Health

On its face, it might seem Dr. Fred Meyers at the UC Davis School of Medicine is looking at one very specific problem. He’s studying soldiers with complex trauma, such as a serious burn combined with a head injury. But he says the method he’s using — called precision medicine — could ultimately change the way doctors nationwide treat both military and civilian patients.

Via Capital Public Radio

Currently, one in 59 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder — triple the number of families affected in 2000 — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Effective treatments for ASD are not widely available, leaving many families without access to care, especially those in rural, low-income and underserved areas. In addition, services are limited for adults with ASD.

Via UC Davis Magazine

Patients are now encountered a still-unusual approach of treating addiction in the emergency room. At the core of this work is a straightforward idea: treating addiction like any other medical condition, and building treatment for addiction into the rest of the health care system.

Via Vox

Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician who is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, said that the rise in firearm deaths was a result of “a national unwillingness to take this problem seriously.”

Via The New York Times

This past March, seven-year-old K-9 Haakon was taken to the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Hospital for a ruptured bladder. A special ceremony recognized the lifesaving work of the UC Davis doctors.

Via CBS Sacramento

Autism therapists and researchers often use virtual reality to help autistic people rehearse stressful encounters. Peter Mundy, a psychologist with UC Davis developed an application that lets autistic children practice public speaking in a virtual classroom with an audience of eight avatars. 

Via Spectrum News

Two policies exist today that if properly designed, widely enacted, and adequately implemented would likely have saved lives lost in past mass shootings and could potentially save many more in the future. Their benefits would extend far beyond reducing the incidence of mass shootings.

Podcast and Article via New England Journal of Medicine