Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Advancing Personalized Oral–Systemic Care Through Tongue Mapping, Lani Mcbeth Bs, Rdh

Metro Denver Dental Society Articulator Magazine

This article explores the role of Systemic Tongue Mapping (STM) as a complementary tool for advancing personalized oral-systemic care. Rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and examined through an integrative healthcare lens, STM encourages clinicians to assess tongue characteristics as potential indicators of systemic imbalance and inflammation. Lani McBeth, BS, RDH, discusses how tongue mapping can enhance patient education, support preventive care conversations and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. This article highlights how dental professionals can expand their role in whole-body wellness and early detection.

Integrated Thinking: How Mdds Is Connecting The Dots For Dentists In Oral-Systemic Health, Bryan Savage

Metro Denver Dental Society Articulator Magazine

In this President’s Message, Dr. Bryan Savage reflects on the growing importance of oral-systemic health education and the evolving role of dentistry in whole-body healthcare. The article highlights MDDS initiatives, including the Integrated Healthcare Summit and Diagnostic Testing Pavilion at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention (RMDC), designed to help clinicians better understand the mouth-body connection and implement preventive strategies in practice. The article calls for dental professionals to remain engaged in lifelong learning and interdisciplinary care.

Leadership Revisited, Allen Vean Dmd

Metro Denver Dental Society Articulator Magazine

This Reflections examines the importance of communication, collaboration and human connection in dental practice management. Dr. Allen Vean draws parallels between healthcare teams and organizational leadership models, and discusses how trust, morale and team engagement directly impact patient care and practice culture. The article also explores the evolving role of AI and technology in dentistry while emphasizing that human interaction remains essential to long-term success. The author implores dentists to foster stronger team relationships to create patient-centered practice environments.

Calcium Signaling And Postsynaptic Density Dynamics: The Roles Of Calmodulin In Synaptic Protein Regulation, Keyaa Dilip Shah, Yonghong Zhang

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Calcium signaling in neuronal cells is the principal mechanism underlying learning and synaptic plasticity, whereas the postsynaptic density (PSD) is an important center where calcium-dependent processes are organized and regulated. This review explores the roles of calmodulin (CaM) in facilitating calcium-dependent modulation of the activities of synaptic proteins in the PSD. We focus on the molecular processes through which CaM interacts with calcium signals to regulate the function, localization, and interactions of central synaptic proteins, including calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), membrane-associated guanylate kinases (MAGUKs), and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. We aim to summarize recent advances in structural, biochemical, and imaging …

Dean's Update, June 2026, Neil W. Schluger

SOM Dean's Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Reflections And Revisionism: Rethinking The U.S. Response To Covid-19, Wendy E. Parmet

Michigan Law Review

A review of In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us. By Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee.

A Systematic Review Of Intrusion Detection Systems For Internet Of Medical Things: Performance, Efficiency, Explainability, And Generalization, Oswald Adohinzin, Youssef Harrath

Research & Publications

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has transformed health care delivery through medical devices, remote patient monitoring, and real-time clinical decision support. However, the proliferation of IoMT devices introduces security vulnerabilities that put patient safety and data privacy at risk. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have emerged as essential components for protecting IoMT networks from cyberattacks. This article presents a systematic review of IoMT-IDS research, analyzing 53 high-quality papers published between 2020 and 2025, identified through database searches spanning 2016–2025 across IEEE Xplore, Springer, ScienceDirect, and ACM Digital Library. We organize the literature through a comprehensive taxonomy spanning classical machine learning …

Operation Bite Block, Jennifer Aline Robles, Laura Marie Strobbe, William Pearce Graham, Annabelle Katherine Thalken

Mechanical Engineering

Current dental bite blocks, or mouth props, are typically manufactured in fixed sizes, and often result in patient discomfort, reduced procedural efficiency, and the need for dental offices to maintain multiple product sizes. This project sought to design, prototype, and validate an adjustable dental bite block capable of accommodating a wide range of patient mouth openings while maintaining comfort, structural integrity, sterilizability, and operator usability. Working in collaboration with Dr. Alan Latta, a practicing dentist in San Luis Obispo, the design process incorporated stakeholder feedback, patent and market research, engineering analysis, and iterative prototyping to develop a solution that addresses …

