New partnership in Centre County gives support for sexual assault victims
Penn Highlands State College and the Sexual Assault Telehealth (SAFE-T) System partnered to bring the new technology and enhanced care. SAFE-T System was launched with support from the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime as a solution to enhance access to high-quality sexual assault care in underserved communities. When someone arrives at Penn Highlands State College after experiencing sexual violence, they will immediately have access to a board-certified sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE).
'We need to be ready to deliver a compassionate, person-centered, trauma-informed care when somebody who experiences sexual assault,' Associate Professor at the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, & Founder and Director of SAFE-T System, Sheridan Miyamoto said.
SANEs have extensive experience in the provision of sexual assault care. Thanks to SAFE-T System's specialized forensic telehealth technology, their expertise can be accessed in the Centre County region. Typically, access to SANEs with this level of training and experience is often limited to large urban sexual assault centers.
However, the innovative partnership Penn Highlands State College shares with SAFE-T System makes it possible to have this expertise in this region. The SAFE-T System telehealth SANE (teleSANE) can see the live exam in progress, ensuring best practices, proper evidence collection, and a safe and supportive environment for the patient.
'The need, especially with Penn State University being here, we have Lock Haven, we have Juniata College just down the road as well. The need is there, we're really hoping that patients feel confident in coming to us to be able to give them the care,' Penn Highlands State College ER Director, Amanda Myers, said.
The goal of this system is not only top-quality care but also the hope that more people come into the facility to get help. Myers said that since many hospitals don't have the training and resources for this, many patients feel they're not going to be believed and having this new system in the Centre County community is very beneficial. Plus, she added that many still need help and care after the exam.
'Because once we treat medically, it doesn't stop for them. We see that often patients develop PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and we want to make sure that they know that once they leave our doors, we're still here for them,' Myers said.
Sexual assault forensic examinations are free to patients and no cost is incurred for SAFE-T System telehealth support. Forensic examination services are available at Penn Highlands State College Emergency Department 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
7 hours ago
- Forbes
Just Seeing A (Fake) Sick Person Can Activate Your Immune System
We have all experienced the phenomena of seeing a disturbing or disgusting image that makes us feel physically ill. When the human brain processes certain types of visual images, it can send neural signals to our bodies that result in us feeling nauseated, light-headed, or shaky. Scientists have now learned that certain types of visual imagery can also turn on our immune systems, even without being physically exposed to an infectious agent. A team of scientists based in Switzerland performed an experiment with 248 healthy adults, in which the subjects were exposed to avatar images of people walking towards them. Some looked healthy with neutral facial expressions, others looked healthy but with fearful expressions, and some looked like they had a contagious illness (indicated by coughing and skin rashes). The subjects wore gaming headsets that created an immersive 3-D virtual reality environment, in which the simulated avatars walked towards them. When the subjects were approached by avatars who looked sick and appeared ready to invade their personal space, the researcher found that subjects activated their innate lymphoid cells, which is part of the 'first responder' arm of the immune system. This was measured by blood sampling of the subjects. In contrast, this cellular response did not occur when the subjects were approached by fearful-looking but non-infected avatars, or by avatars with neutral expressions. In other words, although the test subjects were not exposed to any actual infectious agents, the possibility of a simulated contact with an infected person was enough to trigger a real-world immune response. The fact that this response was elicted only by the 'infected' avatars but not the 'fearful' avatars, suggests that this is a specific response to potential infection, as opposed to a generalized response to a generic threat. The researchers also showed that innate lymphoid cell response caused by simulated exposure to the infected avatars was the same as the response to real-world exposure to flu vaccine (which works by triggering an immune response). The researchers also used functional MRI (fMRI) analysis of brain activation during the simulated exposures, to determine how the brain processed this simulated threat. They found that the simulated exposure increased blood flow in specific portions of the brain known as the 'salience network' which is 'an ensemble of interconnected brain regions whose major role is detecting and filtering salient stimuli, including threats.' The exact mechanism by which the brain then activated the immune system is not fully understood, but likely related to stimulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal cortex (HPA) axis. From an evolutionary perspective, these results make sense. Being able to anticipate an imminent threat of infection (and act accordingly) would be a pro-survival trait. And if avoidance of an imminent infection isn't always possible, being