Latest News from VACS
The majority of the estimated $206 billion resulting from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement have not gone to address smoking or public health. Following a similar settlement of a multi-state litigation, the state of Connecticut is expecting around $600 million to address the state’s opioid overdose crisis, which resulted in 1,340 overdose deaths in 2023 alone. To avoid the experience of the Tobacco funds, Yale faculty are proactively providing recommendations on how to spend these funds.
- March 12, 2024
The newly announced election brings the number of AAP members from Yale to 53.
- March 11, 2024
Most analyses regarding the excess risk of death during the COVID-19 pandemic have relied on summary data. However, a recent study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology instead analyzed individual patient-level data based on medical records from the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States.
- March 07, 2024Source: AIDSMap
Professor Keith Sigel of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, reported on a study of prostate cancer diagnoses and outcomes in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study. Using medical records and cancer registries, they compared cancer stage at diagnosis, survival after diagnosis and testing for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) prior to diagnosis in men with and without HIV.
- March 02, 2024Source: NBC News
Addiction treatment can mean anything from equine therapy to the peer-supported spiritual programming of 12-step recovery groups. Of the treatment options for opioid addiction, methadone and buprenorphine have the “strongest scientific evidence,” said Dr. David Fiellin, director of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine.
- January 17, 2024
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States. Unfortunately for American men, prostate cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers. The Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) Consortium sought to give physicians and other medical professionals guidance on how to determine treatment in patients with prostate cancer.
- December 07, 2023
A study led by VA Connecticut Healthcare Center/Yale researchers reveals ancestries around the world possess a shared genetic architecture for problematic alcohol use – habitual heavy drinking, accompanied by harmful consequences. Hang Zhou, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and of biomedical informatics & data science at Yale School of Medicine and VA Connecticut, and Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, and professor of genetics and of neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and VA Connecticut, were first and senior authors, respectively.
- November 07, 2023
Now in its second year, the Yale Conference for Alcohol Research and Education (YCARE) was held on September 30, 2023. Offering a comprehensive agenda of talks, panel discussions, and poster presentations, the all-day event brought together Yale's researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders under the banner of alcohol research. Bubu Banini, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (digestive diseases), Yale School of Medicine (YSM), spearheaded the conference, along with co-directors David Fiellin, MD, professor of medicine (general medicine) and emergency medicine, YSM, and public health, Yale School of Public Health; Graeme Mason, PhD, professor of radiology and biomedical imaging and of psychiatry, YSM; and Sherry McKee, PhD, professor of psychiatry, YSM.
- October 31, 2023Source: New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch
HIV Research Highlights from IDWeek 2023 featuring VACS research by Rachel Denyer and Jan Tate: Hepatitis B reactivation in PWH who have isolated hepatitis B core antibody and switched to non-hepatitis B-active ART is uncommon, but does occur.
- September 11, 2023Source: The New York Times
A recent study showed that a statin drug significantly lowered the risk of heart attacks and strokes among middle-aged and older people with the virus, featuring YSM's Amy Justice.