Patient Care COVID-19 Clinical Research
As the holiday and peak respiratory seasons collide, and COVID-19 cases continue a steady, weeks-long climb, doctors want high-risk people to remember: Should COVID catch them in the coming days, one call to the doctor could save Christmas – or more.
COVID-19 cases have continued a steady uptick that began over the summer in Colorado and across the nation, already contributing to school closures in some harder-hit Southern states. Meanwhile, with respiratory season fast approaching and a brand-new, highly mutated variant raising eyebrows, doctors are fielding questions about a yet-to-be released booster shot.
Research Press Releases COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers provide answers to whether COVID-19 vaccinations reduce sickness and mortality following infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
While long COVID remains shrouded in mystery, the ravages of the disease were on clear and painful display when Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, U.S. assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, visited the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus on July 11 to learn about the campus’s research and clinical care, and hear directly from patients.
COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts Clinical Research
Between leading-edge research and the region’s first clinic to specialize in treating patients with long COVID symptoms, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is at the forefront of providing care while seeking to understand this still-mysterious disease.
A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases this week has found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, reduces the risk of long COVID.
Initial findings from a study of nearly 10,000 Americans, many of whom had COVID-19, have uncovered new details about long COVID, the post-infection set of conditions that can affect nearly every tissue and organ in the body. Clinical symptoms can vary and include fatigue, brain fog and dizziness and can last for months or years after a person has COVID-19.
As the latest, more contagious subvariant of omicron makes its way across the country, Coloradans are left to wonder when XBB.1.5 (better known as kraken) will arrive in Colorado, if getting the newest booster will protect them against it, and what’s on the horizon for additional vaccines.
If any of the 86% of Americans lacking a current bivalent booster took a shot on the omicron-targeting vaccine right now, their chances of being sick with COVID-19 on Christmas Day would fall by as much as half.
COVID-19 Awareness Vaccinations
As the season changes and we inch closer to winter, healthcare professionals are gearing up for this year’s flu season. How do researchers shape annual vaccine design? What kind of flu season are we in for? What happens when we get more than one vaccine at once?
Focused on warding off a cold-weather surge of coronavirus infections and on revamping the COVID-19 vaccine response, health experts approved a new and likely improved version of the vaccine for the first time since the virus emerged.
BA.5, the latest omicron variant, now accounts for nearly every new SARS-CoV-2 infection in the state, and community levels are high across the Denver metro area, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
Research Press Releases COVID-19
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have investigated how antiviral proteins called interferons interact with SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, focuses on how the innate arm of the immune system defends against this coronavirus. The work resulted from a collaborative effort by multiple scientists, including the laboratories of Mario Santiago, PhD, associate professor of medicine, and Eric Poeschla, MD, professor of medicine, both at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
An unusually late surge in flu cases this spring should remind everyone that, as far as nasty viruses go, these are unprecedented times. Since the novel coronavirus joined the picture in 2020, what doctors see in their offices and hospital beds has continually bucked the norm.
As medical researchers dig for answers behind Long COVID, unexplained liver disease in children and unusual behaviors of common respiratory viruses including influenza, a rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine for the country’s youngest age group is underway.
Research Press Releases COVID-19 Mental Health
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggled with their mental health during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns and subsequent restraints on community services, according to a new study published today in Psychiatric Services.
Research Patient Care Press Releases COVID-19 Vaccinations Clinical lungs
A new study published in today’s issue of PLOS Pathogens is the first to link SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells to lung function and those who suffer from long-term COVID symptoms. Long COVID currently affects hundreds of millions of Americans.
Michelle Barron, MD, presented for the Women in Leadership Speaker Series on April 27, a perfect choice by organizers seeking a woman leader during the COVID-19 pandemic. Barron, a professor of medicine in the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a top infectious diseases expert in the state, was front and center of the public health crisis during the past two and a half years.
Community COVID-19 Public Health ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Longtime University of Colorado benefactors and siblings, Alan Cogen and Judi Cogen, continue to have a significant impact on the Denver community. Thanks to their recent gifts, the Cogens are assisting underserved populations in the metropolitan area.
Research Community COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
The classrooms of Barnum Elementary School in Denver echo with the chatter of students and the instruction of teachers. The white, waist-high, curved machine in the corner is quiet as can be.
Americans 50 and older who are four months post-booster shot received the green light last week for COVID booster No. 2. An unexpected age drop combined with a receding threat of infection have some people in the approved group asking questions before rolling up their sleeves for a fourth time.
As Americans cross their fingers, hoping the pandemic stays behind them, scientists across the country remain focused on the novel coronavirus, intent on combating its next move.