able to proactively stimulate the immune system before actual contact with a pathogen could offer a survival advantage vs. activating the immune system only after physical contact. The authors also noted that this is an example of the 'smoke detector principle' in biological defenses, which is tuned to be mildly oversensitive to threats. In many contexts, an overly sensitive smoke detector that generated a few occasional false-positives (even if there was no actual fire) might save more lives than an insufficiently sensitive smoke detector that generated too many false negatives (failing to respond to actual fires.) The same applies to biological defenses. This work is very preliminary. But this innovative research sheds light on hitherto unrecognized connections between the brain and the immune system, which could be helpful in developing new treatments against various pathogens. Could appropriate visual imagery help activate the immune system against infections in a way that supplements standard antibiotic therapy? Or stimulate the appropriate immune response to fight cancer cells? I look forward to further investigations along these lines.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
J&J tests direct CAR-T marketing with first Carvykti ad
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Available cell therapies for cancer aren't easy treatments to receive. Personalized to each patient, the drugs are complicated and time-consuming to manufacture, and must be delivered and administered on an exacting schedule. And because they come with serious risks, patients need to remain close to the hospital where they were treated for weeks of monitoring. All of these characteristics make Johnson & Johnson's choice to roll out direct-to-consumer advertising for Carvykti, a cell therapy it sells for the blood cancer multiple myeloma, somewhat unexpected. The ad, which will air on streaming services like YouTube, Paramount and Roku, is J&J's first for the drug and a rare instance of DTC marketing for this kind of cell therapy, known as CAR-T. According to June Lanoue, J&J's head of U.S. hematology, the company aims to raise awareness about cell therapy, particularly among patients who may not be receiving care from the kind of specialized academic centers where CAR-T is often given. Carvykti is currently approved in the U.S. to treat multiple myeloma in patients whose disease either relapsed or becomes resistant to treatment after an initial round of therapy. Another CAR-T therapy, called Abecma and sold by Bristol Myers Squibb, is also cleared for this use, but only after two or more prior lines of treatment. Among these 'relapsed, refractory' patients, about half are treated at community oncology centers, Lanoue said. 'The actual awareness level of these options is very low,' she added. 'In the community, if they're not able to get it, doctors are not talking about and therefore they don't have visibility to having a new option.' J&J's choice to advertise is a signal of confidence in its ability to manufacture enough Carvykti to meet any rise in demand. Early on in the drug's launch, production challenges forced the company to limit orders from treating centers. (Bristol Myers ran into similar issues.) 'We feel very confident around production,' said Lanoue. Treatment sites can 'order Carvykti without any constraint.' The launch of the ad is also well-timed, as it comes several weeks after the Food and Drug Administration took steps to improve access to CAR-T treatment broadly. The agency eased some side effect reporting requirements and lessened the time it mandates patients stay near their treating facility for monitoring. It also said patients could resume driving or operating machinery sooner after treatment than previously prescribed. 'We think it will give more opportunity to more patients who [live at] a little bit further distance to be able to receive Carvykti,' Lanoue said. J&J's 120-second ad introduces a composite patient, 'Marvin,' and describes the heavy burden of injections and pills typically used to control multiple myeloma. Carvykti, by contrast, is a one-time infusion that can deliver lasting benefits in some. Recent follow-up data from an early study of around 100 patients treated with Carvykti showed that, at five years, one-third had not yet experienced disease progression. A story published in June by The New York Times that highlighted these findings led to more patients requesting information about Carvykti, according to Lanoue. J&J did not share how much it's spending on this marketing campaign, but Lanoue said it is 'significantly less' than what a pharmaceutical company would typically spend on a regular TV advertisement. 'This is not a share of voice play; this is ultra targeted,' she added. Sales of Carvykti reached $439 million in the three months between April and June. The company expects peak annual sales to eventually eclipse $5 billion. Editor's note: After this story was published, J&J updated the list of streaming services where its ad will appear and removed Hulu for the time being. Recommended Reading FDA takes major step to ease access to CAR-T therapy Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
‘We were screaming and screaming.' Witnesses watch as barge hits sailboat of campers
