Featured Research

Tuberculosis remains the world's number one cause of death from a single infection. And for TB patients who are also HIV-positive, mortality risk is up to four times higher. How much can an ideal drug regimen improve their chances?

A look back at the drivers behind early COVID-19 outbreaks the US attests that social distancing was, and is, a key intervention to reduce disease spread. A CHOP/DBEI team's dynamic model continues to highlight  trends within counties in real time—and has revealed some disturbing new facts.

As pressures mount to reopen U.S. businesses that were shuttered to prevent COVID-19 spread, a pressing question is, at what level of government should these judgments be made? A new model of disease transmission shows that city- and county-level characteristics have significant impact.

Patients can spend years on the heart transplant waiting list—and many who have advanced heart failure need mechanical circulatory support in order to survive during that time. Did a 2018 rule change affect how U.S. transplant centers choose which support device to use when a patient is first listed for heart transplant?

Mortality risk from COVID-19 seems to be associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension—disorders that share an underlying pathophysiology related to the renin-angiotensin system. That relationship may provide important clinical insights about how we treat COVID-19—but first, argues a team of authors, we need to clearly understand the causal mechanism that lies at the heart of it.

We know that as temperatures rise, so do many health risks: not just for heat stroke and dehydration but also for heart disease, respiratory diseases and deaths overall. But are there special dangers—and protections—for people who take various common drugs?

Many people get higher blood pressure readings in a doctor’s office than they do elsewhere. A new study tells us we should take “white coat hypertension” very seriously.

In April 2017, in a groundbreaking clinical trial, physicians transplanted kidneys infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) into 10 patients on the transplant waitlist, then successfully destroyed the disease in all the recipients. But that pilot study was just the first step for this innovative approach. 

With more and more population-based data available from wearable devices, scientists are increasingly questioning how physical activity influences our health and the role it plays in psychiatric health, in particular. A recent study, one of the first to examine multiple biological systems in mood disorders via real-time tracking data, could refine and expand our understanding of that link

The term “social determinants of health” has become a part of our lexicon in healthcare; factors such as trauma, food insecurity and housing instability are widely known to influence high rates of chronic disease among disadvantaged people. But how can we best help patients deal with those factors, and how much we can improve their health by doing so? 

In 2015, the kickoff accounted for six percent of all football plays in the Ivy League athletic conference, but was to blame for 21 percent of the concussions. The next year, the League made an experimental rule change — moving the kickoff line from the 35- to the 40-yard line and the touchback line from the 25- to the 20-yard line. A research team has produced rigorous evidence that the change worked: concussions from kickoffs decreased by 68 percent.

A sprained ankle is a common, minor injury; yet a study shows that one quarter of adult patients who went to hospital emergency departments seeking treatment for it were prescribed opioids—and this was dramatically more likely in some states.

New, direct-acting antivirals for the disease are highly effective, yet a recent study shows that both private and public insurers still refuse to cover these prescriptions for many patients.

Kidney stones mysteriously have become much more common in the U.S. over the past few decades, particularly among adolescents and young women. A recent study has uncovered strong evidence that certain common oral antibiotics may be a culprit.

People with severe head injuries fare better when treated by trauma centers, even if that means bypassing other hospitals, this research team showed—which presents a major opportunity to improve outcomes for almost half of these patients.