Department of Medicine In the News

“Fifteen thousand deaths is just terrible and it kind of forces us to reflect on what's happened,” said Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary care physician at Denver Health [assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], and member of the Colorado Vaccine Equity Taskforce.

“These patients are at particularly high risk for opioid overdose, as they are not receiving the protective effects of buprenorphine,” said Jarratt Pytell of University of Colorado School of Medicine, who led the study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry.

“The first bill, House Bill 1215, would prohibit clinics from covering the costs of paying their essential workers, including nurses, pharmacists, social workers, housekeeping, and others. It gives government officials the power to decide where patients get medical care. The Colorado Hospital Association estimates that most hospitals would be unable to pay their bills and hundreds of clinics would close. Layoffs would be inevitable.
 
“A second bill, House Bill 1243, would prohibit hospitals from counting support for research, education, and training as a community benefit. This restriction will curtail funding that supports our programs and would have an immediate and lasting negative impact on the state.
 
“And it’s not just us concerned about these bills. Every clinical department chair in the School of Medicine has signed on to oppose this legislation.

“Year after year, there’s always going to be someone that tells me this is the worst season yet or this season feels worse than last year,” Flavia Hoyte with National Jewish Health [and associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] said.

Photo: Sixto Giusti [assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] sees a kidney transplant patient who is part of the UCHealth Hispanic Transplant Program at Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022.

There’s a unique art display in Aurora featuring the photography of a local storm chaser. Jason Persoff is a doctor. He’s also an associate professor of medicine and teaches med students, residents and nurses at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus. “I’m what’s called a hospitalist,” he said. “It’s my job is to usher you through the system on the inpatient end after you leave the emergency department.”

The ACS said colon cancer diagnosis jumped from 11% in 1995 to 20% in 2019. UCHealth University of Colorado of Hospital gastroenterologist Swati Patel says that alarming trend needs more awareness this Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

“Getting 150 minutes a week [of aerobic exercise] is clearly enough to prevent a number of diseases and conditions, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, breast cancer, and depression, as well as all-cause mortality and falls and declines in cognitive function,” says Judith Regensteiner, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Opinion by Carey Candrian, of Boulder, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and on the Board of Directors at GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing Health Equity: “The end of life can be a time of reconciliation. But often not for LGBTQ people who face rampant discrimination and are often shut out by the way people talk and listen to them. Let me give you an example.”

Opinion by Joshua Barocas, of Denver, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “In response to the overdose crisis that has consumed Colorado, largely attributable to illicitly manufactured fentanyl, some lawmakers are turning toward ‘supply side’ interventions that they believe will curb overdose deaths.

For the first time ever, the National Cancer Institute is funding a study that will look into psilocybin’s effect on the emotional and mental suffering of terminal cancer patients. Led by CU doctors Stacy Fischer and Jim Grigsby, the study will monitor patients who undergo extensive sessions of psychotherapy, during which each participant will receive 25 milligrams of psilocybin, a “moderate to high dose” that is enough for ego dissolution, according to Fischer.

If you have a doctor-prescribed steroid for allergies, you should be taking it now, Flavia Hoyte from National Jewish Health [and associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] told CBS News.

“The reason that we do these tests is to catch things early,” Amy G. Huebschmann, MD, MSc, FACP, a primary care physician and a researcher with the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told Health. "There are always things we can do.”

“Cardiometabolic diseases, and at its core, type 2 diabetes, are largely behavioral-acquired diseases and they’re related to unhelpful behaviors. But when we drive to what are the core, root causes of these behavioral choices, they have to do with thoughts and beliefs that lead to unhelpful behaviors and then unhelpful food choices, eating, exercise or behaviors and then type 2 diabetes,” Marc P. Bonaca, executive director of CPC Clinical Research, professor of cardiology and vascular medicine and director of vascular research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said during a press conference.

“Our team was interested in the connection between a person’s life circumstances and the trajectory of heart disease,” Katarina Leyba, a resident physician at the University of Colorado, told Healio. “As doctors, it is important that we see the whole patient in front of us and that we consider the context of a person’s life, not just their list of medications.”

Swati Patel [associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] joins us to talk about raising awareness for colorectal cancer.

Families of patients are also susceptible to developing medical PTSD, Tim Amass, a physician and professor of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical care at the University of Colorado Medical School, tells Inverse. Last April, Amass, and his colleagues published a study in JAMA showing that, during the pandemic, instances of PTSD among family members of patients in the ICU nearly doubled compared to pre-pandemic.

