New mothers' rates of breastfeeding remained unchanged despite two policy reversals regarding hospital length of stay within an eastern Massachusetts HMO, according to a study.
A rare case of familial heart failure has shown that a loss of calcium regulation in heart cells may directly cause this hereditary form of the disease.
A multi-year physician survey on career fulfillment showed significant variation in satisfaction levels across local health care markets, and it found that nationally, 18 percent of physicians were somewhat or very dissatisfied, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Studying Health System Change.
Listeria and certain strains of E. coli are the scourge of picnics, but researchers at Harvard Medical School and London's Hammersmith Hospital show in the that combining bacterial components of these bad bugs can create a powerful vector against melanoma challenged mice.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School have discovered that dual genetic signals are required to disrupt the framework of normal breast tissue during early tumor development. While most genes associated with breast cancer can only deliver one of those signals, one common breast cancer gene, HER2 (also called ErbB2), is able to provide both culprit signals.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $1.2 million grant to a consortium of investigators and health care organizations for a national bioterrorism syndromic surveillance demonstration program, a kind of computer early warning system that initially will sweep, in real time, 20 million ambulatory care patient records in all 50 states for clusters of symptoms associated with bioterror agents.
Harvard Medical School, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Partners HealthCare, is the recipient of a $15M, five-year grant that will be used to study three bacteria each with unique properties important to the environment and energy production.
Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming could lead to an increase in the incidence of allergies to ragweed and other plants by mid-century, according to a report. The study found that ragweed grown in an atmosphere with double the current carbon dioxide levels produced 61 percent more pollen than normal. Such a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to occur between 2050 and 2100.
Will the demand for complementary and alternative medicine fade or is it here to stay? While U.S. medical schools are developing complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) course work, and managed care organizations are providing some coverage for CAM therapies, little data existed to answer this question. Until now.
Bosnian refugees traumatized by mass violence in the war in the Balkans continue to exhibit high levels of mental illnesses such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, according to a unique study.
Eight of the nation's top-10 NIH-funded medical schools and another six nationally prominent leaders in academic medicine have drafted a set of guidelines that would clarify, strengthen, and add structure to most research institutions' policies for dealing with financial conflicts of interest that can arise from collaborations between faculty and industry.
Two immune proteins found in the brains of mice help the brain develop and may play key roles in triggering developmental disorders like dyslexia and neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's Disease, according to a Harvard Medical School study. (Science, 12-13-00)
Harvard Medical School researchers have found that people who stay up all night after learning and practicing a new task show little improvement in their performance. And the study suggests that no amount of sleep on the following two nights can make up for the toll taken by the initial all-nighter. (Nature Neuroscience, 12-00)
Harvard medical researchers have concluded that Americans with mental illness are nearly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as people with no mental illness. (JAMA, 11-22-00)
Medicare patients enrolled in managed-care plans were significantly less likely than those with traditional Medicare fee-for-service coverage to receive needed coronary angiography--a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure--following a heart attack, even though the procedure is a highly recommended practice (New England Journal of Medicine, 11-15-00).
National surveys reflect a growing perception that the United States' uninsured can obtain proper health care through various "safety net" facilities. Not true says a study led by Harvard Medical School researchers. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10-00)
HMS assistant professor of psychiatry, and his colleagues report that they were able to get 17 different people to see the same dream images as they drifted off to sleep. (Science, 10-13-00)
Two Harvard Medical School researchers working toward an HIV vaccine are yielding promising results using a novel viral vector known for its longevity, according to the Sept. Journal of Virology.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will issue a nearly $45 million grant to Harvard Medical School for the creation of a partnership that will develop a replicable model for controlling multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Aetna U.S. Healthcare today announced that they have entered into an agreement for HMS to become the flagship medical content partner of InteliHealth (www.intelihealth.com), Aetna U.S. Healthcare's online health information subsidiary.
Healing a human brain from the inside out was supposed to be impossible. Now comes the discovery from a Children's Hospital research group, published in Nature (6-22-00), that our brain's nerve cells or neurons could one day be induced into healing themselves.
Newspaper and television reports on new medications tend to exaggerate their benefits, ignore their risks, and fail to disclose their costs, according to a collaborative study in the June 1 NEJM.
Only 14 percent of patients treated for three common mental illnesses -- depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder -- received care that met with accepted standards, according to a new Harvard Medical School study (Journal of General Internal Medicine).
Flies harboring versions of a human gene could help solve a central mystery concerning Parkinson's disease, say Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers (Nature, 3-23-00).
In the Feb. Neuron, a neuroscientist at Boston's Children's Hospital with his collaborators have reported that they have coaxed high-level neurons in adult zebra finches to be replaced by the bird's endogenous precursor cells.
A gene previously expressed in the developing brain may have come to be expressed also in the tips of developing limbs, helping to bring about the development of toes and fingers in the first vertebrates, according to Harvard Medical School researchers in the Feb. Development.
