News Releases

Invitation to Cover: Among the 154 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine students taking the Hippocratic Oath for the first time as new doctors this weekend is Aura Obando, who is making a long trip to be at graduation: travelling 7700 miles over three days, she will be returning from a six-week trip working at Teule Hospital in Tanzania just in time to reunite with her class to march at graduation and receive her diploma.

The only overnight bereavement camp of its kind in the area, Penn Wissahickon Hospice’s Camp Erin - Philadelphia will host nearly 100 children May 14th – 16th. At Camp Erin – Philadelphia, children aged 6-17 who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or close friend will take part in the three-day camp which combines traditional, fun, high-energy camp activities with grief education and support, to help the children cope with the loss of a loved one.

A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrate how mutations in the STRAD-alpha gene can cause a disease called PMSE (polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy) syndrome, found in a handful of Amish children. PMSE is characterized by an abnormally large brain, cognitive disability, and severe, treatment-resistant epilepsy.The finding provides insights into how a signaling pathway involved in PSME may be associated with other neurological disorders.

Certain types of Parkinson’s disease medications are linked to impulse control disorders, such as pathological gambling, compulsive shopping and binge eating, according to a study of more than 3,000 Parkinson’s disease patients by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

A special event honoring a new, $25 million gift from Madlyn and Leonard Abramson will celebrate five decades of progress in cancer research and treatment at Penn Medicine, and highlight the promise of future work to conquer the disease.

Penn Medicine dermatologists will offer free skin cancer screenings on Saturday, May 22 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. The screening is sponsored by Penn Medicine’s Department of Dermatology and the Abramson Cancer Center.

Over 200 trauma professionals will gather to be recognized for their lifesaving and critical care efforts and celebrate the strides being made in patient care and injury prevention during Penn Medicine’s annual Trauma Reflections Ceremony on Thursday, May 6, 2010. The program will also celebrate “great saves,” with more than a dozen former Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania trauma patients and their families reuniting with the doctors and nurses who ensured their survival when they were critically injured.

Please join us for a writers’ roundtable to discuss issues of genetic profiling with study participants, and from a clinician, genetic counseling, and bioethics perspective.

Resources for Media Covering the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting June 4-8, 2010, from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

TIME named Edna Foa, PhD, to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Dr. Foa’s career has been devoted to understanding the psychopathology of anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the development of short-term, evidenced-based treatments for these disorders. Her theoretical and empirical work has been highly influential among researchers and clinicians in the U.S. and abroad.