Keck Medicine in the News is a weekly digest of recent news stories highlighting medical news and faculty mentions of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Keck Medical Center of USC.  For more information, or to share a news story to be included, please call (323) 442-2830.

By USC Health Sciences Public Relations and Marketing

An April 1 article in the Los Angeles Times referred to Wilbert Mason, professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine, regarding the inadvisability of intentionally exposing children to chicken pox.

A March 29 article in the Los Angeles Times noted that the former building for Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center appeared in the opening credits of the series “General Hospital.”

A March 28 post in the Herald Online noted that Anand Pandya, associate professor of clinical psychiatry and vice-chair of clinical affairs at the Keck School of Medicine, was slated to discuss gun violence and mental health at a town hall meeting in West Hollywood.

On March 28, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas Sayles, USC senior vice president for university relations, is part of a new commission charged with examining Los Angeles’ city finances. The story mentioned the recent signing of the development agreement for the USC Village, and quoted Andrea Hricko, professor of clinical preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, about the commission. KPCC-FM also covered the commission's creation.

A March 27 article in the Beverly Hills Courier reported that Alan S. Wayne will be appointed professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine and associate director for pediatric oncology at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Beverly Hills Courier posted a second article about Wayne's new role here.

A March 27 article in the Beverly Hills Courier noted the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation's (ARCS) support of the Keck School of Medicine and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A March 27 broadcast on CBS News featured a study by Simon Gayther, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, and colleagues, identifying 74 new single nucleotide polymorphisms — or genetic spelling mistakes — that are associated with increased occurrence of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer. This work “could lead to the identification of common biomarkers and therapeutic targets for intervention across several disease sites,” Gayther said. Nature, Daily Mail (U.K.), The Daily Beast, Voice of America, Times of India (India), Aljazeera English (Qatar) and The Financial Express also featured the study.

On March 27, the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel cited an op-ed by Ken Murray, retired clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, about how doctors view end-of-life care.

A March 26 story in the Daily Tech covered research by Neeraj Sood, associate professor of clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical economics and policy at the USC School of Pharmacy, and colleagues, finding that the “test and treat” model of prevention for HIV could result in more drug-resistant strains of the virus.

A March 26 story in the Los Angeles Times quoted Pinghui Feng, associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine, about coronavirus infections.

A March 26 article on MobiHealthNews highlighted an episode of CNN's "The Next List" that features Leslie Saxon, professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine.

A March 26 article on Huffington Post noted that Mark Humayun, Cornelius Pings Professor of Biomedical Sciences and professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine and USC Viterbi School, led the Artificial Retina Project and developed the Argus II retinal prosthesis.

A March 26 article in Time magazine quoted Breck Nichols, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine, who co-authored one of a pair of studies on medical interns and the impact of long training hours, published concurrently in JAMA Internal Medicine. “For most programs the significant reduction in work hours has not been accompanied by any increase in funding to off-load the work. As a result, though many programs have made some attempts to account for this lost work in other ways, the end result is that current interns have about 20 less hours each week to complete the same or only slightly less work. If we know that timed tests result in more errors than untimed ones, we should not be surprised that giving interns less time to complete the same amount of work would increase their errors as well,” said Nichols. ABC News, Fox News, CBS News, Red Orbit, Times of India (India), and UPI also covered the research.