Boston, Mass. – Physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) are now enrolling patients in two clinical trials testing treatment options for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Two trials, led by infectious disease specialist Kathryn Stephenson, MD, MPH, will test the antiviral drug remdesivir for safety and efficacy against the respiratory…
Physician-scientists at four University of California Health medical centers — UC San Diego Health, UC San Francisco, UC Irvine Health and UC Davis Health — have begun recruiting participants for a Phase II clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of treating adult patients with COVID-19 with remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has shown…
Plenty of fictional works like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein have explored the idea of swapping out a brain from one individual and transferring it into a completely different body. However, a team of biologists and engineers has now used a variation of the sci-fi concept, via computer simulation, to explore a core brain-body question. How can…
Eleven states and the District of Columbia have opened enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to allow laid-off workers to get subsidized health insurance, and the Trump administration, which has been gunning to repeal the law, is considering opening the federal exchange to new customers. The new enrollment periods will ease insurance sign-ups for people…
When it comes to the coronavirus outbreak, what’s the word related to mental health that you hear most? If you said “anxiety,” you’re not alone. But if you were to sit (virtually, of course) in a therapist’s office like mine or any of my colleagues’, what you might hear just as often is the word…
Overwhelmed by demand for an experimental treatment for coronavirus, the drug maker Gilead abruptly shut down its emergency access program, leaving doctors and families scrambling for answers. The company said it was setting up a broader access program that could try to help more people, but some said the transition is delaying remedies for very…
The idea took root after Jenni Spinner and her wife, Rebecca Kell, watched videos of Europeans, homebound because of the coronavirus, get on their balconies and sing to raise their spirits in the face of crisis. Wouldn’t it be neat, they mused, if they could get the residents of their Chicago apartment building to do…
Dr. Scott Isaacs has worked as an endocrinologist for more than two decades, focused on the medical needs of adults with diabetes in the Atlanta area. He never expected to be serving on the front lines of a pandemic. For weeks, his phone has been ringing off the hook. His diabetes patients, a high-risk group…
As hospitals around the United States brace for an ongoing surge in coronavirus cases, one question they are grappling with is whether medical students should be deployed to help care for patients infected with the virus. For now, the nation’s 90,000 medical students have been largely sidelined from patient care during the crisis. Last week,…
Here’s what you need to know: ImageTreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin heading to negotiate a coronavirus relief package at the Capitol on Monday.Credit…Joshua Roberts/Reuters U.S. lawmakers try again on a $1.8 trillion stimulus plan. Senators and senior Trump administration officials were scrambling on Monday to strike a deal on a $1.8 trillion measure to bolster the…