After months of construction and planning, UNC Health Care at Panther Creek, located at the corner of Highway 55 and McCrimmon Parkway, officially opened on January 21, 2020, placing department of medicine specialists from internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonology and nephrology alongside a variety of UNC Health Care entities, to better serve the growing population of … Read more

Shana Ratner, MD, FACP, associate professor of medicine in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology, and section chief for education and clinical practice, has been selected to receive the 2020 Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Medicine Leadership Award. The award will be presented on May 6, at the ACLGIM Annual Dinner … Read more

(Republished from the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health Care Newsroom) Approximately 38 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, about 1.1 million people in the United States. Currently, people with HIV take antiretroviral therapy (ART), which can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in blood, but the virus persists throughout the body in latently … Read more

A recent study conducted by investigators from the UNC Department of Medicine and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy was recognized as one of the top 10 advances in genomic medicine in 2019, as chosen by the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute’s Genomic Medicine Working Group (learn more from the CDC Office of Genomics … Read more

Erica Sparkenbaugh, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology, and Robert Lee, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the department of biochemistry and biophysics, have been selected to receive Scholar Awards from the American Society of Hematology’s (ASH). The prestigious ASH Scholar Awards provide financial support to fellows and junior faculty with … Read more

Heart disease and stroke are major causes of pre-mature mortality and morbidity in North Carolina, and there are significant racial and geographic disparities in cardiovascular care, morbidity and mortality. A two-year pilot project led by Rick Stouffer, MD, shows how the cardiovascular health of the most vulnerable patients can be improved with free medications. Starting … Read more

A recent study from Assistant Professor Joshua Niznik, PhD, PharmD, Division of Geriatric Medicine, in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society suggests de-prescribing Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors (AChEls) as a reasonable approach to lowering polypharmacy and risk of serious falls or fractures without increasing risk for all-cause negative events in nursing home residents with severe dementia. Co-authors … Read more

The Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle. A new rule may take away food stamps from nearly 700,000 Americans by tightening work requirements, estimated to save almost $8 billion over five years. Seth Berkowitz, MD, a professor of medicine in the division of general medicine and clinical epidemiology, was interviewed by the New York Times regarding the association between food insecurity and health care use.

(Republished from the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom) Blood clot expert Stephan Moll, MD, professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology, consulted NASA on how to treat a U.S. astronaut’s deep vein thrombosis during a mission on the International Space Station. Moll co-wrote a case study on the … Read more

Six UNC Department of Medicine faculty members were named in the 2019 Thomas Reuters List of Highly Cited Researchers. The annual list recognizes the most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers than rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. … Read more