A study led by D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, director of thoracic oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and CU Cancer Center member, has helped to define MET amplification as a rare but potentially actionable driver for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Covid exposed the fragmented reality of US health records. Now an effort to bring together data from millions of patients is starting to show results.

Mid-July, the dog days of summer, also marks the midpoint of Colorado’s “ozone season.”

An unseasonal surge of winter viruses is landing children in the hospital in the middle of summer.

 A Loveland woman got quite the surprise after testing positive for COVID-19 more than a month after getting her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. 

There’s still a lot of vaccine hesitancy across the U.S., but millions of people nationwide aren’t getting their second COVID-19 shot either. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, nearly 148,000 Coloradans are late for their second dose.

Daniel Pollyea, MD, MS, associate professor of medicine/hematology, and the clinical director of Leukemia Services at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, discusses indications for anti-CD33 therapy in the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

With names like Bella, Duke and Darwin, detection dogs make headlines on a regular basis for the new sniffing tasks they can accomplish. Dogs that have been trained to pick out bumblebees and COVID-19 infections have both debuted in the past year. And if there’s a limit to what our favorite companions can pick up on, it hasn’t been found yet.

Diane Feenstra wasn’t too terribly alarmed when she felt a little tightness in her chest this spring. Still, she decided to glance at her smartwatch — a birthday present from her husband — to check her pulse.

For decades, the care of infants with a fever who were between eight and 60 days old has varied wildly, with some being observed for a just a few hours in the emergency room and others getting a full workup, including a lumbar puncture and other invasive tests and hospitalization that could potentially go on for as long as five days.

Families are running out of time to get their kids ages 12-17 fully vaccinated for COVID-19 in time for the start of the new school year.

After researching, discussing, strategizing and revising for more than a year on how to correctly convey that storing personal guns safely can help prevent deaths by suicide, a new video from the El Paso County Firearm Safety Workgroup aims to hit the mark in persuading gun owners to voluntarily do so.

Herd immunity to stop COVID-19 seems like wishful thinking in the U.S. right now. Instead, what is taking place is what some are calling “de-herding.” The number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise at an alarming rate despite the availability of the vaccine.

A recent increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide is causing concern in communities, especially those with large percentages of unvaccinated people.

The percentage of youths with type 1 diabetes spending at least 70% time in range more than doubled after 3 months of using a hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system, according to a study published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.

In the 2016 animated film “Moana,” the title character bravely battled a volcanic demon and saved her people.

When it comes to COVID-19 outbreaks, health experts say we’re not out of the woods yet. And with tens of thousands of people gathering in Denver over the past week for MLB All-Star Game festivities, there could be increased risk.

Most vaccinated Americans are unlikely to need Covid-19 booster shots for months, or even years, despite the rise of highly infectious variants and the continued spread of the virus, according to top scientists.

Coronavirus infections leading to long-haul Covid-19 in fully vaccinated people are probably very rare, experts say.

Bailey Shelden is a high school teenager willing to share her story of how she coped with isolation during the pandemic.

All along the Front Range during the pandemic, demographics drew lines between sickness and health.  

We received questions about how natural immunity after having COVID compares to the protection from the vaccine. 

Kids need stability, security, emotional support and role models,
according to Harley Rotbart, a parenting expert and vice chair
emeritus of pediatrics at [CU School of Medicine and] Children’s
Hospital Colorado. Of note, none of these qualities has anything to do
with the number of parents or caregivers a child has, nor what the
sexual or gender identity might be. Indeed, parents and caregivers
come in all shapes and creeds.

The U.S. health system is far from capable of quickly identifying and controlling an infectious disease outbreak because it relies on voluntary international cooperation.

A congressional panel began the formal process of investigating the origins of Covid-19 Wednesday amid recriminations over allegations of researchers being intentionally misled by the Chinese government and American media and politicians.

Colorado doctors are weighing in on whether vaccinated people might need a booster shot to protect against variants, like the Delta variant. Rene Kesteren has received the COVID vaccine and wouldn’t hesitate to get the booster.

There are growing concerns about the delta variant of COVID-19 in Colorado. The highly contagious strain of Covid-19 is surging in the western part of the state. Mesa County has reported more than 600 of cases of the Delta variant so far — with more than 560 new cases in just the last two weeks.

There are growing concerns about the delta variant of COVID-19 in Colorado. The highly contagious strain of Covid-19 is surging in the western part of the state. Mesa County has reported more than 600 of cases of the Delta variant so far — with more than 560 new cases in just the last two weeks.

Officials could have data on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines on children as young as 6-months-old by the end of the year, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. However, it will be up to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recommend whether they should be inoculated.

When people return to work after a vacation, there's a good chance they'll hear one comment multiple times throughout the day: "You look so well-rested!" Whether or not that's actually the case (have you tried traveling with kids and/or a partner who constantly complains?), it's become our go-to response to someone who's recently taken some time off. 

Doctors test only a fraction of Denver children for levels of lead in their blood each year, even though federal law requires the tests for thousands of them.

When the phone call came five days after their daughter’s birth, Erin and Jason Schill had already forgotten that a nurse had come into their hospital room to take their hours-old newborn for a routine blood test.

The COVID-19 vaccines were developed at a dizzying speed. Chinese researchers shared the genetic sequence of the virus on Jan. 11, 2020. Just 48 hours later, Moderna had a vaccine ready to test. Pfizer wasn’t far behind.

Life expectancy fell dramatically last year in Colorado and that hit people of color especially hard. We talk through the reasons and look toward solutions. Then, improving the response to drought and wildfires. Plus, "Merciless Indian Savages" works to break down Indigenous stereotypes using those very caricatures. And, banking on All-Star business.

One day in fall 2018, Bo Gribbon began to vomit and couldn’t stop. He threw up multiple times an hour from morning to night before his mother drove him to the hospital near their home here.

Horns blared, and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile, international tournament.

Much of the talk at this year’s Tour de France has been about Tadej Pogačar’s dominance of the battle for the yellow jersey.

At-home health care exploded during the pandemic, and experts say the growth is expected to last.

Perhaps you’ve had COVID-19 already. Perhaps you’ve had one of the two vaccine doses but heard that you may feel under the weather the day after that second shot and are putting it off. Perhaps you figure you’re young and healthy and aren’t going to get all that sick even if you do catch the coronavirus. Or perhaps something else is keeping you from being vaccinated.

Opioid prescribing preferences and practices among surgical residents and faculty differ, according to a new study published in the journal Surgery.

Researchers in the United States have proposed changes to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination strategy that they say would increase the likelihood of herd immunity being achieved in the most timely and cost-effective manner.

Now that summer has officially arrived, thoughts might be turning to a new seasonal look. But, before that, it might be wise to think about another look, one that results from spending too much time in the sun. Sunburn is not just an uncomfortable condition, it could be a precursor to skin cancer, the most common and potentially fatal cancer in the United States.

Rheumatoic arthritis warriors often say the lay-you-flat fatigue that comes with this disease is worse than the pain itself. Up to 80% of people with RA complain of tiredness, and more than 50% have high levels of fatigue, according to the Arthritis Foundation.

Compared with non-Hispanic White Americans, Hispanic Americans receive disproportionally fewer organ transplants. In 2018, the Hispanic Transplant Clinic was established at the University of Colorado. Madhura Pande and colleagues at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, conducted a study to examine the efficacy of the program in reducing this disparity.

As the Delta variant quickly makes its way across Colorado, there’s a new push to get kids in the state vaccinated.

A few months after receiving their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, an Arvada couple says they believe they caught the virus at Country Jam in Grand Junction.

Air travel is hitting pre-pandemic levels, but not everything is back to normal. In the midst of the busy summer travel season, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines all recently announced they would limit or postpone bringing back alcohol service on most flights. Southwest blamed unruly passenger behavior, including an assault on one of its flight attendants.

In the middle of June, staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a bulletin to state health departments and health care providers, something they call a Health Advisory—meaning, more or less, that it contains information that’s important but not urgent enough to require immediate action. (”Health Alerts” are the urgent ones.)

As their populations swell nearly to prepandemic levels, U.S. immigration detention centers are reporting major surges in coronavirus infections among detainees.

Recent data shows Colorado has one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the country, although the state is ahead of others when it comes to vaccinations. 

This long holiday weekend, doctors at the UCHealth Burn Center on the Anschutz Medical Campus are seeing an increase in the number of fireworks, campfire and grill injuries.

When Angelina Burke entered the Platte Valley Youth Services Center in Greeley last month, she had been steadily taking a litany of psychiatric medications.

Dr. Amy Olson spent much of 2020 in a state of fight-or-flight. First, she feared working without enough proactive gear. Then, her sick coworkers struggled to get tested for COVID-19. Amid all that, she grieved over losing patients, some she’d treated for years, to an unyielding disease.

Scientists examining the remains of 36 bubonic plague victims from a 16th-century mass grave found evidence that evolutionary adaptive processes—driven by the organism—may have conferred immunity on later generations of people (Mol Biol Evol 2021 May 18. doi:10.1093/molbev/msab147).

For more than six months now, people have rolled up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 180 million Americans have received at least one dose, but one group has not been part of the effort: young children.

When Carly Birmingham, a 7th grader from Massachusetts who identifies as nonbinary, was depressed and experiencing suicidal thoughts last fall, their mother drove to a local hospital emergency department at 2 a.m. hoping for immediate help.

Drugstore shelves are overflowing with options for pain relief. There are packages of pills, patches, creams and liquids — all designed to alleviate everyday aches and injuries.

These are trying times for Colorado’s parents. The coronavirus pandemic still rages for those who are not vaccinated, now driven by the most transmissible form of the virus the state has ever seen. Vaccination rates are ticking up across the state. But vaccines are not available for kids under the age of 12, and, for the parents of older children, concerns about the safety of the vaccines abound.

The excitement and anticipation is growing for Denver to be in the spotlight during the MLB All-Star Week, but concern is also growing around the possible spread of the delta variant.

Pediatric diabetes research is an area that hits close to home for
Kristen Nadeau, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University
of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. A member of the Prairie Band
of Potawatomi, Nadeau worked on two Native American reservations
in medical school and observed a rising medical problem within the
population.

When COVID-19 hit Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital in March 2020, Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, MD, shifted from training in trauma and surgical critical care to working 80-hour weeks in a COVID-19 intensive care unit. “We were offering the best we had, but patients just kept dying anyway — and then more would come,” she recalls.

There is a new compliance mandate in healthcare, one that despite all of its good intentions for patients is leaving some providers worried about the healthcare experience. Requirements for open notes and patient access to clinical notes, as spelled out in the 21st Century Cures Act, are a new spin on an on old philosophy leaving healthcare providers balancing clinical documentation with a good patient experience.

It may've been a while since you've had a common cold, but cases are starting to return, The Denver Channel reported. Now that most of us have un-masked and are starting to mix and mingle in public again, that means non-COVID respiratory viruses are spreading, even though it's off season. 

