South L.A., Antelope Valley lead L.A. County in preventable hospitalizations
Key takeawaysIn Los Angeles County, areas with the highest rates of potentially preventable hospitalizations and emergency department visits are the same areas with the highest percentages of adults insured by Medi-Cal.High rates seen in South Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley suggest better outpatient care is needed there.Study authors recommend that policymakers and payers should consider improving access to care and increasing payments for Medi-Cal providers to help narrow health equity disparities.If you ’re a Los Angeles County resident living with chronic health conditions like diabetes, asthma or hypertension, y...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 23, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Supportive housing program for Californians experiencing homelessness shows promise
Key takeawaysFrom January 2021 to December 2022, the Housing for a Healthy California program provided permanent housing to 230 individuals experiencing homelessness, most having been without stable housing for more than one year.Nearly all participants received supportive services in addition to housing. Case managers tailored the services to each participant ’s needs.A UCLA Center for Health Policy Research evaluation shows participants ’ use of emergency rooms and hospitals declined and their overall estimated costs to Medi-Cal decreased compared to similar beneficiaries not housed by the program.Offering a range of...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 17, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Advance in immune cell screening uncovers receptors that target prostate cancer
This study validated the ability for nanovials to find T cells, and their receptors, that react to viruses.A second experiment with a different patient applied the technology to a much more challenging problem: rare prostate cancer targets the scientists had identified in previous studies. Importantly, those molecular targets acted to both capture the T cells and cause them to secrete certain molecules that kill target cells. In other experiments, the nanovials also had molecules allowing each to capture more than one type of immune-activating secretion.CNSI at UCLAA closer look at UCLA-developed nanovials, which are hydro...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 15, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Your brain on genetics
There ’s nothing like seeing new perspectives through the study of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases.Dr. Daniel Geschwind— without getting too philosophical, he promises — is ready to explain why.Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, has been a pioneering neurogeneticist for more than 25 years, during which time a genomics revolution has allowed research, much of which has come out of UCLA, to show that psychiatric disorders have pathology that ties t hem together.In the last 10 years, hundreds of genes that increase s...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 11, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA receives $5 million grant to align neuroscience and societal needs
The objective is to reimagine the relationship between neuroscience and the public in part by deepening community engagement, facilitating research collaborations and training multidisciplinary neuro-society experts.Led by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, numerous campus units and Drew University are together contributing about $4.8 million to match the grant amount. They include theBrain Research Institute; theSemel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; the UCLA College divisions of life sciences, social sciences and humanities; the School of Education& Information Studies; and the Office of the...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 10, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Health acquires West Hills Hospital and Medical Center
UCLA Health has acquired the 260-bed West Hills Hospital and Medical Center and related assets from HCA Healthcare. The transaction, which was finalized on March 28, will help address hospital inpatient capacity needs, allowing UCLA Health to provide world-class care to more patients across the region. The hospital has been renamed UCLA West Valley Medical Center. “UCLA Health is focused on enhancing timely and equitable access to health care throughout greater Los Angeles, and this acquisition is an important milestone in our ongoing efforts,” said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of the UCLA Ho...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 29, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Changes to U.S. data collection on race, ethnicity could be a boon to public health
Inresponse to the nation ’s growing diversity, the Biden administration announced March 28 that the government willchange how it collects information about people ’s race and ethnicity. The revisions, the first in nearly three decades, are aimed at creating more accurate and inclusive data to better inform policymaking, legal research efforts to address health disparities.Ninez Ponce, director of theUCLA Center for Health Policy Research, said it was a landmark day for people who work on health data. “As our society evolves to become ever more multicultural and multiethnic,” she said, “these new rules are a cruci...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 29, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Ninez Ponce receives Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award for work in health and data equity
“Without data equity, we will not achieve health equity.”Whether leading the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, teaching graduate students at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health or speaking with lawmakers in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., Ninez Ponce is widely esteemed for her decades-long dedication to turning this ideal into reality.In her work, Ponce has helped ensure public health data collection goes beyond just including historically underrepresented communities; she has centered these communities to understand their unique needs and developed health programs and policies to address them. In recogn...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 20, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Craving snacks after a meal? It might be food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite
Key takeawaysA new study from UCLA researchers is the first to discover food-seeking cells in a part of a mouse ’s brain usually associated with panic – but not with feeding.Activating a selective cluster of these cells kicked mice into “hot pursuit” of live and non-prey food, and showed a craving for fatty foods intense enough that the mice endured foot shocks to get them, something full mice normally would not do.If true in humans, who also carry these cells, the findings could help address the circuit that can circumvent the normal hunger pressures of “how, what and when to eat.”People who find themselves ru...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 19, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Protecting Black mothers before, during and after pregnancy
Key takeawaysAccording to the California Department of Public Health, the pregnancy-related mortality rate for Black women in the state has long been disproportionately high.Black women still experience pregnancy-related deaths at rates three to four times higher than those of their peers from other racial and ethnic groups.To discuss what ’s being done to address this crisis, the UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education hosted a talk by L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell.The pregnancy-related mortality rate for Black women in California has long been disproportionately high, according to the Ca...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 14, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
‘I feel like myself again’: UCLA clinical trial offers hope for lymphoma patients
In June 2018, actor Hirotaka Matsunaga was supposed to be two weeks away from opening night of “The Swords of Sorrow: BURAI II,” a play set in 1800s Japan. The 39-year-old had been cast as the lead. It was the big break he had been working toward since he moved to the U.S. from Japan more than 20 years ago to pursue his dreams.But his cancer diagnosis and an unsuccessful course of chemotherapy had shut down the play.“Around November 2017, I had acute pain in my stomach for weeks, and it got so bad that it became difficult to eat,” Matsunaga said.After a particularly agonizing dinner, he checked himself into a hosp...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 5, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Samueli to lead $4 million cell research project funded by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Key takeawaysThe grant will fund a three-year collaboration among researchers at UCLA, USC and Caltech to advance cell and tissue engineering technologies.The project, led by UCLA ’s Dino Di Carlo, will engineer, manipulate and analyze cell-to-cell interactions that underlie complex multicellular systems in the body.Di Carlo said he aims for the collaboration to develop into a long-term partnership across institutions to advance biotechnology in Los Angeles.The Chan Zuckerberg Initiativetoday announced a $4 million grant to support research led by the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering that will examine cellular behavio...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 29, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
What prevents more Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans from seeking mental health care?
This report goes a lo ng way toward piecing the puzzle of AANHPI mental health by uplifting new data on mental health indicators, barriers to receiving care and recommendations to overcome them. We are incredibly grateful for key investments from the State of California, our partnerships with the UCLA Center for Health P olicy Research and California Health Interview Survey, and insights from community partners to produce research that is insightful, timely and solutions-oriented.”Ramakrishnan said that for decades, community leaders have noticed a dichotomy between low rates of self-reported mental health needs and the...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 29, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Data Equity Center aims to provide data expertise to those who need it
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has launched theData Equity Center to help ensure that historically marginalized populations and their needs are more accurately represented in the vast pools of information government, business and philanthropy are using to make crucial decisions.The Data Equity Center will provide no-cost assistance to organizations and agencies across the United States by leveraging the experience, skills and knowledge of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research along with dozens of additional experts in survey and data science.“We’re going to provide consulting services to promote data e...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 26, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA receives $10 million to launch Howard and Irene Levine Family Center for Movement Disorders
Key takeawaysThe Howard and Irene Levine Family Foundation will provide the resources to endow four chairs and a research fund in the UCLA Department of Neurology to support basic research science on Parkinson ’s disease.The donations are meant to honor Dr. Jeff Bronstein, director of the UCLA Movement Disorders Program and Clinic.In addition to their medical philanthropy, Howard and Irene Levine have been dedicated supporters of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and its Ziman Center for Real Estate.Donations totaling $10 million from longtime UCLA supporters Howard and Irene Levine and their family foundation wil...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 26, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
