Health and Medicine

With health care, the national deficit and immigration all serving as current hot-button political issues, one University at Buffalo professor has found a viable way to both save money and provide health care for elderly immigrants.

At an 8 a.m. EST press conference today at the American Heart Association meeting, UB professor of medicine William E. Boden, MD, discusses the AIM-HIGH clinical trial, which found that niacin provides no incremental benefit to patients with atherosclerotic heart disease, whose levels of LDL cholesterol and non-HDL (which contributes to plaque in the arteries) were very well-controlled.

Healthy, new heart cells have been generated by animals with chronic ischemic heart disease after receiving stem cells derived from cardiac biopsies or "cardiospheres," according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The research is being presented today (Nov. 15) at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Orlando.

Architect Danise Levine of the University at Buffalo has completed design work with the Wounded Warrior Home Project, which will finish construction on two houses for wounded veterans today (Nov. 11) in Fort Belvoir, Va., that fit the unique physical and emotional needs of the soldiers who will move in. The dwellings are universally designed to be accessible to people of diverse abilities and ages.

Millions of Americans are affected by painful jaw problems known as TMD, temporomandibular disorders, but predicting who is at risk has been extremely difficult. Now, for the first time, researchers in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine are publishing a comprehensive set of clinical characteristics that they say will lead to the ability to identify individuals at risk for developing the painful conditions. Published in the November issue of the Journal of Pain, the UB research results are part of the Orofacial Pain Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment (OPPERA) study.

From text messages to making appointments online to the mysterious avatar alter egos in Second Life, Nancy Smyth would like to see social workers comfortable with all the tools in cyberspace in order to do their real work -- making a difference in people's lives -- in a digital age.

University at Buffalo career counselor Holly Justice is hosting a workshop Nov. 10 to help student veterans translate their military experience into resumes that will catch the attention of civilian companies. While veterans completing enlistments come home with valuable skills, finding work can be difficult if employers don't understand how responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan apply to civilian jobs, Justice says.

Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD, research scientist, has been named director of the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) UB Interim Provost Harvey G. Stenger Jr. announced today.

Buffalo Niagara and Canadian tech firm Ladybug Teknologies has launched a pilot program for the SipSmart Network, a breathalyzer kiosk that enables bar patrons to stay safe by checking their level of intoxication before they drive.

Although the passion and widespread sympathy for bullying victims is natural and admirable, those who want to stop bullying abuse need to act in ways that reflect good science and proven research if they want to contribute to a culture that does not condone this behavior, according to the director of the University at Buffalo's anti-bullying center. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5nUZOUbFHk