A team from Harvard Medical School and other institutions has produced the first 3-D structures of the poliovirus in the moments after it attaches to and enters a host cell (Journal of Virology, 2-00).
Harvard Medical School scientists have identified a protein that can initiate the subtle molecular changes known to lead to neurofibrillary tangles, one of Alzheimer's pathological hallmarks.
Harvard researchers show black Medicare patients in three large states hospitalized with heart failure or pneumonia received poorer quality of care for basic hospital services than other Medicare patients treated for the same illnesses.
Harvard researchers in the November 25 New England Journal of Medicine report both a racial disparity in access to kidney transplantation, and that this disparity was not the result of patient preference.
Researchers at the Center for Blood Research and Harvard Medical School report in the November 23 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the development of an animal model that literally illuminates one of the most dramatic and obscure events in the body: how the immune system turns immature T cells into specialized killer T cells.
In the October 29 Science, Harvard Medical School researchers describe how they used a series of screens to fish out of a library of chemical compounds the first known small-molecule inhibitor to a motor protein involved in cell division.
Harvard researchers have created the first atomic-resolution image of a donut-shaped enzyme, or helicase, that unwinds the DNA double helix to expose its genetic letters for DNA replication. The researchers worked out the X-ray crystallographic structure reported in the October 15 Cell.
The timeliness and quality of care for elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction who are covered by non-profit health maintenance organizations is equal to, or better than, the care provided under fee-for-service insurance, according to Harvard researchers.
Harvard Medical School and Simon & Schuster today launched a web site that continuously updates the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide as new health and medical information becomes available. The whole book is not online. Access is free.
From the belly to the brain, a new study by Boston researchers shows how the fat hormone leptin works in the brain to trigger the nerve cells that control eating. The study adds important details about how leptin, which is released into the blood stream from fat, may control the cognitive aspects of feeding behavior.
According to a study in the August 17 Annals of Internal Medicine, physician guidelines are inadequate in helping physicians counsel women about whether to take postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy. The study's authors say that future guidelines should instruct physicians to incorporate patients' perspectives into the counseling process.
One in four Bosnian adults who fled the Bosnia-Herzegovina war may be functionally disabled due to psychiatric disorders, according to a study from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. The findings underline the need to address mental health issues when creating redevelopment programs in war-torn countries.
1. Project Success: Hands-on Science For High School and College Students 2. History of Medicine Exhibit: Magical Stones and Imperial Bones 3. Center for Conservation Medicine Studies Ecosystem-Human Health 4. Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Indigenous People.
Teaming tumor-attacking viruses with an approved chemotherapeutic drug may be more effective than either agent alone for treating multi-site brain cancers, reports a team of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers.
A mechanism the immune system uses to detect and eliminate dysfunctional T cells has been identified by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School researcher reported in the May 14 Science. The study clarifies a long-standing puzzle about the development of systemic autoimmune diseases.
Harvard Medical School/Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have found that the transferrin cycle has a more limited role in iron transport than previously believed. The findings may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of iron metabolism disorders.
Mice lacking a gene for making telomeres -- chromosomal elements with a conjectured but controversial role in aging and cancer -- were found to go gray, lose hair faster, and recover less easily from the stress of surgery and chemotherapy than normal animals, reports a team of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School researchers.
A team of Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes ivestigators has gotten to the heart of the problem of how an organ develops and acquires its characteristic shape. They have identified a gene called Irx-4 that opens doors to understanding how the heart chambers form. The findings appear in the February 19 Science.
Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Children's Hospital in Boston and the Center for Blood Research have made a discovery that could help solve one of the central riddles of biology--how the brain, with its dazzling display of cell types, develops from a relatively undistinguished pool of progenitor cells.
Harvard Medical School researchers have developed a methodology to assess marine ecosystem changes and their impacts on human health, the environment, and the economy. The methodology uses marine-related diseases as indicators of change and is intended to assist scientists in identifying trends in marine ecosystem decline, it causes, and strategies to counter it.
1. Minorities, the Elderly and Children More Likely to Perish in Residential Fires; 2. Exploring the Pathways Linking Oral Health and Heart Disease; 3. Many Doctors Overlook First Step in Diagnosing Eating Disorders; 4. Lobster Neurons Display Puritan Work Ethic; 5. Lessons In Diversity; 6. Center of Excellence in Women's Health Emphasizes Health of Minority Women
A multi-institution study has found that the donation community has little idea how well or poorly it is doing in collecting available organs. The study's authors, however, report that analyzing five key hospital variables make it possible to generate accurate estimates of donor potential in a geographic region. The findings are reported in the November American Journal of Public Health.
Harvard Medical School has received a contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health to provide community-based health care for women--especially focusing on the health needs of minority women.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered an early step in the progression of stroke, a finding that could provide a new target for antistroke therapies. Stroke afflicts an estimated half million Americans each year. The study is published in the September 29 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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