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March 23, 2007
Cancer researchers from Boston and around the world have gathered in Houston for a symposium today and tomorrow to talk about metastasis -- how cancer spreads -- and to honor Dr. Isaiah J. Fidler, the scientist who confirmed a 100-year-old theory of how cancer kills.
Speakers at the symposium include Dr. M. Judah Folkman of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, Robert Weinberg of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Harold Dvorak of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard, and Richard Hynes of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and MIT.
Fidler, whose recent research focuses on prostate and pancreatic cancer, is stepping down as chair of cancer biology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in September.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:03 PM
March 23, 2007
The Harvard Stem Cell Institute, along with two other groups, just announced that it will put on a “Stem Cell Summit” in the fall to bring together leaders from the worlds of science, business, public policy, ethics, and patient advocacy. The summit is scheduled for October 2-3, and will be held in Boston.
Collaborating on the summit with Harvard will be the Genetics Policy Institute, a stem cell research advocacy organization, and the Burrill Life Sciences Media Group, which organizes life science conferences.
For more information, contact Bernard Siegel, bernard@genpol.org.
- GARETH COOK
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 02:57 PM
March 23, 2007
Stephan Adelson of Chelsea has launched a non-profit website called HIVConnect.net to create a virtual drop-in center for people affected by HIV and AIDS. The free site offers password-protected memberships in separate areas for people who are HIV-positive, organizations offering HIV services, and family and friends of affected people.
Adelson is the former general manager of manhunt.net, an online dating service for men seeking men.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 12:13 PM
March 23, 2007
The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers will hold its annual Legislative Education and Advocacy Day Monday at the State House, the group said.
More than 350 people will hear about NASW’s legislative priorities, which include loan forgiveness for social workers, increased access to mental health services for children and improving healthcare coverage.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 12:04 PM
March 23, 2007
On SciBos, Corie Lok takes issue with the Globe's front-page coverage of the evacuation of a Boston University biomedical lab on Tuesday.
"Even though the fire department said no contamination occurred, all the proper precautions were taken and that the smoke probably was due to an electrical issue, the specter this incident conjured up of disease-causing bacteria being unleashed on the community and the image of men in protective suits are enough to make front-page news in this town," she writes. "Doesn’t exactly help BU’s image. Doesn’t really help science’s image either, I think."
On Running a Hospital, Paul Levy asks, "If you are a patient in an academic medical center, who is watching over you in the middle of the night?"
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 11:17 AM
March 23, 2007
Harvard neurobiologist Carla Shatz will move to Stanford this summer to lead the university's Bio-X program, a bioscience effort that promotes collaborations between wide-ranging fields of scientists, the San Jose Mercury News reported this week.
Carla Shatz
The Stanford Report, quoting a Harvard alumni publication, said that in 1976 Shatz became the first woman to receive a doctorate in neurobiology from Harvard, and in 2000, the first woman to chair Harvard's neurobiology department and the second woman in the history of Harvard Medical School to chair a basic science department.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 09:00 AM
March 23, 2007
Efforts by the state's community hospitals to hire former Senate President Robert E. Travaglini to push their legislative agenda have exposed a growing rift between urban academic medical centers loaded with money and power and weaker community hospitals in the suburbs.
A new deadly form of tuberculosis spreading through South Africa has been found in rich nations in Europe as well as Canada and the United States, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:18 AM
March 22, 2007
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff
Elizabeth Edwards this week got the news that all breast cancer survivors dread: her cancer is back.
Less than two years after she finished treatment for invasive ductal cancer in her right breast, doctors told the wife of presidential candidate John Edwards that she now has a small tumor in a rib on her right side. The diagnosis means that Edwards likely will never be cancer-free and she may require chemotherapy or other treatment for the rest of her life.
However, oncologists said that Edwards, 57, could live with cancer for many years.
Dr. Eric Winer, director of breast oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said Edwards has good reason to be optimistic about her treatment. He said that nearly half the patients he saw today were facing a recurrence of their cancer, adding, "Many women we take care of are living with metastatic breast cancer for many years."
Up to one-quarter of breast cancer survivors eventually face cancer again, depending on the type of cancer. Oncologists say that Edwards may have been at above average risk of recurrence, in part because the original tumor had grown so large.
Edwards admitted she had not undergone a routine mammogram for years before she discovered a lump that "felt nearly as big as a plum" while showering during the last days of John Edwards' vice presidential campaign in 2004.
