public health
November 26, 2023
Delivering hope
A UW program works to improve maternal health outcomes for Black women and other underserved community members.
May 29, 2023
Teachers of the year
From inspiration to impact, this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award recipients mentor and nurture students from all disciplines.
February 25, 2023
Opioid game-changer
Vaccines show promise for treating addiction to oxycodone, heroin and other addictive substances.
November 26, 2022
Behind the data
When doctoral student Horacio Chacón Torrico looks at public-health data, he sees the ‘forgotten’ people he wants to help.
May 30, 2022
The heart of health care
Through public health crisis, nursing leader Pam Cipriano, ’81, has delivered doses of hope and advocacy. The 2022 Alumna Summa Laude Dignata award recognizes her service.
May 29, 2022
Why we walk
We were bipedal before we were human. But science still has much to explore about how we evolved—body and brain—to be walkers.
March 11, 2022
Remembering Desmond Tutu
Twenty years ago, the human rights leader delivered a message of hope to Seattle.
March 4, 2022
Caring for custodians
Evalynn Fae Taganna Romano, ’10, ’21, leads an effort recognize an often overlooked group in the pandemic: campus custodians.
December 11, 2021
Locally grown
Marie Spiker is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health, registered dietitian and enthusiastic kayaker. We asked her about her various passions.
December 4, 2021
Fruity, not healthy
Fruit drinks are often disguised as nutritious alternatives to soda. Researchers try to counter that narrative.
A call to action
Associate Professor Wendy Barrington, '12, brings a passion for health equity to her role as director of the Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health.
Fighting the infodemic
Twisted facts, fake news and social media spoofs can turn society upside down. One UW team is working to help us through the infodemic.
November 19, 2021
Nursing leader’s legacy
One of Seattle’s few Black nurses in the 1940s, Rachel Suggs Pitts helped create a network of support for her colleagues and nursing students.
September 11, 2021
Reframing what matters
Every autumn, the new academic year offers a fresh start. This year, many of us return with a new perspective shaped by the pandemic.
September 4, 2021
Crisis state
Washington has a shortage of mental-health workers and high demand for treatment. The UW is at the center of efforts to turn the tide.
Healthy collaboration
The UW’s six health sciences schools share a mission to improve care and soon will share a new building.
June 10, 2021
Pandemic parallels
Long lines for vaccines are nothing new to Darrell Salk, whose father created the polio vaccine.
Firearm study
The UW is researching handgun carrying among rural adolescents, in a three-year, $1.5 million study funded by the CDC.
November 29, 2020
For many UW retirees, service never stops
Retiring from the UW doesn’t end the story for faculty and staff. They are driven to serve their communities on a local or global scale.
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.
September 11, 2020
For our health
The UW is putting its combined brainpower into population health, improving lives around the world.
Our lives, disrupted
We asked three UW experts—a historian, a leader in education and an expert in infectious disease—how we might use this time of challenge and change to plan for a better future.
June 24, 2020
Students step up
Students from across the university have volunteered to assist in a variety of support efforts.
June 4, 2020
Smallpox slayer's wisdom
William Foege, ’61, was instrumental in wiping smallpox off the face of the Earth. The lessons he learned in that fight offer wisdom as we face COVID-19.
May 15, 2020
Front and center
With compassion, innovation and empathy, public health leader Patty Hayes strives to make life better for all of us.
December 9, 2019
Building pays tribute
The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health is a key part of the University’s public health mission.
September 2, 2019
Saving time
Benefits to daylight saving time? Let me shine some light on the ways it makes life better.
Smoke season
In the last five years, wildfires have grown larger and lasted longer, making summers uncomfortable and unhealthy in the Methow Valley.
March 1, 2019
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.”
August 30, 2018
The heart of Puerto Rico
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a team of UW engineers and scientists went to Puerto Rico to learn and to help.
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.
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.
March 1, 2017
![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/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
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.
June 1, 2016
Dying with dignity
Columns staff writer Julie Garner talks to two men facing death, and the people who care for them.
March 1, 2016
How does baby learn?
Researchers with the UW's I-LABS break new ground with their discoveries of how young minds develop.
September 1, 2015
True to self
As Terra Hoy and others in the UW community know, changing genders is fraught with challenges -- emotional, physical and societal.
Relationships first
Genetic ethicist Wylie Burke keeps people in mind as she studies advances in medicine and public health.
June 1, 2015
Hazy on the law
More than two years after Washington legalized marijuana, parents and teens may be hazy on the specifics of the law.
December 1, 2013
Distracted drivers
In Washington state’s first study to examine driver use of electronic devices, UW investigators saw that more than 8 percent of drivers were engaging with such devices behind the wheel, higher than previously estimated.
