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ChatGPT-4, an artificial intelligence program designed to understand and generate human-like text, outperformed internal medicine residents and attending physicians at two academic medical centers at processing medical data and demonstrating clinical reasoning. In a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) compared a large language model’s (LLM) reasoning abilities directly against human performance using standards developed to assess physicians.

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In a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), neurologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) showed that a simple skin biopsy test detects an abnormal form of alpha-synuclein, the pathological hallmark of Parkinson’s disease and the subgroup of neurodegenerative disorders known as synucleinopathies, at high positivity rates.

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In the largest randomized clinical trial and first of its kind to date in the United States, a team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) assessed the efficacy and safety of using a drug-coated balloon in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty.

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Findings published in the journal Nature by physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and colleagues suggest that it may be possible to improve protection against COVID-19 by delivering the vaccine directly to the respiratory tract— the primary site of entry in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Physician-investigators compared a chatbot’s probabilistic reasoning to that of human clinicians. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that artificial intelligence could serve as useful clinical decision support tools for physicians.

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New research helps explain the recent reversal in cardiovascular mortality among this population and underscores the need to address the social determinants of health that contribute to it.

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Researchers performed complementary experiments showing that inhibiting a specific enzyme in a mouse model protects the dopamine-producing neurons that are normally lost as Parkinson's disease progresses, effectively halting the progression of the disease. The findings open the door to the development of novel therapeutics targeting the enzyme that may slow or prevent the progression of Parkinson's disease in people—a major unmet need.

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A national study demonstrates that neighborhood exposure to environmental hazards is significantly associated with poor cardiovascular health across the United States.

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With more than 4 million children placed into foster care during the study period, researchers used state-level data to evaluate the link between restricted abortion access and subsequent entries into the foster care system.

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Researchers demonstrate that among individuals who were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and were discharged alive, the risk of post-discharge death was nearly twice that observed in those who were discharged alive from an influenza-related hospital admission.

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Researchers present a completely new paradigm describing a developmental pathway by which the enteric nervous system development continues after birth.

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Using an index to describe and compare frailty between older sexual and gender minority (OSGM) adults and non-OSGM participants, researchers showed that OSGM had higher rates of frailty, starting at younger ages and continuing into older age, compared to non-OSGM.

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Researchers tested one well-known publicly available chatbot’s ability to make accurate diagnoses in challenging medical cases. The team found that the generative AI, Chat-GPT 4, selected the correct diagnosis as its top diagnosis nearly 40 percent of the time and provided the correct diagnosis in its list of potential diagnoses in two-thirds of challenging cases.

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Researchers found that receiving intensive antihypertensive treatment as an inpatient was linked with greater risk of adverse events, particularly for patients receiving the medication intravenously as opposed to orally.

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For nearly 25 years, Dr. James Kirby has worked to advance the fight against infectious diseases by finding and developing new, potent antimicrobials, and by better understanding how disease-causing bacteria make us sick. In a recent paper published in PLOS Biology, Kirby and colleagues investigated a naturally occurring antimicrobial agent discovered more than 80 years ago.

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Researchers tested whether using open-label placebo could increase the efficacy of methadone treatment for people undergoing care for opioid use disorder.

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Researchers estimated that climate change-related natural disasters have increased since 1980 and have already cost the United States more than $2 trillion in recovery costs. Their analysis also suggests that as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the global temperature continue to rise, the frequency and severity of disasters will increase, with recovery costs potentially rising exponentially.

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In a retrospective cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries who underwent aortic stent grafting, researchers worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to compare the long-term outcomes of a specific endograft device type with comparative devices on the market.

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In a recent multisite survey of more than 8,000 patients who accessed their test results via an online patient portal account, researchers found that users overwhelmingly supported receiving the results immediately, even if their provider had not yet reviewed them.

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In patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery in Boston between 2008 and 2020, those with a diagnosed cannabis use disorder more often required advanced postprocedural healthcare compared to non-users. However, patients whose use of cannabis was not classified as a disorder had lower odds of requiring advanced healthcare after surgery compared to patients who never use cannabis.

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A new study suggests that the presence of academic medical centers within a healthcare market is linked to better outcomes for patients treated at nearby community hospitals.

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Researchers identified a protein linked with the onset of anthracycline-associated cardiac toxicity. In two studies conducted in women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, levels of a protein known as hemopexin circulating in the blood were associated with increased cardiac toxicity.

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In a series of experiments, scientists found that gene usage in the brains of patients with COVID-19 is similar to those observed in aging brains.

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Researchers compared the effects of three eating patterns on patients' risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event within in the next ten years — the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and the Western diet that is typically low in fruits and vegetables while high in fat and sodium.

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Researchers show how major sociopolitical events can have global impacts on sleep that are associated with significant fluctuations in the public’s collective mood, well-being, and alcohol consumption.

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A team led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are joining the NIH to develop a framework for mapping the human body cell by cell.

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Maternal mortality in the United States in on the rise. Scientists increasingly recognize that pregnancy-associated deaths — those due to conditions unrelated to the physiologic effects of pregnancy — are important and potentially preventable contributors to maternal mortality. Maternal deaths due to homicide and suicide are thought to represent a significant number of pregnancy-associated deaths, but have been under explored as an area of potential intervention.

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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Deerfield Management, a healthcare investment firm, announce a research collaboration to accelerate discovery of novel therapeutics. Deerfield will provide up to $130 million along with additional scientific and operational support to this collaboration to advance BIDMC research that has the potential to transform patient care over the next decade.

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In a paper published in JAMA Network Open, physician-scientists assessed the use of these two monoclonal antibodies for patients with COVID-19 before and after FDA deauthorization.

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Physician-scientists assessed whether lipid concentrations and rates of lipid control changed among U.S. adults from 2007 to 2018. The researchers observed that while mean cholesterol concentrations improved among U.S. adults overall during this time period, there were concerning variations in these trends by race and ethnicity.

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Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and UMass Chan Medical School have signed a Letter of Intent to explore establishing a regional medical campus that would help train, develop and support the next generation of healthcare leaders.

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Researchers have identified a key enzyme which catalyzes the degradation of a potent activator of beige fat biogenesis.

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In a paper published in JAMA Network Open, physician-scientists assessed how pregnancy-related complications and obstetric outcomes changed during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic.

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Researchers report that exposure to cold temperatures resolved obesity-induced inflammation while improving insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in diet-induced obese mice.