Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have gained new insight into the genetic and neuronal circuit mechanisms that may contribute to impaired sociability in some forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate among all major cancers, largely because physicians lack diagnostic tools to detect the disease in its early, treatable stages. Now, a team of investigators led by Lev T. Perelman, PhD, Director of the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging and Photonics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), has developed a promising new tool capable of distinguishing between harmless pancreatic cysts and those with malignant potential with an overall accuracy of 95 percent. The team’s preliminary data was published online today in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
• Triple-negative breast cancer quickly becomes resistant to current therapies, leaving patients no therapeutic options. • BIDMC researchers discovered that TNBC cells increase production of pyrimidine nucleotides in response to traditional chemotherapy. • Discovery represents a vulnerability that can be exploited by blocking pyrimidine using an existing inhibitor in combination with chemotherapy.
Sleep remains an enduring biological mystery with major clinical relevance, according to a review by clinician-researcher Thomas Scammell, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and colleagues. In recent decades, new technologies have allowed neuroscientists to identify multiple brain circuits that govern the sleep/wake cycle, as well as the factors that can influence it, such as caffeine and light. But the brain’s complexity is still a stumbling block in understanding this ubiquitous and necessary animal behavior, the researchers wrote. Their review appeared today in the journal Neuron.
As public health officials warn that spring’s warmer temperatures may herald another increase of Zika virus infections in the Caribbean and North and South America, researchers around the world are racing to develop safe and effective measures to prevent the disease. In a review paper published today in the journal Immunity, a group of leading vaccine scientists – including Dan H. Barouch, MD, PhD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) – outline advances in the hunt for a Zika vaccine and the challenges that still lie ahead. “The pace of preclinical and early clinical development for Zika vaccines is unprecedented,” said Barouch, corresponding author and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC. “In less than a year, our group and others have demonstrated that multiple vaccine platforms can provide robust protection against Zika virus challenge in animal models. However, unique challenges will need to be addressed in the clinical development of a Zi
Suzanne Olbricht, MD, an accomplished clinician, researcher, educator and health care administrator, has joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) as Chief of Dermatology.
A new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that lower levels of vitamin D in the blood increase the risk of clinical relapse in patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), an inflammatory bowel disease that causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in the colon. The study was published in the February issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Using Harvard-developed technology, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have catalogued more than 20,000 brain cells in one region of the mouse hypothalamus. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, revealed some 50 distinct cell types, including a previously undescribed neuron type that may underlie some of the genetic risk of human obesity. This catalog of cell types marks the first time neuroscientists have established a comprehensive “parts list” for this area of the brain. The new information will allow researchers to establish which cells play what role in this region of the brain.
A new study led by clinician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that hospital-led interventions over a seven-year period were associated with a significant reduction in the hospital’s Cesarean delivery rate. During the intervention period, researchers found that the Cesarean rate for low-risk women having their first delivery decreased from 34.8 percent to 21.2 percent. The hospital’s overall Cesarean rate also declined from 40 percent to 29.1 percent over the same period.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) instituted financial penalties against hospitals with high rates of readmissions for Medicare patients with certain health conditions. A new analysis led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hospital has found that the penalties levied under the law’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program were associated with reduced readmissions rates and that the poorest performing hospitals achieved the greatest reductions.
Scientific research over the past decade has concentrated almost exclusively on the 2 percent of the genome’s protein coding regions, virtually ignoring the other 98 percent, a vast universe of non-coding genetic material previously dismissed as nothing more than ‘junk.’ Now, a team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reveals that one type — called long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) — may be critically important for controlling cellular components in a tissue-specific manner. Published online today in the journal Nature, the new research points to an lncRNA’s key role in helping control processes related to muscle regeneration and cancer.
A new study from BIDMC reveals the mystery of delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS), a group of rare disorders that causes patients to become convinced that a loved one has been replaced by an imposter. The investigators mapped brain injuries in 17 patients with DMS to determine origins of these disorders. Injuries were linked to areas in the brain associated with familiarity perception and belief evaluation, providing a neuro-anatomical mechanism underlying misidentification syndromes.
