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UPMC provides care to the LGBTQIA+ communities and has specialty services for Trans and Gender Diverse (TGD) people. Below are a list of providers who are knowledgeable in providing care to the LGBTQIA+ and TGD communities. UPMC also offers several Integrated Clinics** so that LGBTQIA+ and TGD people are provided healthcare that meets their needs

Pennsylvania House Republicans have put a condition on providing funding for four universities: University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University, Temple University, and Lincoln University must certify that they are not engaging in research or experimentation using fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions. The University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as “Pitt,” attracted criticism in 2021 when the public became aware that the school uses tissue from aborted human babies in its research. A 2020 article in the journal “Nature” detailed, in words and photos, how Pitt researchers grafted scalps of human babies onto the backs of lab rats and mice and...

A new study suggests that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine inhibits pathways that drive resistance to the chemotherapy agent cisplatin in head and neck cancers and restores tumor-killing effects of cisplatin in animal models. The findings pave the way for a clinical trial that combines cisplatin and hydroxychloroquine to treat chemotherapy-resistant head and neck cancers. "When caring for patients with head and neck cancers, I often see chemotherapy fail. Cisplatin is a very important chemotherapy drug, but tumor resistance to cisplatin is a huge problem," said co-senior author Umamaheswar Duvvuri, M.D., Ph.D. "My lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms of...

New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have plateaued or dropped in all communities served by UPMC, which has more than 30 hospitals across Pennsylvania. But it’s no time to give in to pandemic fatigue, a prominent UPMC doctor said Monday. “We may be finished with the pandemic because of our fatigue about it. But the pandemic is not finished with us,” said Dr. Donald Yealy, the chief medical officer for UPMC. Yealy also cited “reason for optimism,” given that while the ultra-contagious omicron variant spread quickly, it is dropping off quickly, a pattern it has shown in other parts of the...

Maybe the record-setting omicron storm is the prelude to the sunnier place we’ve hoped for during two years of COVID-19. Dr. John Goldman, a UPMC infectious disease specialist, believes it’s possible. He bases it on the fact ultra-contagious omicron is touching so many people so fast it won’t be much longer until everyone has some immunity, either from vaccination or getting infected. “What’s likely to happen in the next three to six months is that everyone who is not vaccinated will get infected, and what will end up happening is a population that has at least some partial immunity,” he...

UPMC doctors are urging people to limit holiday gatherings to household members. They also stressed that face masks can protect children who are too young for vaccination and other people whose immune systems are weaker because of age or illness. “Wear your mask when you’re with others and in crowds. That still is the best way to keep even those who are more vulnerable from getting sick,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC’s medical director for infection prevention. They offered the advice as Pennsylvania endures a surge in new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, with many likely linked to Thanksgiving gatherings. As...

UPMC doctors say the average age of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has fallen by nearly 10 years and the virus no longer preys mostly on people who were already sick. “We are seeing a truly alarming number of healthy people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s being admitted at UPMC and becoming critically ill, needing ICU care,” said Dr. Rachel Sackrowitz, who specializes in critical care. In recent weeks, she said, UPMC has admitted about 20 times more COVID-19 patients under 50 who are unvaccinated than patients of that age who are vaccinated. Sackrowitz said they are “people who...

Um. One of the largest medical systems in the U.S. will NOT require its 89K employees to get the Covid vaccine due to "general uncertainty" around such a new treatment.Well that's weird. The gigantic University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — one of the top health care systems in the U.S. — will NOT require its 89,000 employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine. This despite requiring all of them to get the flu vaccine every year. The reason? PennLive explains:The main reason is general uncertainty about the COVID-19 vaccine -- the first of several vaccines in the pipeline could receive emergency...

UPMC said Tuesday the predicted surge of COVID-19 patients hasn’t arrived and cases are on the decline in central and western Pennsylvania. In light of that, UPMC plans to resume some of the elective surgeries that were canceled as the result of government directives to conserve beds and supplies for COVID-19 patients. “The very high surge we prepared for simply hasn’t happened,” said Dr. Donald Yealy, UPMC’s chair of emergency medicine. However, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that while the state has begun talking to hospitals about resuming some surgeries, “we’re not there yet.” RELATED: Read...

UPMC announced Thursday that they are launching a new fast-track clinical trial for COVID-19 drugs. The clinical trial developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine launched officials say addresses one of the most important debates during the COVID-19 pandemic: How should doctors decide between quickly adopting new therapies, such as the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, and waiting until they are tested in longer clinical trials? “The solution is to find an optimal tradeoff between doing something now, such as prescribing a drug off-label, or waiting until traditional clinical trials are complete,” said Derek Angus, M.D., M.P.H., professor...

Unique Vaccine delivery System developed by the University of Pennsylvania.

Attorney general announces legal action in UPMC-Highmark dispute PITTSBURGH - Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a petition to stop UPMC and Highmark from a complete separation – which was set to happen this summer. #BREAKING: Shapiro says court order would ensure that UPMC abides by its charitable contribution obligations to Pennsylvania “Given the effect this dispute between UPMC and Highmark is having on Pennsylvanians, and the imminent expiration of the existing consent decree, we are asking the court to take action,” said Shapiro. “These changes are absolutely necessary to prevent UPMC from inflicting further harm on the public by...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFt2xFiPtbc

Cyanide killed hospital employee, official saysPITTSBURGH (AP) — A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center employee found dead at work earlier this month was killed by cyanide poisoning, but the medical examiner who made the determination Friday said it's too soon to know whether the death was a suicide, a homicide or an accident.

PITTSBURGH —As many as 27,000 UPMC employees may have had their personal information exposed in a data breach and nearly 800 have been victimized by tax fraud, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit confirmed Thursday evening. "We want to assure our patients that no patient information was breached," media relations director Gloria Kreps said in a statement. Employees of the several Pittsburgh-area hospitals told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 that they received a packet in the mail, telling them that their information was stolen and what they need to do to protect themselves. "We're telling our employees that they should take steps...

PITTSBURGH--An estimated 300 workers and bused-in labor activists tied up Pittsburgh traffic when they marched downtown to rally outside the corporate offices of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Monday's rally follows demonstrations outside the same building last week when police cited nine demonstrators for trespassing. The activists from the Service Employees International Union, which is trying to organize some of the hospital network's workers, and others were also pressing for higher wages for cooks, custodians and other blue-collar health workers.

Murtha-tied Company Wins Sole-Source Vaccine Contract Michael Goldfarb January 4, 2010 Several months ago we warned that Tara O'Toole who recently became Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security would reward her friends resulting in millions of dollars in gifts to John Murtha cronies who supported her nomination. And it now appears the Murtha/O'Toole favor factory has begun production. In February 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a second-generation Anthrax vaccine. This RFP was issued to be a re-procurement for a contract that...

...The Pittsburgh Tribune Review ran a piece that “federal authorities plan to investigate whether the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is violating civil rights laws by closing its hospital in the predominantly black community.” [emphasis added] A lawyer for the community claims that closing that facility and opening another in a more affluent and predominantly white neighborhood violates civil rights...