Julian Goldman, instructor in anaesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Paul Biddinger, assistant professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, participated in a television interview about Mass General’s high-tech Ebola treatment plan.
People in hospice are less likely to die in a hospital or nursing home, and less likely to get costly and intensive care, than terminally ill patients who don’t opt for hospice care, according to a new study of older Americans with cancer. Ziad Obermeyer, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is lead author of the research.
Researchers studying microbiomes can do their best to prevent contamination, but a new study reveals widespread, low-level contamination in DNA extraction kits. Matthew Meyerson, professor of pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is quoted.
Professors at Boston-area colleges are adding their voices to a student-led movement that is pressing higher education institutions to shed investments in fossil fuel companies. James Recht, assistant professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, is quoted.
It’s not every day that Hollywood celebrities line up to honor the world’s best scientists, but Sunday night stars of the screen convened at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California to hand out prizes to biologists, physicists and mathematicians. The Breakthrough Prizes are aimed at honoring achievement and fostering general interest in science, with winners chosen by laureates. Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, won a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
A colonoscopy is one of the most effective tests available to protect against a major cancer — a message heard by growing numbers of adults. But a recently published study revealed that some patients get the exam too often, exposing them to unneeded risks and raising costs. Thomas Sequist, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, led the research. Richard Lopez, clinical instructor in medicine at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, is mentioned.
Medical tests can often discover incidental findings—abnormalities found unintentionally and not related to the medical condition that prompted the test. Incidental findings occur in as many as a third of imaging tests, studies show. But they often aren’t followed up on, or even noted in a patient’s record. Now, health-care providers are developing tracking systems to make sure the most worrisome discoveries don’t fall through the cracks. Sayon Dutta, instructor in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, led the research. Mark Mangano, clinical fellow in radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Susan Bennett, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, are mentioned.
Two teams of astronomers who discovered that the universe is apparently being blown apart by a mysterious something called dark energy were awarded the $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize, one of the 2015 Breakthrough Prizes. In addition to the physics prize, six scientists were awarded Life Sciences Prizes for work on such topics as the regulation of genes and treating Parkinson’s disease. Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a Life Sciences Prize recipient.
The expansion of Partners HealthCare has been an issue in the Commonwealth for years. More than 170 organizations have filed comment on the case of Partners’ proposed expansion, many critical of a deal that would cement Partners’ standing as the dominant health provider in most of Eastern Massachusetts.
