Data technology holds the key to unlocking “gold nuggets” of information from electronic health records and other data systems that are paving the way to earlier patient discharges, fewer readmissions, and improved outcomes. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation.

A look through the American Association of Plastic Surgery’s annual report shows doctors performed more than 17.1 million cosmetic procedures in 2016, but buried in the report is something you might not expect. Despite the public perception that these procedures are predominantly focused on women, a growing number of cosmetic plastic surgery patients are men.

It has been almost 40 years since the world was first introduced to the HIV/AIDs epidemic. Since those early days of confusion and fear, treatment advances have led to a scenario that doctors and patients in the 1980s and early 1990s could not have imagined: the aging HIV patient.

In addition to celebrating five years of remarkable progress in the understanding, prevention, and treatment of BRCA-related cancers, the Basser Jean Bash featured the launch of the #invisiblegenes hereditary cancer awareness campaign which encourages genetic testing and counseling so that carriers can take preventative measures.

Penn's Jason Moore — director of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics — is developing something like an assistant for medical researchers to bring the buzzed-about tools of artificial intelligence into the regular toolbox for investigators who aren’t computer programmers.

Wanting to make a difference in the lives of other premature babies and families struggling to deal with the effects of prematurity, this month, two teens born prematurely will launch an initiative to help put an end to the leading cause of death in newborns.

A team led by Penn Medicine’s Mary Regina Boland, PhD, an assistant professor of Informatics in Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, looked at previously documented associations between specific diseases and being born at a certain time of the year, probing deeper to pinpoint the links between them.

As temperatures drop, the number of visits to emergency rooms across the country tends to spike in the opposite direction. From tumbles off of ladders while decorating and holiday baking burns, to icy falls and omnipresent flu germs, the “most wonderful time of the year” doesn’t always live up to its moniker. Yet, there’s one seasonal threat that we tend to forget about until a tragic story hits the news: carbon monoxide (CO), often dubbed the “invisible killer” or “silent killer.”

Even though overall smoking numbers have declined, Penn's Susan Pizzi worries that millennials and teens are being enticed into the smoking culture through the modern technology of e-cigarettes, which are not yet regulated by the FDA.

Uterine Factor Infertility (UFI) is a devastating and prevalent condition that affects five percent of women worldwide and 50,000 women in the United States. Whether congenital or acquired, women with UFI are unable to carry and deliver babies. But, advancements in women’s health and transplant surgery are helping to create new solutions for these women and their families.