There’s a growing interest in what our genes say about our health. And in recent years, quite a few companies have sprung up to help us listen with the help of personalized DNA tests. Robert Green, HMS lecturer on medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
As baby boomers move through their 50s and 60s into retirement and look forward to relaxing, they are finding a good night’s sleep is often hard to come by. Like previous generations, many are grappling with insomnia, snoring, and other disorders associated with aging, excess weight, and uncooperative sleep cycles. Atul Malhotra, HMS associate professor of medicine and Doug Kirsch, HMS clinical instructor in medicine, both of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are quoted.
Len Fishman, who retires next spring as chief executive of Hebrew Senior Life, recently spoke with The Boston Globe about his role there and the challenges facing the care of a rapidly growing elderly population.
Local labs are working to develop treatments for neurological disorders, multiple forms of cancer and dozens of rare genetic diseases. But the next potential blockbuster drug to emerge from the Boston area may target a less fearsome condition that nonetheless afflicts 30 million to 40 million Americans: irritable bowel syndrome. Anthony Lembo, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is quoted.
Draper Laboratory in Cambridge has formed a consortium of experts on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to try and find biological indications of the disease, which affects both returning soldiers as well as civilians involved in accidents or assaults. Roger Pitman, HMS professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted and is a member of the consortium.
Officially, Bill Silen, the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery, emeritus, stepped down in 1994 from his long-held and much-celebrated post as Chief of Surgery at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital and professor of surgery at HMS. Yet, even now, at least two mornings a week, sometimes three, he gets up at “doctor” time, hops into his blue Toyota and heads off to Beth Israel Deaconess to do what he most likes to do: to mentor, guide and advise.
George F. Cahill Jr., HMS professor of medicine, emeritus, and a diabetes expert who made pivotal discoveries about the role of insulin in metabolism died on July 30 in Peterborough, N.H. at the age of 85.
