News and Stories

News to Empower. Stories to Inspire.

Celebrate an incredible patient success story. Explore a clinical breakthrough. Discover news that shapes the future of health care.

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Health Lab

Michigan Medicine's daily online publication featuring news and stories about the future of healthcare. 

Michigan Answers

At Michigan Medicine, we believe there’s a difference between an answer and a Michigan Answer.

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A medical news magazine for alumni, faculty and staff, and friends of Michigan Medicine.

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The Michigan Medicine Podcast Network offers podcasts on health, wellness, research, and evolving medical education.

Republishing and Subscribing

REPUBLISHING: Except where otherwise noted, all articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. You are free to copy, distribute, adapt, transmit, or make commercial use of this work as long as you attribute Michigan Medicine as the original creator and include a link to this article. Images from stock image sources such as Getty Images may ONLY be used by University of Michigan users.

SUBSCRIBING: We send out weekly email newsletters with stories from Michigan Health Lab; sign up here.

Want to get every story posted to this site, as soon as it appears? You can! We offer a free RSS feed with the most recent stories published on the Michigan Health Lab site. Its address is michiganmedicine.org/healthlab-feed.xml .

The feed will deliver a headline and link to you whenever something new is posted. You can choose to get RSS feeds delivered into your email program, into a web browser extension, or into an app on your phone or tablet. Or, you can “follow” a feed using a news service. 

Email: If the email program you use is able to handle RSS subscriptions, you can add the address of an RSS feed into the appropriate place in the program and it will automatically get the subscription started. For instance, in Microsoft Outlook, follow these instructions. If your email program doesn’t support RSS feeds (for instance, Gmail) you can search for a free RSS-to-email service on the web and tell it to send you an email every time a new story is posted to an RSS feed you subscribe to. 

Browser add-ons: Most modern web browsers allow you to use little programs called “extensions” or “add ons” to expand what the browser can do for you. Think of them like apps, but for your browser rather than your phone.  

If you go to the settings menu of your browser, you should be able to get to a ‘store’ where you can search for extensions. Search in the store to find an RSS reader extension that will allow you to display the up-to-date stories from an RSS feed in a browser window. You may have to create a free account with the maker of the extension. 

Apps and News aggregators: If you search the app store or market for your smartphone, you can find apps that let you pull in news from RSS feeds and see the latest posts every time you open the app. Some of them may be offered by a company that also makes a browser extension by the same name, so you can create an account once and get RSS feed stories fed to you on both your phone and your computer. You can also use news aggregator sites such as Google News and Apple News to follow Michigan Medicine as a news source.  

From Health Lab

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Health Lab

What’s the latest on 7-OH and kratom availability and addiction care?

The United States Drug Enforcement Agency has extended public comment on proposed temporary rescheduling of 7-OH and has rescheduled three other synthetic opioids, effectively removing them the market, leaving natural leaf kratom available amid a shortage of addiction treatment providers.
microbes inside gut yellow
Health Lab

New oral nanomedicine boosts effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies

University of Michigan researchers developed an oral drug that can increase the ability of T cells to attack tumors. The drug uses the microbial metabolite 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, which is derived from dietary fiber.
kid at table not wanting to eat breakfast with parent blurred in background white coloring milk on table
Health Lab

Many parents face challenges getting kids to eat a healthy breakfast before school

Three-quarters of parents report at least one barrier to their child starting the day with a healthy meal on a typical school day, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
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Health Lab

5 things to know about ALS

A Michigan Medicine expert answers questions about this degenerative neurological disease and the work in process to defeat it.
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Health Lab

A first-of-its-kind treatment for mastocytosis

A new drug called Avapritinib achieved longterm safety approval for indolent systemic mastocytosis.
Microscope images of prostate cancer cells
Health Lab

New drug combination may help treat advanced prostate cancer

University of Michigan researchers found that combining BET bromodomain and DNMT inhibitors may slow the growth of treatment-resistant prostate cancer by targeting transdifferentiated tumors.

