Health

As healthcare professionals in Ukraine are increasingly overwhelmed by dire circumstances amid war, some are relying on training from experts at West Virginia University.

In the days since the war in Ukraine began, West Virginia University has responded to help those in need. Currently, there are eight undergraduate students and one exchange student from Ukraine and 10 Russian students, including two undergrads and eight graduate students, attending WVU.

The human immune system is more complex than an arcade game. Immune cells don’t simply gobble up germs the way Pac-Man munches dots. Instead, a complex network of intercellular communication is necessary to keep the immune system working properly. A new study led by Kelly Monaghan—a WVU School of Medicine researcher—identifies part of that intricate process that shows promise as a target for multiple sclerosis therapies. The National Institutes of Health has funded her research.

West Virginia University researchers Brian Hendricks and Brad Price are using machine learning and geographic information systems to identify communities in West Virginia where COVID-vaccine uptake is especially low. What the technology reveals can help get testing resources to the people who need them the most: those who live where low vaccination rates make persistent, localized outbreaks likely.

Researchers at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University recognized how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a health care staffing crisis and forced a temporary waiver of licensing restrictions. They decided to offer their own expertise on how to address the primary care shortage stemming from the pandemic.

Students at West Virginia University are finding motivation and inspiration for their future careers as nurses, despite the physical and emotional exhaustion the COVID-19 pandemic has caused in the nursing professionals they train with every day. In fact, the pandemic has strengthened their resolve to keep nurses in the pipelines to provide hands-on health care.

West Virginia University will lift mask requirements for individuals, regardless of vaccination status, in classrooms and labs across the WVU System beginning Tuesday, March 8. The decision comes after the University made mask wearing optional in other indoor settings on Feb. 16 amid a decline in COVID-19 cases on campus, surrounding communities and across the state.

Drug misuse is not exclusive to the opioid epidemic, according to a recent West Virginia University study. Every year, about 50,000 people in the United States are admitted to the emergency room due to misuse of a common over-the-counter pain medication – acetaminophen.

In celebration of the Bob Huggins Fish Fry’s 10-year anniversary, supporters contributed a record $2.65 million to benefit lifesaving cancer care and research at the WVU Cancer Institute.

Navigating large hospitals can feel like a mouse circling around in a maze. For patients and visitors, finding the way from Point A to Point B inside a visually-bland medical complex exacerbates an already stressed mental state.