Maryanne Reed, who transformed West Virginia University’s journalism school into an exemplar of modern media training as the Reed College of Media, was named provost and vice president for academic affairs of the University on Wednesday (April 17).
West Virginia ranks first for fentanyl-related deaths, but it also leads the nation in a more optimistic way: its medical examiners pinpoint the cause of every drug-related death, and the relevant facts populate a unique statewide database. An interdisciplinary research team—involving the WVU School of Pharmacy, the WVU School of Public Health and the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner—analyzed data and found that fentanyl deaths are up 122 percent in the state.
A West Virginia University-hosted event will provide unprecedented access to renowned sport sciences professionals. The second annual gathering, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday (April 13) at the WVU Erickson Alumni Center, will highlight a tour and hands-on application at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute Human Performance Center.
West Virginia University faculty and staff can invest in the University through the WVU Foundation’s Gold Blue & You Campus Campaign which kicks off today (April 8). WVU employees can give to programs or funds across the University they feel passionately about, including scholarship funds, specific departments/units, academic programs and special faculty/student support initiatives.
Orange-lensed glasses may be a simple, affordable way to help cardiac patients recover better, suggests research by Randy Nelson, chair of the WVU Department of Neuroscience, and Courtney DeVries, the John T. and June R. Chambers Chair of Oncology Research at WVU. Using animal models, they found that exposure to white light at night triggered inflammation, killed brain cells and made death more likely in cardiac patients. Warm-toned light, however, had no effect. Now they are studying whether orange-lensed glasses improve outcomes in actual patients.
West Virginia University Reed College of Media alumnus Scott Widmeyer began funding a cross-university reporting project with his alma mater and the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs a year ago. Now he’s doubling down to extend the project with the hope of bursting long-standing “media bubbles.”
The list is based on three data sources: recommendations from medical experts, results from patient surveys, and medical key performance indicators on hospitals. This ranking comes on the heels of last year’s U.S. News ranking of four WVU Medicine hospitals as part of its 2018-19 Best Hospitals in the United States.
West Virginia has just half of the neurologists it needs. Headache specialists are even scarcer. David Watson, director of the WVU Headache Center, is exploring the barriers to care that people with migraine face, especially in states that—like West Virginia—are predominantly rural. His long-term goal is to attract and train so many neurologists to practice in West Virginia that no person with migraine would ever need to leave the state to seek treatment.
The West Virginia Healthy Start/Helping Appalachian Parents and Infants Project received a total of $5.47 million in continued federal funding for the next five years through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Healthy Start Initiative: Eliminating Disparities in Perinatal Health. Healthy Start aims to improve health outcomes before, during and after pregnancy, and to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in rates of infant death as well as negative health outcomes in the first 18 months of life.
West Virginia University’s inaugural Research Week is more than a showcase of the work done at the state’s only R1 Research Institute; it’s a celebration of the faculty and students across campus who pursue ground-breaking research in all disciplines.