Newswise — Welcome to the September 2018 edition of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s (BIDMC) Research Brief Digest.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's (BIDMC) Research Brief Digest is a monthly roundup of research briefs showcasing recent scientific advances led by BIDMC faculty.
If you’d like to speak with one of our experts, please contact us at [email protected] or at 617-667-7300. You can also reach the communications team member on call through the BIDMC page operator at (617) 667-4700 and asking for pager ID #33880.
This month’s update includes:
- The cart before the horse: A new model of cause and effect (General Medicine)
- Doctoring while sick – Is living with cancer making me a better or worse doctor? (General Medicine)
- The Cancer Center at BIDMC opens a personalized immunotherapy cancer vaccine facility (Cancer)
- Study: Mass. ICU nurse staffing regulations did not improve patient morality and complications (General Medicine)
- Overcoming resistance: Investigators reveal how nearby cells shield tumor cells from targeted therapy (Pathology)
- Healing after harm: Addressing the emotional toll of harmful medical events (Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety)
- A healthy regimen for patients with cancer (Cancer)
- Easing the discomfort of restless legs syndrome (Sleep Disorders)
- Standard of Cure Cancer Symposium (Cancer)
The Cart Before the Horse: A New Model of Cause and Effect
Natural little scientists, human babies love letting go of things and watching them fall. Baby’s first experiment teaches them about more than the force of gravity. It establishes the concept of causality – the relationship between cause and effect that all human knowledge depends on. Let it go, it falls. The cause must precede its effect in time, as scientist from Galileo in the 16th Century to Clive Granger in 1969 defined causality. But in many cases, this one-way relationship between cause and effect fails to accurately describe reality. In a recent paper in Nature Communications, scientists led by Albert C. Yang, MD, PhD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, introduce a new approach to causality that moves away from this temporally linear model of cause and effect. (September 2018)
Doctoring While Sick – Is Living with Cancer Making Me a Better or Worse Doctor?
In January, BIDMC psychiatrist Adam P. Stern, MD, was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney cancer, and his prognosis is unclear. Since he has returned to work, he finds the experience has left him with a different perspective on his patients’ problems. Stern’s essay about his return to patient care appeared on September 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “On my side of the room everything looks different. Even the clock ticking on the wall now seems looming. Maybe the changes that come with a cancer diagnosis can actually bring professional gifts. . .I used to understand anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in their textbook definitions but not what it feels like to need to play out every scenario in my mind before it may happen in order to protect myself.” (September 2018)
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1805818
The Cancer Center at BIDMC Opens a Personalized Immunotherapy Cancer Vaccine Facility
The Cancer Center at BIDMC announced the opening of the Randi and Brian Schwartz Family Cancer Immunotherapy and Cell Manipulation Facility. Led by the facility’s Executive Director David Avigan, MD, Section Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies, Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at BIDMC, and Medical Director Jacalyn Rosenblatt, MD, Co-Director of the Cancer Vaccine Program at BIDMC, the state-of-the-art laboratory expands BIDMC’s research capacity with the ultimate goal of accelerating the delivery of new immunotherapies to patients with cancer. (September 2018)
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2018/09/schwartz-family-facility
Study: Mass. ICU Nurse Staffing Regulations Did Not Improve Patient Mortality and Complications
In 2014, a Massachusetts law was passed requiring a 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse staffing ratio in intensive care units. Although intended to ensure patient safety, new research published in Critical Care Medicine found that the staffing regulations were not associated with improved patient outcomes. “The modest changes in nurse staffing we saw in Massachusetts – approximately one extra nurse per 20-bed ICU per 12-hour shift – remained unassociated with changes in hospital mortality,” said lead author Anica C. Law, MD, core faculty at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and staff physician in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at BIDMC. (September 2018)
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2018/09/nurse-staffing-regulations
Overcoming Resistance: Investigators Reveal How Nearby Cells Shield Tumor Cells from Targeted Therapy
The maintenance workers of the vascular system, pericyte cells envelop the surface of blood vessels, supporting their stability, growth and survival. Given that blood vessel growth is one necessary component in tumor development and progression, researchers have lately been investigating the stem cell-like pericytes’ role in cancer. In a recent paper published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research (CCR), Carmelo Nucera, MD, PhD, primary investigator in the thyroid cancer research program in the Division of Experimental Pathology in BIDMC’s Department of Pathology, and colleagues investigated the role of pericytes as part of the tumor microenvironment in the subset of papillary thyroid cancers modulated by a mutation of the BRAF cancer-promoting gene. (August 2018)
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2018/08/overcoming-resistance
Healing After Harm: Addressing The Emotional Toll of Harmful Medical Events
To date, quality improvement programs within healthcare organizations have largely focused on preventing more easily seen and measured physical harms, and little is known about the emotional and psychosocial harm stemming from medical errors and adverse events. Yet emerging data suggest that these secondary impacts may be just as harmful, or even more injurious, than the underlying event. Now, a group of leaders from the Healing After Harm Conference Group, led by Sigall Bell, MD, researcher at BIDMC, has established a consensus-driven research agenda with both immediately actionable and longer-term research strategies for reducing harm. The research agenda, designed to create a path forward to inform approaches that better support harmed patients and families, was published online by the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. (August 2018)
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2018/08/healing-after-harm
A Healthy Regimen for Patients with Cancer
BIDMC dietitian, Juliana Gilenberg, RD, LDN, CNSC, shares tips for a healthy regimen for patients with cancer, such as limiting naps to one hour, and staying active – even if it’s just getting up and walking around the house. (September 2018)
Easing the Discomfort of Restless Legs Syndrome
Jacqueline Chang, MD, a pulmonologist at BIDMC, shares common triggers of Restless Leg Syndrome – and suggests some behavioral changes that might help address the discomfort. (September 2018)
Standard of Cure Cancer Symposium
Scientific breakthroughs are transforming cancer care. Targeted therapies and immunotherapies produce durable remissions, but only for some patients and resistance remains. Will either of these singular approaches cure cancer? Or will a combination rock the world? The initial data is intriguing. But is it compelling? Join BIDMC’s 11th annual cancer symposium to witness the debate and hear progress reports from today’s foremost cancer researchers. This event is hosted by Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Director, Cancer Center and Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC.
https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/events/2018/10/cancer-symposium-2018
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