"When the tumor has gotten up to that size, already the tumor has had more chances to break off and spread to other places," explained Dr. Thomas Caughey, an oncologist at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. "Some cancer cells that started in her breast escaped before they took the tumor out." Doctors cannot detect such escaped cancer cells until there are millions of them, clumped in a tumor.
Edwards' cancer is "metastatic stage 4," meaning that it is the return of her original cancer and that the disease has traveled through her blood or lymph system to other parts of her body. Statistically, people with metastatic cancers have a lower survival rate than those with localized tumors, but there are no precise survival statistics for someone with Edwards' characteristics.
Far from discouraged, Elizabeth Edwards said at a press conference today she felt thankful that the bone cancer was detected while it was still small and readily treatable. Radiologists found the tumor on Monday when she underwent an X-ray for a suspected broken left rib. John Edwards said that a subsequent CT scan showed no evidence that the cancer had reached other organs, which would have sharply reduced her prospects for survival.
"We're going to always look for the silver lining," said Elizabeth Edwards, the mother of one adult and two young children. "That's who we are as people."
Dr. Beverly Moy, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Edwards was first diagnosed, said that her treatment will likely be less draining this time. During her first battle with cancer, she shaved off all her hair rather than lose it to chemotherapy.
Because doctors won't be attempting to eradicate all cancer cells this time, Moy said, Edwards may receive less intensive chemotherapy, localized radiation or various hormone treatments that have relatively few side effects.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 06:09 PM
March 22, 2007
Dr. Michael V. Seiden, a leading cancer clinician and researcher, is leaving Boston to become president and CEO of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, the center announced today.
Seiden, 48, is head of the gynecological cancer program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and chief of clinical research in cancer medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. An associate professor of medicine at Harvard, his research focuses on ovarian cancer tumor biology. He is the physician coordinator of the cancer stem cell project at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
On June 1 he will succeed Dr. Robert C. Young, 67, who is retiring from Fox Chase, which treats about 6,500 new patients a year and employs about 2,500 people.
Seiden is a graduate of Oberlin College and earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his internship and residency at Mass. General, was a fellow in medicine at Harvard, did a three-year clinical fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and was a postdoctoral fellow in molecular pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 05:55 PM
March 22, 2007
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital have won a five-year, $6 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Disorders. The grant will allow them to study hip replacements in Medicare patients, to investigate the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis and to conduct a randomized trial of osteoporosis medication compliance, the hospital said.
Director Dr. Jeffrey N. Katz, associate professor of medicine and orthopedic surgery at Harvard, and associate director Dr. Elizabeth Karlson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard, will lead researchers from the division of rheumatology, immunology and allergy, the division of pharmacoepidemiology and the department of orthopedic surgery.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 02:30 PM
March 22, 2007
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
The state Supreme Judicial Court will decide whether construction of a high-security research laboratory in the South End should continue, the latest twist in the ongoing fight to block the Boston University lab.
In an action made public today, the state's highest court said it would directly hear the controversial case, bypassing an appeals court that had been scheduled to consider the matter. The SJC set a hearing for September, speeding up the legal process.
Ten neighbors of the lab, already being built on Albany Street, sued in state court to block the facility, where researchers will work with the world's deadliest germs. They also sued in federal court, blasting BU for locating the lab in a densely populated neighborhood with a significant number of low-income and racially diverse residents.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants in August ordered further environmental review of the $178 million project but did not halt construction.
BU appealed Gants's ruling, an appeal that was scheduled to be heard next month. But yesterday, the SJC, without explanation, issued a notice that it was taking the case.
"Generally, that means that it views the case as something that either has an important legal issue or is of general public significance," said Douglas Wilkins, the Anderson & Kreiger attorney who is representing the residents.
It is not unusual for the SJC to hear a case directly, and Wilkins said today that its action should not be interpreted as favoring one side or the other.
BU spokeswoman Ellen Berlin said the university welcomed the court's action.
"We are pleased that this important project is receiving this important scrutiny from the Supreme Judicial Court," Berlin said.
The facility, known as a Biosafety Level-4 lab, has provoked controversy since the moment it was proposed in January 2003, with a fervent contingent of scientists, environmentalists, and community activists protesting at every turn.
After their objections failed to stop the project at the city or state level, opponents turned to the courts.
Foes of the lab hailed the decision by the high court to resolve the case.
"Finally, the residents are going to be heard," said Klare Allen, one of the residents suing to stop construction.
