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Clinical Trials
When you participate in a clinical trial, you can play a more active role in your own health care, gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available, and help others by contributing to medical research.
Calendar of Events
September 7 — A Walk in the Park. Join us for a walk to benefit Cure Kids Cancer, a new campaign of Children's Miracle Network that helps raise awareness and support for UC Davis pediatric cancer programs. Cost: $25. Location: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. For information: Call guest relations at (707) 644-4000, ext. 374 or visit www.walkintheparks.org.
September 8 — Breastfeeding class. Nutrition in the lactating woman will be discussed. Topics include how to breastfeed, how to get the infant on and off the nipple, and what to expect. UC Davis Medical Group Patients: $20, Community: $30. Register online.
Building a virtual world
to help bioterrorism training
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the anthrax scare that followed, public health officials have been working to prepare both emergency personnel and health-care workers to respond quickly and efficiently to a bioterrorism attack.
In an attempt to overcome some of the financial and logistical barriers inherent in large-scale mock-disaster drills for emergency training, UC Davis researchers developed and tested a new Web-based virtual reality environment that allows health-care workers to practice how they would distribute antibiotics in an emergency from the comfort of a desktop computer. The results of the pilot study were published earlier this year in the journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science.
"Large-scale mock-disaster events typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to run, and are nearly impossible to set up at the busy public landmarks, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, that are thought to be likely targets," said Peter Yellowlees, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
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There is no scientific evidence to support the claims of products that purport to increase muscle size, strength, speed and energy, or otherwise enhance athletic performance.
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Spotlight on Staff
Breaking through cultural and language barriers
When Elena Morrow came to the United States in 1992 as an immigrant from Cherkasy, Ukraine, she faced the daunting challenge of bridging two cultures. Sixteen years later, she's bridging a similar gap by helping to surmount cultural and language differences that can pose a barrier between health-care providers and patients.
"Quality medical care depends on good communication between patients and health-care professionals," says Morrow, a supervisor for Medical Interpreting Services at UC Davis Health System. "When patients have trouble communicating with their doctors, they are less likely to understand their illness, talk about their symptoms or follow a treatment schedule."
Helping to break potential language barriers for patients at UC Davis Health System are 46 staff members who provide interpreting services in 17 languages and written translation services in five languages. Morrow oversees their work and knows their jobs intimately, having joined the health system in 1996 as a written translator for Russian and Ukrainian languages. She advanced to a full-time administrative assistant in 2001 and assumed her current position as supervisor in 2004.
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