Tufts Medical Center News Headlines
Week of February 26, 2007 - March 5, 2007
The following headline stories are re-printed from the Tufts Medical Center News, Tufts Medical Center's weekly publication.
Tufts Medical Center Hosts Second Live Webcast on March 7
Tufts Medical Center’s second live Webcast will take place on Wednesday, March 7, at 6 p.m., when Tufts Medical Center cardiac electrophysiologists perform a bi-ventricular defibrillator implant to implement Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT). The Webcast will include information about the Cardiology Division’s comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach for the evaluation and management of patients with cardiac arrhythmias and/or heart failure.
Staff and employees can attend a special viewing of the Webcast in the Stearns Auditorium or view it from their home computers. To protect Tufts Medical Center’s servers, the Webcast will not be accessible from any Medical Center computers.
Resynchronization therapy is one of many complex and innovative therapeutic approaches used within Tufts Medical Center’s New England Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Center. These centers are among the leading programs of their kind in the country and are active in investigating numerous novel device and pharmaceutical approaches to managing patients with heart failure.
Beginning this week, Tufts Medical Center will be promoting this event through direct mail and on-line advertising. More than 4,000 referring physicians will receive a direct mail piece describing the Webcast and how to view it, and banner advertisements will be placed on targeted medical journal Web sites.
For more information, to sign up for a reminder e-mail or to watch a preview video of the March 7 program, please visit www.or-live.com/Tufts Medical Center/1731/.
Elizabeth Goodman, MD, Publishes Two Studies on Education Levels and Health
Two studies published this month by Elizabeth Goodman, MD, director of the Department of Pediatric Obesity at Floating Hospital for Children, demonstrate how social disadvantage leads to poor physical and emotional health in teens. The research, published in this month’s Journal of Adolescent Health and Psychosomatic Medicine, demonstrates that adolescents from families with lower levels of parent education are less optimistic and have higher levels of insulin resistance, a precursor of Type 2 diabetes.
The first study suggests that pessimism may be a mechanism through which lower socio-economic status increases stress in adolescence and the risk of health problems.
“We know that individuals lower on the socio-economic-status (SES) ladder have more health problems. What we don’t know is why this is so. It may be that lower SES individuals have fewer psychological resources to draw upon to help them adapt to their more stressful and challenging environment, so they feel more stress all the time,” said Goodman. “This chronic stress negatively impacts on both physical and psychological well being.”
Goodman believes that the pervasive stress of living in a disadvantaged environment leads to a range of health problems in adults including cardiovascular disease and cancer, and may explain why these diseases are more common in lower socio-economic status individuals.
“By understanding the connection between psychosocial factors and health problems in children and adolescents, we can better understand how health disparities develop and, hopefully, design interventions to prevent them,” she said.
The studies analyzed data from more than 1,000 black and white junior and senior high school students who were part of the Princeton School District Study in Cincinnati, Ohio. Participants underwent an initial physical examination and a follow-up visit conducted three years after the first visit. The exams tracked insulin resistance, lipids, and weight status as well as parent education and household income. Adolescents’ mental health was also assessed.
The first study found that children whose parents had less education had higher stress levels and were less optimistic than those with more educated parents. Part of the relationship between lower parent education and more stress was due to the higher pessimism in students from less well-educated families.
The second study found that, while lower household income was not associated with insulin resistance, adolescents from families with lower parent education had an increased insulin resistance at the start of the study and their insulin resistance worsened over time. These effects were independent of race/ ethnicity. However, the study also found that the influence of lower parent education on insulin resistance was much more pronounced for youth who were obese at the start of the study.
According to Goodman, “These studies suggest that interventions to prevent or decrease disparities in cardiovascular disease and diabetes should consider both psychological and physiological approaches.”
Goodman performed the research along with researchers from Denver Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Harvard School of Public Health, California State University and Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
Tufts Medical Center/Floating To Exhibit At Boston’s Baby Faire
Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children will participate in Boston’s Baby Faire at the Bay Side Expo Center on Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11.
The exhibit devoted to mother/child care will highlight many of the services at Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital.
Tufts Medical Center’s booth will be staffed by members of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and the Department of Public Affairs. For more information about Boston’s Baby Faire visit: www.babyfaire.com.
Tufts Medical Center Nephrologists Will Participate In World Kidney Day March 8
Tufts Medical Center nephrologists will participate in the second World Kidney Day on Thursday, March 8. As part of the international initiative to promote early detection and prevention of kidney disease, Tufts Medical Center’s Division of Nephrology will take part in a Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) screening, hosted by the National Kidney Foundation of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont. The free health screening, that provides testing and ongoing support and information for the detection and prevention of kidney disease, will take place at Boston City Hall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 8.
In addition, Andrew S. Levey, MD, Chief of the Division of Nephrology, co-wrote an editorial with other leaders in the field of nephrology that will be featured in the February or March 2007 issues of a number of major nephrology journals. The American Journal of Kidney Diseases, whose editorial offices are here at Tufts Medical Center, will also publish the first World Kidney Forum, edited by Tufts Medical Center nephrologist John Harrington, MD, focusing on the early history of dialysis.
To further promote awareness about kidney disease, Tufts Medical Center’s Division of Nephrology and Department of Medicine will host Alan Collins, MD, President of the National Kidney Foundation and the Director of the US Renal Data System Coordinating Center as a visiting professor. Collins will present at Grand Rounds on Friday, March 16 at noon in the Wolff Auditorium. He will also review the Research Training Grant Program in the Division of Nephrology.
World Kidney Day provides an unprecedented opportunity to draw international attention to kidney disease—one of the world’s most prevalent and preventable chronic illnesses. One out of 10 adults have some form of kidney disease. People with chronic kidney disease are more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes. Early detection of kidney disease can help prevent complications. The first World Kidney Day was held last year. More information can be obtained from www.worldkidneyday.org or www.kidney.org.