In the 10 years since the Personal Genome Project was conceived, the effort to use genetic data to improve medicine has exploded. Over the next year, researchers are expected to generate 85 petabytes of sequencing data from research subjects and patients. George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, is mentioned.
An ambitious Obamacare experiment in cutting health-care costs led to a reduction of about 1.2 percent in spending on Medicare patients in its first year, researchers said, calling the savings a promising start. J. Michael McWilliams, associate professor of health care policy, led the study.
Richard Mollica, professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, authored this opinion piece about the Boston Marathon bombing trial as an exemplar of a meaningful approach to the healing process at all levels.
Angelo Volandes, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, authored this opinion piece about the need for new directions in improving the quality of end-of-life care.
It is increasingly common practice for researchers to scan DNA sequence data from tumor biopsies of cancer patients—the idea being that the presence of mutations might inform tailored treatments or prognoses. It is not common, however, to sequence these patients’ normal DNA, which, according the authors of a new study, is a serious omission. George Demetri, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Daniel Haber, Kurt J. Isselbacher/Peter D. Schwartz Professor of Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, are mentioned.
Angelo Volandes, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, authored this article about the importance of planning and making healthcare decisions.
A provocative new paper introducing the concept of a “placebome” — that is, the complex interplay between genetics and an individual’s response to placebos — raises questions that might ultimately lead to changes in how clinical studies of drugs are evaluated. Kathryn Hall, research fellow in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, led the study.
Even as nursing homes are busily investing in luxury living quarters, the quality of care is strikingly uneven. And it is clear that many of the homes are not up to the challenge of providing the intensive medical care that rehabilitation requires. David Grabowski, professor of health care policy, is quoted.
The state of California is launching a US$3-million precision-medicine project. The effort will draw on vast amounts of data from basic research, medical records and other information to develop more-targeted therapies and diagnostics and inform decisions about individual patient care. Isaac Kohane, co-director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, is quoted.