Cytosignal Detects Locations And Dynamics Of Ligand-Receptor Signaling At Cellular Resolution From Spatial Transcriptomic Data, Jialin Liu, Hiroaki Manabe, Weizhou Qian, Shion Orikasa, Javid Ghaemmaghami, Yichen Wang, Yichen Gu, Angel Ka Yan Chu, Gaurav Gadhvi, Yuxuan Song, Patrick Mcclinden, Vibha N Lama, Noriaki Ono, Joshua D Welch

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cells communicate through ligand-receptor (LR) signaling interactions, but identifying when and where these interactions are active remains challenging. We developed CytoSignal to infer the locations and dynamics of cell-cell communication at cellular resolution from spatial transcriptomic data. Here we show that our cellular resolution, spatially resolved signaling scores enable several important analyses-identifying spatial gradients in signaling strength, quantifying the locations of contact-dependent and diffusible interactions, detecting signaling-associated genes and identifying differential signaling across multisample data. Additionally, we can predict the temporal dynamics of a signaling interaction at each spatial location. We experimentally validate our results in situ by proximity ligation …

Paidar: Private Sector Allied For Inclusive Delivery Of Accessible Reproductive Health, Population Council Pakistan

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

Pakistan continues to face critical challenges in increasing contraceptive use and reducing the unmet need for family planning (FP). While public-sector facilities remain key providers, a substantial proportion of healthcare seekers rely on private family physicians as their initial point of contact.

Recognizing this strategic opportunity, the PAIDAR study was designed to strengthen the role of private- sector male family physicians in FP service delivery. Implemented across six diverse districts of Punjab, supported by Health Care Commission Punjab and Department of Health and Population Punjab, the intervention enhanced providers' capacity to deliver quality FP counselling, contraceptive services, structured referrals, and …

Making Better Use Of Data For Improved Health Service Delivery In Punjab: Transforming Data Into Action Evidence, Population Council Pakistan

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

Strong health systems depend not only on collecting data, but on using it effectively for planning, monitoring, and decision-making. To strengthen evidence-based management across Punjab's health sector, the Population Council partnered with the Health and Population Department, Punjab, particularly the Health Information and Service Delivery Unit (HISDU), to improve the utilization of routine health information. This brief summarizes the collaboration's focus on three complementary areas: (1) Development of the ASET (Analytics for Service Efficiency and Tracking) platform to transform routine data into actionable information; (2) Strengthening the Capacity of Data Users through specialized training in data analytics, visualization, and use …

Beyond The Mortality Paradox: Redesigning Uti Care For People Living With Dementia Through Diagnostic Stewardship, Rob E. Carpenter

Human Resource Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

Managing urinary tract infections (UTI) in people living with dementia presents a mortality paradox: clinicians must balance the risks of antibiotic overuse against the dangers of delayed treatment in high-risk phenotypes. Standard diagnostic criteria often rely on classic, localizing markers like fever and dysuria. However, these gatekeeper signs are frequently absent or blunted in dementia care due to age-associated immune dysregulation and immunosenescence. Consequently, infections often manifest as nonspecific neurobehavioral changes, leading to predictable misclassification and harmful diagnostic delays. This paper reframes UTI management in dementia as a clinical pathway and measurement architecture problem. We propose a verification-first service pathway …

Ai In Healthcare: Regulatory Guidelines And Judge-Made Negligence Principles For Ai Implementers, Gary K. Y. Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare may, notwithstanding its potential benefits, result in harm to patients from allegedly negligent acts or omissions by hospitals and medical doctors. In such circumstances, how should the principles in the tort of negligence (duty of care, breach, causation, remoteness of damage, and defences) respond to AI innovations in healthcare? In particular, how may the standard of care expected of hospitals and medical doctors be informed by regulatory guidelines? We refer to case law precedents and regulatory guidelines on the roles and responsibilities of doctors and hospitals as AI implementers. Importantly, they prompt …

Advance Care Planning In Metastatic Lung Cancer Patients: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Khanh H. Thai

Student Theses

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is essential in achieving goal-concordant care for patients with metastatic lung cancer (MLC), yet it remains underutilized.

Local problem: Despite its benefits, ACP has been inconsistently integrated into outpatient oncology settings, and a baseline evaluation at the project site revealed that only 11% of patients with MLC had ACP documented in the outpatient care clinic.