Michelle Barron, senior director of infection prevention at UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], agreed. Despite the missteps, Barron said she believes history will reflect well on the scientific achievement, creating an effective vaccine in record time. “Science matters,” Barron said. “But it’s got to be good science.”

UCHealth hospital is one of the national sites for the recovery study on long COVID. Sarah Jolley [assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] and her team are spearheading that research.

An unpublished study to be presented at a cardiology conference this weekend found that daily cannabis use could contribute to heart issues. Lori Walker, PhD, with CU Anschutz is interviewed.

But proponents argue it’s an imperative first step to tackling drug use, with many repeating a one-argument refrain. “You can’t enter treatment if you are dead,” said Joshua Barocas, an associate professor at the University of Colorado who studies substance use disorder. “All the data suggests that people are going to do drugs regardless. ... All we are trying to do is reverse the harm that could come from what people are already doing.”

When asked if violence has increased at his hospital, Jason Persoff, an associate professor of medicine in the division of hospital medicine at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo., an urban, adult, academic hospital with 850 beds, said patients are becoming increasingly outspoken and dissatisfied with care due to limited visitor access to patients, increased delays in care due to overrun hospitals, and care at the hands of some burned out clinical staff…. “Frustration and misinformation have further demoralized clinicians and simultaneously created an antagonistic relationship from time to time as patients argue about what is and isn’t scientific fact,” Persoff said.

Denver Health physician Ro Pereira [associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] agrees. She told 9NEWS the announcement is lifesaving. “We have many, many patients who come to me and say I can’t afford my insulin and I haven't been using what you prescribe because I can’t,” Pereira said. “So to make it affordable to everybody is really just wonderful.”

Jennifer Taylor-Cousar [professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] helped Alder discover her ultimate diagnosis, cystic fibrosis….“I’ve been doing CF for more than 20 years and from the time I was taught in medical school, and I was taught it was a disease that impacted white people. As I moved forward in my career, I started to bring this up at different tables,” Taylor-Cousar said.

Satish Garg with the University of Colorado Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes says drug manufacturers need to lower insulin prices. “These insulins cost hardly anything to make it and patients were being charged sometimes anywhere between $200 to $600,” he said.

The inconsistencies also relate to the broad discretion granted to judges, says Chris Knoepke, assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "All of these standards are all over the map, and there's no checklist," Knoepke told CPR.

In a longitudinal observational study, Eileen Wang, of National Jewish Health and University of Colorado School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed 45 adults with asthma to observe how intimate partner violence (IPV) is related to poor asthma control after 3 to 6 months.

The system has been monitoring community transmission rates, hospitalization rates, as a surrogate for disease severity, wastewater surveillance for COVID-19, vaccination rates against COVID-19 as well as the trends for RSV and influenza, said Michelle Barron, the senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “We feel that it is safe to no longer mandate masking,” Barron said.

Denver Health says the move is aligned with other large health care institutions in the region. “Denver Health’s COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU rates are very low, despite community transmission of the virus,” said chief medical officer Connie Savor Price [professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “Denver Health will continue to monitor this fluid situation.”

Carey Candrian knows there isn’t much space for art in medicine or academia. Before the pandemic, Candrian, who holds a Ph.D. in health communication and works as a professor at the University of Colorado School Anschutz Medical Campus, received a grant to interview older LGBTQ women in Colorado in order to better understand the challenges they face as they’ve aged.

Also referred to as “fail first,” step therapy is an insurer-mandated process that overrules doctor recommendations and disregards a patient’s specific medical needs. Ultimately, it’s a time-consuming process that can lead to worsened health outcomes, writes co-author Frank Scott, an associate professor of medicine-gastroenterology at the University of Colorado.

"When studied in a large randomized controlled trial, digital CBT tailored to the individual reduced blood sugar levels, while also reducing the need for intensified medication use and improving blood pressure and body weight," said Marc P. Bonaca, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and director of vascular research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado, and the study's principal investigator. Digital CBT also had a positive effect on patient-reported outcomes, including depression and quality of life scores over six months, he said.

Lifetime marital history appears to be an important predictor of survival in men with heart failure, but not women. Specifically, lifelong bachelors had significantly worse long-term survival than men who had been married, separated, divorced or widowed, said senior researcher Dr. David Kao, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.