June 1, 2013
Fighting suicide
The multidisciplinary training Michael Phillips received at the UW made him an ideal person to pioneer research on the nature of suicide in China.
September 1, 2012
USDA report off base
If you fill your shopping cart with healthy foods, it will cost you less than if you purchased highly processed “junk” food full of high fat and sugar content, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Not so, says Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology in the UW School of Public Health.
June 1, 2012
Culture and cleanup
Decades of industrial and urban waste have badly contaminated South Seattle’s Duwamish waterway, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will determine the long-awaited, final cleanup plan of this Superfund site later this year.
Country care
The UW School of Medicine’s multi-regional medical program, WWAMI, is celebrating 40 years—and some serious accomplishments.
September 1, 2011
Gene warfare
In the future, global-health experts may be able to cast a genetic net over mosquitoes to prevent them from spreading malaria to people.
June 1, 2011
Hidden cost of transit
Many people are exposed to health and safety issues in the workplace, but how many think about the risk of the commute? Rick Neitzel, research scientist in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, does.
March 1, 2011
The science of gaming
UW faculty, students and alumni are using computer-game technology to solve some of humankind's most vexing problems.
December 1, 2010
Medicine for the masses
Using business, medical and engineering smarts, UW alumni are solving medical problems in Washington and beyond.
September 1, 2010
Food junked
The UW’s Center for Public Health Nutrition got in on the fat-busting act, pioneering new research into the relationship between convenient, cheap food and our nation’s ever-growing waistlines.
Healthy smiles
There’s a war going on, with UW pediatric dentists on one side and childhood tooth decay and its related troubles—such as pain, speech and learning problems, and nutritional issues—on the other.
June 1, 2010
Birth of a field
Mary Hebert is head of the UW Obstetric-Fetal Pharmacology Research Unit, which recently received a $5 million grant to continue its work on the clinical pharmacology of medications during pregnancy.
December 1, 2009
Turning to tech
Two University of Washington alums—Steve Singer, ’81, and Ryan Oftebro, ’95, ’03—are carrying on the School of Pharmacy’s tradition of pioneering innovations.
New prescription
The practice of pharmacy is changing these days, thanks in large part to the innovations developed by the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, a national leader in health-care research and in meeting the needs of the community.
September 1, 2009
Responding to H1N1
When a new influenza virus, Influenza A H1N1, or “swine flu,” emerged last spring, Anne Marie Kimball, a professor of epidemiology and health services at UW School of Public Health, was on the front lines of the information response.
Reaching out
“Where can you make the biggest difference?” It’s a question Annie Lam, ’97, senior lecturer in the University of Washington Department of Pharmacy, asks rhetorically, but her answer has been demonstrated clearly over the course of her UW career.
June 1, 2009
The first bioengineer
Wayne Quinton not only designed a laundry list of life-saving medical devices, but became the first practitioner of an entirely new field: bioengineering.
Sweet spot
Parents may be able to chalk up their children’s preference for the tooth-achingly sweet to growing pains. That’s the possibility raised by new research led by UW Professor of Dental Public Health Sciences Susan Coldwell.
March 1, 2009
Missing shots
Childhood vaccination rates are increasing, but not as quickly as many governments around the world have claimed. That's the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
September 1, 2008
Sick from cleaning
According to a study by Anne Steinemann, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs, many of today’s top-selling dryer sheets, detergents and plug-in deodorizers contain toxic chemicals.
March 1, 2008
Trouble in mind
UW researchers are trying to untangle the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease before it reaches epidemic proportions.
December 1, 2007
Joseph Eschbach, 1933-2007
Joseph Eschbach made a medical breakthrough that would improve the lives of more than a million people suffering from kidney disease.
Strong medicine
Some governments may shun his straight talk, but Chris Murray's prescriptions for global health could ultimately help all of us live better and longer.
$62M health grant
A new national consortium will enable researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients.
September 1, 2007
Dining on tradition
UW archaeologists are digging up information about the traditional diets of Native Americans, in the hopes of helping their descendants eat better and beat diabetes.
June 1, 2007
Bad blood
As many as 3 million Americans are carrying the hepatitis C virus — but most don’t even know it. The UW is trying to crack its code before more potential carriers get the bad news.
March 1, 2007
Immigrant mental health
Immigrants from Asia have lower rates of psychiatric disorders than American-born Asians and other native-born Americans, according to the first national epidemiological survey of Asian Americans in the United States.
December 1, 2006
New generation
UW scientists have made important first steps toward the day when they will be able to grow livers, hearts and other replacement tissue from stem cells.
September 1, 2006
50 years for the heart
Fifty years ago, the UW perfected its own heart-lung machine and did the first open-heart bypass surgery in the West. Now advances are coming so quickly that they could put future cardiac surgeons out of business.