Intense light activates proteins shown to protect against lung damage in mice, a discovery that could have major therapeutic implications for treating acute lung injury in humans, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
COVID-19 Vaccinations ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
As office buildings refill with employees, and grocery stores bustle with mask-less shoppers, a question remains during the biggest lull in the COVID-19 pandemic yet: What about the children?
COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
As the nation moves into the least-infectious period since the start of the pandemic, with Colorado’s governor last week ushering the healthy and fully vaccinated back into a mask-less and more normal life, some experts warn against moving too fast.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus significantly advances the understanding of a key aspect of the immune system during COVID-19: the interferon response.
When Blake Martin, MD, packs up his two tots for preschool and outings, he knows their chances of ending up in the hospital with COVID-19 are slim. Many parents breathed huge sighs of relief when the mysterious virus of 2020 turned its focus away from the country’s littlest citizens.
Press Releases COVID-19 Vaccinations
Researchers from universities in Canada and the United States have found that patients who experienced an immediate allergic reaction of any kind to a first SARS-CoV-2 vaccine dose are unlikely to experience severe immediate allergic reactions to a second dose.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 Faculty Equity Diversity and Inclusion ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
While oral healthcare has dramatically improved over the past 20 years, especially in digital technology and restorative dentistry, access to routine and preventative care remains a significant problem in the United States.
Next month marks the start of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is the end in sight? Is COVID becoming endemic? When do we reach herd immunity?
With signs of a retreating omicron surge, should people who escaped the pandemic’s most transmissible variant throw a party – with infected guests?
“The University is under quarantine now, and no one is allowed in or out without a pass,” wrote a student to his mother during the summer of 1918.1 Back then, school closures, bans on public gatherings and face masks were commonplace. The measures used today to stop the spread of COVID-19, which feel almost unprecedented, were the very same methods used to contain the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
Omicron is making its impact felt not just in Colorado, but across the country and globe.
Research COVID-19 Cancer Vaccine
Much has changed in the world since COVID-19 emerged and touched off a global health crisis. The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and other academic research institutions have been at the heart of the response to the pandemic, aggregating data, making discoveries, running clinical trials and developing therapies.
Beneath the SARS-CoV-2 membrane and its spikes lurks a squiggle of genetic material, or RNA, enveloped by a protein that acts like bubble wrap to protect the genetic material. This protein also acts as a “hotbed” for multiple interactions to control the infected cell.
Omicron is hitting the nation hard, pushing delta out as it infects at a higher rate of speed than any SARS-CoV-2 variant so far. In past days, infection rates in some of Colorado’s mountain towns have topped the nation, even in areas with high vaccination rates.
Research COVID-19 Mental Health
Amber McDonald, PhD, LCSW, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has been on the forefront of public safety’s cultural shift for years. She’s helped steer policing from a confrontational, “we’re taking you in” approach toward a more nuanced style such as: “We want to hear you out and connect you to community resources.”
COVID-19 Community and Practice ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Since March 2020, the Colorado COVID-19 Modeling Group has tracked the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and provided projections on its course. Because the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has so quickly moved into the United States and Colorado, the Modeling Group – led by the Colorado School of Public Health with additional members from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Denver, and Colorado State University – has issued a statement based on its tracking of the pandemic and the scientific evidence.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 Cancer Mental Health
With the events of the past year underpinned by the fast-mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus and the vaccine rollout, researchers, clinicians and other healthcare professionals at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus remained in the spotlight in 2021.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus will lead a four-year, multi-institution effort to study the effects of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or long COVID, with more than $11 million in first-year funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). More than 30 research teams across the country will study and share data in real time as part of the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, a centralized effort that will enable research with a nationally representative cohort of patients with long COVID.
The holiday season has always challenged mental health experts and their patients. Things like loneliness, depression and grief over lost loved ones don’t go away just because the ornaments and the mistletoe come out. In fact, they often get worse.
According to her dad, Mia McMurray hates needles. The 8-year-old dutifully gets her flu shot every year, but not without dread. So when his daughter jumped at the chance to take part in a clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine, Michael McMurray was surprised.
Dear Research Colleagues,
Congratulations to all those nominated for the 2020-2021 University Research Awards focused on our response to COVID-19. There are countless members of the research community who have contributed to our research mission over the last 18 months. We had more than 100 nominations and the selection of these awardees was a very challenging task for the review committee.
With the U.S. approval of another COVID-19 shot now expanded to Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients, the doors have opened for tens of millions of more Americans to boost their immunity against the coronavirus.
COVID-19 Blood Clinical Research
Scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, along with colleagues at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, have discovered specific genetic biomarkers that not only show who is infected with COVID-19, but offer insights into how severe the disease might be, filling a major diagnostic gap.