Sunnie Kim, assistant professor, medicine — medical oncology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, contextualizes the use of tislelizumab (BGB-A317) as a frontline treatment option in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

Ahead of the bill’s introduction, the Colorado Hospital Association, joined by representatives from Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado and UCHealth, said that the term “facility fee” is a “terrible misnomer” that has resulted in a policy proposal that would devastate the industry.

“We believe that initially the fructose-dependent reduction in cerebral metabolism in these regions was reversible and meant to be beneficial,” says Richard Johnson, a nephrologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center.

“The first place that we look for a potential donor is a patient’s sibling,” explained Marc Schwartz, a hematologist at the UCHealth Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic [and assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “On average, however, about 70% of patients do not have a fully matched sibling donor. So the next step is to look at an international registry for matched unrelated donors.”

Robert Plick received care from Manali Kamdar, MD, clinical director of lymphoma services at the UCHealth Blood Disorders and Cell Therapies Center; Lavanya Kondapalli, MD, the state’s only fellowship-trained cardio-oncologist; and Antonio Jimeno, MD, PhD, a specialist in head and neck cancers.

“Tree pollens are present in the air by March, and nasal steroids take two weeks to reach their peak effect,” Flavia Hoyte, allergist and immunologist at National Jewish Health [and associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], said.

“This study was one of the first to strongly suggest a benefit for the antiviral medication, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, also known as Paxlovid, to prevent hospitalization and death for patients infected with recent Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants,” Neil Aggarwal, lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in a UC news release.

The study's lead author Richard Johnson said: "We make the case that Alzheimer's disease is driven by diet."

Johnson and his team suggested that Alzheimer's disease is a harmful adaptation of an evolutionary survival pathway used in animals and our distant ancestors during times of scarcity.

Melissa Turner has coped with Stage IV lung cancer and the loss of a sister to COVID-19. Still, no matter how poorly she feels, she's been bringing creative treats to hospital staffers for more than two years.

“I voted yes,” Christopher Lieu, MD, co-director, GI Medical Oncology Program and associate director for clinical research, at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, said.

In an accompanying editorial by Meghan D. Althoff, and Sunita Sharma, of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, they wrote that more information on the functional genetic effects that lead to the associations found between asthma, atopic dermatitis and GERD are necessary.

A researcher at CU Anschutz has landed a major grant to take a closer look on the disparities of care for elderly people in the LGBT community. Carey Candrian has spent more than a decade digging into this issue. Recently, she was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institute of Health's National Institute on Aging to improve care for LGBT older adults in hospice.

“I think that’s what’s so unclear about long COVID and potentially concerning about those numbers is that we certainly know some people recover,” but most haven’t, said Sarah Jolley, a researcher with CU Anschutz. Jolley is also the medical director of the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic, one site of a national study looking at recovery after COVID.

“There has been a shift in mindset,” said Dr. Kristine Erlandson, associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “For those patients diagnosed in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, an HIV diagnosis was kind of a death sentence.”

The National Kidney Association states that the odds of dying during kidney donation are about 3 in 100,000, while estimates for risk of death for living liver donors range from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000. But some of these estimates are from 10 or more years ago, and outcomes have likely improved, said Whitney Jackson, the medical director of living donor liver transplant at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, Colorado [and assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

Michelle Barron, senior director of infection prevention and control at UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], said about half of the system’s female patients between the ages of 18 and 44 have been pregnant so far this year. During the 2019-2020 flu season — the last normal one before the pandemic — only about 17% were, which is more typical, she said. “Seventeen percent to 50% is a huge jump, based on historically what we’ve seen,” she said.

“The persistence of high numbers of virus-specific T cells in individuals with long COVID suggests that there may be hidden viral reservoirs that are maintaining and leading to long-term symptoms,” said Brent Palmer, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of allergy and clinical immunology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

A smaller number of respondents — about a third of all cases — were reportedly considering death by suicide. The lower prevalence of suicidal people is “surprising,” said Chris Knoepke, assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “We know risk of self-harm, risk of suicide, is more prevalent in general than very high-level threats to other people,” Knoepke said.

