Health
New Jersey medical students offer haircuts and grooming services to patients: ‘Sense of humanity’
Basic grooming can be a challenge during an extended hospital stay, taking a toll on the patient’s mood and mental health.
A group of medical students is on a mission to change that, through a program called Bergen Barbers, named for the street in Newark, New Jersey, where University Hospital is located.
Launched in 2021 by Vaishali Ravikumar, a Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) student, the program provides haircutting, shaving and detangling services for hospitalized patients.
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Ravikumar came up with the idea as a third-year student while taking care of a trauma surgery patient.
Rutgers New Jersey Medical students — aka the Bergen Barbers — Ivan Loncar, Shivani Srivastava, Hetal Lad and Sowntharya Ayyappan are pictured outside University Hospital in Newark. ( Keith Bratcher/Rutgers New Jersey Medical School)
“A patient who had been hospitalized for many days became so frustrated that he was on the verge of checking himself out against medical advice,” she said in a press release.
“His long, matted hair and unbrushed beard were making him very uncomfortable. My attending [physician] suggested I do something about it.”
After gathering some supplies from around the hospital, Ravikumar gave the patient an impromptu haircut.
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“He requested a ‘faux hawk,’ and I did my best to deliver,” she said.
“We laughed and talked through the whole process, and I learned a lot about him. When I finished, he was in much better spirits and trusted his health care team more than before.”
Motivated to extend the services to more patients, Ravikumar recruited several NJMS student volunteers, and Bergen Barbers was born.
Self-taught skills
The students, who had no haircutting or shaving experience, picked up some basic skills by watching YouTube videos.
“We learned how to use a clipper and how to give a basic haircut,” Ravikumar said.
“Using waterless shampoo with a small spray bottle of water, we dampen the hair, shampoo it and towel it dry. For women, we do a straight cut. For men, we ask how short they want it.”
“I learned by watching some videos and doing some Googling.”
Ivan Loncar, one of the current student volunteers, said he joined with “no experience” other than shaving.
“I learned by watching some videos and doing some Googling,” he told Fox News Digital during an interview.
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“As I did more services, watched other people do it and provided more haircuts, I got more comfortable.”
This year, Bergen Barbers added about 60 new medical student volunteers and implemented a more formal training process.
Selecting the ‘clients’
Many of the patients Bergen Barbers serves have been in the hospital for an extended period.
“They may be going through the toughest time of their lives,” Hetal Lad, one of the volunteers, told Fox News Digital in the same interview. “Maybe they’re done with surgery, but now they have new complications or … have been given rough news.”
“In that moment, seeing somebody who’s outside their health care team is really nice, as they can vent about things they don’t feel they can say to their providers.”
Rutgers New Jersey Medical students Ivan Loncar, Hetal Lad, Sowntharya Ayyappan and Shivani Srivastava outside University Hospital in Newark. Launched in 2021, the program provides haircutting, shaving and detangling services for hospitalized patients. ( Keith Bratcher/Rutgers New Jersey Medical School)
In many cases, the students help patients who are post- or pre-surgery and need a trim or a shave, according to Sowntharya Ayyappan, one of the students in the group.
“We also have a lot of patients who experience homelessness and have not been given a lot of the opportunities to maintain hair care,” she told Fox News Digital during the same interview.
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The nursing staff also assists with choosing patients.
“We make sure patients are able to provide consent and do not have a traumatic brain injury or any medical device in the head or face that might be an obstacle,” Ravikumar noted.
Patients with severe blood clotting disorders and those on psychiatric floors are also ruled out, she added.
Rave reviews
So far, Bergen Barbers has received only positive feedback from patients.
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“We haven’t had a single bad experience,” Shivani Srivastava, a current volunteer, told Fox News Digital.
“They’re always very appreciative that we came by and gave them whatever service they wanted.”
In a way, Ayyappan said, the Bergen Barbers are giving a sense of “humanity” back to their patients.