Earlier this week, concerns about lab safety were fanned when fire crews descended on BU after smoke wafted through a lab.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 02:05 PM
March 22, 2007
On Nature Network Boston, Deanne Taylor, who works in biotech and is also chair of the Bioinformatics graduate program at Brandeis University, writes about employment trends in biology, biostatistics, informatics and bioinformatics. She says principal investigators in charge of large labs at places such as the Broad Institute oversee postdocs and graduate students mixed in with semi-permanent masters-level technician staff. They provide services from information management and data mining to lab maintenance and experimentation.
"The bigger the project, the more important the technical staff will become," she writes.
Dr. Samuel Blackman, the Boston pediatric oncologist AKA Blog, M.D., has launched a second blog, this one devoted to figures, tables, charts and illustrations related to science and medicine. He calls it Oculata Certitudine, a phrase from Galileo which he says translates into "visible certainty."
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 11:07 AM
March 22, 2007
The International Association for Dental Research has honored three Boston scientists.
David J. Mooney, a professor of bioengineering at Harvard, has won the 2007 Isaac Schour Memorial Award.
Dr. Judith Jones, professor and chair of general dentistry at Boston University, has won the 2007 Geriatric Oral Research Award.
Dr. Chester Douglass, professor and chair of oral health policy and epidemiology at Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, has won the 2007 Behavioral Sciences and Health Services Research Award.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 10:44 AM
March 22, 2007
Amid disclosures that the pharmaceutical industry has funneled millions of dollars to leading physicians, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday moved to bar scientists from serving as advisers to the agency if they have financial ties to drug and medical-device companies exceeding $50,000.
Massachusetts hospitals collectively earned more than $1 billion in profits during the 2006 fiscal year, a 10 percent increase from 2005 and almost double the hospitals' 2004 profits, according to an analysis of publicly released financial data by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the state's largest nurses union.
The volunteer program at South Shore Hospital, with more than 550 volunteers who help enhance patient service, has earned respect beyond its walls.
The Veterans Affairs Department's vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance problems such as mold, leaking roofs, and even a colony of bats, an internal review says.
Smoking during pregnancy is known to boost the risk of attention problems in children, but a study published yesterday suggests that teens who smoke and were also exposed to nicotine in the womb are even more impaired.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:21 AM
March 22, 2007
By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff
Federal researchers announced early today that they’re launching a nationwide trial to see whether creatine, a supplement long favored by body-builders, can slow the effects of Parkinson’s Disease.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is aiming to enroll more than 1,700 Parkinson’s patients at sites around the country, including two in Boston: one at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Parkinson’s is a degenerative illness that affects more than a million Americans. Initial studies suggest that creatine may slow the degeneration. Some drugs can help relieve the tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson’s, but none seems able to stop the disease from progressively worsening.
Patients in the clinical trial will be expected to participate for from five to seven years.
More info: 1-800-352-9424; info@parkinsontrial.org.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 12:12 AM
March 21, 2007
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
A wave of gastrointestinal illness that has sickened 430 residents and staff at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale appears to be waning, Boston's top disease tracker said today.
Since Saturday, fewer than five new cases a day have been diagnosed, an ongoing review by the Boston Public Health Commission shows. Yesterday, for example, only one resident was diagnosed with symptoms of the illness, which is believed to be caused by norovirus.
"It's going away, it's clearly going away," said Dr. Anita Barry, Boston's director of communicable disease control.
Hebrew Rehab, she said, has aggressively implemented measures to contain the virus, including more frequent cleaning of bathrooms and other facilities. And because so many people fell ill, the virus simply has fewer susceptible targets, Barry said.
A total of 257 residents and 173 staff members have developed symptoms of norovirus since the outbreak began in February. Virtually all the patients and staff members who were stricken with vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea recovered within a few days.
An 87-year-old resident who developed symptoms of the illness died during the outbreak, but his health was already compromised by other medical problems.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 05:42 PM
March 21, 2007
By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine today indefinitely suspended the license of Dr. Emmanuel G. Acosta, a doctor in Orlando, Fla., who also holds a Massachusetts license.
The State of Florida Board of Medicine disciplined Acosta for writing prescriptions over the Internet for people who were not his patients, and for failing to keep medical records on these individuals. Acosta can earn back his Massachusetts license back if he complies with the terms of the Florida board, including 100 hours of community service.
