Screening the genomes of healthy people may give important clues about their cancer risk, according to a study that suggests advanced DNA technology might be employed early in a patient’s health assessment. Robert Green, HMS lecturer on medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Angelo Volandes, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, authored this article about improving communication with patients and physicians.
Medical checklists have helped improve surgical safety and eliminate bloodstream infections. Now physicians will study their effect on advance care planning for cancer patients. Susan D. Block, HMS professor of psychiatry at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was the lead researcher of the study.
With millions of Americans taking daily vitamin D supplements to prevent cancer and bone fractures, a federal task force announced Tuesday that there’s “insufficient evidence” to recommend that Americans take these supplements for such purposes, but some experts disagree with that assessment. JoAnn Manson, Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
HMS and the Warren Alpert Foundation announced yesterday that an annual prize recognizing lab discoveries to advance human health will go to four scientists who developed the drug bortezomib used in treatment of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. The recipients are: Julian Adams of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Alfred Goldberg, HMS professor of cell biology, Kenneth Anderson, the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Paul Richardson, the R.J. Corman Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Researchers have taken a detailed look at another set of bacteria that may play even bigger roles in health and disease: the 100 trillion good bacteria that live in or on the human body. Curtis Huttenhower, assistant professor of computational biology and bioinformatics at HSPH, co-led several of the analyses.
Hebrew SeniorLife and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, along with Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC, have signed a formal preferred provider agreement.
After 20 years on the boards of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners HealthCare chairman Jack Connors is retiring.
