2021 Research Achievement Awards Brown University will award Research Achievement Awards to six faculty members as part of its annual program honoring extraordinary scholars for their research across a wide range of academic disciplines. “Brown researchers are accomplishing remarkable work in many fields, and with these awards we recognize the exceptional achievements and discoveries of six of them,” said Vice President for Research Jill Pipher, a professor of mathematics. “During this year of global pandemic, the creativity and resilience of Brown faculty members has been extraordinary. We greatly value their determination to advance important fundamental and translational research.” The consequential research that Brown faculty members conduct ensures the University’s ability to fulfill its academic mission and be an agent of meaningful change, Provost Richard M. Locke said.
Rare blood clots more likely after COVID-19 infection than from vaccine, report finds
An analysis led by Brown University neurologist Dr. Karen L. Furie in partnership with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, put the post-vaccine risk of CVST in perspective.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] The rare blood clot disorder reported by some Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine recipients is also a risk of COVID-19 infection, according to a new report by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Stroke Council Leadership.
Dr. Karen L. Furie, chair of the Department of Neurology at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School, served as lead author of the report, which synthesized existing data from more than 81 million patients and found that risk of developing CVST blood clots is eight to 10 times higher following a COVID-19 infection as compared to the risk associated with receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine.
There has been no shortage of anecdotal evidence that drinking increased during lockdown, but now a documented surge in alcohol-related gastrointestinal and liver disease consultations suggest to Brown University researchers that heavy drinking occurred during the pandemic.
Doctor visits dropped during lockdown while consultations for alcohol-related gastrointestinal issues and liver disease soared according to Dr. Waihong Chung, lead researcher of the study and a research fellow for the Division of Gastroenterology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Chung presented his team’s finding during a Thursday briefing hosted by Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2021.
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Inpatient consults for alcohol-related GI and liver diseases surged after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and remained elevated, researchers found.
The proportion of inpatients requiring endoscopic interventions for their alcohol-related GI and liver diseases also increased, suggesting a worsening trend in severity, according to data presented at a pre-meeting press conference for the virtual Digestive Disease Week (DDW) conference.
In addition to effects on physical health due to delayed or limited healthcare access mandated by infection-control restrictions, many people experienced negative psychosocial impacts such as isolation, anxiety, depression, job loss, and economic insecurity, noted Waihong Chung, MD, PhD, of the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. These are risk factors for the development of other health problems such as addiction.