Research Press Releases COVID-19 Public Health Equity Diversity and Inclusion ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
A new public health survey reveals critical information regarding the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine messaging and public policies on individual perception and behaviors in the United States.
Last week, a virtual panel series, “A Conversation on COVID-19 with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus,” continued with a discussion on some of the latest trends and developments in the pandemic.
For the nearly 190 million Americans vaccinated against last year’s holiday-crashing coronavirus, the 2021 season appears brighter. The chances of ringing in the New Year in a hospital bed because of earlier social merry-making are dramatically lower this year for people who took the shot.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
Vaccines remain the best shield against COVID-19, but for those who’ve been infected with the coronavirus, the treatment arsenal continues to expand. This month, the first antiviral pill to treat COVID was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency authorization.
Research Patient Care Community COVID-19 Mental Health
The past year has been defined by overwhelming stress. While COVID-19 remains the overarching trigger, a slew of other stressors remain on the boil: domestic economic uncertainty and a global refugee crisis; rising crime rates and mass shootings; climate change and relentless wildfires; and polarized politics and a Capitol insurrection.
Research COVID-19 Neuroscience
Recent findings linking COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s disease have sparked concern among experts, taking the spotlight at the July Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Denver and prompting an “urgent” call from the Alzheimer’s Disease International for “fast-tracking” research on the issue.
On Aug. 25, Marc Moss, MD, head of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and critical care-related researcher hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA).
While stories about the delta variant flood the news, there may be some measure of relief in these tense times – at least for the vaccinated.
As the country rides a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it faces a riptide that’s threatening its course. The delta variant, the now-predominant strain of coronavirus, prompted President Joe Biden’s call for booster shots for all vaccinated adults on Aug. 18 and underscored discussions at a research summit that ran parallel to the president’s nationwide address.
Research Press Releases COVID-19
To further accelerate COVID-19 research on a global scale, investigators from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have created a multidimensional dataset, known as the COVIDome dataset, derived from hospitalized COVID-19 patients versus negative controls. The team has now launched a public online portal called the COVIDome Explorer to share that data in real time.
COVID-19 Public Health Epidemiology
This brief essay takes on a topic that returns about 9 billion hits with a Google search on the phrase Why Science Matters. Here, I offer comments that are framed in public health and that dwell on public health sciences. Recently deceased, former Gov. Richard Lamm quipped (in 1986): “The major factors that brought health to mankind were epidemiology, sanitation, vaccination, refrigeration and screen windows.” I agree with Gov. Lamm.
Campus Life COVID-19 Vaccinations
A reminder to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus community: The Sept. 1 deadline for meeting the CU Anschutz COVID-19 vaccination requirement is fast approaching. If you have not yet begun the vaccination process, please take action quickly to do so.
In March of 2020, thousands of scientists from around the world, including researchers from the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine, united to answer a pressing and complex question: What genetic factors influence why some COVID-19 patients develop severe, life-threatening disease requiring hospitalization, while others escape with mild symptoms or none at all?
As a race that pits vaccine against virus forges on, a stealthy move by one contender might have just pushed the finish line farther out.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
A compulsive need to know. The fear of missing out. Mindlessness or numbing out. The freedom to say hateful things under cover of anonymity.
Research COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Fears surrounding a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak last spring hit home hard for May Chu, PhD, a clinical professor in the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH).
Research Campus Life COVID-19 Academic Affairs
Important changes are coming to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus starting in June.
Education COVID-19 Public Health ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Growing up in big-city Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Papy Bawongo Boyamba, MD, looked forward to visits from the man in the white coat. Something about the man and his professional, caring manner gave the boy a vision of his own future.
Taking a first look at COVID-19’s effects on children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes (T1D), researchers have linked ethnic minority status, poor blood-sugar control and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) with increased hospitalization.
Women whose pregnancies were confirmed during the pandemic now face another test: making the COVID-19 vaccine decision. With a new little being inside of them, a higher risk of severe disease while pregnant and a lag in pregnancy-related data for the vaccines, their early parenting choice offers no blanket answer.
Sahra Cahoon remembers watching her baby girl turn blue. As doctors and nurses rushed to the incubator, bagging the infant and performing CPR, the fear the new mother felt defies words. But at least her partner was by her side.
Community COVID-19 Vaccinations
Some got misty-eyed. Many felt a moment of elation. Virtually all visitors sensed the shedding of an emotional weight – a feeling that freer, happier days lie ahead.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
President Joe Biden has painted a bright picture for the coming Fourth of July holiday, claiming all Americans will have access to a COVID-19 vaccine by May 1. Assuming most people accept their shots, and the vaccination rate continues at its current pace, the restrictive cloud hanging over the country could finally lift by summer.
