By donating 200 dolls wearing back braces, a young Colorado girl is hoping that scoliosis patients in Iowa will know they’re not alone. When Sydney Black got her first Chelsea doll (Barbie’s sister) and saw she was wearing a back brace, she felt better about being “different”. Sydney was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 4 and has been wearing a back brace for up to 20 hours a day since she was 6. …

Fireworks and the Fourth of July go hand in hand. Sparklers, firecrackers, and large community fireworks displays are typically the highlight of the day. But along with the fun and excitement comes the possibility for burns, injuries, and emergencies, especially when children are around. More than 3,000 children under the age of 15 are sent to the emergency department each year in the United…

It started in 2015 with an occasional eye twitch. “It was that sort of twitch people get when they’re stressed or drink too much coffee,” John Mark Feilmeyer says. But the twitch then spread from his eye to the entire right side of his face, and it became almost constant. After seven years of trying various home remedies, getting Botox injections, and seeing a local neurologist, the Des Moines,…

The energy of her workplace matters to Ashley Ventura. Two years into her career as a surgical technologist, she says the energy at University of Iowa Health Care is “unmatched.” Ventura, who is originally from California, says she has found a supportive culture working on the team involved in urology, gynecology, and transplant services. “I just love it here,” she says with her unmistakable…

Robotic surgery might sound like something from a science fiction movie, but using robots to assist with operations has been around for decades. Robotic surgery uses tools, such as saws, burs, or cutting blocks, that are attached to a robotic arm and controlled by the surgeon and the robot. The surgeon makes small additional cuts to insert pins into the bone. Attached to these pins are arrays…

People lying back in comfy chairs with their feet propped up and a Netflix show streaming on their phones. It sounds like a scene from a spa. There’s just one major difference though. They all have blood flowing out of their arms at the UI Health Care’s DeGowin Blood Center. It’s an experience that Sean McIntyre has become intimately familiar with as he’s given 254 blood product donations to UI…

Over 3,000 babies are born each year at UI Health Care’s university campus, and that number continues to grow as access to maternal health care services across the state becomes more constrained.To improve patient access to maternal health services on university campus, UI Health Care is planning a 30,000 square-foot renovation of level 7 of the John Pappajohn Pavilion (JPP), pending approval of…

Patients of University of Iowa Health Care have another option for both same day care and primary care in the Quad Cities as a second urgent care opens and family medicine services are expanded. As the state’s only comprehensive academic medical system, UI Health Care continues to increase access to meet the care needs of Iowans. The walk-in urgent care clinic expands upon existing services at…

Exhausted, confused, and overwhelmed. Those were the words used to describe how one mother and her son felt when illness landed them in the hospital. But a promise made—and fulfilled—by their nurse Kayley Wallace helped both patient and mom feel comforted and cared for with dignity. Wallace, BSN, RN, CMSRN, has a strong focus on patient-family centered care on the medical/surgical unit at the…

Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is the most common type of arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Because it can lead to blood clots and stroke, it's important to seek specialized and personalized treatment. Traditionally, the condition was treated with medication to either keep people in Afib and slow down their heart rate to a safe level, or to shift their heart back to a normal rhythm. While medications…