“We’re providing a service that’s very routine and part of human nature — it’s something we all have to do innately as humans,” a student volunteer said. (iStock)
“We’re providing a service that’s very routine and part of human nature — it’s something we all have to do innately as humans.”
The sessions also provide an opportunity to have conversations with the patients about their hobbies and lives outside the hospital walls, she added.
“We’re seeing them not only as patients, but as people.”
“We’re seeing them not only as patients, but as people.”
Some patients might not get outside visitors, Loncar noted.
“For them, those precious 10, 30 or 40 minutes are an amazing experience to just unwind — even if it’s just complaining or reminiscing about something, or telling us about their lives or giving advice as an older individual.”
The sessions enable the students to gain experience with patient interactions, they said. (iStock)
In one scenario, a patient asked the volunteers for a Bible, Ayyappan shared, which they provided for him.
In another example, Srivastava said, the team went in to give a patient a shave and haircut, only to realize that he couldn’t speak English, so he couldn’t communicate with the volunteers.
“But he put on jazz music, closed his eyes and kind of turned the vibe of a hospital room into his own barbershop,” she said.
An educational experience
While the patients enjoy the results of the grooming services, the medical students are also reaping the rewards, they told Fox News Digital.
The services allow the students to get early exposure to working with patients, Ayyappan pointed out.
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“You’re learning empathy, you’re having hard conversations with patients,” said Ayyappan.
“You get comfortable with them, learn about them and hear about their problems in the hospital.”
“Those precious 10, 30 or 40 minutes are an amazing experience for them to just unwind,” a volunteer said. (iStock)
Faculty mentor Amy Gore, an assistant professor of surgery at Rutgers, shared her excitement about the program.
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“I was so excited when Vaishali approached me with this idea, and felt it could be a fantastic way to connect with patients and greatly contribute to their psychological well-being,” Gore said in a press release.
“It has been truly inspirational watching her bring Bergen Barbers to fruition and recruit an incredible team to keep the project alive as she transitions into residency.”
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A new injectable therapy is showing positive results in reducing melanoma throughout a five-year period.
The personalized mRNA cancer therapy, called intismeran autogene, combined with the cancer immunotherapy drug KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), is a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.
The results from the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 27.
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After about a five-year follow-up, the combo drug was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The researchers analyzed data from 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose cancer had been removed via surgery. The participants were split into two groups — one received the combo therapy and the other only received pembrolizumab, according to a press release.
The therapy was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone after a five-year follow-up. (iStock)
The findings revealed that the combination group saw benefits that were “sustained and durable over time.”
Intismeran autogene is designed using mutations identified in a patient’s own tumor, with the intention of teaching the immune system what the cancer looks like so that it can recognize and attack it.
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According to the researchers, intismeran is “well-tolerated” with a “manageable” safety profile.
The most commonly cited side effects of the personalized mRNA vaccine plus KEYTRUDA were fatigue, injection-site pain, chills, fever and headache. The researchers reported no new long-term safety concerns and no severe vaccine-related adverse events.
The combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study — the final confirmation stage.
Patients with late-stage melanoma have a “significant risk” of cancer recurrence, according to an expert. (iStock)
In a Merck press release from January, Kyle Holen, MD, Moderna’s senior vice president and head of development, oncology and therapeutics, noted that this data highlights the “potential of a prolonged benefit … in patients with resected high-risk melanoma.”
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“We continue to invest in our platform in oncology because of encouraging outcomes like these, which illustrate mRNA’s potential in cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, also commented that for many patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, there is a “significant risk of recurrence following surgery.”
Researchers confirmed that the combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study. (iStock)
“As such, demonstrating the longer-term potential of intismeran autogene and KEYTRUDA to reduce the risk of recurrence for certain patients with melanoma is a meaningful milestone,” she said.
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The company cited encouraging five-year follow-up data and pointed to upcoming late-stage INTerpath trial results with Moderna in several hard-to-treat cancers.
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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