Diego Restrepo, PhD, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is leading a National Institutes of Health-funded grant into why people infected with SARS-CoV-2 often lose their sense of smell. It’s frequently one of the first symptoms of the infection.
I love tossing around crazy scientific ideas – things that might be nearly impossible … or actually are impossible.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 Women's Health
From a Miss Colorado-turned-nurse who tells fellow graduates that their mission is more important than ever to researchers developing a homegown antibody test during the COVID-19 pandemic, the depth of talent and ambition among women on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is breathtaking.
For about 1.2 million Coloradans, the world suddenly appears brighter. They represent the small percentage of the state’s 5.9 million residents who, some might say, won the lottery first. They already have at least one COVID-19 shot.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, FAAFP, and Benjamin D. Anderson, MBA, MHCDS, have dedicated their careers to transforming rural healthcare in America. When the nation and already hard-hit rural healthcare systems plunged into the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, they sprang into action.
Patient Care COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
When Carey Mulligan complains to Fernando Holguin, MD, during a Zoom office visit about a persistent feeling of living in a time loop, the veteran doctor’s medical sleuthing skills kick in.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
As vaccine distribution is underway around the world, the virtual panel series, “A Conversation on COVID-19 with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus,” continued on Monday. Healthcare leaders discussed topics including vaccine progress, distribution and efficacy.
While the infamous SARS-CoV-2 spike protein grabs headlines and makes for dramatic TV graphics, another SARS protein has gone largely unnoticed.
Patient Care COVID-19 Vaccinations
At a time when life before COVID-19 seems like a dream, a vaccine rollout garnering the world’s attention offers a glimpse of hope for a return to pre-pandemic life. But, as with everything SARS-CoV-2-related, questions and uncertainties remain.
Ross Kedl, PhD, doesn’t mince words when he describes the effects of his COVID-19 vaccine: “It packs a wallop,” said the University of Colorado School of Medicine professor.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. In terms of healthcare, one of the most remarkable inventions begat by the pandemic is something called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). The vision of the scientists and researchers behind the N3C is to turn massive amounts of already available data into new knowledge urgently needed to study COVID-19 and identify potential treatments.
The speed at which the N3C has moved is astonishing: In just a little over six months, the initiative was launched, made available to biomedical researchers and has already produced its first publication.
Writing patient notes is just part of the daily routine for doctors, nurses and other providers. It’s a rare occasion, however, when providers are asked to look inward, to search their own feelings and write about them.
Research COVID-19 Public Health
Scientists have discovered that mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus can arise quickly in patients undergoing long-term treatment for the infection, allowing it to evolve into variants that pose new threats to public health.
On Dec. 14, when the first COVID-19 vaccine hit Colorado, healthcare providers were cast into another trying mission: Vaccinate the state’s 5.7 million residents as rapidly as possible to end the pandemic. Their average weekly supply? About 60,000 doses.
Every good baker knows that when making a cake, following each step exactly results in the best outcome. The principle holds true when testing a drug – or a new vaccine.
Do you want a career, or do you want kids?
Many women in academia face this question at some point. And it doesn’t always come from nosy outsiders.
As a vaccine-focused researcher for 25 years, Ross Kedl, PhD, jumped at the chance to take part in a clinical trial for a new COVID-19 vaccination when it hit his medical campus. His faith in the science spilled over into his family, with his wife and two adult sons also joining separate clinical trials early in the attempts to end a worldwide pandemic.
The Colorado School of Public Health launched a new website that provides detailed, county-level data tied to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. The Colorado Population Data Dashboard is designed to help local public health agencies (LPHAs), county commissioners, community leaders, and the general public make more informed short- and long-term decisions about protecting public health.
Research COVID-19 Public Health
Professors and faculty members at most research universities spend the bulk of their professional time in well-known academic pursuits: teaching, researching, collaborating with colleagues, and leading the next generation of experts in their respective fields. Less apparent are hundreds of hours some volunteer to present at conferences, provide testimony for policies, and collaborate on scientific committee work, publish papers, and review others’ work for publication.
During the months-long pandemic, healthcare providers have seen a lot of things, often on levels they have never seen before. From brain fog and loss of smell to leg clots and purple toes, what began as a mysterious pulmonary disease has shown the world that its destructive powers far transcend the lungs.
COVID-19 Diversity COVID-19 Feature Equity Diversity and Inclusion ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Black, Hispanic/Latinx and American Indian/Alaska Native people are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. Despite the unequal burden, early data suggest fewer people from some diverse communities are receiving the vaccine during the rollout.
Last spring, as healthcare providers and scientists around the world scrambled to treat a surge of patients infected with a virus that experts knew little about, one thing quickly became clear: SARS-CoV-2 strikes people differently.