A research team led by Robert Gerszten, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute, has received an award of more than $11 million as part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans (MoTrPAC) consortium, a large-scale initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate and map the molecular changes that occur in our bodies during and after exercise. This national research consortium seeks to advance our understanding of how physical activity improves and preserves health.
• Discovery offers new insight into regulation of water and food intake. • Neuroscientists recorded neuronal activity in real-time in awake mice when presented with food or water. • Researchers identified anticipatory changes in neuronal activity in the seconds prior to drinking.
New research from OpenNotes investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) suggests that offering patients a mechanism to provide feedback about their notes further enhances engagement and can improve patient safety.
A personalized cancer vaccine markedly improved outcomes for patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a potentially lethal blood cancer, in a clinical trial led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). The product of a long-term collaboration among investigators at the Cancer Center at BIDMC and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the vaccine stimulated powerful immune responses against AML cells and resulted in protection from relapse in a majority of patients, the team of researchers reported today in Science Translational Medicine.
This study shows that when patients with PD experience a drop in blood pressure upon standing up – a condition known as orthostatic hypotension (OH) – they exhibit significant cognitive deficits. These deficits reverse when the individual lies down and their blood pressure returns to normal. As a result, these findings are important as clinical providers might miss an important target for intervention when not considering OH as a contributor to cognitive impairment.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) researchers have identified previously unknown neural circuitry that plays a role in promoting satiety, the feeling of having had enough to eat. The discovery revises the current models for homeostatic control – the mechanisms by which the brain maintains the body’s status quo – of feeding behavior. Published online today in Nature Neuroscience, the findings offer new insight into the regulation of hunger and satiety and could help researchers find solutions to the ongoing obesity epidemic.
A new study led by clinician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) testing the safety and effectiveness of anticoagulant strategies for patients with atrial fibrillation who undergo stenting procedures has shown that therapies combining the anticoagulant drug rivaroxaban with either single or dual anti-platelet therapy (DAPT) were more effective in preventing bleeding complications than the current standard of care.
A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in collaboration with scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences, Inc., has demonstrated that combining an experimental vaccine with an innate immune stimulant may help lead to viral remission in people living with HIV. In animal trials, the combination decreased levels of viral DNA in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, and improved viral suppression and delayed viral rebound following discontinuation of anti-retroviral therapy (ART). The research team’s findings appeared online today in the journal Nature.
The CardioVascular Institute (CVI) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has transformed the delivery of cardiac care with the opening of the new Cardiac Direct Access Unit (CDAc). The first of its kind in New England, the outpatient unit offers immediate evaluation and care, allowing many individuals with heart conditions to avoid preventable and costly Emergency Department visits.
For millennia, philosophers have struggled to define human consciousness. Now, a team of researchers led by neurologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has pinpointed the regions of the brain that may play a role maintaining it. Their findings, which have already garnered multiple awards from the American Academy of Neurology, were published today in that society’s journal, Neurology.
While schizophrenia is best known for episodes of psychosis – a break with reality during which an individual may experience delusions and hallucinations – it is also marked by chronic neurocognitive deficits, such as problems with memory and attention. A multi-site cognition study led by psychologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) found that these neurocognitive symptoms are evident prior to the onset of psychosis in a high-risk stage of the disorder called the prodromal phase. The findings suggest that these impairments may serve as early warning signs of schizophrenia, as well as potential targets for intervention that could mitigate the onset of the psychotic disorder and significantly improve cognitive function.
Implanted medical devices like catheters, surgical mesh and dialysis systems are ideal surfaces on which bacteria can colonize and form hard-to-kill sheets called biofilms. Known as biofouling, this contamination of devices is responsible for more than half of the 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections in the United States each year.