Before the 2020 pandemic, Kelly Blike described the behavioral health situation for both adolescents and adults in Colorado as a boiling pot of water, filled to the rim. Now, that pot is spilling over with no containment in site.

When Marie, 11, called a suicide prevention hotline in October, nobody saw it coming. Not even Marie herself, who had been bottling up feelings of loneliness and sadness for months without telling anyone.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in consequences on morbidity and mortality, with diabetes considered a significant contributor to complications related to infection of the virus.

Taken together, the COVID-19 pandemic and “pandemic politics”
resulted in an environment “that made care provision challenging for
community neurologists,” Roman Ayele, a research scientist at
Denver-Seattle Center of Innovation, Rocky Mountain Regional VA
Medical Center in Colorado and assistant professor adjunct at
University of Colorado and colleagues wrote.

Something remarkable has been happening in a pocket of rural Southwestern Colorado. While our public health agencies, medical practitioners and politicians valiantly try to assuage vaccine hesitancy with government-led campaigns, academic studies and updated online science, one fire chief in La Plata County has found a proven method that’s as simple as knowing your neighbors.

Brand new research indicates people who go to bed early and wake up early are at lower risk for depression, compared to those who stay up late and get fewer hours of sleep.

A little more than a year after federal funding became available for gun injury research, scientists and advocates say they've seen flood of interest. The recipients of this new federal funding say their research will be critical start to understanding gun violence and injuries in the U.S.

As the delta variant continues to spread throughout the country, the World Health Organization is asking vaccinated people to still wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19.

So many Coloradans died of COVID-19 and related causes, including drug overdoses, that life expectancy statistics fell dramatically this past year. 

FDA advisors told the agency to wait on more data before approving an investigational immunotherapy for squamous carcinoma of the anal canal (SCAC), largely due to questions over the drug's activity.

Air quality across the area Wednesday morning wavered from warning level orange to unhealthy level red due to wildfire smoke, particularly from the Muddy Slide Fire in South Routt County. Because of this, health officials have advised local residents to pay attention and gauge their personal health conditions and tolerances to air pollution.

Long-term treatment with dupilumab helped patients with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma wean their oral corticosteroid use and also reduced exacerbations and improved lung function.

A consistent finding of researchers studying the news media is that women are quoted much less often than men. The Gender Gap Tracker (GGT), an automated system created by a team at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, has tracked seven Canadian news sites since October 2018 and found that 71% of interviewees quoted in articles were men (F. T. Asr et al. PLoS ONE 16, e0245533; 2021).

A new federally funded $3.2 billion program is helping support the development of an antiviral pill to help treat COVID-19.

A possible link between some COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation bears close monitoring, but it’s no reason for parents or their teenage children to avoid vaccination.

It was March 6, 2021. Bryan Raymond lay in an ICU at UCHealth in Aurora, sustained by two forms of life support. A surgeon walked into the room and delivered good news: the donor’s lungs looked good. The transplant was on.

Sotagliflozin increased the number of days alive and out of the hospital compared with placebo among patients with type 2 diabetes at high risk for intermittent hospitalization due to worsening heart failure, data show.

 In a finding that confirms what many suspect, a new study shows that teens who are overweight or obese may be more likely to develop type 2 diabetes or have a heart attack in their 30s and 40s.

Amid scorching temperatures, doctors are cautioning anyone taking certain medications to take extra steps to keep cool.

A possible link between some COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation bears close monitoring, but it's no reason for parents or their teenage children to avoid vaccination.

Researchers believe mRNA technology, which was used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, could permanently change the way vaccines are developed. 

I’m not usually a fan of lotteries — they’re a tax on people who are bad at math, my math teacher once joked. But unlike a lottery, which requires buying a ticket, entry into the COVID-19 vaccination sweepstakes is automatic and free for everyone who gets the vaccine.

Twelve-year-old Kate Hartman, of Denver, experienced anxiety even before she started Kindergarten. It escalated in third grade when she said she was bullied by classmates. 

Two recent collaborative publications by CU Cancer Center members provide insights into how chronic inflammation can serve as a key factor in the development of leukemia and other blood cancers.

For many, spending holidays with family is something special. For one Nevada family, this Father’s Day marks a big milestone.

As more Coloradans remove their masks and begin socializing again, there is another aspect of pre-pandemic life that is remerging: common colds.

By kindergarten, Kayla Northam's body had become a battleground. She and her mother fought daily over what she should eat and how much.

The US FDA has expanded emergency use authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 12 through 15. Pediatric neurologists said the vaccines should be safe for most children with neurologic disorders, but they would adjust the timing of certain therapies and vaccination schedules for younger children with autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis.

Since the pandemic, some Denver-area juvenile courts are seeing fewer kids in courtrooms, but a troubling new trend has risen instead — the courts are seeing more kids charged with violent crimes like aggravated assault or robbery. They’re also seeing spikes in domestic violence among youth, and gang activity.

A Colorado Springs family is sharing their story of resilience after life-changing surgery.

The University of Colorado's board of regents Thursday voted down a resolution that would have made COVID-19 vaccinations optional on campuses. 

Personal protective equipment like gloves and gowns were in short supply at Dr. Sriram Damaraju's hospital in Hyderabad, India. He said they were beginning to resterilize and reuse gloves when a shipment arrived from his cousin who is a doctor at UCHealth.

 With a second, consecutive 100-degree day, medical experts caution against consuming too much booze.

A Highlands Ranch forty-year-old mother of four was diagnosed with stage four cancer 10 months ago. The problem was, at the time, doctors did not know where exactly the cancer was in her body.

The annual U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals rankings, now in their 15th year, offer guidance to parents seeking the best place for their very sick child. The top 50 medical centers are ranked in 10 specialties, including pediatric cancer, pediatric cardiology & heart surgery and pediatric orthopedics.

A morning cup of coffee can be just the thing to shake off your sleepiness and give you the energy to take on the day. But it turns out that your daily java ritual might be doing more for you than helping you wake up. 

Dietary information from three large, well-known heart disease studies suggests drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee may reduce heart failure risk, according to research published today in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal.

Outside, the horns were blaring, and drums were pounding out a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field for the international CONCACAF Nations League tournament.

AstraZeneca Plc’s antibody cocktail was only 33% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in people who had been exposed to the virus, failing a study that was key to the drugmaker’s pandemic push.

 There’s new research out highlighting Coloradans’ comfort levels when it comes to friends and colleagues who are vaccinated and those who are not.

I hope the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on obese individuals will help spur more research on the interaction between metabolic syndrome and pulmonary disease, said Fernando Holguin, MD, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

It’s an issue many Coloradans are currently facing and it’s called ‘Coronasomnia’. According to local experts, it’s messing with people’s sleep patterns in dangerous ways.

Despite the decrease in demand for COVID-19 vaccines, community organizations continue to effort to get more vaccines into arms. Throughout the pandemic, Adelante Community Development has worked to share COVID-19 related resources and information with the Hispanic and Latino community. 

With scorching temperatures across the Front Range this week, doctors are cautioning anyone taking certain medications to take extra steps to keep cool.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention will hold an emergency meeting this week to discuss recent data showing higher than usual rates of heart inflammation after people received their COVID-19 vaccine.

The testing site at the Boulder County Fairgrounds shut down on June 9. St. Vrain Valley Schools Innovation Center will end operations on June 18 and Stazio Ballfields will close on September 30.

Delaying school start times by slightly more than an hour led to fewer instances of teenagers driving while drowsy and fewer motor vehicle accidents involving younger drivers, researchers reported at SLEEP.

Ask most mental health professionals about the gender mix of their patients with depression and they're likely to report that most are women — who are almost twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with the condition, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

Corrections officers were among the second group to get early access to coronavirus vaccines late last year. Sgt. Eric Olsen jumped at the opportunity.

It’s a question on the minds of many Colorado parents: if my kid is approved for the COVID-19 vaccine, can they also receive other vaccinations at the same time?

There are only three Covid-19 patients at Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at North Shore University Hospital, on Long Island, New York — a far cry from when the hospital, which is part of Northwell Health, had as many as 600 patients during the peak of the pandemic.

Implementing rapid respiratory virus testing for children in an emergency department (ED) did not reduce the high rate of antibiotic prescribing for “influenza-like" illness (ILI), despite that reduction hypothesized by study investigators.

It's the first FDA-approved drug for Alzheimer's in nearly 20 years. "Usually FDA-approved drugs are covered by insurance and Medicare and Medicaid," said Dr. Huntington Potter, the director of the University of Colorado Alzheimer's and Cognition Center. 

 A doctor at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital is now using virtual reality to help cancer patients see their tumors in 3D form.

A COVID-19 vaccine for children 11-years-old or younger has yet to be approved, but vaccine trials have begun at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Fewer than 2% of Colorado’s coronavirus cases since mid-January have occurred in people who are fully immunized against the virus — another sign the vaccines are offering strong protection against COVID-19 in the state.

Colorado’s COVID-19 pandemic has nearly winked out of existence, according to data from the state health department.

It’s okay to admit it— if you are still working from home, then you’re likely showering less than you used to, in the Before Times. And while in the past you may have selected freshly washed clothes to meet up with a friend post-workout, these days, you might be grabbing clothes from the dirty pile for your at-home HIIT to reduce laundry days. Easily done.

When it comes to oxygen, the Front Range sometimes has too much of a good thing. On many sunny, summer days the region has not only O2 in the air but also O3 – oxygen with an extra atom that transforms it into a corrosive gas — ozone.

Carey Candrian is a Colorado-based social scientist who has spent much of her career investigating how healthcare can be compromised if an open discussion with patients is avoided.

An international soccer tournament at Empower Field sold out to about 35,000 fans Sunday, which marks the first large capacity event since the pandemic began.

In recognition of May’s Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, HCPLive® invited pediatric pulmonologist Jordana Hoppe, MD, of Children’s Hospital Colorado, on the Rare Disease Report to discuss in depth the condition’s cause and physiology, prevalence, and impact on individuals.

A new report takes a close look at seven teen boys who developed myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination, each of whom had similar symptoms, timing and outcomes.

As a pediatric infectious disease specialist, Dr. Amy Edwards has fielded a lot of questions from worried parents during the pandemic. As case numbers drop -- among children, Covid-19 cases have fallen to levels not seen since October -- the question she's getting is: Do younger children really need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 when a shot becomes available?

Researchers believe mRNA technology, which was used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, could permanently change the way vaccines are developed. 

Todd Saliman, the University of Colorado’s chief financial officer, was named interim president of the four-campus, multibillion-dollar CU system Tuesday ahead of the looming departure of President Mark Kennedy.

This may be music to your sleep-deprived ears: new research convincingly shows that, for most people, enjoying coffee on a regular basis may actually be good for your heart.

