Making the health care system function better could save $2 trillion on health costs over the next decade, David Blumenthal, the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine at HMS and Commonwealth Fund president, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Friday.
Doctor’s offices and clinics were inundated with calls from patients Thursday seeking flu shots, a day after Boston declared a health emergency in response to a rising number of flu cases. Health officials said there is an ample supply of vaccine. Benjamin Kruskal, HMS instructor in population medicine, is quoted.
Boston researchers have for the first time used a drug to regenerate the delicate hair cells that sense sound in the ears of adult mice, in a promising initial step toward a potential treatment for hearing loss. Albert Edge, HMS associate professor of otology and laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, led the research.
In their quest for the next big drug discovery, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly teaming up with some of the nation’s top universities, recruiting campus scientists as partners and offering schools multimillion-dollar deals to work on experimental drugs in development. Marcia Angell, HMS senior lecturer on social medicine, is quoted. Research partnerships between Harvard and pharmaceutical companies are mentioned.
Bradley Wertheim, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, explores one of the world’s most common genetic diseases and how emerging research in evolutionary medicine raises new questions about our history, development, and future as a species.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is launching a new organization with doctors and other hospitals, adapting to a national movement toward payment systems that provide a single, set fee to care for each patient’s health. Kevin Tabb, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and HMS lecturer on medicine, and Stuart Rosenberg, HMS senior lecturer on medicine, are quoted.
Boston Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest pediatric research medical center, said yesterday that it has struck a partnership with a California diagnostics equipment maker to form a company to develop tests for pediatric diseases and interpret results. David Margulies, HMS research associate in biomedical informatics at the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the Countway, is quoted.
