During an appearance on WGBH’s Greater Boston, Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with Jim Braude about her research and the experience of winning a MacArthur grant. Barzilay explains that the techniques she and her colleagues are developing to apply machine learning to medicine, “can be applied to many other areas. In fact, we have started collaborating and expanding.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay, recipient of a 2017 MacArthur grant, speaks to Radio Boston’s Meghna Chakrabarti about her research. Barzilay explains that data is not currently used in the medical field “to select treatments, to personalize it, or to help the patients reduce their uncertainty about the outcomes. I really strongly felt it has to be changed.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay has been named a MacArthur grant recipient for her work in computational linguistics and with applying machine learning to the field of oncology, reports Ellen Gamerman for The Wall Street Journal. “I firmly believe there is a lot of really important information and patterns that are hidden in the data of cancer patients,” said Barzilay.
Boston Globe reporter Laura Crimaldi writes that Prof. Regina Barzilay has been awarded a Macarthur “genius grant” in recognition of her work in the field of computational linguistics. Barzilay said she plans to use the prize, “to continue to work on improving cancer care using machine learning and natural language processing.”
Boston Globe reporter Alex Kingsbury writes that MIT researchers have developed a paper-based test to diagnose Zika. The test could not only make it easier for doctors to diagnose the disease in developing countries, but also “distinguish between the four types of dengue fever, even if Zika wasn’t present — a useful diagnostic tool for doctors in its own right.”
A new blood test developed by MIT researchers can distinguish between the Zika and dengue viruses, reports Andrew Joseph for STAT. “Being able to distinguish the four serotypes is very important for epidemiology purposes and to know what viruses are circulating in an environment,” explains Prof. Lee Gehrke.
Prof. Lee Gehrke speaks with WBUR’s Carey Goldberg about a new paper-based diagnostic that can detect the Zika virus. “Our technology for screening large numbers of antibodies against a panel of closely related viral proteins has allowed us to specifically identify antibodies that recognize only one of the viral antigens, and that gives us a great deal of specificity.”
MIT researchers have developed a new test that can identify dengue and the Zika virus quickly and cheaply, reports Sophie Hares for Reuters. “Knowing whether these tests are positive or negative is very important for designing the course of clinical care,” explains Prof. Lee Gehrke. “It simplifies the decision tree and, we believe, leads to improved patient care.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Paul Osterman writes about how to improve home health care. Osterman writes that with less regulation and better training, home health aides, “could become as integral to health-care teams as doctors and nurses. That could improve the quality of care while saving buckets of money for everyone involved.”
New Scientist reporter Matt Reynolds writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that can determine how much pain a patient is experiencing. “By examining tiny facial expressions and calibrating the system to each person, it provides a level of objectivity in an area where that’s normally hard to come by,” explains Reynolds.
New York Times reporter Eduardo Porter speaks with Prof. Paul Osterman about his new book, which examines the need for better home health care in the U.S. Porter writes that in his book, Osterman suggests that improving home health care jobs, “could actually improve the quality and efficiency of the entire health care system.”
Scientific American reporter Lindsay Brownell writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique to enlarge pathology samples. “Not only are expanded samples easier to see because they are larger and more transparent, fluorescent tags and other labels can also be added to track individual molecules of interest.”
New York Times reporter Austin Frakt writes that MIT researchers have found that hospitals that spend more on emergency care had better patient outcomes. “Hospitals that score well on patient satisfaction, follow good processes of care and record lower hospital mortality rates,” says Prof. Joseph Doyle, “do seem to keep patients alive and out of the hospital longer.”
Prof. Jonathan Gruber writes for The Washington Post that the Senate’s health care bill could make the opioid epidemic worse by proposing a, “rollback of the Medicaid expansions that had finally slowed the rapid growth of this devastating problem.”
Avantika Chilkoti of The New York Times assesses news coverage of the health care debate using Media Cloud, a platform that tracks online stories developed in part by researchers from the MIT Center for Civic Media. Since May, news about Russia and former FBI director James Comey “outstripped coverage of the health care bill on 30 of 67 days,” writes Chilkoti.