A novel, non-culture-based assay called the ribosomal RNA synthesis (RS) ratio provides a molecular metric to assess the effects of candidate tuberculosis (TB) drugs, potentially accelerating the development of treatments that can cure TB faster, researchers say.

After a year of mask wearing and social distancing, some may be hesitant about easing their COVID-19 prevention measures, even after being fully vaccinated.

Jodi wanted to know if she has "extra immunity" for getting the vaccine, since she already had COVID. We asked UCHealth's Dr. Michelle Barron.

When Marisha Burden, MD, division head of hospital medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in Aurora, Colorado, would go to medical conferences, it seemed as if very few women were giving talks. Could she be wrong? she wondered.

Another community was in shock and grieving on May 26, after a shooting at a railyard in San Jose, California left at least nine dead, including the suspect.

Primary care practitioners need increased education and recommendations for early-onset colorectal cancer screening practices, according to a presentation at Digestive Disease Week.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) places the US prevalence of cystic fibrosis, or CF, at roughly 35,000.

You may be familiar with the TV show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” Colorado has launched its own version, and all residents who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are eligible to win. 

As Colorado’s COVID vaccination rate increases, many people are wondering if they will need a booster, and when. The focus right now is getting more people vaccinated in this round. At least 43% of Coloradans are fully vaccinated, and 53% have received at least one dose. On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci testified during a Senate hearing. Fauci says months of research has led him to believe boosters will be needed.

A young mother was faced with a life-threatening pregnancy complication. She had a severe condition that could cause her to hemorrhage. She credits a team of specialists at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital with saving her life.

Two years ago, somebody called the police on a young Black man named Elijah McClain, who was walking down the street in Aurora, Colo. Police tackled and handcuffed McClain, and then paramedics gave him a sedative. He went into cardiac arrest and later died. Now a lawmaker in Denver wants to rein in the use of involuntary sedation. Here's Michael de Yoanna from member station KUNC.

Now that we're more than a year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, chances are you know at least one person who has had the viral infection. Maybe you've even had it yourself. And while an estimated one-third of those who get COVID never experience symptoms, that leaves a lot of people who have to deal with—and recover from—cases ranging from mild to severe. 

Colorado children are attempting suicide and arriving in emergency rooms in psychiatric crisis at levels never seen in this state, while abuse of alcohol and drugs to cope with mental health struggles is also on the rise.

Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds. In a clinical trial of the vaccine in adolescents, there were no cases of symptomatic Covid-19 among fully vaccinated teens, the company reported in a news release.

Should you take antibiotics for a simple respiratory infection? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that health care personnel prescribe antibiotics sparingly, for many reasons. First, the overuse of the drugs leads to the development of resistant strains of bacteria, a growing problem that is reducing the effectiveness of all antibiotics. The drugs can also have serious side effects, ranging from mild rashes or diarrhea to less common and severe allergic reactions.

When state lawmakers passed the Colorado Building Families Act, it was supposed to force all insurance companies to cover costly infertility treatment starting next year, but a new federal ruling will leave thousands of Colorado families without the coverage they were promised.

A year ago, as Black Lives Matter supporters rallied outside Colorado’s Capitol building, lawmakers passed a sweeping police accountability law. It bans officers from using deadly force on suspects of minor crimes. It bans chokeholds. Now, a group of lawmakers wants to rein in paramedics’ use of drugs to sedate people in the presence of police.

The history between Mexico and the United States stretches back centuries, and the current challenges of immigration on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border is a hot topic for both countries.

Treatment with Regeneron’s two-drug antibody cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab was associated with a roughly 70% reduction in the risk for hospitalization or death among outpatients with Covid-19 at increased risk for developing severe disease.

 Health experts have expressed concerns over using opioids to treat symptoms in COVID-19 long-haulers.

Across the country, life is returning to normal. People are gathering again without masks, local coronavirus restrictions are dropping and travel is on the rise.

Researchers at Rice University and the University of Colorado School of Medicine have designed and tested modified E. coli bacteria that can detect signs of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in mice.

The Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the issue of safely storing firearms on Tuesday.

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced behavioral health providers to stop seeing patients in person and instead hold therapy sessions remotely, the switch produced an unintended, positive consequence: Fewer patients skipped appointments.

During the pandemic, the need for mental health resources increased as millions of people faced different levels of uncertainty, children included.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently lowered its recommended age to begin screening for colon cancer from 50 to 45. It’s the third most common cancer in America, and in Colorado, there are an estimated 2,100 new cases each year.

“It’s funny you’re calling me for this interview late on a Monday night, after a long day at work, because I’m feeling some brain fog and mental exhaustion myself at the moment,” says Scott Kaiser, MD, the director of cognitive health at the Brain Health Center at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California.

As COVID-19 cases slowly start to drop in India, the deaths continue to impact families in Colorado during what some doctors are calling the world's worst outbreak.  

They have been suffering and fighting COVID-19 for more than fifteen months, one of the harshest pandemics that human beings have suffered. But not the only one.

Chances are good that you've had heartburn, aka acid reflux, at one point or another in your life. Maybe it was a pregnancy symptom or just a particular bowl of spicy chili that didn't agree with you, but many of us have firsthand experience.

Dr. Michelle Barron with UCHealth says there's no definite answer, but it probably has a lot to do with COVID infection rates staying low.

As Colorado begins to administer the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to children aged 12 to 15 following an expanded emergency-use authorization from the federal government last week, state officials are emphasizing that while COVID-19 has hit older Americans hardest, the risks to children are real.

The Children’s Diabetes Foundation is holding its annual EPIC Conference with a focus on connectivity. EPIC stands for Empowering Patients for Individualized Care, and the conference is designed to be an open conversation between experts in the field of diabetes, and people living with the disease and their caregivers.

The researchers analyzed COVID-19 data from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford between May 10, 2020, when the hospital started testing all inpatients for COVID-19, and February 10, 2021.

Three Denver siblings are the first children in Colorado to join the clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax. The company is expanding its final step of the research to include children, ages 12 to 17.

A presenter at the American Thoracic Society International Conference provided an update on the latest clinical evidence from phase 3 studies of tezepelumab in a broad population of patients with severe asthma.

Pulmonary rehab can improve the quality of life for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but as many as 40% of U.S. seniors with COPD lack access to these programs, largely because there are none nearby.

“As both doctors and fathers, we’re encouraging parents to get their
children ages 12 to 15 vaccinated as soon as possible. Doing so will
not only protect more children and teens from COVID-19, but will also
mean more freedom for them to be with friends, get back to school
and participate in other activities that are important to their
development and overall well-being.”

If you're one of the 39 million people in the United States who experience migraines, you know how much agony they can bring to your day. One moment you're totally fine, and the next you're on your back in a dark room begging your brain to stop thundering against your eye sockets.

There are likely to be multiple mechanisms accounting for the relationship between these 2 conditions, said Fernando Holguin, MD, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Holguin discussed these topics at this year's American Thoracic Society (ATS) meeting.

Nigel Richardson received quite a surprise on Monday. The UCHealth heart transplant recipient received a check for $110,000 from the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation.

A year after the pandemic canceled their honeymoon, a Denver couple hoped to finally celebrate with a trip to the Seychelles and South Africa. They got to enjoy about half of it before being ordered into isolation because of COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week said fully vaccinated people can now ditch the masks in most settings and can stop socially distancing, hoping that incentivizing people with less restrictions will create an uptick in vaccinations, which have seen a decrease over the past month.

Fretting over a fever in her toddler that wouldn’t break, the mother took the young girl, Letícia, to a hospital. Doctors had worrisome news: It was Covid-19.

After a nudge from federal health officials, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday dropped the remaining mask requirements in the state, even as COVID-19 case numbers here remain among the highest in the nation.

Colorado waited Thursday night as Gov. Jared Polis worked out the details of his plan to eliminate the mask mandate for people who are fully vaccinated. The governor’s office confirmed with CBS4’s Shaun Boyd that the change was coming. It follows CDC recommendations to peel back the mandate with exceptions for health care and public transportation settings as well as close congregate settings like prisons. People with compromised immune systems may want to check with their doctors says the CDC.

The rare blood clotting problem linked to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine presents a unique challenge for doctors: Common blood-thinning medication makes it worse.

I recently got a question from a viewer about COVID-19 vaccine dosing. She asked me why a 103-pound woman gets the same dose of vaccine as a 300-pound man. Also, with the Pfizer COVID vaccine now approved for children 12 and older in the United States, parents perhaps might have the same question. I spoke with Dr. Michelle Barron, the senior medical director of infection prevention at UCHealth, to get the answer.

When the Social Justice Club at Aurora’s Rangeview High School held a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for fellow students earlier this month, half of the 422 people who lined up for shots were teenagers taking advantage of their new eligibility and hoping to get back a portion of their normal lives.

Some children are now able to get vaccinated in Colorado since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously voted to recommend the Pfizer for children ages 12-15. The Federal Drug Administration approved the use of this vaccine for children 12-15 after data indicated the Pfizer vaccine is 100 percent effective for this age group.

Now that both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have green-lighted Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in kids ages 12 to 15, pediatricians will soon find themselves on the front lines of the country's vaccination efforts, playing an essential role in communicating to parents the safety and importance of getting their kids the shot.

Though they’re called resuscitated sudden cardiac arrests, many such events do not, in fact, have an underlying cardiac cause, which has implications for both patient care and clinical research, investigators have found.

“We all hate coronavirus. That’s our common enemy,” Emily Bates,
an associate professor at the University of Colorado’s School of
Medicine, said at the town hall hosted jointly by the Gazette and
9News. “We are on the same team, as humans. We want to be done
with this pandemic, we want to lose the masks, and each of us can
make a difference on whether or not that happens.”

Dr. Gaby Frank was in Argentina in December 2019 when she first got reports about a new respiratory infection in China.

Now that the Pfizer vaccine will be available for children 12 and older, it’s decision time for parents. Michelle Garcia of Castle Pines is weighing the options for her son. Garcia is a nurse who has worked in the COVID ICU for the past 14 months.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an emergency use authorization to administer Pfizer’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15.

On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will likely approve the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization for children ages 12-15 to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. As this moves forward, naturally, parents have questions about how the vaccines will work.

Looking to safely block a gene linked to factors known to cause heart disease, scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus may have found a new tool - light.

There’s a growing trend among women in their 20s and 30s in Colorado who are looking to get preventive Botox.

With vaccinations on the rise in the U.S., people who’ve been cooped up for more than a year are ready to scratch that travel itch.

Most children with type 1 diabetes who test positive for COVID-19 do not require hospitalization, although most hospitalized children had diabetic ketoacidosis at admission, according to study findings.

