For the second time in recent weeks, scientists have found a “non-natural” amphetamine-like compound in dietary supplements – yet federal regulators have issued no warnings to consumers about the ingredient. Pieter Cohen, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, is quoted.
Commonly performed lab tests, such as simple blood tests, may be unnecessarily ordered in many cases, a review of studies on the subject found. Ramy Arnaout, HMS assistant professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, led the research.
Amid a looming shortage of primary-care doctors in the U.S., medical schools and innovators try to entice more students to enter the field. Russell S. Phillips, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the HMS Center for Primary Care, and Janine Knudsen, a third-year HMS student and member of the Center’s Student Leadership Committee, are quoted.
Doctors and nurses from Boston hospitals are rushing to typhoon-devastated sections of the Philippines to aid survivors who for more than a week have faced a scarcity of food and drinking water; little protection from sun, wind, and rain; and, in many cases, no access to health care. Teams from Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are highlighted.
Diagnostic errors are more likely to be preventable than other medical mistakes. And now health-care providers are turning to a number of innovative strategies to fix the complex web of errors, biases and oversights that stymie the quest for the right diagnosis. A system called DXplain at Massachusetts General Hospital is mentioned. Edward Hoffer, HMS associate clinical professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.
National Football League teams are racing this season to secure the title of loudest outdoor stadium in the world. But all that noise can come with a serious cost. M. Charles Liberman, the Harold F. Schuknecht Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, is quoted.
Vivek Hallegere Murthy, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will be nominated by President Obama to become the nation’s 19th surgeon general.
A new class of cholesterol-lowering medicines may struggle to meet sales projections, as latest treatment guidelines suggest doctors should prescribe only drugs proven to help the heart. Paul Ridker, the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a lead investigator of one of the trials.
