Insidious ARDS

Few people outside the medical world have heard of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, even though it kills more Americans than breast cancer and often leaves survivors in various stages of disability. Some Penn-related physicians and researchers are working hard to blunt its impact.

The Spirit of Caring

They don’t diagnose illnesses, prescribe drugs, perform medical procedures, or suggest treatment options, but chaplains and other pastoral care staff are a key part of the medical team at Penn’s hospitals.

The Other Health Care Revolutions

The Affordable Care Act may have gotten all the attention, but American medicine will be transformed even more profoundly by forces that neither the government, insurance companies, nor even doctors themselves can fully tame. It’s already happening, and three trends provide a preview of the shape of things to come.

LEAPP of Faith

A new program at the School of Medicine is betting that matching students with chronically ill patients, who they then follow throughout their four-year curriculum, will help them to become better doctors.

The Kindness of Strangers

Diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, alumna Ruthie Spector faced long odds but was saved by an experimental drug treatment that made a bone marrow transplant possible. The donor drive organized in her behalf will save many more lives in the years to come.

Rewriting the Final Chapter

As medicine advances, the choices associated with end-of-life care grow more complex — especially when patients or their families clash with doctors, the state, and occasionally each other, over when to treat and when to let go.