Recent media quotes from experts within UI Health Care

Peter Cram, M.D. DrKoop.com
Specialty hospitals, often partly owned by physicians who refer their own patients to them, are no better at cardiac procedures than ordinary community hospitals, a new study claims. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, acknowledges that specialty hospitals have produced findings that would indicate better care—such as lower death rates and shorter hospital stays. But those numbers are deceptive, said Cram, an assistant professor of medicine at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, who led this latest study of more than 42,000 Medicare patients undergoing cardiac procedures. “There are three main findings,” Cram said. “First, specialty hospitals are admitting patients who are healthier and wealthier. Second, these hospitals do many more bypass surgeries per year than local general hospital competitors. Third, after accounting for [these] differences in patient characteristics and volume, there are no statistically significant differences in outcome.”

Bradley Van Voorhis, M.D. USA Today
Sorting menopause symptoms from aging symptoms is tricky. For example, incontinence is more common in older women, said Van Voorhis, a gynecologic endocrinologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. But the NIH-sponsored Women’s Health Initiative found in 2002 that bladder control worsened in women on hormones, compared with those on a placebo, suggesting the problem is unrelated to menopause, he said. After listening to Van Voorhis and other speakers, an independent panel convened by the NIH concluded that only hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, and, probably, sleep disturbances were linked to declining estrogen.

Nancy Andreasen, M.D. ABC World News Tonight
Harvard University’s President Lawrence Summers’ suggestion that differences between the sexes might help explain the lack of women in math and science departments got him in all sorts of trouble. Nancy Andreasen, M.D., a neuroscientist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, says men and women may have different brains, but the cause is societal influences, not intrinsic aptitude. “I, as a young woman, was brought up to believe that I had great verbal abilities, but that I couldn’t do math and science. And you know, here I am, now, I’m a very successful scientist.”