Skip to main content

Health

‘100,000 parameters’: WVU researcher leads effort to reduce data-transfer error in radiation therapy

As the complexity of radiation therapy has grown, so too has the amount of data that goes into treatment machines. With more data comes more opportunity for errors in data transfer. Ramon Alfredo Siochi—WVU’s director of medical physics—is working to make those errors less likely. He led a task group to develop guidelines for checking the data’s accuracy before patients receive treatment.

Telehealth pilot program shows promise in helping former nursing home, long-term care facility residents remain safe and healthy in their homes

Transitioning home after a stay in a nursing home or long-term care facility can be a difficult experience, oftentimes leading to hospitalization or reinstitution. But preliminary results from a new West Virginia University Office of Health Affairs pilot program shows that telehealth can help these individuals remain healthy and happy in their own communities.

Exposure to pollutants, increased free-radical damage speeds up aging, per WVU-led study

Every day, our bodies face a bombardment of UV rays, ozone, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals and other hazards. This exposure can lead to free-radical production in our bodies, which damages our DNA and tissues. A new study from Eric Kelley—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging. His results appear in the journal Nature.

WVU to fully reopen campuses for fall 2021 semester

With recent decreases in COVID-19 cases across the country and the knowledge that COVID-19 vaccines are extremely safe and effective, West Virginia University now plans to fully reopen its campuses this fall.

WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute first in region, among first in U.S. to offer latest deep brain stimulation technology for patients with Parkinson’s

The West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute today (June 14) announced the first procedure in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and among the first in the U.S., to use new deep brain stimulation technology that has the potential to improve the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia, and other movement disorders.

Like night and day: Animal studies may not translate to humans if time of day is disregarded

Imagine being woken up at 3 a.m. to navigate a corn maze, memorize 20 items on a shopping list or pass your driver’s test. According to a new analysis out of West Virginia University, that’s often what it’s like to be a rodent in a biomedical study. Mice and rats, which make up the vast majority of animal models, are nocturnal. Yet a survey of animal studies across eight behavioral neuroscience domains showed that most behavioral testing is conducted during the day, when the rodents would normally be at rest.