The board also revoked the right of Dr. Russel John Aubin to renew his Massachusetts license. The Rhode Island Board of Professional Licensure previously revoked his license following felony charges of sexual assault of two patients. He is a 1991 graduate of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Another physician, Dr. Milton Childress, a sleep specialist who practices in Duxbury, this week entered a voluntary agreement not to practice medicine. He previously pled guilty to assaulting eight patients in his clinic.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 05:33 PM
March 21, 2007
By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent
Heart disease has long been known to be the leading cause of death among firefighters, but a new study in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine reports that putting out fires raises a firefighter's risk of having a heart attack up to 100 times more than doing other, non-emergency duties.
Dr. Stefanos N. Kales of Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard School of Public Healthled the study that looked at the types of tasks firefighters did -- responding to a fire, putting it out, returning from a call, training, etc. -- to see how these tasks were associated with death. They reviewed data on deaths from 1994 through 2004, excluding the 344 firefighters who died from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"This provides the strongest evidence to date that specific firefighting duties can precipitate coronary events," Kales said.
Firefighters don't have a higher risk of heart disease compared to the general population, but the sudden exertion of their work can trigger a heart attack in the same way shoveling snow can lead to a heart attack in someone else.
Firefighters may begin their careers in better shape than others, but as they grow older they may acquire risk factors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol as well as weight gain.
"The implications of this study are clear," Dr. Linda Rosenstock and Dr. Jorn Olsen of UCLA write in an editorial. "Modifiable risk factors, whether or not they are related to occupation, should be aggressively addressed."
About 70 percent of fire departments don't have programs to promote fitness, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
"One of the issues for fire services is coming up with the funding to have medical evaluations" and fitness programs, said Rita Fahy, manager of fire databases and systems for the NFPA.
"It's the job, but the job's interaction with a person's underlying status," Kales said. "We have to make sure we are doing everything we can so risk factors are addressed sooner. Because the job is so dangerous, it needs to be career-long."
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 05:00 PM
March 21, 2007
By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff
The Leapfrog Group, an organization that publicizes quality information on individual hospitals, is adding new ratings categories. Leapfrog now rates hospitals on whether they use computers to order patients' medications, employ doctors with special training in intensive care units, and other safety measures.
Starting in June, Leapfrog also will rate them on whether they have adopted a special policy for handling medical errors, which includes apologizing to patients, how open they are with the public about their performance, and how experienced their surgeons are at seven high-risk procedures. The Leapfrog program is voluntary, but a hospital's absence from the ratings may be a red flag.
Most Massachusetts hospitals are rated by Leapfrog, including the major teaching hospitals.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 09:27 AM
March 21, 2007
On WBUR's CommonHeatlh, Dr. Kenneth R. Peelle, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, discusses how physician workforce shortages might affect patient access under the new law mandating insurance coverage.
He asks, "Can we fulfill the promise behind the law if our healthcare workforce remains under increasing stress?"
Boston pediatric oncologist Samuel Blackman's blog, Blog, M.D., hosts the latest installment of Grand Rounds, a weekly collection of medical blogging posts. Inspired by the medical school teaching method, it rotates among bloggers who solicit entries.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 08:57 AM
March 21, 2007
Firefighters evacuated hundreds of people from a 10-story Boston University biomedical research building yesterday after white smoke wafted through a laboratory that houses vials of highly infectious bacteria, renewing concern about the danger of studying potentially deadly pathogens in a densely populated area.
Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to require that all adults have health insurance that includes prescription drug coverage.
The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are so common that depressed people who have never faced trauma usually qualify for the condition, according to a new study that raises questions about whether thousands of Iraq war veterans as well as civilians are getting the right diagnosis and treatment for their emotional problems.
When the 700 doctors at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and four other physician groups chose a name three years ago for their new umbrella organization, HealthOne Care System, they thought they picked a winner. The problem was the name was too good. Another group already had claimed it -- a hospital network in Denver called HealthONE.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:32 AM
March 21, 2007
As Dr. Jerome Groopman is learning, the price of a book tour that includes an appearance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" is unlimited razzing by the host. On Monday night, Stephen Colbert joked with his guest, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center doctor/writer, that while many doctors think they're God, the white-bearded Groopman looks like God.
Then at the start of tonight's show, after telling his audience that singer Willie Nelson would be the guest, Colbert quipped: "Sorry Jerome Groopman fans, you missed him by one day."
Posted by Gideon Gil at 12:27 AM
March 20, 2007
Rudy Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, has won the Alzheimer’s Association's 2007 Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute Award.