A sleep abnormality likely plays an important role in schizophrenia, according to sleep experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). In a review of the growing body of evidence linking a reduction in sleep spindle activity to schizophrenia, the researchers suggested that a better understanding of this sleep abnormality’s genetic underpinnings opens the door to new treatments for the psychiatric disorder. Their paper appeared in the October 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry.
OpenNotes and health advocate e-Patient Dave team up to remind us just how much has changed in the 20 years since Seinfeld's Elaine tried so desperately to find out what was in her medical record.
This is the first study to demonstrate beneficial placebo effect for lower back pain sufferers who knew they were taking 'fake pills.' Patients who knowingly took placebos reported 30 percent less pain and 29 percent reduction in disability compared to control group. 'Open-labeling' addresses longtime ethical dilemma, allowing patients to choose placebo treatments with informed consent.
Though first documented 70 years ago, the Zika virus was poorly understood when it burst onto the scene in the Americas in 2015. In one of the first and largest studies of its kind, a research team lead by virologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has characterized the progression of two strains of the viral infection. The study, published online this week in Nature Medicine, revealed Zika’s rapid infection of the brain and nervous tissues, and provided evidence of risk for person-to-person transmission.
At OpenNotes we spend a lot of time talking about how note sharing can help patients, but this week we’re honoring National Health Information Technology week by bringing some attention to the positive impact OpenNotes can have on doctors, nurses and other health care providers. OpenNotes is one aspect of health information technology that can foster communication and engagement between clinicians and patients, bringing greater joy to clinicians in their practice. Meet Peter Elias, MD, who says OpenNotes transformed his primary care practice.
Our brain pays more attention to food when we are hungry than when we are sated. Now a team of scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has shed light on how the needs of the body affect the way the brain processes visual food cues. In two newly-published studies, the researchers examined – with unprecedented resolution – the brain circuits responsible for the differences in the way the brain responds to visual food cues during hunger versus satiety.
OpenNotes is pleased to announce that ten extraordinary advocates for health care quality and improvement are the founding members of the OpenNotes Advisory Board.
A weight-loss drug dampened the response to food cues in regions of the brain associated with attention and emotion, leading to decreases in caloric intake, weight and body mass index (BMI), a team led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reported. In the first study of the drug lorcaserin in the human brain, the research revealed the mechanism underlying the drug’s efficacy and provides insight into which individuals may benefit most from the medication. The paper was published today in the journal Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association.
BOSTON – In a special report released August 23 in the journal Radiology, a team of researchers including Deborah Levine, MD, Director of Obstetric & Gynecologic ultrasound at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), documented the brain abnormalities associated with congenital Zika in 45 confirmed and presumed cases from northeastern Brazil.
By discouraging the use of medications that can cause dizziness or loss of balance and prescribing medications known to prevent bone loss, clinicians can help patients lower their risk of falls and fractures.
A month after announcing that two promising vaccine candidates provided mice with complete protection against the Zika virus, a research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in collaboration with scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and the University of São Paulo, now reports achieving complete protection against Zika virus in rhesus monkeys. The research team’s findings were published online today in the journal Science.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths, accounting for about a third of all tumor-related deaths. Adenocarcinomas, a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), account for about 40 percent of cancer diagnoses, but few treatments are available for the disease. A team of investigators led by Elena Levantini, PhD, a research associate in Hematology-Oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, have identified a subtype of human adenocarcinoma. The research could help determine which individuals are at greatest risk of developing lung tumors that may be amenable to a new therapy to inhibit their progression.
The OpenNotes movement is excited to share a milestone – 10 million Americans can now read their medical notes securely online.
New research reveals that infection with the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) may put some women at increased risk for developing breast cancer. The findings, published online in the July issue of the journal EBioMedicine, may have important implications for breast cancer screening and prevention.