William Cruz foresaw the Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed two young girls and critically injured two others moments before it happened. He was sitting atop a roof of a Hibiscus Island home fronting the bay when he saw a large barge barreling toward a small sailboat with brightly colored sails that was not moving in the windless Monday morning on the bay. 'Look! Look!' Cruz, 40, shouted suddenly to his two fellow roofers, all sitting on the roof while taking a break from the heat. The three roofers jumped to their feet and began yelling at the boats, cupping their hands around their mouths to call out as far as they could. The roofers could tell the 60-foot barge would collide with the 17-foot Hobie Getaway in less than a minute. They spied a man in a neon green work shirt on the side of the barge, halfway down where a crane was positioned. Maybe, if the worker in the reflective shirt saw them or the children, the barge could still swerve or stop in time. 'We were screaming and screaming, but we were just too far — he wasn't going to hear us,' Cruz told the Herald Tuesday. 'They were headed straight for the children and by the time the man realized, the barge was already right on top of them.' READ MORE: Two girls dead, two others critical after barge hits sailboat in Biscayne Bay: Coast Guard Another of the roofers, Aldo Meglar, watched in horror as the impending tragedy unfolded moment by moment. Melgar, who was back working for T&S Roofing Systems on the same roof Tuesday, estimates that roughly 30 seconds after he and his colleagues began shouting and jumping, the barge crewman in the neon green shirt also spotted the sailboat full of campers from the Miami Yacht Club. The roofers said they heard the children and counselor yelling and waving for the barge to stop. 'He saw the small boat and he started running to the back of the barge yelling at the captain,' Meglar said. 'But the barge was already this close to the children in front,' he added, gesturing to a garden bench about 20 feet away. 'I think the captain heard him, because the engine was cut off, and the boat stopped very quickly, but it was too late,' Meglar said, shaking his head. 'It sounded like thunder, the moment the barge hit the little boat. I started screaming 'It's killed them! It's killed them!'' Meglar and Cruz watched as the barge struck the sailboat's side, flipping it and throwing the campers and counselor overboard. As the sailboat was dragged under the barge, the roofers think they saw some of the campers get pulled under. 'I felt awful seeing that, scared, and it was all the worse because we were yelling and they couldn't hear us,' Melgar said. The crash killed two of the campers - a 7-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl - and critically injured two other girls, ages 8 and 11. Another camper, a 12-year-old girl, and the 19-year-old camp counselor were rescued. The Coast Guard, which is leading the investigation, has not publicly identified the victims. The Argentine consulate in Miami confirmed to the Herald the death of 7-year-old Mila Yankelevich, the grandaughter of Cris Morena and Gustavo Yankelevich, two prominent Argentine media producers. READ MORE: Granddaughter of renowned Argentine TV producers dies in Miami boat crash The roofers were among many along the shoreline of Hibiscus Island who witnessed the tragedy unfold shortly after 11 a.m. Andry Becerra, 38, who works for Chamonix Yachts, had just arrived to a client's house on North Hibiscus Drive when emergency vehicles began screeching onto the street and skidding to a stop at a house three doors down. Becerra and his co-workers, there to detail a yacht, were walking to the dock in the back of the house just yards from what rapidly became the scene of a rescue operation. 'There was such desperation, all the rescuers were so desperate,' Becerra said, describing how rescue boats sped toward the site and workers in life jackets and dive gear leapt into the water. 'They moved so fast, without doubt or pause. I tell you - there were true heroes among them.' As helicopters whirred overhead and more boats flooded into the bay, Becerra was transfixed as a swimmer in red shorts lifted a young girl above the water. The child was pulled onto a boat that raced back toward the shore near where Becerra was sitting. Almost simultaneously, he said, divers and rescue workers lifted a second girl into another boat. 'They seemed so focused, even though there was so much noise from the boats and cars and all the yelling,' Becerra said. 'They were very, very valiant, and they moved with great urgency to get the children to shore.' The children were sped to the shoreline behind 131 North Hibiscus Drive and then rushed through the property. Across the street, Melissa Friedland, 48, watched what happened next. The roar of vehicles on Friedland's usually quiet street on Hibiscus Island sent her darting to the large window of her second-floor bedroom that overlooked her neighbor's driveway. In minutes, it became the rescue operation's central staging area. 'At first, I was worried my neighbor was hurt,' Friedland said. 'Then I saw them bring out a gurney with a child, a girl, on it — and my stomach dropped.' Friedland initially thought the girl on the gurney might be her neighbor's granddaughter, but the escalating size and scope of the operation made her realize this was much bigger than one child. 'The Miami search and rescue workers were so, so amazing, there were so many people sprinting — really sprinting — back and forth for equipment from trucks and through the house.' Friedland watched, petrified, as five gurneys carrying children were run out through her neighbor's property into a waiting ambulances. There were five young Miami Yacht Club campers on the boat - between ages of 7 and 13 — and the 19-year-old camp counselor. The club, nearly a century old and tucked behind Parrot Jungle on Watson Island, has taught generations of children how to sail. 'Not some boujee yacht club.' Miami Yacht Club has mission of teaching kids to sail Friedland texted her daughter first. Then she texted her neighbors, some of whom had enrolled their children in past years in sailing summer camp programs. One thought dominated Friedland's thoughts. 'How awful, how horrible — those parents' lives are never going to be the same.''
