This week on Dr. Greg Davis on Medicine we talk with Zachary DeVries who is leading a team of researchers at UK on a project to develop a complete and durable approach to cockroach control in affordable housing. The initiative is funded by a nearly $1 million cooperative agreement with HUD.

Every year, Poison Control Centers in the U.S. receive more than a million calls related to accidental poisonings in young children, and thousands are treated in emergency departments. A child is rushed to the ER roughly every nine minutes because they’ve accessed medication. During the holiday season, these incidents increase as families gather, routines shift and visitors bring purses, coats or travel bags into homes where young children are eager to explore. Dr. Greg talks with Kyle Bryan, Pharm.D., practice implementation pharmacist and adjunct assistant professor of pharmacy practice and science.

Despite knowing for decades that the hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective, the Centers for Disease Control advisors, many of them hand-picked by Secretary of Health and Human Services and noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Junior, recently voted to overturn decades long policy on this vaccine for infants. Dr. Greg talks with Dr. Steven Stack; a board certified emergency physician and Secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services about the controversial decision.

This week Dr. Greg talks with Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, about how important maintaining bone health is for all women. Dr. Wittstein recently conducted a coffee talk on this very subject for the Active Girls Healthy Women group at UK.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center’s ACTION program has published the latest edition of its book, “Cancer in Appalachia: A Collection of Youth-told Stories, Volume Two.” The collection features fictional short stories and poems by high school and undergraduate students from Appalachian Kentucky who participate in Markey’s Appalachian Career Training in Oncology (ACTION) program. Dr. Greg talks with Nathan Vanderford, Ph.D., director of the ACTION program and the book’s co-editor.

Dr. Annie Koempel is an anthropologist on the research team of the Lexington-based American Board of Family Medicine. She and a colleague recently conducted a study showing that despite all our progress, women in medicine are still not fairly compensated and recognized for their leadership and mentoring. The downstream effect is that this lack can result in poorer health care.

We have known for decades that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Quitting smoking is probably the single best change a person can make not only for prevention of heart disease, but for their overall health. So why don't more people do it? Dr. Greg seeks answers from Peter Haigh, M.D., a noninvasive cardiologist at UK HealthCare’s Gill Heart & Vascular Institute.

Pete Nelson, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UK Sanders-Brown tells us about this year's two-day symposium, Friday October 31 and Saturday November 1, which features a daylong scientific meeting with poster session followed by a half-day community session to which the public is invited free of charge. An “Ask the Experts” panel is a popular component of the community session.

The mission of the One Health Center Initiative is to increase awareness of One Health by conducting multidisciplinary research — recognizing the health of people, animals and the environment are intricately linked and interdependent. One example of that might be looking at the rise of Alpha Gal syndrome which is transmitted through tick bites. Through these vital connections, the initiative focuses on solving complex health challenges, ranging from zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance to environmental exposures. Dr. Greg talks with S. Reddy Palli, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Entomology at Martin-Gatton CAFE, Bill Gatton Foundation Distinguished Professor and the state entomologist.

Molecular epidemiologist Krystle Kuhs, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the College of Public Health, leads three large clinical studies evaluating biomarker-based screening for early detection of HPV-driven throat cancer, a rapidly increasing cancer that disproportionately affects Kentuckians, especially in Appalachia, and for which no screening methods exist. She talks about the effort on this week's edition of Dr. Greg Davis on Medicine.