UConn Health Pulse

The COVID-19 Vaccine Arrives

As UConn Health administers the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to health care providers and other front-line staff, Dr. David Banach, UConn Health's hospital epidemiologist, and Dr. Kim Metcalf, UConn Health's primary vaccine coordinator, join Carolyn and Chris to discuss how UConn Health is serving as a leader in the fight against the pandemic and to explain the significance of the vaccine in that effort.

(Dr. David Banach, Dr. Kim Metcalf, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, December 2020)

When Our Own Cells Catalyze Healing

We're learning more about the growing field of orthobiologics, the use of treatments derived from individual patients' own cells and injected at the injury site to promote healing. Dr. Allison Schafer, a nonoperative sports medicine physician at the UConn Musculoskeletal Institute, offers bone marrow aspirate concentrate, or BMAC, for this purpose. She joins Carolyn and Chris to explain how it works and what makes it effective.

(Dr. Allison Schafer, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, December 2020)

Technology + Expertise = Healthier Skin

Some of the most advanced lasers and other devices used in cosmetic dermatology are available at UConn Health — with dermatologists who have the expertise to use them. Drs. Maritza Perez and Hao Feng join Carolyn and Chris to explain how they provide the latest available treatment options, not by fitting the device to the patient, but the patient to the device (or other method), safely and effectively resulting in healthier, younger-looking skin.

(Dr. Maritza Perez, Dr. Hao Feng, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, November 2020)

Awake During Hand Surgery?

Drs. Anthony Parrino and Joel Ferreira, UConn Health hand, wrist and elbow surgeons, offer an approach to hand surgery that is not widely available in American health care. They can repair problems like trigger finger and carpal tunnel syndrome using a local anesthetic, enabling the patient to remain awake and test the repair during the procedure. They join Carolyn and Chris to explain the advantages of this technique, known as "wide-awake hand surgery."

(Dr. Anthony Parrino, Dr. Joel Ferreira, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, October 2020)

Better Sleep, Best Self

Dr. Jennifer Kanaan from UConn Health's Sleep Disorders Center joins Carolyn and Chris to talk about the impact of sleep has on how adolescents do in school and in their relationships. She explains the advantages of later school start times and offers some advice on how to build good sleep habits.

(Dr. Jennifer Kanaan, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, September 2020)

The Emerging Field of Neuro-oncology

The complex nature of tumors of the central nervous system (brain and spine) has given rise to a subspecialty known as neuro-oncology. It's a still relatively new and uncommon discipline, and was not in place at UConn Health until the arrival of Dr. Kevin Becker in the summer of 2019. Dr. Becker joins Carolyn and Chris to explain his role as a neuro-oncologist and the advantages a neuro-oncology program offers both to patients and to the advancement of medicine.

 

(Dr. Kevin Becker, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, August 2020)

Diabetes: What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You

Success in managing diabetes largely depends on being an informed patient, as we hear from Jean Kostak, a certified diabetes care and education specialist at UConn Health. We're also joined by Martina Sinopoli, who as a fourth-year UConn medical student developed, as her Capstone project, a nutrition and recipe website that UConn Health's diabetes education program uses as one of its resources for patients. Martina since has graduated and is training in Harvard's psychiatry residency program.

(Jean Kostak, Martina Sinopoli, Chris DeFrancesco, July 2020)

Coming out of COVID: Mental Health

The challenges associated with our gradual return to some kind of normal are sure to vary throughout our populations. Will our older neighbors be hesitant to leave homes for a while? How has the isolation affected them? What about our children and teens, who lost the last three months of school? How has this disruption of routine and regular interaction with peers affected them? In this low-fidelity edition of The UConn Health Pulse, Carolyn and Chris remotely ask two mental health experts about this: Dr. Kristina Zdanys, geriatric psychiatrist in the UConn Center on Aging, and Julian Ford, UConn Health clinical psychologist with expertise in PTSD and adolescent psychiatry.

(Drs. Julian Ford and Kristina Zdanys, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, June 2020)

The Smile Is Just the Start

Dr. Flavio Uribe, chair of orthodontics at the UConn School of Dental Medicine, explains how the benefits of correcting a child's bite go well beyond the cosmetic, plus Courtney and Chris learn about some orthodontic options that weren't options when they were kids.

(Dr. Flavio Uribe, Courtney Chandler, Chris DeFrancesco, February 2020)

Eggs: OK or No Way?

Physician Assistant Brad Biskup from the Lifestyle Medicine Program at UConn Health's Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center tries to help Carolyn and Chris understand the seemingly ever-changing prevailing wisdom on cholesterol, diet, and heart health.

(Brad Biskup, Carolyn Pennington, Chris DeFrancesco, January 2020)