Research Press Releases COVID-19
Excess mucus in the lungs can be fatal for asthma patients, but scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have broken up those secretions at the molecular level and reversed their often deadly effects.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stress and uncertainty weighed heavily on many of those on the front lines. Lilia Cervantes, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Denver Health and the University of Colorado Division of Hospital Medicine, and a physician-scientist, was one of the first to work in a COVID-19 unit. The night before her first shift at Denver Health, Cervantes, also a mother of two daughters, went online to make a will.
COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
When the pandemic struck last winter, it upended our lives in ways few could have imagined. Many of us work from home now, our kids go to school online, we wear masks and avoid our elderly or sick relatives for fear of passing along a potentially deadly illness. Meanwhile, lockdowns and isolation have spawned a mental health crisis that we are only now beginning to fully grasp.
Working amid laboratory shutdowns and strict COVID-19 protocols, the medical scientists on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus responded to a global pandemic in 2020 in groundbreaking fashion.
Research Innovation Patient Care COVID-19
It’s safe to say that 2020, rife with the disruptions, challenges and uncertainties that a global pandemic brings, has been a pivotal year. With SARS-CoV-2 vaccines rolling out, and the promise of a healthier and brighter 2021, science has vaulted in preeminence worldwide.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
While 2020 has teetered into degrees of existential crisis for most of us, for Sarah Boylan it has been something else entirely. She calls it her “reverse existential crisis.”
Campus Life Education COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ripple through our lives, leaving a sense of anxiety and uncertainty in its wake, take a moment to be inspired by these CU Anschutz Fall 2020 graduates. Each student faced various obstacles, but intelligence, fortitude and purpose propelled them to graduation and beyond.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Last week, a virtual panel series, “A Conversation on COVID-19 with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus,” continued with a discussion on some of the latest trends and developments in the pandemic.
Community COVID-19 Alumni Students
The stress and uncertainty of the pandemic continues to take a toll on front-line workers, many of whom are CU Anschutz alumni. To lighten moods and brighten spirits, the CU Medical Alumni Association and CU Anschutz Alumni co-hosted comedian Brad Nieder on Dec. 2.
Providers don protective gear before entering procedure rooms where the enemy lurks. They spend their days under rapid fire, battling to save patients’ lives while protecting their own. The ever-present enemy rules their workdays and even follows them home.
The third installment of a CU Anschutz webinar series on the ethical dilemmas surrounding work and play focused on the impact of a new president and steps the new government needs to take to protect workers, specifically from COVID.
COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
When the pandemic struck last winter, it upended our lives in ways few could have imagined. Many of us work from home now, our kids go to school online, we wear masks and avoid our elderly or sick relatives for fear of passing along a potentially deadly illness. Meanwhile, lockdowns and isolation have spawned a mental health crisis that we are only now beginning to fully grasp.
COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
When the pandemic struck last winter, it upended our lives in ways few could have imagined. Many of us work from home now, our kids go to school online, we wear masks and avoid our elderly or sick relatives for fear of passing along a potentially deadly illness. Meanwhile, lockdowns and isolation have spawned a mental health crisis that we are only now beginning to fully grasp.
Campus Life Community COVID-19
CU Anschutz Chancellor Don Elliman’s State of the Campus Address debuted via video.
In this short video – featured in Chancellor Don Elliman’s 2020 State of the Campus videocast – Robert Carver and his wife, Chalice, share their touching, triumphant journey through COVID-19 and the life-saving care Robert received at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD, flew around the country in January and February, giving lectures and conducting research. Little did he know, during a late-February trip in which he delivered two talks in New York City, he caught the virus that both defined 2020 and became a focus of his research into red blood cells’ response to stressors.
Providers battered by the biggest pandemic of their lifetimes face a new uncertainty in the next few weeks. As COVID-19 swirls around them, again taxing clinics and hospitals across the country with its biggest upsurge yet, flu season threatens to make its annual debut at any time.
It probably comes as no surprise that four top infectious disease experts at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus plan on staying close to home for the holidays. Caring for the people hit the hardest by the pandemic certainly influences perspectives.
COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
When the pandemic struck last winter, it upended our lives in ways few could have imagined. Many of us work from home now, our kids go to school online, we wear masks and avoid our elderly or sick relatives for fear of passing along a potentially deadly illness. Meanwhile, lockdowns and isolation have spawned a mental health crisis that we are only now beginning to fully grasp.
Tots of 2020 faced a world of masked faces and forbidden hugs. Teens missed rites of passage, from prom to graduation ceremonies. And college students, who traditionally leave home for their first taste of freedom and higher learning, found social-distancing rules and virtual classrooms.
