Executive Director Robert Valuck said the money will allow the program to teach doctors about safe prescribing and better monitoring of people with substance use disorders. That includes “alternatives for pain management, identifying what use disorders look like, how to treat use disorders and then trying to basically make best available use of whatever resources there are in a community.”
A new study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is looking to identify how cannabis use impacts different kinds of users in unique ways. Anschutz medical toxicologist Dr. Michael Kosnett will test 90 people — those who use cannabis everyday, those who do so one or twice a week, and those who never — at a small brick house in Aurora. Since subjects imbibe on-site for the experiment, testing off-campus was essential.
Increased natural disasters like wildfire and famine are all symptoms of climate change. One CU Anschutz physician is studying whether those symptoms have a disproportionate impact on women worldwide. Dr. Cecilia Sorensen travels to Syria, Ghana and other countries to provide medical care--she also researches the impacts of climate change on women. Sorensen talked to Colorado Matters about her work. When climate refugees flee home because of drought and scarcity, women are put at risk of sex trafficking and disease in order to survive. "We know that when women are forced to migrate, they become incredibly vulnerable to all different types of circumstances, including sex trafficking, including violence against them," Sorensen said.
When Susan Potter decided to donate her body to science, she wanted to make an impact on humanity. "This will be my last will and testament," she said in a 2002 interview. "To leave something behind that would have an impact on the human race." Potter died in 2015, but thanks to groundbreaking technology and a long collaboration with University of Colorado scientist Vic Spitzer, she'll live on for generation of medical students. More than a decade before her death, Potter approached Spitzer, who heads CU's Center for Human Simulation, and asked to donate her body to science.
Teaching kids how the brain works is central to the school’s philosophy. Neuroscientists from Anschutz Medical Campus created experiments to sprinkle throughout the curriculum. Sukumar Vijayaraghavan, director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University Colorado’s School of Medicine, pitched throwing a ball into a basket. Then he said to put on prism goggles. Suddenly, you start throwing the ball at an angle. “But what you also learn is that while you keep doing that, the brain will adapt and actually get you to the right place after a few trials,” he says. “So the idea that the brain is plastic and the brain can be trained to do stuff.”
Robert Valuck, a clinical pharmacy professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus and an opioid expert, said jails have been the default detox centers in the United States — which is rarely effective in keeping people off drugs. “It’s a huge problem everywhere in terms of criminal justice. There are very few places around the country that have quote figured it out,” Valuck said. “Jails are not the places to be doing this.”
Now, University of Colorado researchers along with colleagues around the world, say they've identified the likely cause. Acute Flaccid Myelitis is a neurological illness that can cause paralysis, facial drooping and muscle weakness.
The resulting dearth of research means there is a lot Americans don't know about how to prevent gun violence. Dr. Larry Wolk, head of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, tells Colorado Matters the need for more research ought to be something everyone can get behind. And Dr. Emmy Betz describes how she got a rare federal grant to study guns and suicide prevention in Colorado — and what more she would investigate given the resources.
