MIT researchers have found that a program that provided coordinated care for frequently hospitalized patients did not reduce hospital readmissions, reports Reed Abelson for The New York Times. “While the program appeared to lower readmissions by nearly 40 percent, the same kind of patients who received regular care saw a nearly identical decline in hospital stays.”
Writing for STAT, Prof. Amy Finkelstein emphasizes the importance of randomized control trials (RCTs), recounting how she and her colleagues used an RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of a new program aimed at reducing hospital readmissions. “Randomized clinical trials are essential tools for helping us learn, adapt, and move forward on innovative solutions that make peoples’ lives better,” writes Finkelstein.
MIT researchers have developed a model that helps untangle the mystery behind why some knot are more stable than others, reports Theresa Machemer for Smithsonian. The researchers “paired mathematical knot theory with a color-changing fiber developed in 2013,” Machemer explains. “Because the fiber changes color under pressure, the researchers were able to measure physical properties and add data to their computational knot models."
NPR reporter Dan Gorenstein examines a study by MIT researchers that evaluates the effectiveness of a program aimed at reducing admissions for frequently hospitalized patients by providing personalized care. The researchers found that, “Patients receiving extra support were just as likely to return to the hospital within 180 days as those not receiving that help.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that a new program aimed at improving care and reducing spending on “superutilizers” of health care did not improve patient outcomes, reports Austin Frakt for The New York Times. Frakt explains that the study’s findings could “help guide us to what may be better strategies for cutting waste.”
Forbes contributor Frederick Daso writes about Eden GeoPower, an MIT startup that has developed a new technology to allow for less-water intensive hydrocarbon extraction.
Fast Company reporter Lilly Smith spotlights SpaceUs, an MIT startup founded as part of an effort to transform urban vacant storefronts into creative destinations. Alumna and co-founder Ellen Shakespear explains that the goal for SpaceUs is to create “a way to connect in real life like you would in social media” and to create opportunities for local community engagement “in a way that’s more human.”
New York Times reporter Amos Zeeberg spotlights how Prof. Tomás Palacios and his research group are developing super-thin, 2-D materials that could help power the internet of things. “What if we were able to embed electronics in absolutely everything,” says Palacios of the inspiration for his group’s work.
Natalie Bell has been selected as the new exhibition curator for the MIT List Visual Arts Center, reports Alex Greenberger for ARTNews. “I’ve long admired the List Center as a laboratory for art and ideas, and MIT’s concentration of wildly intelligent, creative, and innovative people is a dream community to think and work alongside,” said Bell.
WBUR’s Pamela Reynolds spotlights three new exhibits at the MIT List Center for Visual Arts – “Colored People Time: Mundane Futures, Quotidian Pasts, Banal Presents," “Christine Sum Kim: Off the Charts” and “List Projects 21: Rami George” – as part of a roundup of noteworthy new displays this winter.
Bloomberg reporter Christopher Condon notes that a paper by MIT researchers “may help economists get a better measure of the extent to which new, free technologies are reshaping the economy and our lives.”
Research engineer Bryan Reimer writes for Forbes about the introduction of new automated driving systems. “Working together to develop guardrails around the deployment and testing of automation on public roads might be the most important step to accelerate the adoption of potentially lifesaving automated vehicle technologies,” writes Reimer.
Wall Street Journal contributor and visiting lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger highlights a working paper by Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson and postdoctoral associate Daniel Rock that examines the lag that often impacts new technologies capable of broadly benefiting society. “Adjusting productive processes to take advantage of new types of capital requires the kind of investments the statistics miss,” the researchers note.
Wall Street Journal reporter Allison Duncan highlights MIT startup Embr Labs, which has developed a wearable device that acts as a personal thermostat. Duncan notes that the Wave Bracelet, provides targeted heat to the wearer’s wrist to “help a distractedly cold person perceive a room as up to five degrees warmer. In intolerably toasty situations, it cools for the equal, opposite effect.”
A team of MIT researchers has used color-changing fibers to capture a better understanding of knots, reports Caroline Delbert for Popular Mechanics. Using a computational model, “the MIT team could hypothetically use their research to create entirely new knots that are as secure as humanly possible,” Delbert explains.