After seven years of living with bouts of excruciating gastrointestinal pain and constant trips to the bathroom, the option of ostomy surgery sounded “freeing” to then 19-year-old Jennie David. She knew undergoing the surgery for […]
Tag: health
Q+A: How Do Flu Shots Work? And Why Do They Fail?
Entire classes of students calling out sick. Young, healthy adults dying. Hospitals overwhelmed with too many patients and not enough IV bags. Illness is plaguing thousands of Americans during what officials say is the worst […]
Q&A: 50 Years After the First Heart Transplant, What’s Changed?
This month marks 50 years since surgeons at Stanford University placed the heart of a 43-year-old man in a 54-year-old patient — the first adult heart transplant performed in the United States. That surgery followed […]
3 Lessons The U.S. Could Learn from Brazil’s Universal Health Care System
With rumblings of support for universal health care picking up in the United States, a Drexel professor just released a study looking at how Brazil’s most vulnerable citizens feel about the state of their national […]
Quick Take: New Graham-Cassidy Health Bill is Partisan, Not Public Health
“The Graham-Cassidy bill completely abandons Republicans’ longstanding promise to replace Obamacare. It is repeal only, and would leave tens of millions of Americans with no health insurance and no hope of getting it. All of […]
Q+A: What Happens When Lyme Disease is Not Treated Early?
Pennsylvania is the Lyme disease epicenter, with over 7,000 cases diagnosed in 2015. The disease is caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, which is carried by ticks and then transmitted to humans. When treated […]
Quick Take: Bare-Bones Plans in GOP Health Bill a Bad Idea
“Barebones plans will attract younger and healthier patients, who are likely to run up lower health care bills. That means those who buy traditional, full-coverage plans will be mostly older and sicker. With a risk pool composed […]
Q+A: Why Are More Young People Getting Colon Cancer?
A new study from the American Cancer Society points out a mysterious trend: Colorectal cancer rates are declining rapidly overall in the United States, but increasing among young adults. In fact, compared with Americans born […]
Media Watch: Masks Created by Military Service Members are Unifiers
“To see the masks is to ‘see’ the very real impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and understand how it impacts the military service members’ personal life, relationships and perceptions […]
Vote for This Hunger Fighter to Become the 2016 Philly Health Hero
Update 10/26: Hans Kersten, MD, has made it to the final round of the Be Well Philly Health Hero Challenge! That means he is one of four finalists in the competition and is guaranteed to […]