The race is on to vaccinate the nation’s nearly 17 million 12- to 15-year-olds against Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration’s decision on Monday to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for younger adolescents presents a new opportunity in the push for broad immunity against the coronavirus in the United States. But the challenges of getting them vaccinated are more complicated than for adults and older teenagers.

University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy has begun discussions about leaving his post as leader of the four-campus system, he announced Monday, two weeks after Boulder faculty voted to censure him over his handling of diversity issues.

University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy is leaving after just two years on the job. Kennedy and the university's Board of Regents announced that they were entering into discussions "regarding an orderly transition of the presidency in the coming months."

A student-designed autonomous robot to deliver meals to hospital rooms won the Hospital Room of the Future challenge in the St. Vrain Valley School District Friday last week.

While the United States already has three approved COVID-19 vaccines, UCHealth and CU Anschutz are wrapping up Phase 3 of their trial for a fourth one.

Dr. Thomas Campbell, a University of Colorado School of Medicine and UCHealth virologist and infectious-disease specialist, spoke with Denver7 about the future of booster shots and their efficacy with COVID-19 variants

On Monday, the FDA granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to children ages 12 and up.

Colorado Democrats were unanimous in mission last week: They had to take action after the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting in March, and three new guns bills were the result.

A baby born with some of her organs protruding from her body is now home with her parents in Frederick. Isabella Rhea Beach spent her first month of life in Children’s Hospital Colorado where she had five surgeries to repair the rare birth defect.

The world may have undercounted Covid-19 deaths by a staggering margin, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The actual count may actually be 6.9 million deaths, more than double official tolls.

The more he saw and heard about the ongoing carnage COVID-19 was unleashing in India, the more upset Dr. Saketh Guntupalli became.

A new coronavirus variant has been identified in five people in Mesa County, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced Thursday.

Denver Public Schools leaders announced plans for a return to full in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year. While a remote option will also be available, the district is hoping most students, especially young learners, will have an experience similar to pre-pandemic schooling.

Dr. Saketh Guntupalli watched horrific images of India's COVID-19 crisis on TV, and he heard from his family in the health care industry battling it on the ground.

After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in COVID-19 hospital wards.

Thursday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said while more people are being vaccinated in Colorado, the demand for shots has decreased. 

Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at
UCHealth [and CU School of Medicine], said right now only half of
Colorado residents have been either vaccinated with one dose or both
doses of a COVID vaccine. “We are starting to see for the first time
there are more slots available than people demanding the vaccine,”
Holguin said.

Modeling of COVID-19 cases shows a strong potential of a big drop coming, especially in places with higher vaccination rates. States like Colorado, which are doing better than many others have a greater chance for a drop.

 What will the upcoming school year look like? It’s a question parents across the world have and on Thursday, leaders from Denver Public Schools did what they could to answer it.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the kind of health catastrophe that Dr. Michelle Barron has spent decades preparing for. It's "not something you hope for, but you always think about and plan for, and obviously your training goes into motion," she said.

The long-term effects of COVID-19 are still not clear, and recent research indicates that many patients could face neurological or psychiatric issues down the line.

After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in COVID-19 hospital wards. It’s both a sign of the country’s success in protecting the elderly through vaccination and an urgent reminder that younger generations will pay a heavy price if the outbreak is allowed to simmer in communities across the country.

Children make up more than a quarter of new COVID-19 cases in Colorado, bolstered by the spread of more-contagious variants and in-person school activities.

Morgan Wolfe woke the morning of April 12 to a headache pounding harder than any she had ever experienced. The room spun. She could hardly get out of bed.

For Sunita Sharma, MD, COVID-19 started out simple. In September, a week after working in an intensive care unit, the pulmonologist developed muscle aches and a low-grade fever for a couple of days.

The state health department confirmed the first known case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant, known as P.1, in El Paso County last week.

 The FDA is expected to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old sometime early next week. In Colorado, the logistical details are still being worked out, but in the past, once it is approved, it is almost immediately available.

These are heady times for parents in Colorado who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. A summer of possibility sprawls out ahead: travel, visits with family, ballgames with friends.

Nearly one in a half-million was Morgan Wolfe’s chances of developing blood clots after receiving the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

A patient at the University of Colorado Hospital has been successfully treated with an alternative thinner for a blood clot related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

UCHealth has a way to treat patients if they develop blood clots after getting the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Doctors recently published a case study of a Colorado woman who was successfully treated for the rare, but serious vaccine side effect.

 Governor Polis loosened mask restrictions this weekend. While guidance for outdoor activities are clear – you don’t need them – when to wear masks indoors is raising some questions about enforcement and the safety of unmasking.

 Pennsylvania is moving towards its goal of vaccinating 80% of the population against COVID-19 with first doses administered to 50.3% of the population, according to the CDC.

The number of children contracting COVID-19 in the U.S. is much lower than the record highs set at the start of the new year, but children now account for more than a fifth of new coronavirus cases in states that release data by age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's a statistic that may surprise many: Just one year ago, child COVID-19 cases made up only around 3% of the U.S. total.

When Pauline Cruz’s son and daughter started school, they were missing class on a regular basis because their asthma symptoms put them in the emergency room.

Christian Hopfer, a psychiatry professor at the University of Colorado
and the medical director of a UCHealth imprint that focuses on
addiction, said the death toll was the worst he’s seen in his
career. “I’ve been doing it for 30 years,” he said. “I mean, the crack
epidemic was pretty bad, but there wasn’t as many deaths due to
overdose.”

One of the state’s top infectious disease experts is sharing her personal experience of heartache due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention at UCHealth, is not only armed with the knowledge to battle the virus, she is also filled with an experience that allows her to understand the emotional pain.

In early March of 2020, my husband and I watched our baby, no bigger than a sweet potato, kick and roll on the ultrasound monitor. I was 19 weeks pregnant, and seeing our first child’s toes, her spine, even the four chambers of her heart was miraculous. “You’re entering your second trimester,” my doctor told me. “Enjoy this special time!” I felt like nothing could shake my joy. COVID-19 changed everything.

Severely ill COVID-19 patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) had similar survival to hospital discharge and long-term outcomes as survivors treated with mechanical ventilation alone, results of a new, multicenter study suggest.

A recent study presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery 101st Annual Meeting has found that COVID-19 patients who were treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) showed similar outcomes as others who were treated with mechanical-ventilation.

Taira Foster is a registered nurse who loves traveling with her husband. If you met her you would have no idea that she donated two organs but she would probably be quick to tell you about it.

 National Donate Life Month is wrapping up and one special recipient is sharing his story to help raise awareness. Three days after Stockton was born in Montrose, he was flown to Children’s Hospital Colorado where he spent three weeks in the NICU due to kidney and bladder issues. Health officials determined his kidneys were small and atypically formed as a result of a blockage at his bladder outlet. He was discharged home but due to declining kidney function needed to start peritoneal dialysis at several months of age. Eventually, Stockton would need a new kidney.

A man with stage 4 brain cancer is beating the odds. Bruce Stahlman has extended his life expectancy with a treatment at UCHealth: a portable, painless device.

Finding out you have COVID-19 would be a nightmare for anyone. Cindy Schulz of Denver faced that nightmare twice. And her second fight with the disease put her in the hospital.

Angie McKaig calls it “peri brain” out loud, in meetings. That’s when the 49-year-old has moments of perimenopause-related brain fog so intense that she will forget the point she is trying to make in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it will happen when she’s presenting to her colleagues in digital marketing at Canada’s largest bank in Toronto. But it can happen anywhere — she has forgotten her own address. Twice.

 India’s record-setting coronavirus surge is impacting families in Colorado who are trying to help their loved ones overseas.

When Kristen Smith’s then 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in March 2018, as heartbroken as she felt, Smith was not overwhelmed or afraid. That’s because she already had a son diagnosed with ASD a few years prior.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is easing restrictions on one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction. That medication is buprenorphine, and the change makes it so healthcare professionals don’t have to get extra training to offer the medication to as many as 30 patients with opioid addiction.

As members of BIPOC communities still face barriers to getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado, pop-up clinics and other efforts have sought to promote equality in the vaccine distribution process. One ongoing clinic in Aurora has been particularly effective in reaching these communities — having provided around 2,000 shots in two months. Notably, this project isn’t run by the government or a medical facility. It’s managed completely by a local couple and their friends.

Colorado’s major public universities will require their students, faculty and staff receive COVID-19 vaccinations before beginning the fall semester.

One of the worst possible nightmare scenarios for any parent – or any pediatrician, for that matter – is when a perfectly healthy baby dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Most parents know that babies should sleep “back to sleep,” or according to the “ABCs of Safe Sleep” (alone, (on their) back, (in the) crib), but we know that knowledge often doesn’t equate with actual practice.

Kate Redmond interviews two COVID 'long haulers' about coronavirus symptoms that they have had for months. She also speaks with Dr. Bill Cornwell of UCHealth in Aurora on the medical phenomena of patients who are not getting better long after their covid diagnosis.

Many of us can pinpoint the moment when we realized COVID-19 was going to change life as we knew it. For competitive dancer Ricci-Lee Hotz, that moment happened in a ballroom in Missouri in March of 2020.

On this day when we may learn that mask requirements are loosening across the United States as more and more people are vaccinated, we should recall that COVID still is spread widely. About 40,000 people are in the hospital in this country for COVID, and it's hitting young and middle age adults the hardest. Will Stone reports.

When Gary Springs and his wife, Sharon, were diagnosed with COVID, they did not feel well and did not know what to expect. But in December, the 81-year-old Lakewood man became the first patient at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital to receive monoclonal antibody treatment.

A new antibody treatment that was once administered to former President Donald Trump is now widely available to people coming down with COVID-19. However, there are requirements: a patient must be 65 and up, or someone with chronic medical conditions.

 Research shows that newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients have the best results if they have access to monoclonal antibody treatment immediately to prevent severe illness and hospitalization, according to UCHealth.

Loss of MAP3K7 protein expression, seen in approximately 40% of prostate cancer patients, is a major driver of prostate tumor aggressiveness and should be considered for inclusion in management algorithms, researchers say.

Somewhere in Peter Maercklein’s heartbeat was an abnormality no one could find. He survived a stroke 15 years ago, but doctors never saw anything alarming on follow-up electrocardiograms. Then, one day last fall, an artificial intelligence algorithm read his EKGs and spotted something else: a ripple in the calm that indicated an elevated risk of atrial fibrillation.

 Learning you have cancer is shocking and going through treatment is scary. At UCHealth, a team developed technology that allows patients to watch a favorite movie or show during radiation treatments.

A majority of unexpected deaths among young babies still involve soft bedding, despite decades of safe-sleep messaging targeting new parents, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

A lot of people are getting vaccinated in Colorado now that anyone 16 and up is eligible. And, a lot of people have questions about their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna shot.

