Penn Medicine's Sarah Millar has recognized a need to take action and began actively working more to address barriers to women’s equality in academic medicine.

The Penn Medicine Heart Failure Solution has come a long way over the last two years; what started as an equation involving 30-some patient characteristics has been whittled down to an almost exact science. Today, that little algorithm has developed into a whole new strategy for managing heart failure patients—and it’s keeping them healthier and out of the hospital longer.

While research has long suggested listening to an orchestra’s performance of such well-known pieces as Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro may boost the audience’s brain power – a hypothesis aptly named The Mozart Effect—Penn Medicine experts suggest those playing in the orchestra may derive the most benefits of all.

What if doctors could look into a crystal ball and predict which of their patients might be at risk of getting sick enough to go to the emergency room—and use that prediction to help patients get treatment more quickly, with a greater chance of returning home? For at least one group of patients, that’s exactly what researchers at Penn Medicine are trying to do.

Genetic sequencing technology has generated a vast amount of biomedical data in the past ten years. Along with that, the technology has become cheaper, faster and more accurate. This month, the Penn Center for Precision Medicine Accelerator Fund awarded its first grants to eight research teams for personalized medicine projects across a gamut of clinical specialties, from lung cancer to infectious disease to knee surgery, each making use of “big data” in different ways.

Twitter isn't just a platform to read news, engage with like-minded individuals, launch insults or give praise. It's also a far-reaching and revealing digital "petri dish" to study human behavior that may help predict disease outbreaks, like HIV, and inform public health efforts, as several studies and social media experts have shown over the last few years.

Stacks of textbooks and medical journals may soon go the way of the Dodo for many physicians looking to stay updated on latest medical research and breakthroughs. Digital learning tools, such as podcasts, are the way of the future—at least, according to Penn Medicine resident physician in Neurology, James Siegler, MD.

I sat down with Mike Draugelis, former Lockheed Martin missile defense engineer turned Penn Medicine’s Chief Data Scientist, to learn a bit more about the topic, the use of big data in health care and beyond, and the future of the industry.

At Penn Medicine, the new Transgender Patient Advocate Program pairs volunteers with trans patients who may benefit from help connecting to providers and making appointments, minor insurance questions, ensuring care providers and frontline staff are respectful, and any other issue they may face along the way.

Nearly all of the cancer patients Erin McMenamin, MSN, CRNP—a registered a nurse in Radiation Oncology—speaks with are afraid of opioids, citing shocking statistics they’ve read about in the newspaper, tragic stories they’ve seen on the evening news or downright incorrect information they’ve read online.