Rudy Tanzi
Tanzi, who isolated the first Alzheimer's disease gene in 1987 and collaborated on the identification of two more in 1995, launched the Alzheimer's Genome Project late last year to identify all the genes involved in the disease.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 05:27 PM
March 20, 2007
By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff
Nearly all adults in Massachusetts must obtain health insurance that includes coverage for prescription drugs, a state board decided today, but they will have until Jan. 1, 2009 to comply with that rule.
The unanimous vote today established draft rules for minimum coverage that every individual over age 18 is required to have under the state's landmark universal health insurance law unless they obtain a waiver. The rules will be vetted in public hearings next month and approved in final form in June.
Although the stringent new requirements do not apply immediately, all individuals who do not obtain a waiver must still buy some insurance by July 1 this year or face a tax penalty in 2008.
In the end today, even the business representative on the board of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector voted for the requirements, despite helping to organize a last-minute drive delay the rules further and eliminate the drug mandate.
"We moved a long way from where we were last week," said Richard Lord, president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "I'm still uncomfortable mandating that drugs be included but in the spirit of compromise, it was a reasonable alternative."
Jon Kingsdale, the board's executive director, called the vote "landmark." "All the (minimum) requirements are significant steps in setting precedents for what other states are going to be looking at," he said after the meeting.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 01:25 PM
March 20, 2007
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
Massachusetts residents are living longer than ever, according to a report released today by state health officials. Life expectancy in the state rose to nearly 80 years, about two years longer than the national figure.
Heart disease and cancer remain the state's top two killers, although mortality rates for both are declining.
The number of AIDS deaths in the state is the lowest since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s.
At the same time, the state's epidemic of heroin and OxyContin continues to kill an increasing number of Bay Staters, rising 43 percent between 2000 and 2005.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 11:23 AM
March 20, 2007
CIMIT, or the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, has received a $367,080 grant from Boston Scientific co-founder and director John E. Abele and his family's Argosy Foundation.
The money will be used to help its members collaborate through the CIMIT Forum, the organization said. CIMIT is a consortium of teaching hospitals and engineering schools set up by Massachusetts General Hospital to speed the development of promising therapies.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 11:05 AM
March 20, 2007
Research scientists are feeling financial pain that is largely self-inflicted, a BusinessWeek story says.
The National Institutes of Health budget doubled over a five-year period ending in 2003, leading to new projects, lab buildings and equipment. That was followed by years of flat funding that couldn't sustain the larger scientific enterprise, the story says.
Kevin Casey senior director of federal and state relations at Harvard suggests that a steady 10 percent growth might have been better, the story says.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 09:42 AM
March 20, 2007
Allan M. Brandt, a medical historian at Harvard, contends that recognizing the dangers of cigarettes resulted from an intellectual process that took the better part of the 20th century. His book, "The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America," is described in today's New York Times.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 09:04 AM
March 20, 2007
Leaders of the business community and major health insurers called yesterday for the state to delay for two years, until July 2009, the requirement that all residents have health insurance that meets state standards.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino wasted little time finding a new chief for the city's health department, and he looked no further than the city's school system. Menino will ask the board of the Boston Public Health Commission today to approve his selection of Barbara Ferrer as executive director of the agency. Ferrer is completing her second year as headmaster at Parkway Academy of Technology and Health in West Roxbury.
![barbara[1].jpg](http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/barbara[1].jpg)
Barbara Ferrer
Data from hospital inspections such as the one that found problems at Massachusetts General Hospital would benefit patients if the information could be collected in an authoritative format that they could understand, a Globe editorial says.
Doctors and other healthcare providers who owe the federal Treasury a total of more than $1 billion in back taxes are still receiving government checks for treating Medicare patients, congressional auditors say.
Community Health Systems Inc. agreed to pay $5.1 billion for Triad Hospitals Inc., outbidding a private equity group to create the biggest publicly traded US hospital company.
Expanding government health insurance coverage to all Americans could reduce healthcare spending by as much as $60.7 billion a year, according to a study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan research center.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:20 AM
March 19, 2007
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
The winds of change are already blowing down Washington Street.
Boston health chief John Auerbach, named earlier this month to be Massachusetts's public health commissioner, is taking three of his top lieutenants with him when he moves to the state agency's headquarters in Downtown Crossing. All three will occupy the same roles at the state Department of Public Health that they held at the Boston Public Health Commission.
Monica Valdes Lupi will be chief of staff; Kristin Golden will be director of policy and planning; and Tom Lyons will direct the communications office.
The moves had been widely anticipated; leaders of state agencies frequently choose to surround themselves with trusted allies, and Auerbach has long-standing relationships with all three of the officials who will join him at the Department of Public Health April 2.