From the Press Room

See all News Releases
Rogel Cancer Center with trees and blue sky
News Release

Rogel Cancer Center names Kaffenberger to deputy director role

The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has named Samuel Kaffenberger, MD, as deputy director for cancer clinical services.
News Release

U-M Board of Regents names C. Cybele Raver as choice for 17th president

U-M Board of Regents names C. Cybele Raver as choice to become University of Michigan president
Woman sits with head in hands
News Release

The Sixth Vital Sign: Your Wellbeing

Learn why comprehensive cancer centers screen for emotional distress and how support helps patients cope with uncertainty, symptoms and cancer treatment.
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News Release

Understanding Your Pathology Report

Get advice for what to do – and what not to do – when preparing for a surgery or biopsy, and when pathology results land in your patient portal.
A labyrinth made of flowers
News Release

Pathway to Peace

Rogel Cancer Center support services offers a finger labyrinth—a small version of a walking labyrinth designed to be traced with your finger–can calm the nervous system and bring your mind to the present moment.
News Release

University of Michigan Health Liver Transplant Program Earns Top Five National Ranking for Transplant Access

The U-M Health Liver Transplant Program is dedicated to decreasing waitlist time to improve patient outcomes

Connect with Michigan Medicine

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Press Room

The latest from our media team, plus resources for members of the press.

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    Public Relations
    Michigan Medicine Department of Communication
    North Campus Administrative Complex (NCAC)
    2901 Hubbard Street
    Suite 2400 SPC 2435
    Ann Arbor, MI. 48109-2435
    Phone: 734-764-2220

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    They found their Michigan Answer. So can you.

    Michigan Answers

    Michigan Answers blend over a century of teaching, research, and patient care with a passion for transforming lives, pushing the limits of what's possible. They inspire confidence, hope, and the pathway to breakthroughs.

    Shirtless boy with hospital tube smiling and wearing large green Hulk gloves

    Bentley's Michigan Answer

    Bentley's Michigan Answer

    As Marguerita Booth had never heard of a child being born with their organs on the outside of their body. And yet as she lay in the darkened room of her first ultrasound of her first pregnancy, she was suddenly introduced to a condition that surprisingly affects 1 in every 3600 babies.

    Learn more about Bentley
    Man shaving in front of mirror with white and blue striped shower curtain in the background

    Kade's Michigan Answer

    Kade's Michigan Answer

    Alone. Scared. Never knowing who to trust or where to turn for help. That’s how Kade Fitzgerald of Jackson, Michigan lived the first 32 years of his life. Assigned female at birth, Kade knew at age 6 that he was meant to be a man.

    Read Kade's story
    Black woman holding two sleeping babies wearing pink patterned sleepers and with nasal tubes facing each other

    Merriah and Melliah's Michigan Answer

    Merriah and Melliah's Michigan Answer

    Few moments eclipse the joy of discovering that you’re pregnant with twins. But for 37-year-old Merrick and 37-year-old Mychal, the news that they’d be having fraternal girls with an expected delivery date of Christmas Day 2020 made the news even more exciting.

    Read Merriah and Melliah's story
    Little boy in green shirt and blue pants holding a blue toy airplane

    Carter's Michigan Answer

    Carter's Michigan Answer

    Carter Hilton celebrated his sixth birthday by doing what he loves most: running around his backyard, dancing with his younger brother, and being chased throughout the house by his mom. It helps that Carter is a naturally exuberant child. It also helps that Michigan Medicine performed the first in-womb spina bifida surgery in Michigan nearly four months before Carter was born.

    Read Carter's story
    Black woman in white coat and wearing blue surgical gloves holding scientific instrument in a lab

    Sierra's Michigan Answer

    Sierra's Michigan Answer

    Imagine two patients. Both the same age and height. The same gender and race. Both have a similar medical history. Two people, almost identical in every way. So, why does one of them, seemingly at random, develop diabetes?

    Read Sierra's story
    Female doctor wearing scrubs and glasses with large surgical lights behind her

    Dr. Valbuena's Michigan Answer

    Dr. Valbuena's Michigan Answer

    Most aspiring physicians study medicine with the hopes of saving lives, being on the cutting edge of research, or developing the latest therapies and technologies. For Dr. Valeria Valbuena, it was all of the above, plus one additional life-affirming goal.

    Read Dr. Valbuena's story
    Man gesturing at glass board filled with numbers with a young man standing in the background

    Dr. Vydiswaran's Michigan Answer

    Dr. Vydiswaran's Michigan Answer

    What if the true power of social media isn’t found in a like, tweet or follow? For an emerging field of research taking place at Michigan Medicine, it’s the data inside social media that may have the power to give patients bigger answers and better outcomes.

    Read Dr. Vydiswaran's story
    Male doctor holding tiny pacemaker in his hand

    Dr. Cunnane's Michigan Answer

    Dr. Cunnane's Michigan Answer

    Since 1958, millions of lives have been saved by what could arguably be considered as medicine’s biggest breakthrough – the pacemaker. And while its technology has dramatically improved over the last 63 years, chief concerns regarding the pacemaker have always been that it was too big and bulky and that the wires leading from it would sometimes break. But in February of 2020, Michigan Medicine helped change all of that.

    Read Dr. Cunnane's Michigan Answer