An experimental drug given to two U.S. health workers infected with Ebola may help raise the profile of an immune strategy that’s already shown promise against other diseases, including HIV. Research by Dan Barouch, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is cited.
Science of Us of New York Magazine talked to sleep researchers to figure out how to get through a day after you’ve had a sleepless night. Orfeu Buxton, lecturer on medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
It’s hard to believe that Robin Williams, so many of whose movie roles and standup performances radiated with humor and joy, could take his own life. But Williams struggled with addiction and depression, and Kevin Hill, an addiction psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says it’s important to know that they are diseases, like any others.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new at-home stool test to screen for colon cancer that’s better at detecting cancer than currently used tests that check for hidden blood in the stool. Called Cologuard, it’s the first non-invasive test to detect the presence of DNA mutations, as well as blood, that could indicate cancerous growths or precancerous polyps. Barry Berger, clinical instructor in pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a senior author. Andrew Chan, associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
Newer medications that got the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration had more than a one in four likelihood of receiving a black box warning or being withdrawn from the market within 25 years of their approval, according to new research. Cassie Frank, instructor in medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, was the lead author of the study.
Not all foods have to go out the window once you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, but doctors do suggest altering your diet. Linda Delahanty, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
The antibody treatment given to two American missionaries infected with the Ebola virus may seem like a modern day miracle cure, but researchers created similar, if cruder, antibody therapies as far back as the 1880s to treat diphtheria and pneumonia, according to a new paper written by Scott Podolsky, associate professor of global health and social medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at HMS.
If you are confused about which health networks your practice is listed in among those on your state’s health insurance exchange, you might be pleased to know that state insurance regulators are revising a model rule addressing the need for “adequate” networks of providers. Michael Chernew, the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy at HMS, is quoted.