“(Ending the waiver) stops setting aside buprenorphine as another medicine that needs some kind of special understanding in order to utilize it clinically,” said Josh Blum, a Denver Health physician and past president of the Colorado chapter of the American Society of Addiction Medicine [and associate professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

Lotte Dyrbye, the chief well-being officer for the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said she often hears from early-career physicians and other medical professionals who want to work fewer hours to avoid burnout. These medical workers are deciding that to be in it for the long haul requires a day every week or two to decompress, Dyrbye says. But as staff cut back their hours, it costs medical organizations money and may compromise access to care.

Kristine Erlandson, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and colleagues aimed to characterize associations between cannabis use and antiretroviral adherence in a cohort of older people with HIV.

“One thing that’s really defined the treatment of bladder cancer patients in the last 5 years or so has been the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors. The use of these agents initially started out as a later-line of therapy and these agents are being tested across different disease states,” noted Thomas Flaig, vice chancellor of research for the University of Colorado Denver, member, University of Colorado Cancer Center, and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Bladder Cancer, in an interview with Targeted Oncology.

Ian Espinoza, a high-achieving scholar at South High School, is one of only 10 Colorado seniors to be accepted into a prestigious collegiate program that will fast-track him to medical school. The BA/BS-MD Degree Program at the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus aims to promote the diversity of practicing medical professionals in Colorado and to better serve the healthcare needs of the state by assembling up to 10 outstanding students each year from broadly diverse backgrounds.
 
“This offer is an indication of the high regard the school holds, not only for your past academic and personal accomplishments but also for our assessment of your capabilities as a future undergraduate student and physician,” wrote Matthew Taylor of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “As part of this program, you will be completing your four years of undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado Denver and your four years of medical school at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.”

Carey Candrian is an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In her research, she investigates how health care can be compromised if an open discussion with patients about what and who matters most to them is avoided.

Sixto Giusti, director of the Hispanic Transplant Program at UCHealth [and assistant professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], said when Hispanic patients are referred for treatment, they tend to be further along in the disease process, making it harder to prevent the need for extreme measures like transplantation.

As a physician who treats people with substance use disorders, I (Joshua Barocas) am highly skeptical of how Rep. Lynch and other lawmakers intend to continue this fight. My main concern is how their “fight” will affect my patients.

Moksha Patel, who’s a physician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, suffered from debilitating symptoms of OCD, including obsessive hand-washing, showering, even using cleaning agents like bleach to clean his body.

Deep brain stimulation is increasingly being used for people suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD, which affects about three percent of the population. Dr. Moksha Patel, who's a physician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, suffered from debilitating symptoms of OCD, including obsessive hand-washing, showering, even using cleaning agents like bleach to clean his body. He said the symptoms made him feel like a prisoner of his own mind and kept him from many day-to-day activities.

“There is an overlapping Venn diagram between burnout and depression,” said Dr. Lotte Dyrbye, the chief well-being officer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “If you have even an inkling of a suspicion that you’re not well, that’s what your primary care doctor is for, to help you figure that out.”

Connie Savor Price, Chief Medical Officer of Denver Health [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]: With the current workforce shortages, “tripledemic” and everyday demands, the challenge of burnout in healthcare should be at the top of every hospital CMO’s to-do list right now. Many healthcare workers are leaving the profession, further compounding shortages. Those who remain are experiencing mental health impacts from the unrelenting pressures of their daily work.

Virginia F. Borges, MD, MMSc, a professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a medical oncologist at the UCHealth Diane O'Connor Thompson Breast Center, Anschutz Medical Campus, and colleagues (Peter Kabos, MD, Elena Shagisultanova, MD, PhD, Radhika Acharya-Leon, DO, Jennifer Diamond, MD and Marie Wood, MD) highlight updates across the breast cancer landscape, including key updates from the 2022 SABCS.

At the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a team of doctors, therapists and literary scholars are doing just that: exploring how the fine arts can help nurses, doctors, surgeons and other healthcare workers heal from trauma….Marc Moss, a doctor who is part of the CORAL team, said the program received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2019 to prove the value of the fine arts, after the National Endowment for the Arts requested proposals to show Congress that art was worth the money spent.

Less common symptoms include loss of taste and smell and shortness of breath. Anosmia and ageusia appear, anecdotally, to be less common with XBB. Experts don’t expect ageusia and anosmia to make a comeback just yet. “Since XBB is part of the omicron group, I expect that loss of taste and smell will not be common, but I have not seen data yet,” said Dr. Thomas Campbell, a professor in the department of infectious disease at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

This Perspective article by Megan A. Morris, PhD, MPH, is a meditation on her Uncle David’s medical care at the end of his life and how a hospital team recommended care that was “steeped in unwitting ableism – the notion that the life of a person with a disability has less value than the life of a person without a disability.”

