Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO)

Massachusetts General Hospital physicians Matthew L. Russell, MD, and Virginia A. Triant, MD, MPH, are co-medicals of MGH’s Age Positively Program, a partnership between the Geriatric Medicine and Infectious Diseases divisions. This program is dedicated to supporting people with HIV through care and resources as they age. "People living with HIV can experience age-related health concerns earlier than the general population, leading them to prematurely experience cognitive and functional decline," said Russell. "As people with HIV are living longer and confronting an increased and accelerated burden of chronic diseases, there is a shifting focus of care for many to issues related to aging," added Triant. "Our program optimally addresses these issues through a clinical and educational forum." For more information on the Age Positively Program, click here: https://lnkd.in/ey3Rz3MY

A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital physician Jennifer S. Temel, MD, assessed the effectiveness of stepped palliative care as compared to early palliative care for patients with advanced lung cancer. The study found that stepped palliative care resulted in fewer palliative care visits while maintaining the patients' quality of life. "To our knowledge, this is the first randomized trial to establish the non-inferiority of a palliative care strategy that’s tailored to a patient’s needs by triggering more intensive palliative care services based on patient-reported quality of life, compared with resource-intensive early palliative care," said Temel. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eu8zHWqk

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Zirui Song, MD, PhD, spoke to MGH Research Spotlight about the study "Corporate Medicine 2.0 - Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in the United States," of which he is the senior author. The study examined special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and looked into how they are being used in health care. "We found that SPAC activity is larger than expected in health care - 107 SPACs were launched in 2021 listed health care companies as their intended target and raised a total of $23 billion," he said. "We also found evidence of several major health care deals involving SPACs." To learn more, click here: https://lnkd.in/dxm6Mdsn

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Lecia Sequest, MD, spoke about about Sybil, an AI tool that can accurately predict lung cancer earlier than human radiologists, for Mass General Cancer Center. She along with Regina Barzilay, PhD, and Mass General Brigham radiologist Constance Lehman, MD, PhD, worked together to develop Sybil. "We taught the model to recognize the patterns of risk that indicate a future lung cancer by using thousands of CT scans from patients who were participating in a clinical trial," she said. "...Once the model was trained, all that is needed is the CT scan itself–no other information about the patient is needed to determine future lung cancer risk.” Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/d9-kz3Ma

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Shuhan He MD, led a study highlighted by MGH Research Spotlight. The study, "Entropy Removal of Medical Diagnostics," examined how physicians in emergency medicine can measure and reduce uncertainty. "In our daily lives, having a clear understanding of the uncertainty reduction or entropy removal associated with each decision step allows us to make confident and informed decisions," said Dr. He. "This could potentially allow us to make personalized informed health decisions with analytics for each patient based on new information occurring live in the ER." Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/dGzsRm6u

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Michael Lu, MD, led a substudy of the phase 3 Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV (REPRIEVE). The study found that pitavastatin, a cholesterol-lowering medication, reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by 35% over five years in 7,769 people with HIV. “The reductions in coronary plaque and inflammation may help explain the prevention of cardiovascular events observed in REPRIEVE,” said Lu. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/dDiW3cw7

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Anne-Marie Wills MD, led a study highlighted by MGH Research Spotlight. The study, "Concomitant Medications for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy," searched for medicines to slow disease progression of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). She and her team instead discovered that benzodiazepines were associated with much worse disease progression. "We feel that this is important to publicize to physicians who are treating this illness, because these medications may be harming patients with PSP," she said. "Alternative medications, such as antidepressant medications and zolpidem for insomnia, were not associated with any worsening of the disease." Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/enKTPtnP

Several Massachusetts General Hospital physicians were quoted in Mass General Research Institute's blog post about how people can improve their heart health. "Aim to incorporate exercise into your routine, regardless of whether it's during the week or on the weekend," said J. Sawalla Guseh, II MD. "Strive for at least 150 minutes (about 2 and a half hours) of aerobic activity across the week; however, if you can manage more, it's even better for your heart health.” Also featured were Kaavya Paruchuri MD; Suzanne J. Baron, MD; Amy Sarma, MD; Michael Honigberg MD; and Pradeep Natarajan MD. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gKgXB2Kt

Massachusetts General Hospital physician Kathryn Himmelstein, MD, led a study highlighted by MGH Research Spotlight. The study, "Wealth Redistribution to Extend Longevity in the US," analyzed data from the federal Health and Retirement Study and used simulation models to find out if more-equitable wealth distributions would lead to longer lives. "Among the research subjects, whose average age was 59 at the outset of the study, the wealthiest individuals survived 13.5 years longer than the poorest people," she said. "We then modeled the effects of different policies to narrow US wealth gaps and found that fully equalizing household wealth could increase longevity at midlife by 2.2 years overall." Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eWqKcUTm

Massachusetts General Hospital physicians Michael Dougan, MD, PhD, and and Ryan Sullivan, MD, were the co-senior authors for a study highlighted by MGH Research Spotlight. The study, "Tofacitinib Is Effective in Treating Refractory Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Hepatitis," treated three hepatitis patients, for who other treatments have failed, with tofacitinib and saw all three respond rapidly. "While the results from this case series are important, the next steps are to perform a larger, prospective, and ideally randomized clinical trial to confirm the potential benefits of tofacitinib for patients.," they said. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eK2Nkkft