Solutions
December 16, 2020
Nobel laureate’s UW ties
Harvey J. Alter, a UW resident in internal medicine from 1964-65, has received a Nobel Prize for his contributions to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
Firearm study
The UW is researching handgun carrying among rural adolescents, in a three-year, $1.5 million study funded by the CDC.
October 13, 2020
Sweet science
Kennewick native Danielle Reed forages for genetic answers after her research finds that processed food is much too sweet for the average human tastebud.
September 21, 2020
Racing a pandemic
Thanks to years of foresight, funding and preparation, two UW labs have been on the forefront of COVID-19 testing.
September 16, 2020
Double trouble
With flu season coming, doctors and public health officials worry that an outbreak of influenza in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic could wipe out our health care system.
Mapping landslide risk
UW engineers are developing a new mapping system to quantify landslide risk in the prone areas of Seattle
Being there
For many older Americans, the rhythms of every day have not just changed during the COVID-19 pandemic; they have stopped.
September 11, 2020
For our health
The UW is putting its combined brainpower into population health, improving lives around the world.
August 14, 2020
Camping during COVID-19
We ask an infectious disease expert for advice about how to explore the great outdoors.
June 25, 2020
Uneven evictions
Who gets evicted in Washington? It depends on gender and race, a UW study reveals.
June 24, 2020
IHME in the spotlight
As the pandemic expanded across the country, IHME projections became a resource for local, regional and national leaders as they responded.
June 10, 2020
The ultimate puzzle
Doctoral student Emily Rabe loves puzzles. Now she's working on one with high stakes—one that could have a significant impact on our planet’s health.
Language of the land
Southern Lushootseed, the language spoken for generations in the Puget Sound area, is being preserved and passed on to students, thanks to Tami Hohn’s work and the Department of American Indian Studies.
June 4, 2020
Her work spans oceans
Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño studies issues such as global environmental change, ocean acidification and microplastics in the ocean.
May 15, 2020
Hands off the soap, briefly
Hot water and soap is keeping us healthy, but it can wear down our skin. We ask a UW Medicine dermatologist for help.
May 14, 2020
Dangerous cells
Professor Dan Berger says incarcerated people must be freed to halt virus spread.
May 4, 2020
Grant backs Indigenous vision
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation granted $1.8 million to the center to support students and research.
March 30, 2020
Eye on baby's breath
A UW team has used hardware similar to an Amazon Echo to create a smart speaker that detects the breathing motions of an infant’s chest.
March 20, 2020
We need to talk about vehicle residency
Criminalizing a form of shelter causes undue and disproportionate harm to vulnerable people.
March 12, 2020
Fishing for arsenic
Researchers study the movement of water and heavy metals’ impact on aquatic life in lakes near Tacoma.
March 10, 2020
Under the influence
What effect does a parent's marijuana use have on kids? We asked a UW researcher.
For an informed public
The UW's Center for an Informed Public is a response to the rise in disinformation and erosion of trust in our most basic societal institutions.
December 26, 2019
A whale of a problem
Frank Erickson created a synthetic sperm whale oil that saved millions of automatic transmissions worldwide.
December 4, 2019
Seeing himself in the science
Ecologist Christopher Schell believes that tapping into who he is as a person makes his research better.
December 3, 2019
Happy hints
Recommendations from social psychologist Tabitha Kirkland, whose research explores strategies that nurture our happiness.
December 1, 2019
A tern for the worse
Feeding the wrong food to chicks could spell disaster for several species of terns.
November 24, 2019
Calling all dogs
A UW-led study is recruiting 10,000 canines and their companions for a study of dogs’ health as they age.
September 10, 2019
Protecting life in Cambodia
Climate change threatens fish runs and the livelihood and food resources for millions of Cambodians.
September 2, 2019
Warming sea
A die-off points to a larger-scale, longer-term problem with the food supply caused by warming seas.
June 4, 2019
Fossil flosser
Some might find the work of dusting and dabbing sand away from a fossil tedious, but Jean Primozich still marvels at it.
Inventing the future
The UW's Gates Center is a ‘new landmark’ for computer science and engineering.
June 3, 2019
Energy’s new wave
Converting ocean waves into electricity poses challenges—and promise.
June 2, 2019
World of worry
A new book by UW faculty explores anxiety-provoking topics ranging from food safety to mobile phones and bedbugs.
April 18, 2019
History keepers
Creating historical records, archiving photos, recording oral histories—it’s all in a program of UW Libraries with the Ethnic Heritage Council.
March 12, 2019
Abolished
How UW research convinced our state's highest court to toss out the death penalty.
March 1, 2019
Busier bees
Using teeny, tiny batteries and sensors, insects provide a valuable eye in the sky for agriculture.
Natural elixir
Spending time outside is a sure-fire way to feel better. But researchers still don't know why that is.
November 30, 2018
Safe travels
Author and traveler Chris Sanford shares 10 bits of wisdom from his book, “Staying Healthy Abroad: A Global Traveler’s Guide.”
