Johns Hopkins Medicine has been selected by IDG’s Computerworld magazine as one of the nation’s 100 Best Places to Work in Information Technology (IT) for 2013.

A social media push boosted the number of people who registered themselves as organ donors 21-fold in a single day, Johns Hopkins researchers found, suggesting social media might be an effective tool to address the stubborn organ shortage in the United States.

People with HIV are more likely to keep their scheduled medical appointments — and their disease under control — if they feel their physician listens, explains things clearly and knows them as a person, not just a “case,” new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins report that hospitalized patients do not receive more than one in 10 doses of doctor-ordered blood thinners prescribed to prevent potentially lethal or disabling blood clots, a decision they say may be fueled by misguided concern by patients and their caregivers.

As anyone who’s ever mixed up the sugar and salt while baking knows, too much of a good thing can be inedible. What hasn’t been clear, though, is how our tongues and brains can tell when the saltiness of our food has crossed the line from yummy to yucky — or, worse, something dangerous.

An anonymous donor has given $500,000 to conduct large-scale clinical trials and laboratory research on the “PapGene” test, a genomic-based screening test that detects ovarian and endometrial cancers in cervical fluid.

Irene Pollin, a passionate health advocate and founder of a national organization devoted to heart disease prevention in women, has made a $10 million gift to the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease. Her donation also establishes the Kenneth Jay Pollin Professorship in Cardiology and will launch pivotal research on heart disease prevention.

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system.

Older adults with hearing loss are more likely than peers with normal hearing to require hospitalization and suffer from periods of inactivity and depression, according to results of a new study by experts at Johns Hopkins.

The National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, has again awarded a team of seven Johns Hopkins neuroscientists a $9.5 million grant over the next five years and designated them as a Silvio A. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research.

A Johns Hopkins expert in brain imaging, Dean F. Wong, M.D., Ph.D., has been honored with the prestigious 2013 Paul C. Aebersold Award for his contributions over the past 30 years in applying basic science to the field of nuclear medicine.

In what has become a much-anticipated biennial tradition, the JHU Alumni Association will honor 11 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty members at a special ceremony June 7.  The honorees include a Nobel Laureate, a Lasker Award winner, numerous current or former department directors, and other senior Johns Hopkins Medicine directors and leaders. The University Alumni Association awards for both university and medical faculty started in 1973 and honor alumni and other faculty whose distinguished careers and unselfish contributions to society have added luster and prestige to the University and its School of Medicine, according to association officials.

Julie A. Freischlag, M.D., the director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and surgeon-in-chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been elected the first female president of the Society for Vascular Surgery.

Johns Hopkins researchers have documented huge and somewhat puzzling interstate variations in the percentage of emergency versus elective bowel surgeries. Figuring out precisely why the differences occur is critical, they say, because people forced to undergo emergency procedures are far more likely to die from their operations than those able to plan ahead for them.

If people are unable to perceive their own errors as they complete a routine, simple task, their skill will decline over time, Johns Hopkins researchers have found — but not for the reasons scientists assumed. The researchers report that the human brain does not passively forget our good techniques, but chooses to put aside what it has learned.
  

A large, multi-center study led by Johns Hopkins researchers has found a significant link between lifestyle factors and heart health, adding even more evidence in support of regular exercise, eating a Mediterranean-style diet, keeping a normal weight and, most importantly, not smoking.

Spouses and long-term partners of patients with mouth and throat cancers related to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV) appear to have no increased prevalence of oral HPV infections, according to results of a multicenter, pilot study led by Johns Hopkins investigators. The study’s results suggest that long-term couples need not change their sexual practices, say the scientists.

Two Johns Hopkins gynecologic surgeons are among the first in the nation to perform a robotic hysterectomy using a single, small incision. 

Johns Hopkins scientists report that a 10-minute test for “frailty” first designed to predict whether the elderly can withstand surgery and other physical stress could be useful in assessing the increased risk of death and frequent hospitalization among kidney dialysis patients of any age.

The temporary placement of umbrella-like, metal mesh filters in abdominal veins to stop potentially lethal blood clots from traveling to the lungs during and after weight loss surgery may actually increase the risk of death in morbidly obese patients, according to new Johns Hopkins research.