Research COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Put the viewers in charge of a COVID-19 forum with the experts, and you never know what direction the line of questioning will take. That’s what organizers of a COVID-19 series did for their Oct. 26 webinar, and the query topics ranged from the experts’ dining habits to the risk of being crushed by a meteor.
Campus Life Community COVID-19
Half a year. That’s how long it’s been since the Lyster family of Aurora experienced the unfathomable – the loss of their son and brother. Cody Lyster was just 21 when the coronavirus robbed him of a promising future, making Cody the youngest person in Colorado – and still one of the youngest – to succumb to the virus.
“I think now is really a good time to focus on these kids and say, ‘You know, it doesn’t just affect older people. It can affect younger people. Perfectly healthy people,’” said Kevin Lyster, Cody’s father.
Four clinical trials of a drug cocktail that President Donald Trump has proclaimed his miracle “cure” are underway on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. And even while makers of the experimental therapy filed for emergency authorization use (EAU) the same day the president made his claim (Oct. 7), researchers say no evidence exists to back it up.
Campus Life COVID-19 Diversity
Life. It’s complicated. In 2020, the complications have been taken up a notch.
Finding the right care for your family can be difficult, and COVID-19 has created new challenges for all of us. The CU Anschutz Medical Campus is committed to helping our faculty, staff and full-time students with a new family care program to help you balanc
Research Patient Care COVID-19
Last fall, we sat down with Huntington Potter, PhD, director of the University of Colorado Alzheimer’s and Cognition Center – one of the major Alzheimer’s research centers in the country – for a wide-ranging podcast conversation about the state of Alzheimer’s research.
Community COVID-19 Students ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
In spite of a global pandemic, many colleges and universities across the United States are gearing up for the fall football season. While this slice of normalcy may be comforting, it could also come at an enormous cost – the well-being of the student athletes.
Patient Care Community COVID-19
Marcus’s mouth was a mess.
Campus Life Community COVID-19 Faculty
The past six months have affected everyone, but particularly the people working the front lines in healthcare. By doing their jobs of providing care to others during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also at a high risk of feeling stressed and anxious, among many other emotions. It is critical that healthcare workers know where to go if they need help when feeling this way and have support at no charge to get them through this difficult time.
Campus Life Community COVID-19
Exercise is one of the best coping mechanisms during stressful times, so it’s good news for those seeking a “semblance of normal” amid the pandemic that the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) has reopened.
It’s the noon hour, and students are enjoying a lunch break in Boettcher Commons at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. While there’s nothing unusual about that, that’s where the “old normal” of the familiar scene ends.
Campus Life Community COVID-19 Diversity CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
CU Anschutz 360 talks to Regina Richards, PhD, MSW, new associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity, inclusion and community engagement at the Anschutz Medical Campus, and CU medical student Stephanie Nwagwu about this inflection point in American history – the demand for lasting change in social justice, health equity and access to opportunity.
Innovation Patient Care Education COVID-19
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Choosing a theme for this year’s eighth annual CCTSI CU-CSU Summit took little effort for organizers of the event. With the world enveloped in a pandemic, the importance of the mission has never been so clear.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Using a high-quality antibody test produced within their own walls, researchers at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes (BDC) aim to answer questions about COVID-19’s effect on their patients – including whether SARS-CoV-2 can trigger one of the nation’s top chronic diseases.
Press Releases COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
For the second year in a row, Colorado Governor Jared Polis has demonstrated the state’s commitment to worker health, safety, and well-being by proclaiming Aug. 20 Total Worker Health® Day. Health Links™, a program based at the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health, is the champion of this officially sanctioned day.
Community COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
In an effort to keep their campus safe, two women on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus joined forces in creating a program aimed at preventing COVID-19 outbreaks in their community. So far a success, the pair’s model has gained attention from campuses across the state.
Campus Life Community COVID-19
Just five days into his stint as a COVID-19 checkpoint worker, PhD student Dan Sisler had the system down pat.
Research COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Other than halting it in its tracks, if experts on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus could wave a wand and change something about their battle against the coronavirus pandemic, it might be taking the politics out of the picture.
In the early days of the pandemic, when many people worried about where to find toilet paper, Sarah Rowan, MD, had deeper concerns. Rowan appreciated the sudden spotlight on frontline medical providers – they graced magazine covers and even large murals – but she noticed something was missing.
Research Press Releases COVID-19
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have won a grant to study why many infected with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell.
After more than three decades in critical care, Fernando Holguin, MD, recently witnessed something he’d never seen before. At the height of the pandemic, his hospital on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus had six Intensive Care Units dedicated solely to patients who all shared the same disease. More striking: The vast majority of the critically ill were not white.