Tech for mental health
UW Medicine researchers are exploring how a smartphone might help someone manage a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
August 30, 2018
New biologies
Nature is an interconnected web of life. A new Life Sciences building takes that to heart.
August 26, 2018
Sharks spin a tale
Great white sharks dive deep into the Atlantic’s clockwise-spinning warm-water whirlpools.
August 6, 2018
Diabetes nation
We talk about the state of diabetes with Ira Hirsch, the UW’s Diabetes Treatment and Teaching Chair.
Soldier Shakespeare
Acting out the Bard’s works enables veterans to access feelings of rage, isolation and grief—
and heal the invisible wounds of war.
Shooting for the stars
For 40 years, a group of Seattle-area women has helped UW students strive to be the best in science and engineering.
June 22, 2018
The Innovation File: A study in persistence
Dennis Edmondson, ’80, ’13, invented the studs inside the Nanoengineering & Sciences Building.
June 5, 2018
Coffee with a twist of tech
Paul Tupper, ’14, started Onda Origins, a Seattle-based coffee company with a technological spin, to further his environmental agenda.
June 4, 2018
Rethinking drugs
Ingrid Walker wants to change the way media and government frame our perceptions about illicit drugs, and the people who use them.
No easy tusk
Marine biologist Kristin Laidre is living her dream of studying narwhals, the mysterious 2,000-pound mammals that are notoriously tricky to find.
Drug price isn't right
There’s a new blockbuster drug that could save the lives of thousands of people with type 2 diabetes in the U.S.
April 5, 2018
International problem solvers
Outside of the classroom, UW engineering students solve problems around the world.
Genetic fortune telling
Thanks to services such as 23andMe, genetics has gone mainstream. But should you believe the hype?
March 26, 2018
From playdough to Plato
Children are by nature philosophical thinkers—ready to take on heady topics like race, fairness and human rights.
March 13, 2018
New point of view
Lisa Zurk, ’95, will be the first woman to lead the Applied Physics Laboratory.
March 6, 2018
Cyber safe
Stefan Savage, ’02, earned a MacArthur "genius" grant for his work on cyber security.
March 5, 2018
Stop the bleed
It only takes a few minutes to bleed to death, but bystanders with a little knowledge can save lives.
March 4, 2018
The man who made us look
Psychology professor Anthony Greenwald developed the Implicit Association Test, a rapid-fire survey that reveals the biases that lurk inside us.
January 9, 2018
Rural rescue
Connecting UW Medicine research to primary care clinics around the region.
December 28, 2017
Forging new links
A new type of fire-resistant wood reduces atmospheric carbon and can be made of damaged trees. Could it revive depressed economies in Washington’s rural timber communities?
December 15, 2017
The puzzle of aging
Building on decades of research and outreach, UW experts are piecing together new ways to live longer and better.
December 11, 2017
History lessons
After Charlottesville clash, a history professor heard echoes of an ugly era.
December 8, 2017
Engineering on the brain
Doctors, engineers and other experts work together at the UW Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
December 7, 2017
The opioid boom
The prevailing practice for treating addiction to painkillers led to the worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history.
September 13, 2017
Transplants on the double
UW Medicine’s innovation could yield better results for kidney patients.
June 27, 2017
Welcome back, Paul Allen
Before he funded UW's computer science labs, Paul Allen got kicked out of them.
June 26, 2017
Predict and prevent
The UW has partnered with Microsoft and the city of Bellevue to curb traffic accidents with machine learning.
June 15, 2017
'If we don't, who will?'
A family eager to help their son has helped make the UW a leader in facing down an insidious disease.
June 12, 2017
Legal loop
Fees and fines are the punishment that keeps on giving in the criminal justice system.
May 25, 2017
Micro-damaging
Overt racism has long been linked to health disparities, but what about subtle slights?
March 24, 2017
Why do people give to charity?
Why do we give to charitable organizations and causes? Our motivations for philanthropic giving depend on how we feel we’re faring compared to others.
Cancer calamity
Disparities in health care access hit communities of color hard—particularly when it comes to cancer.
Gates gift
A historic $279 million donation will enable the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to forecast health scenarios.
