BIDMC News and Notes
9/1/2010 (10:22:53am)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC has said farewell to 35 area students who are headed back to school this fall a little wiser.
The summer interns who took positions throughout the hospital now have their own insight into what it really takes to run a hospital.
For more, click here.
Or hear them in their own words.
8/25/2010 (11:20:45am)Tags: nutrition diet youth community healthComments: (0)
For those of you following the saga of the Healthy Champions program at the Bowdoin Street Health Center, here's an update featuring the first fruits (OK, vegetables) of their harvest.
8/12/2010 (11:48:50am)Tags: volunteers high schoolComments: (0)
"I know that I'm making a difference in a patient's life in some way," says Hannah Zack, a Summer Health Corps volunteer in BIDMC's hematology/oncology department.
The program gives teenagers ages 14-17 the opportunity to volunteer at BIDMC in various departments from cardiology to social work to public safety.
"Over 70 students applied this year," says volunteer services program coordinator Terry Morgan, "We wish we could take them all."
The lucky 30 students accepted this year will volunteer for more than 100 hours this summer. Throughout the program the students tour different departments, and gain greater insights into hospital workings.
Lindsey Shanck, a student at Hingham High School, said the emergency department was her favorite tour. "It was so fast paced!"
Other tours include radiology, where some excited students had an ultrasound for the first time. Students also tour the Spine Center, and participated in an emergency labor pool activation drill.
"The program is a great learning opportunity for the students," says Amanda Iwunze, a program mentor, in volunteer services. Students do administrative work, assist nurses, make phone calls and act as patient greeters. "I've seen them grow as a group, work well together and solidify their goals."
And solidify their goals they do. After the emergency department tour, Nick Bolden, a student at Boston College High School, knew he wanted to become a trauma surgeon. "I love the patient contact," he says.
Jane Richardson, a volunteer in nursing, knew she wanted a job in the medical field, but now wants to be an immunologist. "I've learned a lot."
The program enables high school students to ignite their interest in the medical field. Students say they love the patient contact and the hospital experience. Daniel Genkin, volunteer in cardiology, said, "The best part is really just being inside the hospital."
8/11/2010 (2:26:44pm)Tags: nutrition diet youth community healthComments: (0)
The Boston Foundation has awarded the Bowdoin Street Health Center a three-year, $270,000 grant to support its efforts to improve access to fresh produce and other healthy food choices for residents of Dorchester's Bowdoin/Geneva section.
The grant supports the health center's Healthy Food Access Project, which links a community farmers' market with corner stores and area restaurants, consumers and Dorchester youth and helps local store owners revamp their merchandising in order to make the sale of fresh produce and other healthy foods a good business proposition.
Additionally, the center was one of 11 organizations in 10 different states to receive funding as part of the inaugural ConAgra Foods Foundation Community Impact Grants program, receiving $24,985 for the same project. More than 325 non-profit organizations from across the country responded to the new ConAgra grant program.
"We are pleased that The Boston Foundation and the ConAgra Foods Foundation have made such a significant commitment to our community," said Bowdoin Street Health Center Executive Director Adela Margules. "We are very excited to be able to partner with our community residents and local businesses to create permanent opportunities to provide healthy food choices in the Bowdoin/Geneva neighborhood."
The Boston Foundation President and CEO Paul S. Grogan said, "We are particularly pleased to invest in an organization whose important work is so closely aligned with the Foundation's commitment to encourage healthy behaviors among Boston residents and increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity."
"Nearly 17 million children in the United States struggle with hunger throughout the year. That's almost one in four kids. There are hundreds of groups doing their part to help children in need, and we're focusing our funding on identifying and funding groups that are using innovative solutions. We'll study their successes and share them with others so that we can move closer to ending child hunger," said Kori Reed, executive director, ConAgra Foods Foundation.
The Healthy Food Access Project takes a multi-pronged approach to address the important public health issue of ensuring inner city families have access to healthy food choices. Over the next three years, the project aims to establish the economic sustainability of an existing farmers' market, support and educate local merchants to expand healthy food offerings and realize the profitability of such adaptations, and foster healthier purchasing patterns among residents through consumer education.
For more, click here.
8/9/2010 (4:46:34pm)Tags: geriatrics elderly medical errorComments: (0)
BIDMC researchers say a specially programmed computer warning system can significantly reduce doctors' orders for drugs that pose a danger to older patients.
The findings, reported in the new edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, are especially helpful for doctors who have not been trained in geriatric medicine.
Adverse drug events, such as dizziness or confusion occur in an estimated 40 percent of all hospital patients and can be the result of inappropriate medications being ordered. Not surprisingly, elderly individuals are particularly vulnerable to these adverse events, which not only result in longer hospitalizations, but can also pose a threat of serious complications and even death.
Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) enables physicians to electronically order medications and treatments for hospital inpatients and was developed, in part, to help prevent errors in prescribing medications (such as drug allergies or drug-drug interactions). CPOE systems can be programmed to issue a computerized "warning message" that alerts physicians to possible problems and conflicts. BIDMC first started using a CPOE system approximately 10 years ago.