Posted by Karen Weintraub at 03:59 PM
March 19, 2007
Geoffrey Grant has been appointed vice president for research administration at Partners HealthCare, the hospital system said today.
Partners, which includes Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, has a $1 billion research program and receives the most funding for a hospital from the National Institutes of Health, it said in a statment.
Grant is the former director of the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration. In 2003 he was assigned by the National Science Foundation to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. From 1998 to 2003 he was associate vice president for research administration at Stanford University.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 03:28 PM
March 19, 2007
Dr. Frank W. Sellke, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a thoracic surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has been elected presidenct of the 46-member Massachusetts Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
![sellke_sm[2].jpg](http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/sellke_sm[2].jpg)
Dr. Frank W. Sellke
Sellke was also named chairperson of the Research Project in Cardiothoracic Surgery of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Special Emphasis Panel.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 03:13 PM
March 19, 2007
It's dangerous to cut funds for basic research into new cancer therapies just as a tsunami of baby boomers in their cancer-prone years is about to hit, Harvard scientist Joan Brugge told a US Senate appropriations committee today.
She spoke as part of a consortium of nine academic institutions fighting for more funding.
"There's going to be a huge impact in terms of human suffering," she said in an interview. "It's taken a while to understand this complex disease, but now we have a blueprint for how to develop therapies. Now is not the time to retreat."
Every basic science department at Harvard Medical School had at least two or three faculty members whose grants were not funded, she said. Nationwide all grant amounts were cut by 24 percent to 29 percent in 2006.
Read Brugge's testimony below.
First, let me thank Chairman Harkin, ranking member Specter, and members of the committee for this opportunity to report to you some remarkable advances that have occurred in biomedical research because of your strong support for NIH. I hope that I can convey as well my personal excitement for the incredible potential still to be realized in my own field of cancer research. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm is dampened by profound concerns that the four years of flat funding has compromised significantly our ability to fully realize this potential.
When I was a sophomore math major at Northwestern University, my sister was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. This event and her subsequent death redirected me towards a career in cancer research. Most of my career has been spent in universities and medical schools. However, for five years before I came to Harvard Medical School, I served as the Scientific Director of a biotechnology company focused on cancer and other diseases. My industry experience significantly shaped my understanding of issues critical to the translation of scientific discoveries into therapies for patients. It taught me among other things, that though the path to treatment can be arduous, today the path between basic discovery and successful drugs also can be remarkably short.
The early 70’s, when I entered cancer research, was a heady time in science. Many of us expected, based in part on the success of the polio vaccine and the Congressionally mandated War on Cancer, that we would soon have a cure for this horrible disease. However, it soon became evident that cancer, unlike polio, is not a single disease with a single cause. There are hundreds of different forms and, indeed, tumors from individual cancer patients carry unique sets of genetic changes. This unexpected complexity – unique to cancer - precluded rapid development of a single vaccine or simple cure.
Though we certainly underestimated the complexity of cancer, the Congressional investment in cancer research is now beginning to pay off. We have made enormous progress in understanding the cause of this disease and its molecular underpinnings. This fundamental information has led to revolutionary approaches to treatment, aimed specifically at the unique vulnerabilities of specific tumors; we now know how to target a tumor’s genetic or molecular Achilles’ heel. In addition, new imaging modalities and biomarkers provide the potential to identify tumors at early stages when treatments are most effective.
Today, I feel a new confidence that we are poised to make more rapid progress in developing effective and less toxic treatments for the myriad different cancers. This confidence is based on initial evidence of success. We now have multiple examples of effective treatments that target the molecular alterations of specific subsets of tumors (such as Tarceva for a subset of lung tumors, Gleevec for chronic myelogenous leukemia, and Tykerb, approved just a week ago for treatment of certain breast cancers). These successes provide a blueprint for the development of treatments for many more types of cancer.
Cancer treatment in the future will involve a molecular diagnosis of each tumor, followed by customized therapies. Already this is being done for breast cancer, in which tumor tissues are probed for several markers that predict which tumors will respond to specific drugs (like Tykerb, Herceptin, or estrogen antagonists) and which will not. The results are dramatic, adding years to the lives of many patients with the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, and sparing patients of treatments that offer no promise of efficacy. For the first time, we are seeing a decrease in deaths associated with cancer. The tip of the iceberg is visible, underneath lies the foundation for a rapid pace of breakthroughs in cancer detection and treatment based on the research investment in the past.
