Forty percent of top-ranked and 36 percent of non-top-ranked hospitals were unable to provide a price estimate for a total hip replacement procedure. Moreover, among the hospitals that could provide an estimate, the cost quoted for the procedure ranged from $11,100 to $125,798—a greater than ten-fold difference.

Mark Wilkinson, a low vision specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, says that a vision rehabilitation plan helps people reach their true visual potential when nothing more can be done from a medical or surgical standpoint.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited life-shortening disease that is known to affect the lungs and digestive organs. A new study by University of Iowa researchers suggests that the CF mutation also affects the nervous system and might directly cause some neural abnormalities experienced by people with CF.

A recent study by psychiatrists with the Iowa City VA Medical Center and University of Iowa Health Care finds that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) have measurable abnormalities in the white matter of their brains when compared to returning veterans who have not experienced TBI.

A University of Iowa team showed that the amygdala is not the only gatekeeper of fear in the human mind in a paper published recently in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

John Wemmie, a UI neuroscientist, shares insights from an experiment on how SM, a woman with a rare illness that damaged her amygdala and left her unafraid, recently experienced a panic attack, which may have practical value in the study of panic attacks.

Don't be surprised to find Debra Schwinn, the new dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, in the violin section of the UI Health Care Faculty-Staff Orchestra. Throughout her medical training and academic career, she's found time to pursue her interest in music.

Researchers at the University of Iowa say the human brain has a new, second gatekeeper that registers fear. The region, perhaps the brainstem, diencephalon or insular cortex, signals fear from internal dangers. The finding could lead to more precise treatment for people suffering from panic attacks and other anxiety disorders. Results appear in "Nature Neuroscience."

A study by University of Iowa researchers found significant associations between heart attacks and influenza, particularly in those over age 80.

The University of Iowa has partnered with health-care organizations to create the Iowa Liver Center. The center will expand care and patient service to people with diseases of the liver and biliary tract in central and western Iowa.

Edgar Folk, Ph.D., UI professor emeritus of molecular physiology and biophysics, has published his memoir, "Science on the Far Horizon," which chronicles his more than seven decade scientific career. Folk pineered the field of environmental physiology and has been an influential member of the UI Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics since 1953.

James Potash, head of the Department of Psychiatry in UI Hospitals and Clinics, and John Hosp, chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning in the UI's College of Education, were two of more than a dozen experts who participated in a recent mental health roundtable discussion.