A specialized version of CPOE developed by Dr. Melissa Mattison, a pharmacist and computer information specialist in 2004 helps doctors in prescribing medications for elderly patients. The new system uses components of the Beers List, which was developed by physician Mark Beers in 1993 to draw attention to dozens of common drugs that should be prescribed "with caution" to elderly patients.
To learn more, click here.
8/2/2010 (1:21:25pm)Tags: ALS muscular dystrophyComments: (0)
A BIDMC neurologist has invented a device that charts the progression of muscle loss in patients more accurately and without pain.
Seward Rutkove, MD, chief of the Division of Neuromuscular Disease, is in the process of testing his muscle probe in patients with degenerative nerve and muscle ailments such as Lou Gehrig's disease and muscular dystrophy. Currently, charting a patient's muscle loss is done with a variety of tests that are slow, often not very reproducible, or require painful placement of a needle in a muscle as the patient is asked to contract.
Click here to watch a video of Rutkove explaining how his muscle probe works.
Rutkove's probe is non-invasive and functions similar to an ultrasound, except that it applies a very minute electrical current rather than sound waves. Using this handheld device, muscle loss is assessed through electric impedance myography or EIM. Muscle condition is measured by passing a painless electrical current through the muscle using two electrodes and measured by a second set of electrodes. In less than a minute, the device sends information about the muscle's electrical properties to a nearby laptop. Rutkove hopes his probe will be used to test a patient's response to drugs in clinical trials.
"The device is based on similar principles to the scale-like devices at some gyms that tell you how much lean body mass you have," Rutkove said. "However, here we are measuring the integrity of the membranes of the muscles over very small areas. In addition to helping diagnose conditions, it may also be a good way to see if someone is responding to a drug therapy in someone already being treated."
Upon completion of this early testing, Rutkove hopes to commercialize his device and begin bigger clinical trials with it. But for now, he is happy with what he has achieved thus far.
"Having this data coming in is a gratifying event in and of itself," Rutkove said.
For more information about his research, visit his lab's website.
7/27/2010 (10:04:24am)Tags: liability medical error apologyComments: (0)
BOSTON - With high quality care at lower cost a centerpiece of federal health care reform efforts, BIDMC and the Massachusetts Medical Society are joining forces to develop a "road map" to help avoid medical errors while making it easier to compensate patients who have been harmed.
Backed by a $273,782 grant from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, researchers will fan out across Massachusetts to interview physicians, insurers, hospital executives, patient advocacy groups, consumers, attorneys and representatives of other stakeholders to better understand what is needed to transform the system from its current focus on harm and litigation to one based on the concept of "disclose and offer."
For more, click here.
7/26/2010 (3:47:49pm)Tags: transparency OpenNotesComments: (0)
The OpenNotes trial has received a fair amount of media attention since publication in the Annals of Internal Medicine last week.
The New York Times' Dr. Pauline Chen was the latest to weigh in -- following the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and Reuters. For a dull list of clips, click here.
We've also posted an expanded video, with comments from focus group members at BIDMC, Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania. That's in addition to the video offered to media outlets last week.
7/22/2010 (11:18:52am)Tags: nutrition diet youth community health centersComments: (1)
Bowdoin Street Health Center's Jen French reports members of the Healthy Champions program got a pleasant surprise on Tuesday morning when they went out for their usual routine of "weeding, watering and trying to revive our strawberry plant.
"So you can imagine our surprise when instead of finding the normal menacing plant life, we found six different types of vegetables ready to be picked! Red and yellow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, and two kinds of bell peppers were the first "market ready" items to grace the Healthy Champions' produce basket.
"And although we are waiting for a slightly larger crop to start our regular sales at the market, I am happy to report that our harvesting festivities quickly turned into a taste testing adventure, and we have nothing but rave reviews to report to our potential market customers!"
The Stonehurt/Norton Community Garden will supply produce later this summer for the Bowdoin Geneva Farmers Market.
Surveying the fruits (and vegetables) of their first harvest are, from left, Damara, Daizy, Ricardo, Adan and Jemiah.
7/19/2010 (4:12:15pm)Tags: OpenNotes transparencyComments: (0)
Technology has placed vast amounts of medical information literally a mouse click away. Yet what often may be central - a doctor's notes about a patient visit - has traditionally not been part of the discussion. In effect, such records have long been out of bounds.
In "Open Notes: Doctors and Patients Signing On," published in the July 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers speculate about the risks and rewards of making clinicians' notes transparent to patients.
"Opening documents that are often both highly personal and highly technical is anything but simple," write ten investigators, led by Tom Delbanco MD and Jan Walker RN, MBA of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. They document what they have learned from preparing their ‘OpenNotes' study, in which more than 100 primary care doctors are inviting about 25,000 patients to read their notes. The 12-month trial involves doctors and patients associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
For more, click here.