We cannot afford to stand still—the demographics are against us. There is an impending increase in cancer due to the baby boomers aging into their cancer-prone years, which has been referred to as an impending tsunami. You are all keenly aware of the ramifications for government of Medicare entitlements associated with this surge in cancer. But unlike a real tsunami, which comes unexpectedly with no time for preparation, we are well aware of this impending crisis. And We know that the Congressional investment in basic and cancer-focused research has positioned the cancer research community to make more rapid progress in translating basic discoveries into the diagnosis, treatment, and eventually, prevention of cancer. We owe it to the public to capitalize on these investments; failure to maintain the pace of advancement towards reducing the suffering of cancer is not an option the American people should support or will support. We are all in this together.
This brings me to my profound concerns regarding the state of NIH funding today. Four years of flat funding have had a devastating impact on the trajectory of cancer research. We are losing the momentum and the dedicated careers that were fueled by the previous federal investments. We are now damaging the research infrastructure, and this will certainly delay relief from the cancer burden.
While you have seen the statistics regarding grant awards presented by Dr. Zerhouni and others at NIH and are aware of the inflationary erosion of our buying power, the mere numbers mask the profound effects on the research community. I would like to give you an appreciation for what these numbers mean to the cancer research community, which is emblematic of the whole research enterprise. While the eventual success rate of grants is 20%, this number reflects success of either the first, second, or third submission of a grant. The success rate of the first submissions is now about half of this; thus the vast majority of scientists are subjected to a lapse in funding and the negative consequences of this. Not only can a lapse in funding force labs to cut back, let staff go, and redirect efforts to finding alternative funding and resubmission, it creates an environment of insecurity and anxiety that is anathema to the conduct of creative, innovative exploration. Recovery after a 6-12 month funding gap requires retrenching and retraining of new staff. Many leads will never be followed up. Loss of continuity is one of the most serious problems for a scientist. For new investigators, repeated failure to launch their research program is also demoralizing, and discourages taking original and risky paths.
Researchers at all levels are affected —those beginning their careers and senior investigators with long and sustained track records of major discoveries. For example, multiple colleagues at Harvard Medical School who are leaders in their field with outstanding accomplishments, are suffering lapses in funding or losing grants that received priority scores in the 10-20 percentile range. Peer review is too imprecise to distinguish differences in the quality of the grants in this tight range.
Secondly, in order for the success rate of grants to hit the mandated target number of grants, NIH has resorted to cutting grant size dramatically—at NCI, 24-29% (2006). Aggravating this situation are reductions in buying power due to inflation and the 30 percent increase in mandated stipends for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over the past seven years (an increase that we applaud). Lab directors are faced with carrying their labs at funding levels equivalent to those 7-10 year years ago, at a time when there is a significant increase in cost of the new technologies required for state-of-the-art research. As a result, almost every grant is severely under-funded for achieving the approved goals, and scientists are starving for resources.
The frustration and anxiety of lab directors is not going unnoticed by trainees, and many young scientists are looking for other venues to exercise their talents, ones where their long training investment will not be jeopardized by this lottery in NIH grant review. This has major implications for the science of tomorrow, since we will not be able to fill in the gaps of this lost generation.
I would like to reiterate the long-term implications of the current research budget shortfall on the economy. Cancer incidence for those 65 and older is 10 times greater than for those under 65, and the death rate is 16 times higher. By 2003, 20% of the U.S. population will be over age 65 compared with 12% in 2004. The cost consequences of this tsunami of baby boomers hitting their cancer-prone years could devastate our economy.
A one percent decrease in cancer mortality is reported to be worth $500 billion to our economy according to an NCI report. Getting these potential new therapies I have outlined to patients will take a significant new investment in translational and clinical research, the cost of which can dwarf the cost of basic research. But without the most promising basic discoveries, we will not be able to improve early stage therapies and more and more translational and clinical endeavors will result in dead ends. We can’t be shortsighted.
We recognize the challenges each member of Congress faces in balancing worthy priorities, but I can assure you that from a scientific perspective there is justification for fully supporting basic, translational, and clinical pursuits. Basic science now more than ever fuels the success of effective disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in the future.