Coloradans wanting the COVID-19 vaccine can now self-schedule an appointment with UC Health. Appointments are available to those 18 and older. Those eligible to receive the vaccine can schedule an appointment time through the UCHealth website, and choose a preferred location.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said five million Americans have missed an appointment for their second COVID-19 vaccine dose – which is about 8% of people who got their first shot. 

Last week, Aurora City Council member Juan Marcano posted a message on Twitter that just a few weeks ago would have caused an online stampede among hoards of Coloradans desperately seeking a coronavirus vaccine.

Colorado is set to put the Janssen vaccine, also known as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, back into use after an advisory committee recommended to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration that it be re-authorized for use with label warning of the potential of blood clots. The clots, though rare among the over seven million doses of the Janssen vaccine given, have impacted 15 women, 13 of whom have been under the age of 50.

Bryan Raymond tested positive for the coronavirus in December 2020, and walked out of a Denver hospital with a newly transplanted pair of lungs in March 2021.

Three out of every five Coloradans hospitalized for COVID-19 since mid-March were younger than 60, with the vaccine protecting seniors and essentially flipping what the state’s hospitals saw during the virus’s deadly fall surge.

If your morning routine involves tossing down a handful of dietary supplements in vague hopes of boosting your energy or warding off illness this week or disease down the line, you might want to dial back and rethink your approach—especially if you’re of the mindset that you don’t need to discuss your supplements regimen with your doctor.

As younger Coloradans consider whether they get vaccinated, a study at the University of Colorado Boulder shows the potential for asymptomatic people to spread disease. PhD Kristin Bjorkman, COVID scientific director at CU, helped lead a study looking at viral load and its role in the spread of COVID-19.

State health officials say providers can resume use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted a ten-day pause on the vaccine as they investigated rare but severe blood clots in people who had taken the shot.

A group of volunteers waved signs telling people about a walk-up vaccine clinic on Friday afternoon. They stood outside the Park Church at 37^th Avenue and Federal Boulevard. Drivers were encouraged to stop in for their instant COVID vaccine.  

In 2018, 69% of Coloradans said “Yes” to organ donation on their drivers’ license. That makes Colorado number one in the nation for highest donor designation, but there are also people here willing to become living donors.

Federal health officials are leaning toward lifting their recommended pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine after finding only a limited number of additional cases of a rare blood clotting disorder among recipients.

Study of a promising COVID-19 vaccine by Novavax is continuing in the U.S. and Mexico. Now, clinical trial participants, including me, are rolling up our sleeves for a third shot and then, three weeks later, a fourth.

Now that all states have expanded eligibility for Covid-19 vaccines to anyone ages 16 and up, older teenagers are lining up for the shots — often with the help of high schools.

Were the strokes that killed US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick after the January 6 insurrection really natural? Some neurologists don't think so.

Last summer, the pandemic saw many families hunkered down at home and avoiding gathering with anyone outside their household. This summer, COVID-19 vaccines will allow more freedom, but with that comes some confusion about how to navigate plans when some family members are fully vaccinated and others are not.  

For elite sportsmen and women across the world the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed huge challenges as they have had to forego competition and strive to keep themselves mentally and physically prepared for the day when their events are restored.

After more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to get bogged down with anxiety. We are consumed by thoughts that because a virus and its treatment is novel, it’s like nothing humans have ever experienced before.

"These findings suggest the digitally derived clock may have greater generalizability than many other traditional neuropsychological measures," the investigators write.

Changing middle and high school schedules can lead to significantly improved shut-eye for students, a new study found.

Tristen Sweeten, a 34-year-old nurse in Utah, hopes her three children will receive Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine through its pediatric clinical trial. The sooner the better, she said, for their safety and the greater goal of ending the pandemic.

Recent research from the University of Colorado says the medical workforce is facing a crisis-level shortage in primary care doctors. The problem is particularly pronounced in rural areas, which have a difficult time recruiting and retaining doctors to practice.

Osteoarthritis affects the joints, but according to researcher Michael Zuscik, PhD, it may start in the gut.

Peer mentorship is a critical and more accessible option for professional and personal growth than traditional mentor-mentee relationships, according to a new paper from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Colorado was near the top when it came to testing its prison inmates for COVID-19, but it’s not clear that helped reduce deaths behind bars.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) reinforced a message we've heard a bunch during the pandemic: the importance of getting tested for COVID-19. 

Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla told CBNC’s Bertha Coombs Thursday that people will “likely” need to get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccination within 12 months of being fully vaccinated.

UCHealth is already planning for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, after the CEO of Pfizer announced they’ll likely be needed within 12 months of being fully vaccinated.

Every day more and more Coloradans receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The state also continues to lift coronavirus-related restrictions. But the path to normalcy still appears like it will be bumpy and filled with uncertainty.

On December 14, nine months after the pandemic forced the nation into quarantine, an intensive care nurse named Sandra Lindsay made history. Lindsay, the director of critical care nursing at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, became the first person in the United States to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial.

The safety and efficacy of elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ELX/TEZ/IVA) for the treatment of cystic fibrosis with at least one F508del-CFTR allele in children aged 6 to 11 years are consistent with the results reported for this combination in adolescents and adults, according to a study published online March 18 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Most cities experienced significant increases in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that paralleled spikes in local COVID-19 prevalence, researchers reported.

When the pandemic hit, many Americans turned to vitamins and supplements in hopes of boosting their immune systems. Scientists also raced to study them. Vitamin D, perhaps more than any other, captured the attention of researchers.

For National Jewish Health’s part, joining in this double-blind, placebocontrolled study meant addressing a major need of Covid-19. “There
aren’t really therapeutic options for patients with Covid-19,” said
Michael Wechsler, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health [and
professor of medicine at CU School of Medicine] who is involved with
the study.

The NFL has instructed teams to arrange vaccination days for their personnel, and the Broncos have set theirs up.

The pause in Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine could create more hesitancy among Americans who have not yet been vaccinated. Federal officials are reminding everyone that even while they review the J&J vaccine for six reports of a rare blood clot disorder, there are two safe and effective vaccines in wide distribution now.

“What if I’ve already gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? Should I be worried?” That’s what many Coloradans who have received the one-dose vaccine have been asking themselves since Tuesday morning, when the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a pause on the usage of the vaccine.

By the time Colorado resident Taira Foster turned 33, she’d already lived a lot of lives. The soft-spoken vegan was working as a massage therapist at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, Fla., after careers in nursing, Planned Parenthood and a four-year stint performing as the princess in a dinner theater production of “Arabian Nights.”

Alessandra Bullis’ clinic sits on the corner of Cripple Creek, a small town of around 1,200 people about an hour drive west of Colorado Springs. A nurse practitioner, Bullis has been serving patients here for almost three years. “It’s primarily a casino town with an older population,” Bullis said.

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the state government, the public was warned to stay home starting last March when cases of COVID started spreading in the U.S.

“Although our data are preliminary, we did not find statistical
differences in the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in people with
type 1 diabetes and the general population,” Liping Yu, an associate
research professor of pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for
Diabetes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and
colleagues wrote.

Delayed care for major health conditions in 2020 is leading specialists through the Denver metro area to worry that it could take more than a decade to recover from the emotional, financial and societal price.

It's National Licorice Day, but the traditional candy may be harmful to older Americans’ health. In September, doctors in Boston reported the case of a Massachusetts construction worker whose love of black licorice cost him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors said.

Low oxygen levels may be due to blood cell damage. Damage done by the coronavirus to the membranes of red blood cells that carry oxygen may explain why many COVID-19 patients have alarmingly low oxygen levels, according to new research.

Loss of smell, loss of taste, shortness of breath, and fatigue are the four most common symptoms that people reported 8 months after a mild case of COVID-19, according to a new study.

A week before she would have become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine, Madden Brewster agreed to forgo a shot for months to help scientists answer one of the most pressing questions of the pandemic: When can we all stop wearing our masks?

Flu season in Colorado and around the country has been nearly nonexistent this year. Doctors say the same steps taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have helped stop influenza from spreading.

Erin C. Cobry, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Barbara
Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado Anschutz
Medical Campus, and colleagues observed no significant differences
in hypoglycemia fear, diabetes-related stress and other self-reported
outcomes for trial participants using a t:slim X2 insulin pump with
Control-IQ technology (Tandem Diabetes Care) compared with
participants using their own insulin pump or a provided t:slim X2
insulin pump with predictive low-glucose suspend feature.

Holly Baier laid awake in bed, her mind spinning on just one of many long, dark pandemic nights. Her young music students had no instruments. Performances were no more. How would she teach them through a computer? Would her students, as young as 6, be able to log on? If she played them music, would they hear it? She’d never tried to play music through a computer before.

New research on the mental health effects of COVID-19 resonates with some Colorado survivors that battled severe cases of the disease. "I'm in that 30%," Clarence Troutman said.

As of the end of March 2021, more than 128 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus. In the United States alone, more than 30 million Americans have been infected. A majority of those people get better, but some are still recovering even months after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

As many focus on the race to get Coloradans vaccinated against COVID-19, doctors and scientists continue to work to improve treatments for those who contract the virus.

With more than 100 million people in the U.S. suffering from hypertension, the smartphone-based blood pressure monitor could help millions.

Oncologists may soon find another option in treating melanoma or other cancer types. A research team from the University of Colorado Cancer Center released study findings in the journal PNAS last month. They detailed their studies on NLRP3, an intracellular complex found to participate in melanoma-mediated inflammation that leads to tumor growth and progression.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said there is no cause for concern after 11 people suffered adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park site on Wednesday.

Could what’s going on inside a child’s stomach determine whether or not they develop autism? A new study finds a link between the gut microbiome and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. Colorado researchers reveal bacterial changes in the stomach predicted behavioral fluctuations among patients.

As millions of Americans continue to get vaccinated every day, the process of how we got here is nothing short of a big step in innovation in the eyes of health experts.

Some hospital systems in Colorado have been getting more calls from people looking for a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, even when they didn't receive the first dose from that hospital system.

Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) relaxed the county's mask order on Monday so that masks are no longer required in outdoor public spaces.

For more than a year, Dr. Marilyn Dougherty has donned goggles, a face shield and gloves to prepare for each new day as an ophthalmologist during the global coronavirus pandemic.

While the rest of the world was being told to stay home and delay medical care in the spring of 2020, Littleton-area resident Suzi McCumber was searching for a place to perform a recommended biopsy.

Data released by Pfizer and BioNTech suggests their COVID-19 vaccine is effective in children between the ages of 12 and 15.

New COVID-19 infections in Colorado rose for the second straight week and hospitalizations for the virus increased Monday, though it’s too early to know whether that’s the beginning of an upward trend that’s trailing the recent rise in cases.

 For many, the announcement that the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will have a capacity crowd was an eyebrow raising moment and a sign restrictions on public life could ease in the coming weeks.

Now that everyone in Colorado age 16 and older is eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine, appointments are as hard to get as courtside seats at the Nuggets.

