Dartmouth Medicine Spring 2005
Dear Reporter, Editor, or News Director:
In the Spring 2005 issue of Dartmouth Medicine, read about:
New benefits from mammography: A Dartmouth study showed that when breast cancer is discovered with mammography rather than a physical examination, tumors tend to be smaller—which means they can be treated less aggressively. Women in the study whose cancer was found by mammography were more likely to have a lumpectomy than a total mastectomy and were less likely to need chemotherapy or radiation in addition to surgery. See here.
Decisions, decisions . . . : Dartmouth-Hitchcock received a $5-million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to see if its programs in shared decision-making can be replicated elsewhere and can be shown to have quantifiable financial benefits. See here.
Merit pay for medicine?: The federal government also chose Dartmouth-Hitchcock—and nine other physician networks nationwide—to take part in a three-year trial to see if it's possible to reform the payment structure for Medicare and Medicaid, so doctors and hospitals are paid for the quality, not just the quantity, of the care they provide. See here.
Surgery without a scalpel: A gastroenterologist on the Dartmouth faculty is working to perfect a robotic surgery system that, he hopes within a few years, will be able to perform incisionless endoscopic procedures—from which patients should be able to recover much faster. See here.
A matter of immunity: A Dartmouth physiologist is making headway on figuring out how the immune system of the female reproductive tract determines which foreign cells it should fend off and which it shouldn't—banishing pathogens, but not sperm or the cells of a developing fetus. See here.
The origins of intensive care: Dartmouth-Hitchcock had one of the first intensive care units in the nation—back in 1955, when it was a pioneering concept to concentrate nurses and equipment to care for the sickest patients. And DHMC has remained in the forefront of critical-care medicine ever since. See here.
Advances in treating schizophrenia: The chair of Dartmouth's Department of Psychiatry writes about past improvements and future promise in caring for people with schizophrenia. See here.
Art that is literally an eyeful: Dartmouth-Hitchcock's manager of ophthalmic photography creates stunning works of art from colorized and manipulated images of retinas. This issue's "Art of Medicine" section features one of his kaleidoscopic "digital quilts." See here.
Taking care of staff so they can take better care of patients: Dartmouth-Hitchcock is starting a formal program this spring to assess employees' health and support them in making improvements. It'll be better for the employees and for patients—and for the bottom line as well. See here.
To pursue any of these stories, contact the Dartmouth Medical School/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Media Relations Office at 603-653-1969 or MedNews@Dartmouth.edu.
Dana Cook Grossman
Editor