Race appears to play a role in determining what kind of treatment is offered to patients grappling with severely restricted blood flow to their feet, new research suggests. Tyler Durazzo, who led the study while at Yale University, is now a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. Murray Mittleman, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is also quoted.
More than one in six Boston doctors offices refused to schedule appointments for callers posing as disabled patients in wheelchairs, researchers at Baystate Medical Center reported Monday in a study of specialty practices that highlights obstacles to routine medical care. Lisa Iezzoni, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote an editorial accompanying the study.
You might not want to rush into knee surgery. Physical therapy can be just as good for a common injury and at far less cost and risk, the most rigorous study to compare these treatments concludes. Jeffrey Katz, HMS professor of medicine and Elena Losina, HMS associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, were leaders of the study.
Harvard researchers have estimated how many people in each of 187 countries likely died from causes linked to over-consumption of sugary drinks. Gitanjali M. Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, is a coauthor of the study. Dariush Mozaffarian, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the lead author.
A new company, provisionally named Ark Corporation, is being cofounded by stem-cell pioneer Robert Lanza and DNA expert George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS.
Don Berwick, the former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator, said that he is working on a short-term project for the National Health Service for the United Kingdom. Berwick is a lecturer on health care policy at HMS.
Felicia Knaul, HMS associate professor of global health and social medicine, participated in a Q&A about the cancer divide between wealthy and poorer countries.
It sounds like a scene from Jurassic Park: molecular biologists, ornithologists, and a bioethicist came together at a private meeting at Harvard Medical School in February of 2012 to discuss bringing back the passenger pigeon. George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, was involved in the discussion.
Harvard, MIT, and a coalition of other powerhouse research institutions have thwarted a reform proposal by the Obama administration to slash the amount of government research money each school receives for overhead costs.
Until recently, the arrow of natural selection seemed to go only one way. A species could form, then it could flourish, then it could go extinct. And once it was extinct, it could not come back. Now, though, some scientists say they see a new path. George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, is quoted.
Sea worms, jellyfish, geckos and spiders may seem unlikely muses to cutting-edge technology. But these creatures are helping stimulate medical innovations—including new adhesives, diagnostic tests and needles — that are slowly migrating from the lab to the clinic. Research by Jeffrey Karp, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is featured.