![If you are a Hispanic or African American woman diagnosed with breast cancer, your chances of a good outcome—and sometimes even of surviving—are not as good as that of a Caucasian woman. It’s an unfortunate fact in America’s health care system. Just ask Ali Mokdad. The UW professor of global health conducted a landmark study of 29 cancers and U.S. deaths by county from 1980-2014. What he uncovered was beyond sobering. Although deaths from all cancers combined fell by 20 percent in the U.S. as a whole, cancer rates are actually rising in 160 counties that had predomoniantly lower income and minority residents. In some counties, death rates are more than 20 times higher than average. “In a country where we spend more than anyone else on health care and we debate health all the time, it surprised me to see such huge disparities at the county level. We are leaving people behind in some places where the cancer rate is increasing,” says Mokdad, lead author on the study that was completed at the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “You see certain counties where life expectancy is as high as anywhere in the world and other places where the life expectancy is like countries in Africa and Asia.” Medical science can’t always explain why a particular cancer occurs more often in one part of the U.S. than in another. For example, in the Puget Sound area, people tend to get less cancer overall and have better survival rates than in places such as the Deep South, the states bordering Mexico and the Southeast. On the other hand, Puget Sound residents appear more vulnerable to brain cancer. And this area has seen higher rates of some types of blood cancer with higher death rates than in other parts of the U.S. “It’s hard to speculate on reasons. Something else is going on, but it’s very important to know that it’s a problem,” says Mokdad. In general, disparities in cancer and death rates are affected by a host of factors: lifestyle, access to cancer screenings, patient compliance, access to quality care and proximity to quality treatment. “The question is, how can we bring prevention to the forefront of what we are doing,” he adds. “It’s not enough to have excellent treatment.” The sad truth is that disparities in health care access, treatment and outcome hit communities of color especially hard. Breast cancer is a primary example. African American and Hispanic women are more likely to have more aggressive forms of cancer, to be diagnosed with more advanced cancer and to have worse outcomes. Lupe Salazar, associate professor in the Division of Oncology, says underrepresented minority women are also more likely to receive treatment that fails to meet recognized standards of care. “Before the Affordable Care Act, we had patients at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance who couldn’t get the full complement of services. For example, the Medicaid vouchers wouldn’t cover PET Scans,” says Salazar, ’02, ’03. PET scans are vital in pinpointing the location and severity of cancer. But they are expensive; the average cost of a PET scan ranges from $3,000 to more than $12,000. Minority women, particularly if they are low income or single parents, are also much less likely to participate in clinical trials. Government funding agencies always ask researchers to recruit from minority populations, “but [there is] nobody to give you resources or funding for things like paying for translators for help with getting consents,” Salazar explains. “It’s also very hard to enroll patients who don’t have a computer or a way to log on to clinicaltrials.gov or a way to find the database of experimental treatments.” Health disparities plague other communities including immigrants. India Ornelas, ’99, assistant professor in health services, and Vicky Taylor, research professor in health services, are working to increase the number of refugee women who receive regular screenings for cervical cancer. They created a video to build awareness for non-medical audiences. Collaboration is absolutely vital to addressing these inequities in diagnosis and treatment. “We are going to come together to figure out what we can build on and what we can deliver,” says Salazar. “We hope the Population Health Initiative will improve the health care of the poorest people, whether you’re in the Pacific Northwest or a developing country. We will see.” n—Julie Garner](https://magazine.washington.edu/columns_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/live-better-150x150.jpg)
Live better
Where we live affects our quality of life in many ways, including our health, happiness and social equity.
February 28, 2017
Birds’ brains
An over-the-counter health supplement can be linked linked to aggression in songbirds, suggesting health implications for people who may be using the DHEA hormone.
Failure to grow
About 162 million children worldwide under the age of five are considered too short for their age—a growth failure called stunting.
Prevention revisited
Harborview’s Injury Prevention & Research Center works with Seattle Children’s Hospital and a number of UW schools and departments to explore everything from infant vaccination to the role alcohol plays in traumatic injuries.
February 27, 2017
Yes, it's rocket science. Really.
Inspired by the film "Hidden Figures," the Obama White House honored a group of women of color who have contributed to NASA’s success. Two UW alumnae were included.
December 29, 2016
The breast biopsy puzzle
Why some women don't get clarity when it comes to a cancer diagnosis.
Healthy people, healthy planet
With a $210 million gift, the UW moves forward to become a global hub for human health.
December 21, 2016
Fishy business
A broad examination of seafood mislabeling and the ecological and financial impacts suggests that because of the mislabeling, more people are eating more sustainably.
Smartphones over needles
A team of engineers and computer scientists from the University of Washington has developed HemaApp, a smartphone camera app to measure hemoglobin levels.
December 19, 2016
Smarter garbage
Compost. Recycle. Landfill. Three words, so many headaches. Two design professors think interactive trash bins could make life much easier.
December 16, 2016
Long live twins
Two UW researchers paired up to look at the life span of twins. They found that womb-mates live longer than the rest of us.
December 13, 2016
On the mend
No matter the fate of the Affordable Care Act, UW faculty and alumni continue to seek remedies for our health care system.
December 12, 2016
Social mourning
Two UW sociology researchers are studying how people tweet about death, analyzing feeds of deceased Twitter users.
September 1, 2016
Deep data
In April 2015, the Axial Seamount, an active underwater volcano about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, erupted. For the first time ever, scientists, engineers and students from the UW and around the world could watch it in real time thanks to an elaborate array of sensors they installed a year earlier.
The batwoman
Forget the silly myths about vampires. Sharlene Santana discovered that the role of bats in the environment is underrated. And most don't want to bite you.