Wendy Tzou is Associate Professor of Medicine and the Medical Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and was watching the game when Hamlin collapsed. The Conversation asked Tzou four questions about what may have happened.

“Commotio cordis is a very rare cause of sudden cardiac death, primarily in athletes, or anybody who receives blunt force trauma to your chest, right over your heart,” said Bill Cornwell, the director of the Sports Cardiology Clinic at UCHealth. “Somebody drops suddenly because they have a bad rhythm that is not compatible with life. And unless somebody intervenes very quickly, they will likely pass away.”

Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, a pediatric and adult pulmonologist at National Jewish Health [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], is committed to creating systemic racial change for patients in the medical field... This past summer, she was the keynote speaker at the white coats for black lives ”die in” event at CU Anschutz Medical Campus to spread awareness about the health inequities in the American medical system.

“The most impressive finding is that this risk (for chronic diseases and aging) is apparent even in individuals who have serum sodium levels that are on the upper end of the ‘normal range,’” said Richard Johnson, professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, via email. He was not involved in the study. “This challenges the question of what is really normal, and supports the concept that as a population we are probably not drinking enough water.”

A perspective piece in the The New England Journal of Medicine by Mark Earnest, MD, PhD, that describes a tool his father, a human process engineer, used in the days, weeks and years after losing his wife to cancer.

“The ones that are petitioned for by law enforcement were approved more than 90% of the time, whereas the ones that are petitioned by family members, cohabitants, or parents were approved less than a third of the time,” said Chris Knoepke, a gun safety researcher with the University of Colorado’s Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative.

Rheumatologist and researcher Kristi Kuhn, MD, PhD, and her research team at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have identified a species of Subdoligranulum that could drive the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

The series “This Is Life With Lisa Ling” explores alcoholism in America.

“Last year, I took care of two women who were in their early 20s who had cirrhosis and needed liver transplants, and I’ve never seen that before in my entire career,” Dr. James Burton, medical director of liver transplantation at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, told Ling.

Lotte Dyrbye is the first to hold this newly created position as Senior Assoc. Dean of Faculty and Chief Well-being Officer for CU School of Medicine. She will oversee faculty development programs and lead initiatives that will reduce burnout among physicians, residents, and medical students.

Carey Candrian, a researcher and associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, calls this phenomenon a “habit of silence.” Candrian’s work focuses on how communication can impact health care outcomes, especially for older LGBTQIA+ adults and their caregivers. “If you grew up in this culture — where you were really trained to stay silent about who you were — of course over the years, if you continue to have these experiences you’re going to continue to stay silent,” Candrian said.

“Unfortunately, there is no shot for RSV but some of the things that you can do that will actually take care of all three of these viruses are simple,” said Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

Yet, the adverse events “are not surprising for an older adult population,” said Kristine Erlandson, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in Aurora. She cited sleep disturbances as a common issue among older adults, “particularly over the long duration of follow-up in this study.”

Even as that work ramps up, no one can say just how many Coloradans suffer from it. “I think it's very large numbers,” said Sarah Jolley, a researcher with CU Anschutz and medical director of the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic, one site of a national study looking at recovery after COVID.

“Right now. This is probably one of the steepest mountains that I've seen probably ever in terms of how fast the cases are increasing,” said UCHealth Senior Medical Director of Infection Prevention Michelle Barron [professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

The University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus announced on Tuesday the creation of Katy O. and Paul M. Rady Esophageal and Gastric Center of Excellence, which begins work now on bolstering screening and surveillance programs, clinical trials, and finding grants and recruiting talent for new programs. The new center will be housed in CU’s existing cancer center at the Anschutz campus, a designated comprehensive cancer center in the Rocky Mountain region.

Among participants with an intermediate health state, 44.7% of those in the intervention group preferred screening compared with 54.8% of those in the control group (P=0.22), and for those in a poor health state, these proportions were 38.7% versus 54.1% (P=0.08), reported Carmen L. Lewis, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora and colleagues.

When Sachin Wani goes to work every day at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, it can often feel like he is fighting an uphill battle. Wani is a gastroenterologist and an interventional endoscopist, as well as a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Much of his work with patients involves diagnosing and treating cancer of the esophagus.

Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have found that a unique bacteria found in the gut may be responsible for causing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients who are already predisposed to the autoimmune disease. A group of researchers from the Division of Rheumatology worked on the study under the leadership of Kristine Kuhn, an associate professor of rheumatology. The study was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Meagan Chriswell, a medical student at CU, is the paper’s lead author.

“We are officially in respiratory virus season. That includes everything you can think of from the common cold to more severe illnesses, and it has begun with a vengeance,” Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth, said.

Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], said now more than ever, it’s important to take precautions to keep people out of the hospital.

Erin Schenk, MD, PhD, [assistant professor of medicine and] a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, states that small cell carcinoma — rare cancer that often spreads aggressively and has no associated screening procedure — is a reminder of how much work remains for medical professionals in the fight against cancer.

Richard Johnson, professor of medicine and chief kidney disease specialist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, studies the causes of obesity. He’s identified a major part of the modern diet that makes our bodies behave as if we were adding fat as insurance against starvation later on, a process inherited from our evolutionary ancestors.

“If you look at the trajectory so far, in the last month we really started seeing the uptick in cases and how quickly it went up. It’s higher than anything we’ve seen even pre-pandemic,” said Michelle Barron, Senior Medical Director of Infection Prevention at UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

Michelle Barron, an infectious disease expert at UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], also pointed to the dropping temperatures as another catalyst. The recent winter weather has pushed more folks inside for longer, creating higher risk for contagion. “Respiratory viral season has begun, and it’s begun with a vengeance,” she said. “It’s what we see with the changing seasons, right?”

"Although COVID-19 is a pandemic, overweight/obesity is becoming the most common chronic disease 'pandemic' in the world," says Robert Eckel, professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Colorado School of Medicine Anschutz Medical Campus and immediate past president of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). “Obesity is the most important predictor of new onset type 2 diabetes.”

Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention at UC Health [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] in Colorado, said this time of year often brings norovirus outbreaks as well. “People have been talking about the ‘tripledemic’” — referring to covid, flu and RSV, a common virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms — “I’m like no, this is just the season of grossness,” she said.

Another example: the Texas Policy Evaluation Project conducted a survey of clinicians operating under that state’s restrictions. It found that sometimes providers avoided doing D&Cs, opting instead for a surgical incision into the uterus because it might not be constructed as an abortion. “That’s just nuts.” Matthew Wynia directs the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. “Much more dangerous, much more risky. The woman may never have another pregnancy now because you’re trying to avoid being accused of having conducted an abortion.”

Christopher Knoepke, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who has studied red flag laws both in Colorado and nationwide, worries the state law is a valuable tool that is being underutilized.

Clinics in the UCHealth system recorded 1,160 positive tests for influenza in the last week, which was a “huge jump” from 495 cases a week earlier, said Michelle Barron, the system’s senior medical director of infection prevention and control [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine].

Connie Price, chief medical officer at Denver Health [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine], said they’re working to hire traveling nurses with experience in pediatric intensive care units, to better manage the increased need. Since young children have very small airways, they’re vulnerable to breathing complications from RSV, and some need to be placed on ventilators, she said.

The state has seen relatively few petitions for extreme risk protection orders since it passed its law in January 2020. One study found 109 filings in the first year. Chris Knoepke, a University of Colorado professor who has studied the issue, said data from 2021 and 2022 show a slight increase in usage. . . . “It’s heartbreaking when you hear one of these stories, and you worry that an opportunity was missed to potentially do something about it,” said Knoepke, who is working with state officials on developing training on ERPOs for Colorado law enforcement.

“There’s not a whole lot of evidence for that 10 degrees cut-off and we know that bad things can start happening to the body even in moderately, low temperatures, 40 degrees and below,” said Joshua Barocas, associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

All of the medications approved in the last decade have a good track record of safety so far, says Adam Gilden, an associate professor and obesity researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“Mortality is high,” said Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “Somewhere between 40 and 50% of people who get it die. So, this is not insignificant.”

“The rate of diabetes or incidence of diabetes is increasing annually by about 2 million people per year in the United States,” according to Mike McDermott, director of the Endocrinology and Diabetes Practice at University of Colorado Hospital [and professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine]. “It’s huge and we’re increasing at a rapid rate.”