Five doctors disciplined

Excerpts from the Globe's blog on the Boston-area medical community.

The chief of surgery at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester and a gynecologist whose patient died after an abortion were among five doctors disciplined by the state Board of Registration in Medicine last week.

Dr. Leon Josephs, St. Vincent's chief of surgery, agreed to five years of probation for what the board described as his substandard care of three patients - two of whom died after laparoscopic operations. Under the agreement, Josephs, who is also on the staff of Fallon Clinic in Worcester, will no longer perform laparoscopic procedures, will be supervised by a monitor approved by the board, and will undergo random chart review.

Dr. Rapin Osathanondh, who has practiced in Massachusetts since 1974, voluntarily resigned his medical license and is therefore permanently removed from practicing medicine, according to board spokesman Russell Aims. The resignation meant the board could not provide any more details about the incident, but according to a story in the Cape Cod Times, Laura Smith, 22, of Sandwich died in September while under anesthesia during an abortion at Osathanondh's Hyannis clinic.

The Center for Neuroregeneration Research at McLean Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and the Brain Repair Centre at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, will join forces on research, education, and clinical care programs, the two institutions announced last week.

The partnership will develop clinical services, such as robotic surgery, neural transplantation, and deep-brain stimulation, as well as commercial applications for new technologies, the announcement said. An exchange program for scientists will also be set up between the two centers.

The University of Massachusetts at Boston and the Harvard School of Public Health will create a research center devoted to health and healthcare disparities, the institutions said today.

A five-year, $7.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities will fund the Horizon Center, named for its goal of providing healthy options, research, interventions, and community organizing, the schools said.

The center will work with the Cherishing our Hearts and Souls Coalition, a group that has collaborated with the Harvard School of Public Health on efforts to close health gaps in Roxbury, which has the youngest, poorest, least educated, and least employed people among Boston's neighborhoods, the school said.

ELIZABETH COONEY