A researcher at the University of Colorado Denver received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore the link between the gut microbiome and osteoarthritis.

Rosalinda Guzman was inside a bathroom stall at school when something begged for attention. It was on the door, where the school posts announcements. “That little tiny piece of paper was just so different from everything else that it really caught my eye,” said the 18-year-old student from Kersey who attends Windsor Charter Academy. 

Dr. Michelle Barron, an expert with UCHealth, says Colorado's in a race between vaccines and a fourth wave. Either way, a fourth wave will look different.

Researchers helping the COVID-19 vaccine become a reality as quickly as possible say that was their plan all along because it was essential to fighting this virus long after it had started a pandemic. They argue there are multiple factors unique to the response over the past year that allowed a safe and effective vaccine to arrive in less than a year.

There are more than a dozen passport initiatives underway, according
to The Washington Post, which creates an issue of coordination. “One
problem we may bump into pretty quick here is if there are competing
private sector initiatives and they have different levels of privacy
protection, different levels of accessibility, different levels of opt-out,”
said Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and
Humanities at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

More than a year after her initial COVID-19 symptoms appeared, Harper Powell is still fighting lingering effects that impact her daily life.

Rural hospitals have struggled with financial troubles for years. Over the past decade, more than 130 have closed, forcing residents to drive farther or delay needed care. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has many of them wondering whether rural health care systems will survive.

Earlier this week, new phase 2 data showed investigative therapy sotatercept was beneficial in improving pulmonary vascular resistance and six-minute walking test (6MWT) outcomes in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) at 24 weeks.

Last year, the Parkinson’s and scientific communities were surprised to learn that at least three people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had exhibited Parkinson’s-like symptoms after infection.

The pace of COVID-19 vaccinations is rapidly accelerating. At press time Friday, more than 56.1 million people — about 17 percent of the U.S. population — had been fully vaccinated. 

Easter egg hunts and family gatherings are Easter Sunday traditions for many people. This year, some families will finally be able to get together for the holiday after the CDC issued new guidance for group gatherings.

Over the past year, scientists and patients have found that COVID-19 symptoms can persist long after the virus itself has resolved. Those symptoms can include (but are not limited to) fatigue, muscle aches, shortness of breath and loss of sense of smell. Although wine lovers may be quick to raise a glass in these tough times, experts suggest making sure symptoms are at bay before incorporating moderate alcohol consumption into daily life.

For the first time in 550 days, fans will be welcomed back at Coors Field to cheer on the Rockies during Thursday’s home opener.

Sotatercept, a novel, first-in-class fusion protein therapy, significantly improved pulmonary-vascular, cardiovascular, and exercise-related outcomes in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) at 24 weeks, according to findings from the PULSAR trial.

As the medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Denver Health, Dr. Ivor Douglas knows better than most how devastating a toll COVID-19 has taken. “We’ve lost 400,000 people, which is as many Americans as were lost in the Second World War,” he says. (The number topped 520,000 in early March.) “And we’ve done it in a year.”

When the only doctor who could possibly cure her son wouldn’t return her messages, Amber Freed sent daily snack deliveries to his office. That earned her a call—but a brief one: Dr. Steven Gray, a Dallas physician who specializes in gene therapy, couldn’t talk long because he was on his way out the door to a conference in Atlanta.

Lung cancer is the deadliest form of the disease, though radiologists can help catch this concern with proper screening using low-dose CT. Only 46% of patients actually stick to their annual exam schedule, however, with a few factors proving predictive, experts detailed on Tuesday.

A primary care toolkit for brain health assessment and dementia diagnosis has gotten a much-needed update as more research points to the potential for better outcomes with earlier diagnoses, says the Gerontological Society of America.

Colorado researchers are recruiting study participants to test whether a locally-made BioSticker can spot COVID-19 infection before a person is contagious or symptomatic.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that people who are fully vaccinated are unlikely to transmit the coronavirus to others.

When a person has scoliosis, it means they have a curve in their spine. “If you are looking at someone [from the back], instead of their spine appearing totally straight, there is an S-shaped curvature to it,” says spine surgeon James Lin, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

 The only person in Colorado to receive a lung transplant due to COVID is now recovering at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

If you’ve been a reader of Sprudge for any reasonable amount of time, you’ve no doubt by now ready multiple articles about how coffee is potentially beneficial for some particular facet of your health. The stories generally go like this: “a study finds drinking coffee is associated with a X% decrease in [bad health outcome]” followed shortly by “the study is observational and does not prove causation.”

It has been shown that physicians with higher levels of cognitive workload have increased rates of burnout. This means that even a small drop in task load can cut the odds of physician burnout. By evaluating the effort and time demand required to complete tasks—and considering ways to decrease or distribute both—physician practices and health systems can cut cognitive workload and rates of doctor burnout.

She heard the screams first.

More than 458,000 people in Colorado have tested positive for COVID-19 and 25,351 have been hospitalized as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Bryan Raymond's journey started late last year.

Dr. Brian Stauffer, director of the cardiovascular disease core curriculum at the Anschutz Medical Campus will help oversee a study on the CU Boulder campus to determine whether the Moderna vaccine can prevent transmission of COVID-19. Courtesy Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado

As more adults across the country get vaccinated against COVID-19, researchers are turning their attention to studying the vaccine in children and teens. Trials are now underway in the U.S. in children as young as 6 months.

Kimberly Alderfer remembers the first time she entered a coronavirus patient’s room last spring, the fear she had that she too would end up hooked to a ventilator and struggling to breathe, just for being there. The patient was her age, after all.

Questions about the COVID 19 vaccine are answered by three experts. Featuring Dr. Ross M. Kedl, Professor of Immunology & Microbiology; Dr. Kweku Hazel, MD, BS, Surgical Fellow at the CU School of Medicine; and Dr. Rosemary Rochford, PhD, Professor at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Hosted by Sonia Gutierrez, a Journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS.

The best medical schools for primary care offer quality training in
preventive medicine and public health for those looking to become a
primary care physician or family doctor. This kind of physician’s job is
to diagnose and treat patients for various medical issues. Students will
gain skills in patient advocacy, motivational interviewing, how to form
doctor-patient relationships and other tools relevant to a physician.
University of Colorado School of Medicine ranks No. 6.

The best medical schools for research are one step ahead of the pack,
propelled by funding, cutting-edge technology and the research done
by students and faculty. These schools are prime for those who want
to make their mark in the medical field through discovery. University of
Colorado School of Medicine ranks No. 27.

Hospital employees who have worked through traumatic experiences in Colorado and elsewhere may be reliving past traumas after the mass shooting in Boulder.

More than 169 million Americans have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite high vaccination numbers, Colorado is one of 30 states reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases this week.

In many ways, Jennifer Ivan’s household has been preserved in time – April of 2020, to be exact. Her Fort Collins family of four is still isolating like it’s the first weeks of the pandemic lockdown. Ivan still has her groceries delivered. The self-described extrovert hardly leaves the house. Her family hasn’t gone to church or eaten in a restaurant for more than a year.

After disturbing incidents like terrorist attacks, riots, violence, and natural disasters, Children’s Hospital Colorado said feelings of panic and fear may increase.

Should you drink coffee? If so, how much? These seem like questions that a society able to create vaccines for a new respiratory virus within a year should have no trouble answering.

Dr. Erica Wymore of Children’s Hospital Colorado authored a study that found THC, the chemical that gets cannabis users high, can linger in breast milk for 6 weeks or more after a mother stops using the drug. The impact on newborns is still hard to study.

School District of Lancaster (SDoL) parents are complaining about what they call a last minute decision for secondary students to go virtual. To that, Superintendent Dr. Damaris Rau is apologizing.

Dr. Katherine Green, director of the Sleep Center at UCHealth, explains some of the science behind sleeping and offers advice on improving the quality of your rest.

As we get further into the vaccine rollout in Colorado, we started asking about doses that have gone unused throughout the process. 

“COVID sucks.” 

Colorado hospitals are working to keep up with the increased demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, as 2.5 million more Coloradans became eligible under group 1B.4 Friday.

Despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Latinx patients avoid or delay seeking medical care due to financial constraints, misinformation, and fears about immigration implications, according to a new report.

More than 20 percent of Americans now live in a state in which physician hastened death (PHD) is legal, but the practice remains controversial among physicians. That worries some neurologists because individuals with neurologic illness are, after people with cancer, the second largest group of patients to consider physician-aid-in-dying, according to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy organization that has summarized data from nine jurisdictions that issue reports about the practice.

It’s a symptom that has become synonymous with COVID-19: the loss of taste and smell. Studies show more than half of adult cases of COVID-19 involve a loss of these senses. And in some cases, adult patients haven't recovered these senses even after recovering from the virus.

Precision medicine that incorporates pharmacogenomics—matching medication to personal genetics—can improve an individual’s response to certain medications and help facilitate treatment.

Many COVID-19 survivors who suffer symptoms months after are reporting feeling better after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, The New York Times reports.

Picture it: You just got your COVID-19 vaccine—first dose, second dose, or only dose—and you're feeling motivated to keep the whole "being proactive about your health" ball rolling. So you change into your workout clothes to get in some exercise too. But should you really get your sweat on after the jab, or should you sit this one out?

Vaccination group 1B.4 will begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, expanding the potential pool of recipients by millions of Coloradans.

Today on Colorado Edition: We speak with researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado, who recently published a study looking at how marijuana use in breastfeeding parents can affect breastmilk.

It's officially National Sleep Awareness Week, and Children’s Hospital Colorado is hosting a virtual talk on World Sleep Day on Friday for parents addressing why kids are probably not getting enough sleep – and how to fix that. 

Traffic Information Stations, also known as Highway Advisory Radio systems, have been a fixture on American roads since the FCC authorized the 10 watt AM systems in 1977.

The excitement around getting vaccinated against COVID-19 has to do with what life looks like afterward. 

March is Women’s History Month and we’re taking the whole month to honor remarkable women right here in Denver.

If my doctor saw my posture right now, she would be disappointed in me. No matter how hard I try to adjust, I find myself slouched over, straining my neck and shoulders while working on my laptop. Like many Coloradans, about 8 percent of the population, I have been working from home since last spring—staring at a screen for a regrettable 10-plus hours a day (sometimes longer depending on what new documentary is released that week). 

More than a year into the pandemic, many families who have been stuck at home are itching to go on a vacation. But don’t pack your bags quite yet, experts say.

As Colorado gets ready for the next phase of vaccine distribution, the state is waiting on more COVID-19 vaccines. State-run mass vaccination sites could be popping up around the state as soon as next week, according to Gov. Jared Polis.

Moderna Inc. has begun studying its Covid-19 vaccine in children aged 6 months to 11 years in the U.S. and Canada, the latest effort to widen the mass-vaccination campaign beyond adults.

