A proposed joint venture between Yuma Regional Medical Center and hospital management company LifePoint Health, a holding of the private equity firm Apollo Management Group, would change the hospitals' not-for-profit status to a for-profit model. Daniel Derksen, MD, professor of public health at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and director of the UArizona Center for Rural Health, discusses various hospital ownership and management models, including the fairly recent introduction of private equity firms into the ownership landscape.

Vaccination against COVID-19 provides stronger protection than immunity from a previous infection with the coronavirus, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, a professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, cautioned that it can be very difficult to compare vaccine-induced immunity to infection-induced immunity. “What I would say is that these are maybe not the right terms of the debate,” he said. “The reason to prefer vaccine-induced immunity is that infections can make you really sick, not that they don’t leave you immune,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.

As border reopening nears, a $2.5 million grant and new HQ for the Ventanilla de Salud program are announced to support expected increase in visitors.

Psychologists and sleep doctors who study dreaming aren’t surprised if the hit Netflix series Squid Game is seeping into your non-waking hours. When you watch something that resonates with you, it’s going to stick with you, particularly if you watched a lot of the show in a short amount of time – and particularly if you’ve done so just before bed, says Michael Grandner, PhD, an associate professor and director of the sleep and health research program at the College of Medicine – Tucson. Dr. Grandner and other dream experts discuss why we dream and, more specifically, why we have nightmares.

A team led by Valley Fever Center for Excellence researchers successfully tested a vaccine for dogs, with two doses providing high levels of protection.

Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, will join the College of Medicine – Tucson in January 2022 as head of the Department of Surgery.

Most people pursue hobbies such as golf, music or art. College of Medicine – Tucson professor Todd Vanderah, PhD, constructs custom homes.

Researchers at the University of Arizona have successfully tested a Valley fever vaccine for dogs. It's a two-dose vaccine designed to help them fight the disease, which is caused by a fungus called Coccidioides posadasii. "The idea of a vaccine to prevent Valley fever has been the holy grail since the 1950s," said John Galgiani, MD, director of the UArizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence and a professor of medicine. "We created a vaccine that worked. The dogs had all sorts of laboratory evidence of active, very widespread disease, and the vaccine prevented it."

A study by researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences found that patients undergoing active chemotherapy had a lower immune response to two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. A third dose increased patients’ response. “We wanted to make sure we understand the level of protection the COVID-19 vaccines are offering our cancer patients, especially as restrictions were being eased and more contagious variants were starting to spread,” said Rachna Shroff, MD, MS, chief of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the UArizona Cancer Center.