Research Press Releases COVID-19
A study published earlier this year claiming the coronavirus may have jumped from dogs to humans is scientifically flawed, offering no direct evidence to support its conclusions, according to a collaborative group of international researchers, including scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
COVID-19 may have ruined the party as the world-renowned University of Colorado School of Medicine Center for Surgical Innovation (CSI) moved into its new digs this spring, but it didn’t steal its creative drive. Faced with social-distancing restrictions as most of its neighbors on campus shuttered around them, the staff not only managed their move amid the crisis. They served as a model for labs nationwide.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
A mighty push from a novel virus created the momentum that telemedicine promoters have long wished for, forcing doctors’ visits from the office to the computer screen.
In the picture she drew, the patient drifts above her hospital bed, her body human-like, her head resembling a bird. Shadow-like shapes add an eeriness to a black-and-white backdrop, as ghostly faces float around the room.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
A one-of-a-kind antibody test targeting the novel coronavirus has joined the arsenal of tools needed in understanding and eradicating COVID-19. The test, described as “among the best of the best,” emerges from an also unique partnership between UCHealth and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a joint venture researchers hope will serve as a catalyst for future projects.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, the good news is that Colorado hospitals have moved through the surge of cases they were experiencing from late April to early May. For example, at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, the census of COVID-19 patients is down nearly 70 percent from its peak.
Eruption of civil unrest in cities across the country has dealt society a double blow. Already immersed in a pandemic-driven world of uncertainty, fear and insecurity have been compounded with feelings of injustice, anger, sadness and despair.
Anxiety and cabin fever can stem from the stay-at-home orders impacting American lives for the past few weeks. But for nearly 85 million U.S. families, their households offer something that can reduce their feelings of angst and isolation. And it doesn’t come from the fridge.
Research Innovation Patient Care COVID-19
With May being Mental Health Month, we sat down with Neill Epperson, MD, professor and chair of the CU Department of Psychiatry, for a wide-ranging conversation about expanding mental health resources and services to the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and broader community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, her new “Mind the Brain” podcast, the state of mental health in Colorado, and why the brain is so intriguing.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
The invisible threat of SARS-CoV-2 has upended life on the planet. Unprecedented in our lifetime, the pandemic is triggering waves of loss – of jobs, of celebrations (including in-person graduations), of social connectedness and, worst of all, of loved ones.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
Experts on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are bracing for a predicted next wave of the COVID-19 pandemic – a mental health crisis. In anticipation of the surge, mental health providers are casting a wide net of support resources to the multitudes whose lives have been upended in unprecedented ways.
This week, the CU Anschutz Medical Campus launched heightened safety protocols and screening processes to guide its limited return to select in-person working and learning activity.
Only a small percentage of faculty, staff and students have thus far been invited and approved for on-campus activity. A formal process is in place to determine which programs or areas deemed mission-critical require campus access to operate. The majority of campus activity continues to be done remotely.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Haley Cehura remembers being nervous entering her first COVID-19 patient’s room. During the procedure, which took three hours, she began feeling a little weak. When she finally left the room, her eyes welled with tears.
Innovation Patient Care COVID-19
Chancellor Don Elliman welcomed 2,000 guests to a live panel discussion titled “Life on the Front Lines of COVID-19 with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus” on May 7.
For the past two months, healthcare workers at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital have mounted an unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) needed to respond to the rapidly worsening COVID-19 pandemic, they needed data and projections of the pandemic’s course based upon Colorado data. A team was quickly assembled by the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) to collaborate with CDPHE on epidemic modeling—the basic approach for generating the needed information for decision-making.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Putting their heads and labs together, several groups of researchers from across the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are working to build a “homegrown” antibody test. Once they do, they say, they are equipped for dispersal to all corners of the state and can help lead the way in corralling the novel coronavirus in Colorado.
Patient Care Press Releases COVID-19
A team of CU Anschutz researchers, along with scientists at the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University and others, have won a grant from the American Heart Association (AHA) to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on the body’s cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.
Patient Care Education COVID-19
When Captain Taylor Allen, BSN, RN, arrived in Denver in March for an internship with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) before entering CU Nursing’s Master’s program, she never thought her Army experience would be in demand. Boy was she wrong.
Herd immunity to a germ occurs when enough people become immune to minimize the spread of the virus. Immunity occurs either through being infected naturally or through vaccination. Can we stake our hopes of conquering COVID-19 on herd immunity via widespread infection?
A strong spirit of giving among the community has helped carry an important message at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus – that we are all in this together.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
As the coronavirus pandemic grows, so does the reliance on health care workers around the world. From social media salutes to neighborhood parades, the world is finding innovative ways to applaud the efforts of the medical community on the front line of the fight against COVID-19.
