Gastric bypass surgery’s rapid diabetes-improving effects appear to stem from growth of new intestinal tissue. Nicholas Stylopoulos, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Nima Saeidi, HMS research fellow in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, are co-authors of the study. Lee Kaplan, HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is also quoted.
In a speech this week, President Obama pointed to education as one of the central elements of his effort to rebuild the middle class. A study by Frank Levy, HMS lecturer on health care policy, is cited.
Adjusting Medicare payments to reward doctors and hospitals in regions that provide high-quality care at low cost would be a bad idea, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday. Joseph P. Newhouse, HMS professor of health care policy, is quoted.
Several news reports this week have highlighted the supposed benefits of placing a cold cap on the scalp to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy. While these reports have emphasized the experimental nature of the device – it hasn’t yet been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration – some women have been using them on their own. Erica Mayer, HMS assistant professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is quoted.
Tom Delbanco, the Richard A. and Florence Koplow-James L. Tullis Professor of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, authored this article about how the number of primary care doctors has fallen in the past few years and asks if Obamacare will change this trend.
“Energy Psychology,” “Emotional Freedom Technique” or simply “tapping,” the practice uses exposure and desensitization to “defuse” painful emotions associated with trauma. By tapping a series of acupuncture points on the body, and repeating certain phrases related to the negative event in an accepting way, the emotional intensity of the bad memory deflates, the theory goes, and the grip of trauma melts away. Rick Leskowitz, HMS clinical instructor in psychiatry at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, is quoted.
