Category: General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology
IHQI Announces Improvement Scholars, Three From the Department of Medicine
The UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement has announced new projects that will be supported through the IHQI’s Improvement Scholars Program from Sep 1, 2021 – Aug 31, 2022. Congratulations to the following selected project leads from the Department of Medicine. Jaydeep Lamba, MD and Hillary Spangler, MD, division of hospital medicine: “Mitigating Inpatient Clinical De … Read more
Berkowitz Featured in Emergency Medicine News Article
Seth Berkowitz, MD, assistant professor in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology, was featured in the article “Food Insecurity Can Lead Straight to the ED,” a special report published in Emergency Medicine News. In the report he explains how the “emergency department is a powerful window into food insecurity because lacking food can worsen chronic health cond … Read more
Screening For Hearing Loss in Older Adults
Cindy Feltner, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology and associate director of the RTI-UNC Evidenced-based Practice Center, led a review for the US Preventive Services Task Force to update the evidence for screening for hearing loss in adults 50 years or older. The review was published in JAMA, along with the task force recomm … Read more
CDC, NIH Bring Free COVID-19 Self-testing to Residents in Pitt County
A new study will test the effectiveness of a community health testing initiative, led by Giselle Corbie-Smith, MD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine, and director of the UNC Center for Health Equity Research (UNC CHER). Participating households in Greenville, Pitt County, NC will receive free month-long supplies of rapid tests aimed at reducing communi … Read more
Berkowitz Receives SGIM Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award
Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology, has received the Society of General Internal Medicine 2021 Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award. The award provides national recognition to junior investigators for their early career achievements and overall body of work that has made a national impact on g … Read more
King Co-Directs New UNC COVID Recovery Clinic
Louise King, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of general medicine and epidemiology, is co-medical director of the new UNC COVID Recovery Clinic designed to help patients with ongoing symptoms and serve as an opportunity for physicians to learn more about the syndrome. “I think there is a lot of fear associated with a COVID diagnosis and post-COVID symptoms,” Ki … Read more
Corbie-Smith Explained Vaccine Hesitancy to Media
Giselle Corbie-Smith, MD, MSc, professor of medicine in the division of general medicine and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine, was featured on WRAL’s On the Record where she explained the idea of vaccine deliberation. “The decision is being made cautiously, by many Black and Brown patients as they experience health care systems that have yet to demonstrate tha … Read more
Evidence Review Examines Both Benefits and Harms For Lung Cancer Screening
A comprehensive review by University of North Carolina researchers and colleagues of hundreds of publications, incorporating more than two dozen articles on prevention screening for lung cancer with low-dose spiral computed tomography (LDCT), shows there are both benefits and harms from screening. The review was published in JAMA on March 9, 2021. The results of the decade long N … Read more
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Berkowitz Discussed How Unemployment During COVID-19 May Have Affected Unmet Health-Related Social Needs in New Podcast
Seth Berkowitz, MD, MPH, was featured in Health Affairs’s Health Podyssey podcast: “What New Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Taught Us About Health.” He discussed the potential health impact of unemployment insurance, the changing nature of work in the U.S., and how direct payments programs, such as universal basic income, could compliment social safety nets. Listen to the podcas … Read more
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Study Shows Unmet Social Needs and Worse Mental Health After Expiration of COVID-19 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation.
The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic saw historic increases in unemployment, which remained elevated throughout 2020. Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) provided unemployment insurance beneficiaries an extra $600 a week, a benefit that initially expired in July 2020. A new study, led by Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, published today in Health Affairs, examined n … Read more
Register For the 45th Internal Medicine Conference, March 10-12
UPDATE: This year, as a result of lower programming costs associated with the virtual format, organizers invite UNC faculty and UNC PN clinicians to attend at a reduced rate of $200 for the entire conference, or half of the daily or two-day rate. (Note, reduced rates may not be possible next year with a return to in-person attendance, due to the much higher costs of providing an … Read more
Department of Medicine Grants & Funding: January 1 – January 31, 2021
Division of General Medicine Seth Berkowitz, MD, received a new, five-year R01 grant to broaden clinical studies of medically-tailored meal delivery. Division of Hematology Erica Sparkenbaugh, MD, was awarded a five-year, $2 million R01 grant from NIH-NHLBI to evaluate whether activation of beneficial PAR1 signaling can attenuate the chronic pro-coagulant state of sickle cell dis … Read more