June 1, 2006
Infant screening
A relatively simple screening process detects enzyme deficiencies in newborns, allowing treatment to begin before too much damage has been done.
June 1, 2005
Loss and recovery
Harborview Medical Center sees approximately 150 amputation cases a year. More than half of these surgeries come from traumatic injuries, as opposed to the disease- and age-related amputations done at most hospitals. As a result, Harborview is nationally recognized as a leader in amputation technology and techniques.
March 1, 2005
Lab debated
The University of Washington is holding community forums to discuss a possible Regional Biocontainment Laboratory that might be built near the Health Sciences Center on Seattle’s south campus.
Making waves
On Dec. 21, UW Bioengineering Professor Henry Lai could be found with a big smile across his face. Research into cell phone radiation that he and N.P. Singh had pioneered 10 years ago at the UW was finally being corroborated.
March 1, 2004
Nursing pioneer
Kathryn Barnard, the Spence Endowed Professor in the UW School of Nursing, was recognized for her groundbreaking research when she was presented with the 2003 Episteme Award at the Sigma Theta Tau International Convention.
Drastic measures
Stomach bypass surgery for the “super obese” Is more than a fad. The UW has a $1.5 million grant to better understand bariatric surgery and spinoffs that might lead to the ultimate diet pill.
Income-weight link
Healthy foods that aid in weight loss and provide a feeling of fullness cost more than energy-dense foods such as French fries, soft drinks, candy and cookies. The result: poor people are more likely to be overweight.
September 1, 2002
Diabetes discovery
Discovery of a gene that plays a major role in type 1 diabetes in rats and is present in nearly identical form in humans might shed light on the little understood processes of the thymus, a research team including University of Washington scientists announced.
March 1, 2001
Bitter by nature
When it comes to phytonutrients in vegetables, the demands of good taste and good health may be wholly incompatible.
September 1, 1998
Country doctors
From the Alaskan bush to the Wyoming range, the UW trains doctors in the rural Northwest—and many decide to stay there.
September 1, 1997
Vitamins could help asthmatics, research finds
Simply taking antioxidant vitamins could help asthmatics exposed to polluted air breathe easier.
Nurse midwives keep cost, Caesarean rates lower, study finds
Low-risk women who choose nurse midwives for their deliveries have fewer Caesarean sections, a UW study found.
Weight-loss idea
UW researchers created a mouse that can eat fat and still lose weight, but can the results be transferred to humans?
June 1, 1996
Modern plagues
Once beaten by miracle drugs, infectious diseases are back and stronger than ever.
March 1, 1996
Smoking, drinking warnings may backfire with older children
Could anti-alcohol and tobacco messages aimed at older children actually backfire? If they are extremely negative, they might, say UW researchers.
December 1, 1995
UW study links low folic acid levels to heart disease
UW researchers have found a "strong link" between diets lacking folic acid—found in high levels in orange juice, spinach and dried beans—and heart-related problems.
September 1, 1995
Estrogen-cancer link disproved
Women who take estrogen or a combination of estrogen and progestin as hormone replacement therapy apparently do not face an increased risk of breast cancer.
June 1, 1995
Below the belt
Work on male fertility and potency have also made the UW a national leader in advancing men's sexual health.
December 1, 1994
Binge drinking research
UW psychologists reduced the dangers of binge drinking in college students through specialized counseling.
New test for chlamydia
UW researchers have demonstrated new tests that can accurately detect the presence of chlamydia in a simple urine sample.
September 1, 1994
Freeze on cancer
Tumors in the prostate and liver have a new nemesis in the Pacific Northwest—a UW Medical Center machine that can freeze and destroy cancer cells.
SIDS research
UW medical student Michael Emery published the first experiment that links infant steroid hormones to breathing patterns during sleep.
June 1, 1994
In the crossfire
In the roaring political debate about how to curtail rampant violence, Harborview Medical Center is in the line of fire.
Calling the shots
William Foege, a 1961 graduate of the UW School of Medicine, has been named the 1994 UW Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus.
Top-10 programs
Four UW graduate programs are in the top 10 in their respective fields, according to a U.S. News and World Report survey published March 21.
Lasting impression
Dr. William Foege, took his first steps on the path to global eradication of smallpox when he attended the UW medical school in the late 1950s.
March 1, 1994
Angioplasty study
If you want to avoid heart bypass surgery, you may want to "bypass" a hospital that does low volume work in another heart procedure—coronary angioplasty.
Life-saving research
Through their discoveries about yeast, researchers have already saved millions of lives.
December 1, 1993
The human factor
Without human volunteers, vital UW research and the possible cures it generates wouldn't take place.