CU Anschutz In The News

Dental students serve veterans at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. As a decorated Vietnam veteran on a fixed income, Berdeaux qualified to get discounted care from the dental students at the CU School of Dental Medicine through its Heroes Clinic on the Anschutz Medical Campus. “And then I found out he was in the military," Berdeaux said. "There’s an immediate bond between anyone that serves. It doesn’t matter where, what unit you are. There’s a bond that’s just there. That provided a trust that he didn’t have to earn it was just there." 

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus researchers launched a website to help people make difficult decisions about living with dementia. An estimated 5 million people in the U.S. are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. The new online resource, Safety in Dementia, is intended to help caregivers — or, if possible, people in the early stages of dementia — plan for the future before the illness progresses to the point where, for example, a person with Alzheimer’s disease mistakes their spouse for an intruder and reaches for a firearm.

The old Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, now part of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, is one of the most iconic buildings in Colorado. Those who work in the former hospital believe ghosts are haunting its halls. The building opened in 1941. It was the largest building in Colorado at the time of its construction. Today, workers insist something strange is happening.

The Colorado School of Public Health, a coalition of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado that stands as the only accredited school of public health in the Rocky Mountain region, has dropped Graduate Record Examinations, popularly known as the GREs, from its admissions requirements. The move is part of a growing national trend against the use of standardized test scores as a prerequisite to college entry at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Abortion rates have dropped again in Colorado, and health authorities are crediting increased access to birth control statewide. Another contributing factor: the so-called morning-after pill has been available over the counter at Colorado pharmacies since 2013. “The goal has always been access,” said Gina Moore, assistant dean for clinical and professional affairs at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy. “We are just really pleased.”

Aurora’s giant employers: Aurora’s aspirations are not lost on Don Elliman, chancellor of CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus. The veteran magazine publisher and former state official said he recognizes that Aurora for years “bristled at being Denver’s poor neighbor." "And it’s still got plenty of issues,” he said. “We happen to be situated smack in the middle of three of the poorest zip codes in the state of Colorado, and we’re very mindful of that fact. We don’t want to be a house on the hill.” Elliman said CU Anschutz has a $2.4 billion annual budget and 2.1 million outpatient visits on campus each year, and it’s still growing on its 578-acre campus. It also has programs that hire people from surrounding neighborhoods and a community clinic provides free care.

There is still no clear cause for a mysterious paralytic condition that has been striking U.S. children over the past five years, government health officials report. The CDC researchers found more microbes when they looked at mucus and stool samples, but there was no clear single cause. "I think it's fair to say it's still the leading suspect in the biennial surges we're seeing," said Dr. Samuel Dominguez of Children's Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in Aurora. Dominguez wrote an editorial published with the study.

Due to an ongoing, nationwide shortage of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, long waits for the vaccine are possible at Colorado pharmacies. “There could be long waiting lists. When I checked with a particular pharmacy they said they had a wait list of about 200 people, and then they decided to just disband the wait list, and just do first come first served,” said Sunny Linnebur with the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Linnebur recommends calling around to different pharmacies to check availability. The UCHealth pharmacy at University of Colorado Hospital, for instance, did have Shingrix in stock.