A number of states – including Massachusetts and New York – mandate public reporting of mortality outcomes following certain cardiac procedures. While such reporting was originally intended to increase transparency and improve quality of care, a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the University of Washington has shown that public reporting may in fact disincentivize physicians from offering potentially lifesaving treatment to patients who are at the greatest risk of mortality and poor outcomes. However, reforms to public reporting policies can mitigate these undesired effects, the authors report in a paper published online today in JAMA Cardiology.
Children whose caregivers misuse alcohol or use, produce or distribute drugs face an increased risk of medical and behavioral problems. According to a new clinical report by experts at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston Children’s Hospital, pediatricians hold the unique position to assess risk and intervene to protect children. The report is available online today and will appear in the August print edition of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Association of Pediatrics.
The recent emergence of bacterial infections that are resistant to many existing antibiotics is driving an urgent need for tools to quickly identify the small number of therapies that are still effective for individual patients. Currently, multi-drug resistant bacteria often must be sent to specialized laboratories for analysis, leading to several days of delay before results can guide therapy. Now investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have developed a simple and versatile method using inkjet printing technology to test such bacteria for susceptibility to antibiotics in a clinical setting. The method, already available online, is described in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
Noninvasive electrical brain stimulation offers hope as a potential new tool to ease the symptoms of certain diseases and mental illnesses. But neuroscientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) are warning against self-administered brain stimulation by so-called “do-it-yourself” (DIY) users. Their “Open Letter” appears in the July 7 issue of Annals of Neurology.
Investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified a developmental cause of adult-onset cardiac hypertrophy, a dangerous thickening of the heart muscle that can lead to heart failure and death. Reported online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the new findings could lead to targeted therapies for this condition.
A new risk calculator can predict an individual’s risk of developing psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, according to a new study published today in The American Journal of Psychiatry. The research involved collaborators from nine sites, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and may help researchers test treatments to prevent onset of full psychosis. Psychosis is characterized by hallucinations and delusions. The new calculator assesses an individual’s risk of developing psychosis after experiencing early warning signs of schizophrenia, such as hearing voices. “Until now, clinicians could give patients only a rough estimate of how their condition might progress—that some 15 to 25 percent of people who have experienced early warning symptoms will go on to develop a more serious disorder,” said Larry J. Seidman, PhD, a psychologist at BIDMC and Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. In addition to stressful life events, trauma and family history
A research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Seoul National University has developed a new electric mesh device that can be wrapped around the heart to deliver electrical impulses and improve cardiac function in experimental models of heart failure. The study points to a potential new way of improving heart function and treating dangerous arrhythmias by compensating for damaged cardiac muscle and enabling healthy heart muscle to work more efficiently.
The rapid development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent the Zika virus (ZIKV) is a global priority, as infection in pregnant women has been shown to lead to fetal microcephaly and other major birth defects. The World Health Organization declared the Zika virus epidemic a global public health emergency on February 1, 2016.
Prominent health policy and public health researcher, Catherine M. DesRoches, DrPH, is joining the growing OpenNotes team and the Harvard Medical School faculty. As Executive Director, DesRoches will lead the OpenNotes movement toward national adoption of the practice of providing patients with ready and secure access to a fully transparent medical record, including the clinician’s medical notes.
The Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) and OpenNotes have announced a partnership to advance transparency in health care and enhance patient and clinician communication by inviting patients to read and engage with the contents of their medical records.
In an effort to address widespread concerns related to testosterone deficiency (TD) and its treatment with testosterone therapy, a group of international experts has developed a set of resolutions and conclusions to provide clarity for physicians and patients. At a consensus conference held in Prague, Czech Republic last fall, the experts debated nine resolutions, with unanimous approval. The details of the conference were published today in a Mayo Clinic Proceedings report.
With $42 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) will lead a five-year research initiative to advance efforts to cure and prevent HIV/AIDS. Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC, and Louis Picker, MD, Assistant Director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, will lead a consortium of researchers from across the country exploring the mechanisms behind promising new HIV vaccine candidates and potential cure strategies.
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