Public Health | Penn Today

patient looking in the mirror after dental work

Bringing healthy smiles to Philadelphia communities

In health care facilities embedded around Philadelphia, students and faculty from the School of Dental Medicine are ramping up the care they provide to underserved populations.

mug on windowsill overlooking the city at night that reads Stay Awake!

Longer shifts don’t create chronic sleep loss or reduce patient safety

Two large national studies show that patient safety was unaffected, and residents showed no signs of chronic sleep loss regardless of shift length for first-year doctors.

"Pennsylvania Welcomes You: State of Independence"

States with strict gun laws see increase in homicides when they border states with lax ones

Over a five-year period, most guns found in states with strict gun laws were obtained from less restrictive states.

Black and white silhouettes of many people and one large person with a stroller.

U.S. fertility is at an all-time low, but is that a bad thing?

Researchers from the Population Studies Center dissect the latest CDC numbers and explain the role of migration patterns, better family planning, and delayed parenthood.

Making headway against a killer virus

Around Penn, clinicians and researchers are focused on Ebola, working to ensure this disease—fearsomely lethal—can be vanquished.

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To prevent HIV, start online

A team led by José Bauermeister at Penn Nursing designed the My Desires & Expectations tool to address cognitive and emotional factors that influence sexual decision-making when seeking partners online.

A clock and a stethoscope on top of a white lab coat.

The link between sleep, genes, and mental health

Whether you’re a night owl or a morning lark could affect your risk of developing a psychiatric disorder.

Blue stripe with Determination written on it in stairwell

Using stairwells for wellness

StairWELL, a Penn Sustainability Green Fund project, completed a yearlong pilot project last July that aimed to test how effective a stairwell makeover could be in increasing physical activity and reducing energy costs.

Virtual reality helping in fight against opioid deaths

The School of Nursing offers a virtual reality (VR) simulation to train responders how to administer Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug. The simulation demonstrates that VR training can be “low cost, high efficacy, and that it’s just as good as the gold standard of medical training,” said Clare Whitney, a doctoral student in the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation.

Woman in a red jacket standing at a podium with two microphones.

Eleventh state enacts law to protect victims of child sex abuse

Marci Hamilton, a professor of practice and founder and CEO of the nonprofit think tank CHILD USA, helped draft the original New York legislation more than 15 years ago and has been working ever since to push it through.

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