“With the increasing utilization of marijuana in society as a whole, we
are seeing more mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy,” said
researcher Erica Wymore [assistant professor of pediatrics at CU
School of Medicine]. “However, given the lack of scientific data
regarding how long THC persists in breast milk, it was challenging to
provide mothers with a definitive answer regarding the safety of using
marijuana while breastfeeding and simply ‘pumping and dumping’ until
THC was no longer detectable in their milk.”

A study of people discharged from March through September last year
from UCHealth Memorial Hospital’s Central and North locations found
that about one-third of respondents still had symptoms up to six weeks
later, according to Robert Lam, an assistant professor at the
University of Colorado School of Medicine who helped lead the study

Donna Poss and her husband, Dave, were both diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-December.

 A single measles outbreak cost one U.S. county $3.4 million, a new government study estimates, underscoring the societal burden of inadequate vaccination rates.

About 100 Americans on average die each year because of snow-removal exertion with another 11,500 injuries requiring a trip to the emergency room, a study over a 16-year period found, but taking time to stretch before heading out and other precautions can help make sure you finish the job safely.

Thousands of Coloradans are rescheduling the vaccination appointments as the incoming winter storm cancels vaccine events across the Front Range.

COVID-19 vaccine appointments for thousands of Coloradans are being rescheduled due to the winter storm this weekend, but doctors say not to worry. According to Centers for Disease Control guidelines, there is a 42-day window between doses for the two-dose vaccines to be most effective.

UCHealth reports an increase of patients coming into its emergency rooms after a significant snow storm, with muscular and skeletal injuries being are the most common complaint.

Deepa Bhojwani recalled feeling lucky her 2-year-old cancer patient with covid-19 bounced back quickly after being seen for a fever in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. But in the months that followed, an unnerving thing happened.

As Colorado continues its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the state is inching—and in some cases, bounding—toward normalcy.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, remains in breast milk for up to six weeks and may be harmful to infants, a new study warns.

“Is our general advice to [patients with obesity or overweight] to
exercise and lose weight wrong?” Anthony D. Elias, professor of
medicine and medical oncology at University of Colorado Anschutz
Medical Campus and member of the NCCN Clinical Practice
Guidelines Panel for Breast Cancer, who was not involved with the
study, said in the release.

East Grand School District’s 1,305 students have been forced to cope with an immeasurable amount of stress this year, first in the form of a pandemic, followed by a wildfire racing through their community, burning more than 100,000 acres within hours.

Kelly Marcilliat realized something was terribly wrong with his thinking on a drive last summer.

n the fight against COVID-19, vaccines remain top of the headlines, but it’s also important to remember that they are not the only tools being used in health care to fight the virus. In a series of stories last week, we focused on monoclonal antibody drugs that are keeping high-risk people who contract COVID-19 from having to be hospitalized.

As more and more people become available for the COVID-19 vaccine, many health experts are speaking out about disparities in underserved communities. In Aurora, some health leaders are taking action to combat those disparities head-on.

The CDC issued new guidance Monday for fully vaccinated Americans. The new recommendations say people who are fully vaccinated can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physically distancing.

In hopes of making this very confusing time just a little less so, each week Bloomberg Prognosis is picking one question sent in by readers and putting it to an expert in the field. This week's question comes to us from Thomas in Havana, Cuba. Thomas is a senior in good health living in a nation that has developed its own vaccine. He asks: 

I can get a vaccine here in Cuba, but it doesn't use messenger RNA technology like Pfizer and Moderna. I would like to get that shot and then get one from Pfizer or Moderna later. Is there any risk?

Health officials hope the newly approved Johnson and Johnson vaccine will accelerate progress in vaccinating rural and homebound residents in the Mountain West. But there’s some unnecessary confusion over the shot’s efficacy.

The pandemic gave us a whole new vocabulary: almost everyone is ready to Zoom, social distancing is welcome, and N95s are a popular accessory. But, there’s an old concept that’s gotten new life in the face of COVID-19.

What should you do to prepare? What medicine can you take and when? And what should you expect afterwards? While you've likely heard tons about what not to do before you get vaccinated, you might not be as well aware of what can help ensure your vaccination goes as smoothly as possible. 

Health experts are trying to determine how effective the COVID-19 vaccine is at stopping the spread of the virus.

Older and underserved Coloradans are getting help making COVID-19 vaccine appointments, thanks to medical students at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

In the United States, breast cancer mortality rates dropped every year for women across all age groups between 1989 and 2010, but after that, the trend stalled for those younger than 40 years.

Cardiovascular and metabolic derangements observed among adolescents with type 1 diabetes and obesity parallel those of youths with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a critical need for lifestyle management, data show.

Most patients who become comatose after experiencing moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) recover consciousness in the short term — and nearly half regain functional independence, new research suggests.

Social media sites are platforms for people to share ideas and stay connected with families and professionals. However, they can also be a haven for inaccurate information. Some of this information is health-related, which can misinform those looking to make health decisions.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there have now been roughly 115 million cases of COVID-19 globally.

Like many people this past year, teenager Tyona Montgomery began experiencing a sore throat and a loss of sense of smell and taste in November that suggested she might have COVID-19.

Meet the third group of DBJ's 2021 40 Under 40 winners. They'll show off their secret talents at a virtual awards program on May 4.

American Indians have the highest risk for nonhemorrhagic stroke, in the presence or absence of atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study published online March 2 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

In Hugo, population 707, where the dominant view is of the water tower, hospital officials with empty beds during the pandemic offered their place as a high-quality respite for city folks on the long road back from the devastating coronavirus. 

A panel of experts at the virtual American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Meeting highlighted current evidence on allergic reactions to available COVID-19 vaccines and how to assess patients who have had a reaction.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently moved Type 1 diabetics up into the 1B.3 vaccination group. That means that anyone who is between the ages of 16 and 64, with Type 1 diabetes and another high risk condition will be eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine as early as March 5.

While medical experts expect continue to wear masks through 2022, some education and travel experts think we could see continued mask wearing to ward off other illnesses.

A bill to require Colorado gun owners who share their homes with children to securely store their weapons passed its first committee Monday on a party line vote.

THERE'S A LOT of bad info out there about how to lower your cholesterol with supplements. Have you heard the one about fish oil? Truth is, there are no shortcuts to staving off heart disease. It's all about making smart lifestyle changes and seeking doctor-directed treatment when needed. Here are the four biggest myths about using supplements to lower your cholesterol, and what you should be doing instead.

A baby girl, born with multiple heart defects, is thriving. In December, at just 5 months old, Eila Brown had a heart transplant at Children's Hospital Colorado.

Scientists and doctors who study infectious disease in children largely agreed, in a recent New York Times survey about school openings, that elementary school students should be able to attend in-person school now. With safety measures like masking and opening windows, the benefits outweigh the risks, the majority of the 175 respondents said.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is recommending Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot, adenovirus-vectored vaccine for use in patients 18 years of age and older.

An Estes Park woman tested positive on Feb. 25 for COVID-19, just two days prior to her second Moderna vaccine appointment.

 In the weeks ahead, Colorado is going to be in a different place on COVID vaccines. This month, the state is expecting 850,000 Pfizer and Moderna doses and 400,000 Johnson & Johnson doses adding the new vaccine to an arms race with the coronavirus.

Gov. Jared Polis told Coloradans he’s confident that this summer will be “very close to normal” during a news conference Tuesday. Institutions that have been closed for nearly a year are finalizing reopening plans and submitting them to the state. The light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is starting to peek through, but doctors say it’s still too early to give up the fight.

One of the buildings at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora has a sign out front that says The Marcus Institute For Brain Health. It's easy to miss but what they do in that building is not. They change lives. 

Recently the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine announced the establishment of an endowed scholarship fund, named after a Trinidad native, to support Black and other underrepresented medical students.

Increased coffee intake was linked to a reduced risk of developing heart failure and stroke later in life, according to an analysis of 3 large epidemiologic studies published in Circulation: Heart Failure.¹ In one of those studies ­– the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) – each extra cup of coffee per day reduced the risk of heart failure by 5% and stroke by 6%.¹ 

Middle-aged and older men who worry that falling testosterone levels might raise their risk of cardiovascular disease may want to consider kicking up their workouts a notch instead of turning to testosterone supplements. Not only does exercise help increase testosterone levels, it also appears to improve artery health in ways that don’t happen with supplements, according to a study published in February 2021 in Hypertension.

 It’s been almost a year since Pam Pierce tested positive for COVID-19, and she was very interested to know if she still had antibodies.

Maria McLain Cox deals in uncertainty. 

As the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. appears to be turning a corner, another health crisis is brewing: Covid-19 survivors struggling to bounce back to their former selves.

February has been the busiest month for children presenting with COVID at National Jewish Health (NJH) in Denver. Particularly, children and teenagers suffering long term effects of the virus.

had Wittenmyer’s long, red beard has grown unmanaged since March, seemingly at the same rate as his pain.

The COVID-19 vaccine continues to make its way into the arms of Americans. And, according to some researchers, the vaccine might help those who once had long-term COVID-19 symptoms.

On Friday, it will be one year since just about everyone’s world drastically changed. That’s when Colorado confirmed its first case of COVID-19.

In a year when it felt as though an avalanche of information overcame us every day, December 14, 2020, managed to stand apart. News alerts announced the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were being administered locally and across the country. Within the same 24-hour period, phones everywhere pinged with the heartbreaking news that the United States had surpassed 300,000 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other nation.

Late-breaking data presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) 2021 Virtual Sessions showed an inconsistent—and even seasonally-influenced—pattern of pediatric patient adherence to controller therapy for severe asthma.

 The Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is on the brink of emergency use approval. Scientists and people eligible to get a shot are looking at the vaccine and its data.

Ty Godwin has felt like he has COVID-19, shortness of breath, malaise, fevers, headaches and fatigue — for the last year. He’s a long hauler, part of a growing number of people who experience what’s known as long COVID or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome.

Diane Huntress, 74, lives in Denver and says trying to get a COVID shot for her and her husband David is like applying for a job.

 A third COVID-19 vaccine might soon be available for use in the U.S. A report from the Food and Drug Administration says the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine provides good protection against COVID-19. Final approval could come later this week.

“I’ve never seen flu this low,” said Larissa Pisney, medical director of
infection prevention and control for UCHealth University of Colorado
Hospital [and assistant professor of medicine at CU School of
Medicine]. “This is certainly unprecedented.”

On Wednesday the FDA said Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. This could help pave the way for its approval for emergency use after a meeting on Friday.

 Persisting symptoms in recovered COVID-19 patients continue to baffle doctors nearly a year after some of the affected people first became sick.

Behind the recent drop in Colorado's COVID-19 case numbers is a persistent growth in the number of viral variant cases detected that have the potential to mess with everything from in-person school to the re-opening of the economy.

