Tim Lambert / WITF
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s public health order intended to slow the spread of coronavirus went into effect Saturday, at a time when some hospitals say their intensive care units are full.
The order includes a ban on indoor dining at restaurants, capacity restrictions for businesses, limits on gatherings and the temporary closure of some entertainment venues.
It’s drawn swift criticism from some state Republicans in the general assembly. State House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff represents parts of Centre County and Mifflin County, which presently has the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in the state. Benninghoff released a statement saying the measures would “devastate lives and livelihoods” and would “not create personal responsibility.”
UPMC offers emergency medical training program in underserved communities Inspired by the Freedom House ambulance project, it is designed to offer employment where the pandemic created or furthered economic disparities.
, Associate Editor
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center along with the UPMC Health Plan has begun recruiting for its Freedom House 2.0 program that will train and employ two cohorts of emergency responders from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Beginning in the new year, the program will consist of two 10-week sessions that focus on teaching traditional EMS services along with nonemergency psychosocial training. Trainees will complete both an Emergency Medical Technician course and a community health worker course. Each trainee will receive one-on-one mentorship, shadowing opportunities across the healthcare field, and mental health and resiliency training.
MedCity News
A look at the diagnostics chapter of precision medicine
More than 80% of representatives of health systems have established genomic data management strategies or plan to do so within the next couple of years.
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Diagnostics are a critical part of precision medicine. They can be used to screen patients for breakthrough therapies, detect certain conditions, especially cancer, earlier. But this area of medical innovation is balanced between promising new developments in molecular diagnostics, genetic testing and liquid biopsies, the delivery of these tests, and the all important question of who pays for it.
More than 80% of representatives of health systems have established genomic data management strategies or plan to do so within the next couple of years, according to a report by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Connected Medicine and HIMSS Media, which surveyed 101 health system and hospital representatives in the U.S. The report indicat
A Very Short History of Pittsburgh
For Pittsburgh, geography and geology have been destiny. August 25, 2008
Geography comes first. Close upon the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, one gets a sense of westward flowing waters, but a map of Western Pennsylvania shows the Allegheny flowing south and the Monongahela north, almost at right angles to the Ohio.
A fourth river, the Potomac, comes into play by bringing the coast of Virginia close to the Monongahela and allowing for some tough navigation to connect Pittsburgh with the Atlantic Ocean. Lastly the mountains. The western slope of the Alleghenies lies some 40 miles from the Point. From there, it’s a straight 1,500-mile shot to the Rockies. Pittsburgh not only faces but opens the great heartland of America. Before the canals and railroads, the Ohio and Mississippi river systems were the interstate highways of their day.