Through the foresight of the members of this committee and others, the public has generously provided a start toward eradicating one of the scourges of human health. We are in fact in a better place to detect, treat, and potentially, prevent cancer. But just as new therapies based on our cellular and molecular understanding are emerging from our labs, the opportunity to expand them to other types of cancer, to build on them, and to provide for a future of more discoveries has idled. We can’t retreat now that the infrastructure is in place and we are mobilized to launch a full force attack on a disease that we now understand. For the sake of the American people, please find a political route to keep progress against cancer at a sustainable pace. The research findings are clear. There is a path to major advances in cancer detection, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention. Help us get those advances to the public and fulfill the promises of the best in scientific research.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 03:03 PM
March 19, 2007
On Blog, M.D., Boston pediatric oncologist Dr. Samuel Blackman relates a tale of a web camera being left on in a patient's room when the child was being treated for a problem. He asks how far a parent or relative should go in taping the healthcare of their loved one.
Nurse at small, a blog by Betsy Baumgartner about her experiences at a Boston teaching hospital, tells what it's like when she can't spend as much time with a patient as she or the patient would like. "I wish I could have been there for you, but there was only one of me and four of you.'
WBUR's CommonHealth hears from artist Kathleen Bitetti, who is executive director of the Artists Foundation. The working artists she represents make up a key test population for the state's new healthcare law, she says. And they have something in common with public policy makers.
"Artists create things that never existed on a regular basis."
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 09:57 AM
March 19, 2007
A new approach to organ donation is saving the lives of more waiting patients but, some say, it risks sacrificing the interests of the donors, according to a story in Sunday's Washington Post.
In "donation after cardiac death," surgeons remove organs within minutes after the heart stops beating and doctors declare a patient dead, the story says. Most organs are removed only after doctors have declared a patient brain dead.
Two Boston doctors and a woman whose son became a donor at Massachusetts General Hospital voice their opinions.
"People are dying on the waiting list," said Francis L. Delmonico, a transplant surgeon at Harvard Medical School, speaking on behalf of the United Network for Organ Sharing. More than 95,000 Americans are waiting for organs. "This is vital as an untapped source of organ donors."
Nancy Erhard's 25-year-old son, Bo, became a DCD donor at Mass. General in November 2005 after a burst artery caused devastating brain damage, the story said.
"There was no hope. He would never regain conscious thought," Erhard said. "This gave his life so much more meaning in the end because he was able to help so many others."
Michael A. Grodin, director of Boston University's Bioethics and Human Rights Program, said the practice is troubling.
"The image this creates is people hovering over the body trying to get organs any way they can," he said. "There's a kind of macabre flavor to it."
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 07:55 AM
March 19, 2007
Most errors in diagnosis arise because of mistakes doctors make in thinking, Dr. Jerome Groopman, chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a staff writer for The New Yorker, writes in today's Health|Science section. Groopman has been discussing his book "How Doctors Think" with "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross on NPR and Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News. Tonight he'll venture into satiric news territory as Stephen Colbert's guest on "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.
Dr. Jerome Groopman
Also in Health|Science, don't skip the dentist. Oral health influences overall health at all ages and a Forsyth Institute program brings dental care -- and toothbrushes -- to young schoolchildren.
Joan Brugge, head of a Harvard Medical School lab that's making major inroads into the study of breast cancer, will testify about cancer research funding before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. She explains how her sister's illness made her switch from mathematics to biology when she was in college.
Three discoveries over the last decade have led to the first trials of a treatment for lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a disease that affects women during childbearing years. LAM is characterized by an unusual type of smooth muscle cell that invades the tissues of the lungs. These LAM cells grow abnormally and eventually restrict airflow to the rest of the body.
And, can you tell from the labels whether cosmetics contain ingredients that may be harmful?
In Business, a Food and Drug Administration warning about the use of antianemia drugs is increasing pressure on Medicare officials to change payment policies for Amgen Inc.'s Epogen, which accounts for $2 billion in federal kidney-dialysis reimbursements.
Two years isn't enough time to undo decades of neglect at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts, a Globe editorial says. Yet the people there deserve all the support necessary from the state to do their job -- performing autopsies that pinpoint the cause of suspicious death.
New health plans that will be available to uninsured people in Massachusetts starting May 1 are far better and more affordable than any plan uninsured individuals can purchase right now, Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, writes on the Op-Ed page.
An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray as the number of severely wounded soldiers was rising rapidly.
Miss Massachusetts Michaela Gagne talks about her heart condition and the cardioverter defibrillator implanted in her chest.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:24 AM
March 19, 2007
Inspectors found numerous quality of care problems at Massachusetts General Hospital during a surprise inspection late last year, noting concerns about medication safety, inconsistent handwashing by caregivers, and incomplete medical records, Liz Kowalczyk reported in Saturday's Globe.
Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:02 AM
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