Children born to mothers in poor cardiovascular health during pregnancy had an almost eight times higher risk for landing in the poorest cardiovascular health category in early adolescence than children born to mothers who had ideal cardiovascular health during pregnancy.

Testosterone levels tend to fall in older men, but a new study shows that exercise -- and not supplemental testosterone -- is the way to rejuvenate the aging male heart.

In an increasingly divided world, coffee is one of the few things people seem to agree on. Seeing an old friend? Grab a cappuccino. Work meeting? Let’s convene at the cafe. Need a first date idea? OK, you get the idea. 

"Low vitamin D levels have been linked to so many things...It's either the most important vitamin in the world or it's a stand-in for some other important thing," he writes. "When we've tested all of these intriguing links via randomized trials, giving some people vitamin D and some placebo, they almost always showed no effect."

While much is known about the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, researchers are still studying their impact on transmissibility. 

New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to fall in Colorado, suggesting the state might get out of the pandemic without another wave of death if people can keep up precautions for a little longer.

The University of Colorado School of Medicine announced Monday the establishment of an endowed scholarship fund to support Black and other underrepresented medical students.

The University of Colorado Hospital (UCHealth) announced it has provided more than 215,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in Colorado on Monday.

The University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora is stepping up for under-represented members of the health profession, announcing on Monday the Charles J. Blackwood, MD, Endowed Memorial Scholarship 

In an effort to increase diversity among medical school students, the University of Colorado School of Medicine is celebrating a new scholarship fund. Organizers chose to name it after Dr. Charles J. Blackwood who became the first African American to graduate from the school in 1947 and was in the top 10 of his class.

We spend so much energy and time instilling a healthy sleep foundation for our little ones. When you finally think you have figured out your child and have a solid bedtime routine, BAM!—a change occurs. Be it a sleep regression, a change in family dynamic—such as a new sibling or a new pet—or Daylight Saving Time, it seems like we are always playing catch up. 

Ashley Kisicki is a student at Central High School and loves to rodeo. In 2018 she went in for her routine sports physical, when her doctor encouraged her to get checked for scoliosis.

While quarantined in her bedroom with the coronavirus, 16-year-old Ellie Jotte stuck her nose in her sweetest-smelling candles, bottles of perfume and all kinds of fruit- and flower-scented lotions. 

Partnerships with schools and community groups plus more supports for children and families are needed to help youths impacted by the pandemic that has stretched on for a year. Those were among recommendations of experts who took part in a recent AAP virtual town hall panel discussion.

The University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine has established an endowment fund for Black students and other underrepresented students in honor of Dr. Charles Blackwood, the school’s first Black graduate.

The young Black woman doctor came to Denver eager to practice medicine in 1902, but authorities refused to recognize Dr. Justina Ford or give her privileges at the city’s hospital.

A respected Colorado physician is asking people to choose compassion over prejudice.

Carl Hart is a Columbia University professor of psychology and neuroscience. He chairs the psych department and has a fondness for heroin – not only as a subject of scholarly pursuit but also as a substance for personal use.

A 5% weight loss over 2 years in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer was associated with worse outcomes, according to new research that investigated the body mass index (BMI) data of these patients.

Drinking one or more cups of coffee a day may reduce the risk of heart failure, according to new research. But only if it’s caffeinated.

Millions of people in the United States have contracted SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID 19, with many returning to full health within weeks of falling ill. But for some patients, the after-effects of the disease can cause long-term health issues.

While thousands in Colorado and millions across the country continue to fight for their place in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine, there are also people refusing to be vaccinated for reasons ranging from religious beliefs to personal health concerns.

They were lined up through the parking lot and back onto Kipling Street on Friday afternoon. Hundreds of people came to the Stride Community Health clinic for their second rounds of the COVID vaccine.

Colorado’s COVID-19 numbers continue to trend in the right direction, but one of UCHealth’s top doctors says declining cases is not a reason to stop practicing basic mitigation strategies like mask-wearing and social distancing.

9NEWS talked to Dr. Ross Kedl, a professor with the CU Anschutz School of Medicine

A large analysis looked at hundreds of factors that may influence the risk of heart failure and found one dietary factor in particular that was associated with a lower risk: drinking coffee.

Despite increased attention and efforts focused on diversifying the U.S. health care workforce, little progress has been made over the past 2 decades. Blind hiring practices, successfully used in other industries, could be adapted to increase diversity in the health care workforce pipeline. Such practices would be expected to address two persistent barriers to health care workforce diversity: implicit bias and systemic bias.

Among patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, there was no difference in length of hospital stay in those given a single 200,000-IU dose of vitamin D₃ versus those given placebo in a randomized trial in Brazil.

In the hospital room of a very sick patient, or down the hall in a bustling ICU, medical personnel are constantly reaching out impatiently to switch off an alarm they find irrelevant or annoying. 

Asthma may be a disease with one name, but experts say that unbeknown to most people who have it, it is not just one condition, nor is there a “one-size-fits-all” treatment for it.

 In a finding that suggests heart health starts in the womb, a new study shows that the state of a woman's heart during pregnancy may predict her kids' health by the time they reach adolescence.

According to The Institute of Medicine, racial and ethnic minorities often receive lower quality of care than non-minority patients. The Center for Advancing Professional Excellence hosted a Health Equity Through Cultural Sensitivity Simulation at CU Anschutz Medical Campus for future healthcare providers.

On Wednesday, a group of 20 Denver Health emergency medicine residents from the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine participated in their very first Health Equity Through Cultural Sensitivity Simulation Day.

Emergency medicine has played a critical role during the ongoing pandemic as doctors work to provide care for some of the most critical COVID-19 patients.

Dan Jones, 44, nursed a sore arm after his first COVID-19 vaccine, but other than that, he felt fine. 

Hospitals and health systems across the U.S. have accelerated digital transformation efforts in order to maintain communication and relationships with their patients while promoting safety from COVID-19.

Actor Gary Sinise is expanding his philanthropic work and that means more help for Colorado veterans with brain injuries. His new network will give money to the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

In an accompanying editorial, Stephen Daniels, of the University of
Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, said that these findings
support the idea that a mother’s cardiovascular health may have
longstanding effects on that of their children.

In 2020, COVID-19 ravaged the state's nursing homes, forcing an end to visitation by family and friends and lockdowns of residents. That in turn appears to have contributed to a hidden toll from the disease for some Colorado seniors.

When consumed in excess, coffee can be extremely harmful to our digestive system and sleep cycle. In moderation, however, it can yield a wide array of benefits. Among these, according to a new study conducted by the American Heart Association, concerns cardiovascular health. 

Higher intake of caffeinated coffee was found to be associated with reduced risk of heart failure in three large, well-known heart disease studies: the FHS (Framingham Heart Study), CHS (Cardiovascular Heart Study), and ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities).

During the coronavirus pandemic, another major health crisis is gaining attention.

A record number of people at one time are being treated for frostbite at UCHealth's Burn and Frostbite Center.

A record-breaking number of patients with frostbite are currently at the UCHealth Burn and Frostbite Center on the Anschutz Campus, the health care provider said Monday.

UCHealth is treating a record number of frostbite patients after temperatures dipped below zero over the weekend. As of Monday, there are 26 patients at the UCHealth Burn and Frostbite Center on the Anschutz Campus in Aurora, more than the hospital has ever had at one time.

Most people with diabetes who used continuous glucose monitoring during the first 8 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic improved their time in range, although the benefits varied by region and socioeconomic status, according to study data.

It’s never easy finding out your young child has cancer, let alone dealing with that in the middle of a pandemic, but it’s a challenge Erin Eckert and her family are more than willing to overcome.

At first, the rapid test came up negative for Denver Chef Frank Bonanno after he’d been exposed to COVID-19 through an employee at one of his restaurants. Then, two weeks later, as he put on his deodorant he couldn’t smell it. 

Hundreds of thousands of Coloradans have received the COVID-19 vaccine as of Feb. 12, and are likely wondering what they can safely do.

Despite tundra-like temperatures Saturday across the Denver metro area, thousands of Colorado's teachers and elderly population braved the cold to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 

At a community COVID-19 vaccination clinic, Dr. Fernando Holguin offered a stark message for those unsure about whether to get their shots.

Hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery systems have revolutionized care and lessened disease burden for people living with type 1 diabetes, and next-generation devices promise even more improvement.

After catching the coronavirus last March, Dana Gosnell figured she’d be feeling better by now, not worse. Instead, she said she finds herself still facing a confusing and scary array of symptoms.

 It's been almost a year since we've all lived with the novel coronavirus in one way or another. Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it has come in the form of a vaccine.

The novel coronavirus can rapidly mutate inside of compromised patients and give way to new and more dangerous variants, according to new research from a University of Colorado School of Medicine scientist. Matt Mauro reports.

Statin use is associated with a lower risk for postoperative adhesion-related complications (ARCs) after intra-abdominal surgery, a new observational study suggests.

New research puts more weight on the value coffee has on reducing cardiovascular risks.

Cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered a sexually transmitted infection, but a new study shows that many babies are born carrying the virus in their mouths.

There’s new research showing you might be able to predict whether someone is susceptible to developing Alzheimer’s disease later on in life based off of their writing style.

Many of the common preconditions to opening schools — including vaccines for teachers or students, and low rates of infection in the community — are not necessary to safely teach children in person, a consensus of pediatric infectious disease experts said in a new survey.

Elements of Colorado’s vaccine distribution are inherently unfair. But giving up your spot in line won’t solve inequities, ethicists say. Here’s why—and what you can do instead.

In a survey of 714 practicing U.S. physicians nationwide, only 40.7% said they were very confident about their ability to provide the same quality of care to patients with a disability as they do to nondisabled patients.

As of Feb. 3, more than 485,000 people in Colorado have gotten their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. About 3% of the population is fully vaccinated.

Natalia Vergara, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has been awarded a 3D ROC prize by the National Eye Institute (NEI) for her research team's work to create better models to accelerate the development of new therapies for retinal diseases.

In the emergency department at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, Dr. Vaughn Browne sees the worst of the pandemic every single day. CBS4’s Conor McCue spoke with him and other doctors as part of CBS4’s Elevating Black Voices series which highlights community members during Black History Month.

As more and more vaccine becomes available, Gov. Jared Polis has repeatedly touted distribution as the beginning of the end of the pandemic. But that's only true if people actually get vaccinated.

As recently as December, the vaccine maker Novavax appeared to once again be on the brink of failure.

Data from studies done in the United Kingdom show the COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax is roughly 90% effective. That’s great news as the Phase 3 clinical trial of that vaccine in the United States is underway.

Colorado will start vaccinating teachers and people in their late 60s Monday, frustrating older residents who are still trying to get an appointment and essential workers who wonder when their turn will come.

A modified version of an FDA-approved close-loop insulin delivery system may be effective for children aged 2 to 5 years with type 1 diabetes, according to study data published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.