 |
Feb. 23, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:National Coverage
"Prehypertension" increases cardiovascular risk
Reuters
People who have "prehypertension," blood pressure levels just below the cut-off for a diagnosis of high blood pressure, have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a report in The American Journal of Medicine. Individuals with prehypertension, in the range of 120/80 to 139/89 mm Hg, who are elderly, obese, diabetic or African American have an even higher risk of cardiovascular disease, Dr. Abhijit V. Kshirsagar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Reuters Health.
Regional Coverage
New partnership sends local cardiovascular students to Chapel Hill
NBC-2 (Fort Myers, Fla.)
Local cardiovascular students will soon have the opportunity to study at one of the nation’s top hospitals. A new partnership has been formed between Edison College and Chapel Hill Hospital in North Carolina. ...Edison student Travis Smith will be the first to train at the University of North Carolina.
State & Local Coverage
UNC Chancellor Looks to Recruit Students
WECT-TV (NBC, Wilmington)
The top official at UNC Chapel Hill is in Wilmington looking to recruit some of the area's best and brightest students. Chancellor James Moeser spoke to several hundred New Hanover High School students about life after high school. Many are juniors thinking about their college choices.
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2006/wilmingtonconnects022006.htmAir Quality & Asthma
WUNC-FM News
Karin Yeatts, epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health was featured on WUNC-FM's news broadcast today (Feb. 23). Environmentalists released a new study that documents the relationship between hospital and doctor visits and air pollution.
Decision aids blood substitute
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A state medical board approved a rule change Wednesday that -- under a very narrow set of circumstances -- allows studies on patients unable to give their consent. ...About 2,500 studies, ranging from clinical trials to mall surveys, are conducted by students, staff and physicians affiliated with Duke, McKinney said. This year, the university hopes to conduct the PolyHeme trial under the FDA's informed consent waiver rule and is considering one other study on patients too injured to give their consent. Nancy King, professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill, said it considers one to two such studies each year.
Acupuncture may be helpful in treating chronic headaches (Commentary)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A headache is a common symptom that affects most adults at some point in their lives. Headaches have many different causes, but the two most common diagnoses are migraine and tension-type headaches. Another type of headache that appears to be becoming increasingly more common is chronic daily headache. CDH is defined as the occurrence of a headache 15 or more days per month, largely irrespective of the causes of the headaches. ...Remy Coeytaux, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor and Wunian Chen, M.D., LAc, is an instructor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
A New Hysterectomy
WTVD-TV (ABC, Durham)
Doctors at UNC Hospitals conducted a breakthrough surgical procedure Wednesday shown worldwide over the Internet. It's a robot-assisted hysterectomy, a new, minimally invasive procedure used to treat cancer patients. GYN Oncologist, Dr. John Boggess is using the DaVinci Surgical System to perform a radical hysterectomy on a patient with cervical cancer. Using the DaVinci robot for this type of cancer is new, and Boggess is helping to train other surgeons so they can apply it in their community and help their patients with this technology.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun05/davinci062705.htmSurgeon General: Focus On Disease Prevention
WNCN-TV (NBC, Raleigh)
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said Wednesday that disease prevention is the nation's top priority for improving public health nationwide. "We are largely a nation that doesn't practice prevention. Most of the disease burden and the cost for health care is preventable," Carmona said in a speech to staff at University of North Carolina Hospitals.
Lee Enterprises names N.C. journalism professor to board
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Lee Enterprises Inc. said Wednesday it elected a University of North Carolina journalism professor to its board of directors. Richard R. Cole, dean emeritus of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will serve on the board's nominating and corporate governance committee.
Related Link: http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2006/02/20/daily27.htmlEvent at UNC run by native of town
The Winston-Salem Journal
Peter Attwater, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says he is excited about this year's UNC Dance Marathon. The marathon is a fundraiser for the For the Kids Fund, which helps families whose children are being treated at the N.C. Children's Hospital, a part of the UNC Health Care system. It will be held from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Saturday at Fetzer Gym on the UNC campus.
Issues & Trends
Developer to put more money in biotech center
The Associated Press (National)
Investor David Murdock says he plans to increase the money he will put into a nonprofit foundation that will run a research lab on the site of the old Pillowtex complex. ...The proposed $1 billion biotechnical North Carolina Research Campus in downtown Kannapolis already has N.C. State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill participating in the project.
Officials to break ground in Kannapolis
News 14 Carolina
A list of local leaders and dignitaries – including Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Rep. Sue Myrick – will be in attendance Thursday morning for groundbreaking ceremonies at the North Carolina Research Campus. The campus will be located at the site of the former Pillowtex plant in Kannapolis, once the figurative heart of Southern textile manufacturing. Pillowtex ceased operation in July 2003, eliminating thousands of jobs and damaging the local economy.
Related Link: http://triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2006/02/20/daily28.htmlDuke joins biotech campus
The Charlotte Observer
Duke University finally has signed on to join David Murdock's $1 billion biotech hub. The university will manage the site's centerpiece lab and put its own building at the fledgling site. Murdock plans to make the announcement today as part of groundbreaking ceremonies for the Core Lab Building at the North Carolina Research Campus in downtown Kannapolis. ...Duke now joins UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University as major campus partners. Duke will put an Institute for Translational Medicine at the campus, where scientists take basic discoveries and translate them into practical medical solutions.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/410610.htmlWanted: Leadership (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
Here's a question: What if North Carolina opened school one day and no teachers came? Don't laugh. Unless the odds improve, it could happen. There just aren't enough new teachers to replace ones retiring or leaving the classroom. ...The UNC system's teacher education programs graduated only 2,448 new teachers last year. Roughly 1,400 more were trained in teaching, but graduated with other degrees.
N.C. science and math school in a lurch
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC system is ready to either take the reins of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics or cut ties entirely. UNC President Erskine Bowles wants to resolve the rather fuzzy governance structure of the state's elite public high school, which is now affiliated with the UNC system but operates independently.
Downtown parking still a concern
The Chapel Hill Herald
Parking remains a top concern for many downtown merchants, and Mayor Kevin Foy said Wednesday that the Town Council plans to discuss the issue this year. ... "I don't ever have trouble finding a parking place [downtown], but I hear this over and over again," board member Roger Perry said. Perry, a local developer and UNC trustee, said it wasn't exactly news that downtown businesses would cite parking as an issue. He asked Foy if the town had analyzed the actual situation.
Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time - often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.
Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.
Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.