatrist at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, said his patients haven't run up against the list yet because they are all on psychoactive drugs. But even so, he said, all the kinks probably won't be worked out in advance.

Phoenix New Times - September 16, 2004
The Real Deihl - How a Paradise Valley snake-oil salesman sprayed his way to success
"Spray vitamins are the new snake oil," says Timothy Quill, who practices anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and is a professor of anesthesiology at Dartmouth Medical School. "They're essentially useless." New Times asked Quill, one of the nation's most respected investigators of alternative medicine scams, to give his opinion about the products and claims made by Deihl's company, Vitamist, which claims 100,000 sales representatives worldwide, regarding the company's spray vitamins. He had nothing good to say. "The arguments given on the Vitamist Web site for taking these spray products are specious pseudomedical mumbo jumbo," he says. "It's just foolishness. None of it makes any sense when you understand vitamins and the way they're absorbed."

PR Newswire - September 14, 2004
National Fiber Council Launches to Increase Awareness of Health Benefits of Dietary Fiber Will Address National Fiber Deficit Caused by Low-Carb Diets
The National Fiber Council (NFC) today announced its creation to address the growing fiber deficit in the United States. The mission of the NFC is to serve as a primary resource for credible information about the benefits of fiber for consumers and health care professionals. The National Fiber Council members include: Ashraf Koraym, M.D. - Cardiologist, Dartmouth University. . .

Mental Health Weekly - September 13, 2004
RESPECT model offers new approach to depression treatment in primary care: military officials plan to adapt model for post-war treatment
"The research marks a big step forward for patients, for clinicians and for insurers," said Allen J. Dietrich, M.D., professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and co-chair of the MacArthur Initiative. Dietrich pointed to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), estimating that depression was the fourth highest cause of disability and premature death worldwide in 1990, and will be the second highest cause by 2020. [This article also appears in the American Psychological Association.]

Concord Monitor - September 12, 2004
Hospital plans outpatient drug treatment center - Program will treat 145 addicts annually
The medical center and Dartmouth Medical School will both subsidize the program, which is expected to lose a little more than $140,000 a year, primarily because of inadequate government insurance reimbursements for substance abuse treatment. Those involved in the substance abuse field lauded the move as an important step toward expanding treatment services in the Upper Valley.

Portsmouth Herald - September 12, 2004
E. coli found in Brackett's Point drinking water
In May, she visited Robert McLellan of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. McLellan told her to stop using her tap water and have it tested immediately. He said it would be difficult to diagnose her problems unless he knew exactly what was in the water. [This article also appeared on SeacoastOnline.com.]

The Union Leader - September 12, 2004
Flu shots urged for infants, 50s
Health officials are using strong flu vaccinations will be recommended for all babies between the ages of 6 months and 23 months beginning this fall, New Hampshire state medical director Dr. William Kassler announced.

The Union Leader - September 12, 2004
Fluoride in drinking water gets an overwhelming OK
In the days leading to the election, well-known medical experts in New Hampshire, including former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, endorsed fluoridation.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - September 10, 2004
Simple telephone call found to help on depression
Yet Dr. Allen Dietrich, a professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and lead investigator of the new study, noted that the realities of today's health care system are such that any changes in treatment delivery will need to be of modest cost and take advantage of existing resources as much as possible. [This article also appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.]

Concord Monitor - September 6, 2004
Strong medicine - Health care players should compete over value, not price.
The authors cite the pioneering work of Dartmouth Medical School's John Wennberg. He found that although the annual cost of treating a Medicare enrollee ranged from $3,500 to $8,500, there was no correlation between higher costs and improved medical outcomes.

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