Large multi-agency, multi-state hospices are fast becoming the primary source of end-of-life care in the U.S. According to a new study, chains cared for nearly half of all hospice patients in 2011, a dramatic increase from a decade before when small organizations (mostly non-profits) provided three-quarters of all care. Jesse Dalton, research analyst in the Department of Health Care Policy, David Grabowski, professor of health care policy, and Haiden Huskamp, professor of health care policy, coauthored the study.
Some of the differences in breast cancer outcomes between white and black women in the U.S. can be attributed to biology, suggests a new study. Nancy Keating, associate professor of health care policy, is quoted.
Researchers have uncovered a major genetic risk for heart failure — a mutation affecting a key muscle protein that makes the heart less elastic. Christine Seidman, Thomas W. Smith Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and HMS professor of genetics, is a study coauthor.
Last August and September, a nasty cold swept through the Harvard Medical School campus. As documented in the Harvard Medical Student Review, a survey of 400 students at HMS and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine found that it hit roughly a quarter of first-year students and a third of second-year students. Harvard Medical School student J. Bradley Segal conducted the survey.
An experimental new needle-free AIDS vaccine is in the early stages of testing. The vaccine comes in a capsule and is made using a common cold virus called an adenovirus, genetically engineered with a tiny piece of the AIDS virus. Dan Barouch, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, helped design the vaccine.
While most cancer cells multiply quickly, some do not, and it’s those “slow proliferators” that may play a key role in a cancer becoming resistant to certain drugs which are designed to kill the fast-growing type. Now, researchers have identified the cause of slowly-dividing cancer cells, paving to way for research into new therapies to target them. Sridhar Ramaswamy, associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, led the study.
A new drug, LCZ696, may mark a significant improvement in heart failure treatments. The drug acts as both an angiotensin receptor blocker and utilizes a neprilysin inhibitor, which limits the hormones that cause blood vessel constriction. Scott Solomon, professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Actor Michael J. Fox had holes drilled into his brain as part of his treatment for Parkinson’s Disease, according to one of his doctors. Allan Ropper, professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
The Bay State had the fourth-worst rate of hospital readmissions in the nation last year, according to a Kaiser Health News report. Medicare penalized 80 percent of the state’s hospitals for unplanned readmissions, with the average penalty for the 55 hospitals amounting to .78 percent of their Medicare reimbursements, the report states. Karen Joynt, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