Methods: This Quality Improvement initiative implemented a formal, Nurse Practitioner (NP)-led intervention into routine oncology care. Using a quasi-experimental nonrandomized design, 13 eligible patients diagnosed with MLC without prior ACP documentation were enrolled in a four-week study. These participants were …

Hydroxyurea Interferes With Point-Of-Care Creatinine Testing In Children With Sickle Cell Anemia, Ruth Namazzi, Robert Opoka, Charles Ssuuna, Michael Goings, Kathryn Mcelhinney, Dibyadyuti Datta, Russell Ware, Chandy John, Andrea Conroy

Paediatrics and Child Health, East Africa

Objective To evaluate the performance of the point-of-care i-STAT device for creatinine measurement in Ugandan children with sickle cell anemia (SCA), and to determine the clinical impact of hydroxyurea-associated assay interference.

Results description This secondary analysis was nested within a randomized clinical trial involving 248 Ugandan children with SCA. The mean age at enrollment was 32 months, and 115/248 (46.2%) initiated hydroxyurea during 12 months of follow-up as part of routine clinical care. At enrollment, creatinine values measured by i-STAT and reference laboratory testing were clinically comparable. At follow-up, children receiving hydroxyurea had significantly higher creatinine values measured by iSTAT …

Paracrine Signals From Hiv-1-Infected Immune Cells Reprogram Cervical Cancer Pathways, Charles Olwal, Ujjwal Rathore, Sara Makanani, Prashant Kaushal, Immy Ashley, Manisha Ummadi, Vincent Appiah, Alexandra Lindsey Zune, Sophie Blanc, Elkanah Orang'o

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

No abstract provided.

Pacific Rxtracts - June 2026, Pacific Rxtracts

Pacific RxTracts

Articles:

• FDA Approves First Non-Antipsychotic Drug for Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease Agitation
• FDA Approves Sparsentan for Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis
• Lunsotogene Rings in a New Era of Gene Therapy for Hearing Loss
• Sex Differences in Breakthrough Stroke Outcomes Despite Oral Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation
• Asundexian for Secondary Prevention After Ischemic Stroke or TIA
• Marstacimab Prophylaxis in Hemophilia A/B with Inhibitors: A New Purpose
• FDA Approves First-in-Class Weekly Anifrolumab Autoinjector for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus 
• Cemdisiran in Generalized Myasthenia Gravis
• Medicare’s Impact on Early Sepsis Management and Discharge to Home
• Maralixibat Shows Broader Therapeutic Benefit for Children with Alagille Syndrome 
• Reaching the Littlest …

Response To Kodali Et Al., “Hailey-Hailey Disease: A Review And An Approach To Management”, Christina Tolete, Teresa Duong, Adam Friedman, Leonardo Tjahjono

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Oxytocin Dynamics And Synchrony In Mother-Child Dyads: Long-Term Neuroendocrine Effects Of Maternal Institutionalization, Olga V Burenkova, Ekaterina M Shurdova, Victoria Manasevich, Marina Norkina, Polina E Pashkina, Aleksei A Podturkin, Alena Vodneva, Marina A Zhukova, Elena L Grigorenko

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Early institutional care (IC; orphanage) is a severe form of early psychosocial deprivation with documented long-term effects on social and caregiving functioning. Despite longstanding interest in oxytocin (OT) as a key neuroendocrine modulator of affiliative behavior and stress, OT dynamics and synchrony during mother-child interaction among mothers with IC history remain poorly understood. To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize maternal and child OT responses and dyadic OT covariation in this population. We measured salivary OT in mothers with IC history and mothers raised in biological family care (BFC), and in their children, at baseline and after …

Adjunctive Psychosocial Interventions And Opioid Abstinence Among Patients Receiving Buprenorphine: A Randomized Clinical Trial., Michelle R. Lent, Emily E Hurstak, Kevin G Lynch, Emily Loscalzo, Kimberly Mazur, Helen L Lugo, Karen L Dugosh

PCOM Scholarly Works

IMPORTANCE: Adjunctive psychosocial treatments are recommended for many using medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), but it is unclear which approaches can best enhance treatment outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the comparative effectiveness of 2 psychosocial treatments, peer recovery support (PRS) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), on opioid abstinence when used as adjunctive therapies to office-based buprenorphine treatment in adults with opioid use disorder (OUD).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This randomized clinical trial included US adults diagnosed with OUD referred for care at 5 federally qualified health centers with office-based addiction treatment programs by their clinicians from 2020 to 2024. Participants were …

