Health Sciences professional women’s groups are helping to create campus cultures where female faculty can thrive at all levels.

Over two decades, Women in Academic Medicine has helped reshape the College of Medicine – Tucson’s professional culture.

With 10,000 people turning 65 every day in the U.S., focusing on interprofessional practice and communication is vital in supporting healthy aging.

Three founding members of Women in Medicine and Science explain why their mission is critical.

Dr. Andrew Weil, founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, discusses how to find good advice in the realms of personal health and medicine.

Melatonin is commonly used as a sleep remedy, but people often misunderstand it. “Melatonin doesn’t work like a prescription sleeping pill. It’s much more nuanced. Melatonin may help someone fall asleep a bit faster and it may help them stay asleep during the niHi ght, but a lot of supplement manufacturers overpromise," said Dr. Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and associate professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Triatomine bugs, commonly known as kissing bugs, are vectors for a dangerous parasite that can cause a debilitating illness in humans called Chagas disease. Health experts say the disease is not only difficult to diagnose. “Clinicians should be better informed about Chagas as a potential underlying factor – even in the absence of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, which occurs years even decades after infection,” said Kacey Ernst, a professor and program director of epidemiology at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Dr. Richard Lane, a professor of psychiatry in the College of Medicine – Tucson and also a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Arizona, writes that a brain-based perspective could explain how and why psychotherapy leads to enduring change.

A new study suggests surgical oncologists can extend the lives of patients with stage II pancreatic cancer by taking an aggressive multimodality treatment approach and opting for neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by resection. “Even when the resection isn’t the best-case scenario, surgery can still double the life expectancy of patients. It’s a package. It’s not just surgery. It’s not just chemo or radiation. It truly is multimodality," said Dr. Amanda Arrington, a clinical associate professor of surgery at the College of Medicine – Tucson.