Latest Clinical & Research News
We are pleased to announce the completed expansion and renovation of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This regional Level 3 NICU, and the largest NICU in Massachusetts, is a state-of-the-art facility with a design that reflects evidence-based research about the optimal environment for critically ill infants and their families.
For lung cancer surgeries, should there be an imperative to use minimally invasive techniques?
Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomies have been available to lung cancer surgeons for two decades. Despite the benefits, only 30 to 40 percent of lobectomies in the U.S. are performed using a minimally invasive technique. And yet, compared with open surgery, lobectomies performed by the VATS approach result in a shorter length of hospital stay, fewer adverse events, less cost to the hospital, and better quality of life for the patient. Read More
In 2015, surgeons in the Lung Transplant Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital performed 26 lung transplants. After significant investments in surgical staff, quality and processes, the program tripled its volume over a two-year period, performing 75 lung transplants in 2017. During this period of rapid growth, many outcomes were also improved, including a decrease in the length of hospital stay from 24 days (2015) to approximately 15 days (2017) and increased one-year survival to over 90 percent. Read More
Along with inflammatory arthritis, overproduction of autoantibodies is a defining feature of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), particularly autoantibodies against citrullinated proteins (ACPAs). The clinical significance of these ACPAs, other than for diagnosing RA, has been unclear. Previous studies have focused on association studies between a few ACPAs and one or two specific RA phenotypes – for example, an association between anti–citrullinated histone H2B antibodies and coronary artery calcium scores in patients with RA. But such an approach cannot identify potential associations with a wider array of untested phenotypes.
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Big data will drive precision medicine in rheumatology. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the combination of massive databases with genomic and clinical data will open new capabilities for the diagnosis, care, and even prevention of rheumatic disease. BWH has invested in large-scale data collection that is now is bearing fruit. The Partners HealthCare Biobank repository of DNA, plasma, and serum samples now has more than 78,000 participants, with 20,000 genotyped samples, as well as survey data with family history, lifestyle and environmental information.
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The Brigham and Women’s Hospital departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery are enrolling patients to investigate S. aureus vaccine (SA4Ag) in the prevention of postoperative S. aureus in posterior spinal fusion procedures with multilevel instrumentation.
Orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) are participating in a Phase 2B, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to assess the safety and efficacy of a staphylococcus aureus 4-antigen vaccine SA4Ag in adults (aged 18 to <86) undergoing elective open posterior spinal fusion procedures with multilevel instrumentation. Read More
Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have shown that the presence of gut microbiota increases levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), and supports bone growth in mice.
“We wanted to understand how the gut microbiota regulates bone, because we’re interested in novel ways to improve bone quality and quantity, and ultimately improve the bone health of the population,” says Julia F. Charles, MD, PhD, an investigator who recently joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at BWH. Read More
A novel platform is showing the potential for combining artificial intelligence (AI) and CT technology to identify disease stage in people with COPD and predict who are most likely to have acute respiratory disorder events and high mortality.
Investigators in the Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) – in conjunction with colleagues from Stanford University Medical Center – compared the use, outcomes and costs between robotic-assisted and laparoscopic approaches, two common minimally surgical techniques, for radical nephrectomy. They studied surgeries in 23,753 patients across hundreds of US hospitals between 2003 and 2015.
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