By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Unflappable seems a good way to describe Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, the bold young surgeon who has successfully completed four face transplants at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, often embracing especially risky patients. But in a New Yorker magazine profile this week of Dallas Wiens, one of Pomahac’s patients, the surgeon reveals that the unparalleled time pressure involved in removing the face from Wiens’s donor was almost unbearable.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick has proposed spending about $156 million to subsidize health insurance next year for about 37,400 legal immigrants who became eligible when the Supreme Judicial Court last month struck down state lawmakers’ decision to exclude them from coverage. The Massachusetts Health Connector, which oversees the Commonwealth Care subsidized-insurance program, will begin enrolling immigrants on March 1.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Massachusetts public health officials have called together patient safety leaders to determine why hospitals reported a high rate of surgical infections among women who received vaginal hysterectomies over the past two years. The infection rates for vaginal hysterectomies emerged as health officials released report cards today for 71 hospitals, showing how many patients contract potentially serious infections from surgery and other medical care that is intended to heal them.

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

A heads-up to Patriots fans who traveled to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl: Massachusetts public health officials today issued a measles alert for anyone who attended the Super Bowl Village, a three-block outdoor festival in downtown Indianapolis, last Friday because they may have been exposed to the highly contagious illness. The alert says that Indiana disease trackers have confirmed at least one case of measles among someone who attended activities in the village on Feb. 3.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Robert Weisman of the Globe wrote last month that state insurance regulators had approved the most modest premium increases in at least a decade for the small group market, which serves small businesses and individuals. Today, however, he writes that insurance industry executives believe the trend won’t likely hold.

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

Patient advocates called on state lawmakers today to close a loophole in Massachusetts law that allows nursing homes to advertise specialized Alzheimer’s and dementia care units, even though their workers may have no training in caring for such patients. About 200 supporters gathered at the State House to back a proposed law that would require the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which regulates nursing homes, to establish minimum standards for facilities with dementia care units.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

In her resignation letter submitted today, Handel countered the heavy criticism the organization has faced since announcing last week that it would stop grant funding for breast cancer screening provided by Planned Parenthood, a decision the group reversed days later. She also declined to accept a severance package.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dr. Don Berwick is no longer at the helm of a federal health care agency, but he has plenty of ideas for changing the nation’s health care industry. He will join host Madge Kaplan, of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Gerald Shea, assistant to the president for governmental affairs at the AFL-CIO, for a discussion on Feb. 9. at 2 p.m. Register on the institute’s website to listen live.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

I often have written here about the many ways electronic records could help doctors improve the health of their patients, empowering them to catch adverse drug interactions, communicate with each other, or identify patients who are due for preventative screenings. But Phil Galewitz reports for Kaiser Health News about how some hospitals are using the records to improve their own financial health. The records provide a wealth of marketing data, allowing hospitals to pitch their more profitable services to patients who have the insurance plans to pay for them. Some consumer advocates say the practice goes too far.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A paper from the lab of renowned genetics researcher Stephen Elledge is the subject of a correction in the journal Cell. The errors are detailed on the Retraction Watch blog, where writer Adam Marcus notes that this was a “mega-correction” and not a retraction of the paper. But the post has spurred an interesting debate on how the errors reflect on Elledge’s lab and whether the journal has taken the right approach.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A group of state hospital associations from around the country last month asked the Obama administration to take a closer look at a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will land Massachusetts hospitals an extra $275 million or more in yearly Medicare reimbursements. The letter prompted Senator John Kerry and others in the Massachusetts congressional delegation to respond Tuesday, calling claims that the elected officials have manipulated the Medicare budget “completely false.”

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Medical Society sent a letter to state senators today expressing support for some aspects of a bill meant to curb the state’s high rate of prescription painkiller abuse and concern for other provisions. In particular, President Dr. Lynda Young raised questions about whether requiring all doctors to use an online database to screen patients before prescribing a narcotic painkiller -- meant to prevent “doctor-shopping” -- could interfere with good care in certain scenarios.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

UMass Memorial Health Care, which hired models in short skirts to lure potential bone marrow donors and then charged insurers high fees to test samples, will pay $520,000 as part of an agreement with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office. The attorney general, who filed a complaint and final judgment in Suffolk Superior Court today, said in a written statement that the Caitlin Raymond International Registry and UMass Memorial Health Ventures, Inc. -- subsidiaries of the hospital network -- jointly engaged in improper marketing.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

In a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors from the University of Massachusetts Medical School say they have discovered a 78-year-old strain of staph bacteria in the leg of a patient first treated for the infection in 1934. One author said he hopes staph researchers will study the bacteria to better understand the evolution of the strains that have developed since then.

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

UMass Memorial Health Care, which lost money in the last three months of 2011 amid shrinking patient volume, is telling employees today that it will shed 700 to 900 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, through a combination of layoffs at its flagship Worcester hospital and by selling divisions that provide health services. The health care system, which operates UMass Memorial Medical Center and four community hospitals, is the largest employer in central Massachusetts, with about 13,500 workers.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The Joslin Diabetes Center has appointed Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, former president and research director, to be the center’s first ever chief academic officer, charged with overseeing faculty recruitment and appointments.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been awarded a $10-million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to expand its molecular imaging research. The grant will help to create the institute’s Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility, a $20-million project to develop ways to help doctors better diagnose cancer and target their treatment for the best outcomes.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Lawyer and behavioral health specialist Marcia Fowler will lead the Department of Mental Health starting next week. Fowler has worked for the department for 16 years, most recently as deputy to Commissioner Barbara Leadholm. The administration announced in December that Leadholm, who has led the department since 2007, would step down on Feb. 5 to join the Boston office of research and consulting firm Health Management Associates.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Tufts Medical Center is seeking to become a “level one’’ trauma center, an elite designation that would bring more prestige and potentially more patients to the Boston teaching hospital. But the surgery chiefs at four of Tufts’ competitors are questioning whether the city needs another top trauma center and have asked public health officials to delay their decision.

By Dr. Kiran Gupta, Globe Correspondent

In a new online column for Boston.com, Dr. Kiran Gupta chronicles her experiences as a medical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Today, she writes about the tension between her duties to her patients and to her family.