Clinical Presentations Of Pemphigus Vulgaris In Patients With Skin Of Color: A Systematic Literature Review, Haya Alkiswani, Simona Alomary, Jared Boetes, Nicole J. Baker, Susan C. Taylor

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

Background: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a rare, often severe autoimmune disease affecting skin and mucous membranes. Despite the scarce literature on PV in skin of color (SOC) populations (Fitzpatrick III-VI), existing studies suggest that there are misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, and recurrence of symptoms in SOC patients with PV. Objective: This review explores the clinical presentations of PV reported in patients with SOC, diagnostic challenges and delays, treatments, and patient outcomes to allow for an improved understanding of how PV manifests clinically in darker skin. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted using articles found in PubMed and Embase. Two independent …

Practice Patterns In Pediatric Cardiothoracic Presurgical Conferences: A Multicenter Survey Study, Britney Reed, Poonam Puranik, Andrew Rodenbarger, Mira Trivedi, Dilachew A Adebo, Gary Beasley, Louis Bezold, M Jay Campbell, Michael R Carr, Joshua Daily, Mark Debrunner, Erica Del Grippo, Carlen G Fifer, Timothy M Hoffman, Susan R Hupp, Joshua D Kurtz, Gira Morchi, Carl Owada, Renuka Peterson, Michael D Puchalski, Ryan A Romans, Arwa Saidi, Rajesh U Shenoy, Anoop K Singh, Robert D Tunks, Thomas M Yohannan, Carolyn M Wilhelm, Jyoti K Patel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pediatric cardiothoracic surgeries are high-stakes, complex procedures, typically undergoing prior review at multidisciplinary conferences. This study evaluates practice patterns of conferences throughout the United States (US). Surveys were distributed to fellowship program directors or division directors in 124 US pediatric cardiology centers seeking information on conference logistics, fellow roles, quality improvement (QI), and satisfaction. All 47 responding centers (response rate 38%) conduct presurgical conferences, mostly on a weekly basis (92%) lasting 60-120 min (79%). The conferences are solely virtual (19%) or hybrid (81%). High-volume centers (> 300 surgical cases/year) are more likely to hold multiple conferences (13/20 vs 7/27, p <  0.01) and less likely to designate a moderator (11/20 vs 22/26, p = 0.027). Categorical pediatric cardiology fellows at 33 centers present clinical data (97%), echocardiograms (85%), catheterizations (82%), and cross-sectional imaging (39%), typically beginning in their first year. Most centers report that minor (98%) or major changes (51%) are made to patient management at least "sometimes." Responders rate conferences as very important (median 10/10 on a 10-point Likert scale, IQR 9-10), but satisfaction is more modest (median 7/10, IQR 7-9). Only 17% of centers have a formal QI process. Comments from 42 centers reveal positive themes of collaboration (68%) but also concerns about lengthy (30%) or inefficient (36%) discussion. Conclusions: This survey highlights common practices for pediatric cardiothoracic presurgical conferences. Conferences are collaborative and seen as highly impactful. However, satisfaction varies, and QI efforts are infrequent. These findings highlight opportunities for process improvement and standardization.

Triple Tracer Heterogeneity In Dual Neoplasia: The "Three Musketeers" In Discerning Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Paraganglioma In The Same Patient, Shyam Kumar Ravada, Gaurav Malhotra, Aaditya Daga, Anurag R Lila, Saba Memon, Tushar Bandgar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary (HNSCCUP) comprises 2%-5% of head and neck squamous cell cancers (HNSCC). Its coexistence with abdominal paraganglioma is exceedingly rare. We report a unique case of a 48-year-old male with HNSCCUP presenting as cervical lymphadenopathy and a coexisting abdominal paraganglioma. 18 F-FDG showed uptake in both lesions, while 68 Ga-DOTATATE was avid only in paraganglioma, and 68 Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 was avid only in cervical nodes. These differential uptake patterns reflect distinct tumor biology and underscore the potential for tailoring theranostic treatment strategies with 177 Lu/ 90 Y isotopes for FAPI-avid squamous cell cancers …

Neuroinflammation And Neuropathology In A Novel Tau, Amyloid-Beta And Alpha-Synuclein Co-Pathology Model, Jhodi Mickayla Webster