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Chancellor Don Elliman welcomed 3,000 guests to a live recording of “A Conversation on COVID-19 with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus” on April 17, featuring CU Anschutz experts on topics including testing, PPE, patient care, modeling efforts, potential treatments and the research response.
Research COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Colorado is no stranger to disaster, with its devastating floods and record mass shootings. But living through the COVID-19 pandemic, an invisible threat with no known end in sight, creates a whole new set of challenges – especially when you can’t hug your neighbors.
Innovation Patient Care COVID-19
Editor’s note: “Our COVID-19 Fighters” is an occasional series highlighting the ways the CU Anschutz Medical Campus community is helping patients and the wider community in the fight against the pandemic. We welcome your story ideas; please share them here.
Doctors and nurses—many of whom are also researchers—are working around the clock at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) to treat patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Over the next several months, research teams and caregivers will treat patients using four different drugs in the course of multiple clinical trials using Sarilumab, Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroquine.
If COVID-19 is a fire, the damaging cycle of inflammation known as a ‘cytokine storm’ is the tsunami that fans the blaze while flattening the rest of the village.
“I have never been more proud to work alongside you,” said Chancellor Donald Elliman in a recent communiqué to students, faculty and staff at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “We continue to demonstrate incredible strength in unity as we address this unprecedented challenge together.”
Probably the hardest part of his job caring for patients stricken with a virus doctors know little about is the forced isolation: watching them battle for their lives with no loved ones by their sides.
On March 27, Gov. Jared Polis provided an update on Colorado’s response to COVID-19 and discussed the predictive modeling that is guiding the public health decisions the state is making as well as the updated public health order that corresponds with the stay-at-home executive order.
Education COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
On April 5, the state released additional COVID-19 modeling data to the public. Governor Jared Polis first provided an in-depth analysis of the data during a press conference on March 27. The state will continue to review data as it evolves to inform future policy decisions.
Within two days of being asked to launch a testing site for face shields by the state’s newly formed Innovation Response Team Task Force, CU Bioengineering Distinguished Professor Robin Shandas, PhD, and nearly 200 volunteer researchers and students stood ready.
Research Patient Care COVID-19
On March 25, Thomas Campbell, MD, was in an intensive care unit where a critically ill patient hospitalized with severe COVID-19 was to be the first given an experimental treatment at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Amid a growing crisis-level shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus stepped up to collect critical supplies for the healthcare professionals on the front lines of the pandemic.
Education Community COVID-19 CU Anschutz 360 Podcast
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more people than ever are working from home. What are the best practices for working remotely? Should you get dressed in at least semi-presentable work clothes, for instance?
As scientists around the world scramble against the COVID-19 clock, searching for a vaccine that could stop the viral infection before it happens, a trio of experts on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have taken a different tack: overpowering the new mutation after it invades the body.
Community COVID-19 Student and Alumni Equity Diversity and Inclusion ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has interrupted daily life as we know it. For Asian Americans, however, this virus has brought more than just social disruption and a lack of paper products. Incidences of stigma, discrimination and occasionally outright violence have erupted across the world.
Research COVID-19 COVID-19 Podcasts CU Anschutz 360 Podcast ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
On March 12, only two months after the novel coronavirus outbreak, now known as COVID-19, started gaining traction in the Hubei province of China, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. COVID-19 has now reached over 100 countries, including over 1,200 cases in the United States, prompting President Trump to declare a state of emergency on March 13.
Patient Care Education COVID-19
From typhoid to smallpox to the Spanish Flu, we’ve had no shortage of epidemics in the United States in the last 100 years and no shortage of nurses to help care for the ill. Now, it’s the coronavirus.
Michelle Barron, MD, professor of medicine and an infectious diseases expert, responds to questions about COVID-19. She addresses what's myth and what's fact, how it's spread, how we can contain it and when to see a doctor.
As the genuine virus continued its spread across the globe, 165 medical students hunkered down in multiple Education 2 North and South rooms, focused on preventing the same (but mock) COVID-19 virus from becoming a pandemic.
Research Patient Care COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
Outbreaks of illness caused by the novel coronavirus, called COVID-19, have dramatically increased in countries outside China. As of June 28, COVID-19 had sickened more than 10,173,722 people in 188 countries with over 502,517 deaths globally.
Patient Care Education COVID-19 ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
The coronavirus outbreak impacting China has the world’s attention. Known as novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, the new virus started in Wuhan, a city of 11 million. Within a few weeks it has spread to at least 24 other countries, affecting more than 40,000 people globally, and resulting in more than 900 deaths since mid-December.
Debra Melani
