An Institute of Medicine panel on Friday panned an idea that has been raised in Congress to pay Medicare providers in some areas of the country less if their regions are heavy users of medical services. Joseph Newhouse, HMS professor of health care policy, led the panel.
Patients who undergo broad DNA testing to explain a specific medical condition also should be told about chance findings that indicate risk for other serious diseases, a group of genetic specialists said. Robert Green, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is chairman of the panel.
The troubled drug giant AstraZeneca, which is overhauling its research operations, is betting at least $240 million that a novel but untested technology from a small biotechnology company can provide it with a huge array of new drugs. Technology developed by Derrick J. Rossi, assistant professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at FAS, is cited.
Eating too much salt contributed to 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010, and 40 percent of those deaths were premature, researchers said. Dariush Mozaffarian, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of the lead researchers. Saman Fahimi, a visiting scientist at HSPH, is the lead author.
Malnutrition in the first year life, even when followed by a good diet and restored physical health, predisposes people to a troubled personality at age 40, new research suggests. Janina Galler, HMS professor of psychiatry at Judge Baker Children’s Center, led the team.
CT scans have transformed medicine. They can provide stunningly detailed images of the inside of the brain, but these scans aren’t without risk. Susanna Lee, HMS assistant professor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, was the lead researcher on one of the studies about the scans.
Doctors need to give antibiotics to more than 12,000 people with acute respiratory infections to prevent just one of them from being hospitalized with pneumonia, according to a new study. Jeffrey Linder, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