ETDs from 2020-2029

Neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) often present with overlapping proteinopathies rather than aggregated proteins in isolation. Amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau are found in a substantial proportion of idiopathic PD cases, while α-synuclein (α-syn) pathology is present in over half of AD cases. The presence of these co-pathologies is associated with accelerated cognitive decline and increase mortality in these patients. In parallel, neurodegenerative diseases are increasingly recognized as being shaped by interactions between central nervous system (CNS) pathology and the immune system. Despite this, most experimental animal models of neurodegenerative disease examine single pathologies in …

The Healthcare Transition Experiences Of Emerging Adults With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Leslie Noojin Pitts

ETDs from 2020-2029

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of disorders characterized by enzyme deficiencies impairing adrenal hormone production and requiring lifelong management. Individuals with CAH experience increased morbidity and mortality due to the underlying condition, steroid exposure, and inadequate preventative care. Despite clinical guidelines recommending a structured healthcare transition (HCT), little is known about the HCT experiences of emerging adults with CAH. Understanding these experiences is critical for identifying practice gaps and developing interventions to improve health outcomes. This qualitative descriptive study explored the HCT experiences, challenges, and outcomes of emerging adults with CAH, as guided by the refined Social Ecological …

Investigation Of Warfarin–Human Serum Albumin Binding By Ultrafast Affinity Extraction Using Single- And Dual-Column Affinity Microcolumn Systems, Samiul Alim

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation examined the interaction of warfarin with human serum albumin (HSA) by using affinity chromatography, with particular emphasis on ultrafast affinity extraction (UAE) and affinity microcolumns. HSA affinity supports were prepared by immobilizing HSA onto diol-bonded silica via Schiff base chemistry and used to prepare affinity microcolumns for chromatographic studies under physiological-like conditions at pH 7.4 and 37.0 °C. UAE studies were performed to investigate the effects of residence time, flow rate, and column configuration on the measured apparent free fraction of warfarin and on the calculated apparent binding parameters. The results showed that the measured apparent free fraction …

Robotic-Assisted Pedicle Screw Placement Achieves High Accuracy And Narrows The Experience Gap: A Preclinical Evaluation, Anna T. Reza, Matthias Walper, Mitchell K. Ng, Paul G. Mastrokostas, Andrew S. Lee, Rafael G. Rafael, Kornelis A. Poelstra, Ratliff K. John, Rajiv K. Sethi, Michael A. Mont

Rothman Institute Papers

To assess a robotic-assisted system versus open manual techniques to: (1) compare pedicle screw accuracy between fellows and attendings with and without robotic assistance, and (2) evaluate executed versus planned trajectory fidelity relative to prior reports. Robotic-assisted spine systems aim to improve the accuracy, reproducibility, and safety of pedicle screw placement. Limited evidence compares outcomes across differing surgeon experience levels. A total of 255 thoracolumbar pedicle screws were placed in synthetic torsos simulating adult degenerative anatomy. Four surgeons (two fellows, two attendings) each placed half their screws using open fluoroscopy-guided techniques and half using a minimally invasive percutaneous approach with …

Social Media Is A Juggernaut: Lagged Correlation Analysis Using Ngram Data On “Internet” And “Social Media” With Amplification By The Advent Of The “Iphone”, William Zywiak, Gao Niu, Nicolas Petrell, Victoria Nichele, Kirsten Hokeness

Mathematics and Economics Faculty Journal Articles

The amount of new information transmitted per day can be overwhelming. The data available through Ngram Viewer allows statistical examination to determine the most salient topics, as well as lagged correlation and lagged variance to support possible causal connections between concepts. Using this database, we determined that COVID, crypto, microplastics, and especially social media are important topics of the last few years. We also present results that suggest the development of the internet and the iPhone fueled the prominence of social media, and the access of the iPhone also increased access to the internet.

A Word From The Writing Team (June 2026), Pam Walter, Mfa, Laura Deloretta, Phd

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Bone Health And Variation On Saw Mark Signatures, Lily Ambrose

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

Bone health and structural variation are multifactorial. Population, environment, age, diet, and health influence the overall functional morphology of bone and its response to stressors. Reduced cortical porosity, trabecular thinning, and low bone mass are common indicators of age-related and pathological changes, affecting a significant portion of the population. Because of this, bones encountered in medicolegal investigations often differ from what is considered “normal.” The structural integrity of bone needs to be considered because density influences mechanical strength and response to external forces. In criminal dismemberment cases, forensic scientists analyze saw marks to identify tool class and reconstruct events. While …