ThinkResearch

"Sexual orientation and gender identity demographics are not routinely and uniformly collected in electronic health records," says Harry Reyes, MAS, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University. In the fourth episode of this series, Reyes and Li Zhou, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discuss their research using machine learning and natural language processing to improve data collection of...

"In South Africa, about 40% of the population living with HIV are not in care," says Ingrid Katz, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Katz discusses her research on HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa, the importance of feedback from target populations, and the future of HIV research.

S. Bryn Austin of Boston Children's Hospital, Rahsaan Hall of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and Janson Wu of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAAD), will share insights about the health and economic impacts of state laws on gender minorities and the development of a policy database.

“Keep on reminding yourself that research is delayed gratification. You're going to do things that are not going to work out, but that doesn't mean that it might not necessarily work in the future,” says David Sanchez, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital. In this podcast, Sanchez discusses his participation in the Harvard Catalyst Visiting Research Internship program, and offers advice for those who...

"There are approximately five billion people who don't have access to surgery because of barriers of affordability, timeliness, safety, and availability," says Mark Shrime, MD, MPH, PhD, FACS, director of the Center for Global Surgery Evaluation at Mass Eye & Ear. In this podcast, Shrime discusses the impact and ramifications of a lack of access to surgical care.

It’s estimated that at least 500,000 people in the U.S. are living with pulmonary fibrosis,” says David Lagares, PhD, director of the matrix and mechanobiology program at MGH Fibrosis Research Center. His lab is investigating tissue regeneration and fibrosis after lung injury and developing therapeutic strategies to promote the regeneration of chronically damaged organs.

Ana Progovac, PhD, Cambridge Health Alliance, and Mason Dunn, who leads strategic efforts for Keshet, an organization dedicated to LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, discuss their research using data sets to identify suicide outcomes in transgender populations, the importance of partnering with community groups, and how findings can inform better policy and care.

Peter Steinberg, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses his research analyzing factors that can determine how likely it is a patient will show up for an appointment and strategies he recommends to reduce no-show rates in hospitals.

"82% of the folks in our study reported being bullied." Sari Reisner, ScD, Boston Children's Hospital, and members of his research team discuss the tool they’ve developed, with funding support from Harvard Catalyst, to help combat LGBTQ bullying in schools. Tune into episode one of our new series “Community Engaged,” highlighting Harvard Catalyst’s Community Engagement program via our ThinkResearc...

"It's a little bit like doing CSI, but for infectious diseases." Bill Hanage, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is developing a new method of sequence typing DNA. Learn more about how it’s achieving quicker results. Transcript: https://bit.ly/2U93whk

Ben Sommers, MD, PhD, professor of health policy and economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses his research which examines Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion models and their associated impacts on healthcare. Click here to read the transcript: https://bit.ly/3hjpfLj

What's the value of healthcare? Ankur Pandya, PhD, assistant professor of health decision science in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses his work using cost-effectiveness analysis to define value in healthcare services and the implications of this method on developing health policy. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3hkPTDK

Corrie Painter, PhD, associate director of operations and scientific outreach in the Cancer Program of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, discusses how her diagnosis with a rare cancer, angiosarcoma, led her to develop patient-driven cancer research initiatives, including the nonprofit Count Me In. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3625P8v

Stroke occurs in about 800,000 U.S. patients each year. Taylor Kimberly, MD, PhD, MGH, discusses his work running a phase 3 clinical trial investigating brain swelling in stroke patients and the challenges associated with running a multisite clinical trial. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3qBPD7n

Is it possible to preserve tissues in a patient who has sustained a traumatic injury? Giorgio Giatsidis, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses his innovative work in tissue preservation and regeneration. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3drQBxW

Peggy Lai, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses her research on the effects of solar lighting on indoor air pollution in Uganda, and the importance of engaging study staff and the local population. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3w2c4E5

Ten percent of people claim they have an allergy to penicillin, but 90 percent are actually not allergic. Once labeled as penicillin-allergic, patients end up with higher medical costs, longer hospital stays, are more likely to be treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and develop drug-resistant bacterial infections. Kim Blumenthal, MD, MSc, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses this problem...

Alex Lin, PhD, director of the Center for Clinical Spectroscopy at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Department of Radiology, discusses his traumatic brain injury research. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Lin’s work focuses on measuring brain chemistry

JoAnn Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-director of the VITAL Study, returns to her findings from this national clinical trial on benefits of Vitamin D and Omega-3s.

Large databases are often used to analyze questions in healthcare, but what are the potential ways we can use that data, and how can researchers come up with interesting questions for analysis? Anupam Jena, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital returns to discuss his recent research in the field of health and policy economics. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3w4Cq8h

Next month we'll sit down with Dr. Anupam Jena again to discuss his latest work. This week we are re-releasing our first conversation with him from 2017. Dr. Anupam Jena, of Massachusetts General Hospital, explains the intersection of economics and medicine, including why some physicians are more likely to purchase larger homes and how “defensive medicine” can drive the decision-making process dur...

Vitamin D is known for promoting bone health, and now Dr. JoAnn Manson believes it could also reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Hear how she started a nationwide clinical trial with nearly 26,000 participants to determine the additional benefits of vitamin D and omega-3s. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3AkR8LG

What are the latest technologies in medical imaging to guide surgeons? Nobuhiko Hata, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses his innovate work using image fusion, navigation, and robotics in image-guided surgery. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3qGUggM

Wearable technology and robotics are two rehabilitation methods used to help those with limited mobility regain movement. Paolo Bonato, PhD, director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, discusses the role of innovative technology in rehabilitation. Transcript: https://bit.ly/39t13Dg

Donor-dependent, platelets are in short supply. To stop bleeding and repair tissues, they are essential for patients with cancer and those undergoing surgery. Jonathan Thon, PhD, co-founder of Platelet BioGenesis, discusses his organization's work to create platelets that can be used to treat these patients and deliver cancer-fighting drugs.