Press Release

Stanford University Medical Center, December 14th, 2009. 

Adults may stave off weight gain by simply spending less time watching television, according to a new study led by a researcher now at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Overweight adults who cut television time in half were more active, burning more calories as a result.

“Taking away time spent in front of the television has the potential to improve a person’s activity levels,” said Jennifer Otten, PhD, postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and lead author of the study, conducted at the University of Vermont. Read More >

Stanford University Medical Center, November 16, 2009

The California School Boards Association has awarded Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton a 2009 Golden Bell Award for its comprehensive sleep education campaign. The program was developed in collaboration with well-known sleep researcher William Dement, MD, PhD, the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor, and Mark Rosekind, PhD, a local sleep scientist and former director of the Center for Human Sleep Research at the Stanford Sleep Disorders and Research Center.

The program was designed to raise awareness among students of the importance of sleep and the dangers of sleep deprivation. Research over the past decade has indicated that teens require on average more than nine hours of sleep per night, but busy high school schedules and a naturally occurring shift in the internal biological clock of teens result in later bedtimes. According to researchers, the average adolescent lives with a significant “sleep debt” that affects safety, health, performance and mood.

Read More >

Stanford University Medical Center, November 16th, 2009. 

The Ronald McDonald House Charities have awarded their Medical Award of Excellence to Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, for his contributions to childhood medicine. The award includes a $100,000 grant to donate to a charity of his choice.

The Medical Award of Excellence is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improve the lives of children. The award was presented Nov. 7 in Rosemont, Ill.  Read More >

Stanford University Medical Center, November 16th, 2009.

The Stanford Office of Community Health awarded six seed grants to faculty members that promote community health through collaboration between Stanford and local agencies. The projects include community-health-oriented research and collaborations with community-based health centers, schools and hospitals and other nonprofits.

The seed grants, which total approximately $75,000, are funded as a part of the Clinical and Translational Science Award Stanford received last year from the National Institutes of Health. The aim of the grants program is to foster relationships between Stanford researchers and the local communities by “supporting the community partners and encouraging Stanford faculty to collaborate with them,” said Jill Evans, research program director for the Office of Community Health. Read More >

Stanford University Medical Center, November 2, 2009

The Stanford Medical Youth Science Program will receive a $1.3 million Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health, spread over the next five years. The grant will extend science educational opportunities to California’s low-income and underrepresented minority high school students.

The Stanford program’s aim is to increase diversity in science and health professions through encouraging low-income and underrepresented minority students to engage in science activities to develop critical thinking skills. The program’s faculty advisor, professor of medicine Marilyn Winkleby, PhD, said she hopes that increasing diversity will bring attention to large disparities in health occurring in these populations. The program also seeks to spur the creation of precollege science education programs at other universities. Read More >

Stanford University School of Medicine, November 2, 2009

Millions of people in the United States may suffer from lymphatic diseases, but little is known about what causes these illnesses or how widespread they may be. To try to answer these and other questions, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have partnered with the Lymphatic Research Foundation and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY, to establish the first patient registry and tissue bank for patients with lymphatic disorders.

Stanley Rockson, MD, the Allan and Tina Neill Professor of Lymphatic Research and Medicine at Stanford, will oversee the patient registry and tissue bank, made possible by a $1 million grant to the Lymphatic Research Foundation from a private donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Rockson is also chair of the foundation’s scientific and medical advisory board as well as director of the Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders at Stanford. Read More >

Stanford University Medical Center, October 14, 2009

Patients reporting new low-back pain are more likely to undergo surgery if treated in an area with a higher-than-average concentration of magnetic resonance imaging machines, according to research from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

This may be bad news for patients, since previous studies have found that increased surgery rates don’t improve patient outcomes. “The worry is that many people will not benefit from the surgery, so heading in this direction is concerning,” said senior author Laurence Baker, PhD, professor of health research and policy. Read More >