Public Health | Penn Today

Cancer patient in wheelchair being pushed by a caregiver who consults with doctor holding a medical chart.

Algorithm identifies advance care planning needs

A Penn-developed system can be used to ensure that doctors talk to cancer patients about their values and goals before it is too late.

Commentary: Religious liberty shouldn't endanger the public's health

Marci Hamilton of the School of Arts and Sciences wrote an opinion piece about the use of “religious liberty” to justify legislation that may endanger public wellness.

Person in a lab coat sitting on a wooden bench outside.

Physicians, social responsibility, and sexual assault survivors

Penn Medicine’s Florencia Greer Polite wants doctors to take a more proactive approach to conversations with their patients about consent and sexual abuse.

Do soda taxes actually work? Here’s what the science is telling us

Christina Roberto of the Perelman School of Medicine discussed her research on the effects of Philadelphia’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax. “It’s really hard to shift these behaviors, and taxes are, if not the single most, one of the most impactful and important policies to move the needle on unhealthy eating habits,” she said.

Health officials urge caution in reducing opioids for pain patients

Salimah Meghani of the School of Nursing commented on the unintended consequences of state-level crackdowns on opioid prescriptions. Guidelines from the CDC released in 2016 have “led to wide scale inappropriate opioid tapering or simply dumping of complex pain patients,” she said.

Food, clothes, utilities: How people are using their cash from the country’s biggest basic income pilot

Amy Castro Baker of the School of Social Policy & Practice has released new data on how recipients of a monthly $500 stipend used their funds. Approximately 40% of purchases went to food, 25% went to home goods, and 12% went to utilities.

Person standing at a large window with a bookshelf behind. ON the bookshelf are several awards and plaques.

As a nursing innovator, Therese Richmond thinks beyond hospital walls

During a four-decade career, Penn Nursing’s associate dean for research and innovation has tackled topics like gun violence by accounting for her patients’ environment in their long-term recovery.

hundreds of empty prescription pill bottles

Opioid prescriptions filled after eye surgery doubled over a decade

A Penn study suggests efforts in the past decade to reduce the invasiveness and recovery time for these procedures have not reduced opioid use.

Cloud of e-cigarette vapor engulfs the face of a teenager in a sweatshirt

The dangers of vaping

Vaping has been marketed as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, but recent deaths and acute respiratory illnesses have belied that claim. Pulmonologist and smoking cessation expert Frank Leone of the Perelman School of Medicine explains the e-cigarette phenomenon and why it’s dangerous.

How anti-vaccine sentiment took hold in the United States

Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing and Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the rise of the anti-vax movement and how the U.S. might move forward.

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