Blog List - Penn Medicine

The team of Penn Medicine hospital epidemiologists who began meeting virtually early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Penn Medicine Epidemiologists Prepared for Future Pandemics

June 06, 2023

In many ways, Penn Medicine is now stronger and better prepared for the future thanks to the lessons, alliances, and workflows developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Epidemiology Infectious Disease

A doctor completing a form on a digital device

Nudge Unit: Making Life Easier for Clinicians

January 05, 2023

With a new director at the helm and the worst of COVID past, the Nudge Unit is continuing to work on projects designed to make life easier for clinicians.

Emergency Medicine Epidemiology Innovation

In Peru, Penn Researchers Race to Vaccinate Dogs as Two Epidemics Collide

March 30, 2021

Reggaeton music, mobile clinics, and mathematical algorithms have all played a role in the implementation of a unique vaccination campaign in Peru’s second-largest city.

Epidemiology Global Health Public Health

Evicted and Infected: How the U.S. Housing Crisis Could Worsen the COVID-19 Pandemic

January 28, 2021

The first of the month is approaching, and a record number of Americans will not be able to pay their rent on time, as the COVID-19 pandemic has left millions unemployed. A study led by a University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist offers a cautionary tale about the collision of these two national crises: Even a low rate of evictions would significantly accelerate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the entire country, the research team’s preliminary findings show.

Epidemiology Public Health COVID-19 Health Care Policy

Coronavirus Models Aren’t Crystal Balls. So What Are They Good For?

April 21, 2020

Epidemiologists and data scientists have become unlikely heroes during the coronavirus pandemic. Wave-shaped COVID-19 models that present “best” and “worst-case” scenarios for the virus trajectory are now commonplace in news stories and on screens behind governors during press conferences.

COVID-19 In the News Infectious Disease General Interest Public Health Epidemiology

To Beat Cancer, You’ve Got to Have Heart

February 28, 2019

If you asked 100 people on the street what they think is the best way to prevent cancer, odds are the overwhelming majority of answers would have something to do with smoking. It’s less likely that people would think about heart health, but perhaps they should.

Heart Cardiology Epidemiology Cancer

Getting to Zero Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities: An Insider’s View

January 17, 2018

As we took our positions around the bed in the trauma bay, I could hear the first patient being wheeled in by the paramedics, screaming hysterically with slurred speech, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please save her!” The paramedics slid her backboard on to the gurney. She was flailing with tears welling up in her eyes and a heavy smell of alcohol on her breath.

Emergency Medicine Epidemiology Public Health Addiction

Birthing New Findings

November 15, 2017

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.

Epidemiology

Mining the Data Mother Lode

June 05, 2017

One of the newest entities with the Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics, the Health Language Processing Lab combines social media content with other sources of health information in a unique way aimed at understanding how people use language to communicate health needs.

Big Data Research Epidemiology pharmacy

Then and Now: The Healing Power of an Urban Garden

May 01, 2017

Originally proposed in 1774 and intended as an on-site location to grow healing medicinal plants to be eaten or brewed into tea, the Physic Garden was finally built in 1976 — and now offers therapeutic benefits in a less direct fashion, as green spaces continue to emerge as a potential tool to improve population-level health in urban settings.

Emergency Medicine Epidemiology Pennsylvania Hospital

Blog Topic: Epidemiology