News & Publications

Self-Management Program Helps Patients With HIV and Chronic Pain
An intensive, 12-week pain self-management program has been shown to reduce pain and improve mood in a large clinical trial of people with both HIV and chronic pain, according to a paper published July 15 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The research, led by Jessica Merlin, professor of medicine and director of the CHallenges in Managing and Preventing Pain (CHAMPP) Clinical...

Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Linked with Lower Dementia Risk
Hormone modulating therapy (HMT) used for the treatment of breast cancer was associated with a 7% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias later in life, according to a new study published today in JAMA Network Open.
The study, which is one of the largest of its kind, found that although HMT was linked with protection against the development of...

Kristin Ray’s New Children’s Book Teaches Coping Skills
by Isabel Doshi
“I love how storytelling and sharing stories can help children to develop their identity and their emotional intelligence and to support social-emotional learning,” Kristin Ray said.
Ray, associate professor of pediatrics, School of Medicine, wrote a children’s book, “Sam’s Sadness Slips Out,” published on July 12. The book aims to help children...

Okonkwo Sworn in to UVA Board of Visitors
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin swore in David Okonkwo, professor of neurological surgery and director of the Neurotrauma Clinical Trials Center at the University of Pittsburgh, as one of five new appointees to the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, his alma mater, on July 10.
The board is responsible for the school’s long-term planning, budgets and policies,...

José-Alain Sahel Receives 2024 Wolf Prize in Medicine
José-Alain Sahel, MD, Distinguished Professor and Eye and Ear Foundation Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of the UPMC Vision Institute, received the prestigious Wolf Prize in Medicine together with his colleague Botond Roska, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology...


A Pitt partnership established this Kazakhstan medical school, which just earned its first MD accreditation
In Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, there is now a medical school offering a fully accredited four-year medical program with a U.S.-based curriculum, thanks to a longstanding partnership with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. It is the only graduate-level MD program in...

Study Shows How Sickle Cell Disease May Drive Chronic Kidney Disease
A new study by University of Pittsburgh researchers sheds light on how the oxygen-binding molecule heme, which is released from the fragile red blood cells of sickle cell disease (SCD) patients, could cause chronic kidney disease, a serious complication that affects more than half of patients with SCD.