Health care

Eight student teams pitched novel inventions at last night’s MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovations Prize pitch competition. Rendever earned the $25,000 grand prize for creating a virtual-reality platform that gives the elderly the chance to explore the world virtually. The platform also provides cognitive therapy and tracks movement data to aid in early diagnosis of dementia.

Virtual-reality system for the elderly wins health care prize

Eight student teams pitched novel inventions at MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovations Prize competition.

February 24, 2017

“[W]hen I came here for CPW [Campus Preview Weekend], I realized that these people were really passionate about what they were doing, and that they were doing really cool things. It’s nerdy, but it’s my kind of nerdy,” senior Hermoon Worku says.

Future physician-advocate

Senior Hermoon Worku is pursuing a career dedicated to surgery, advocacy, and teaching.

February 20, 2017

MIT Professor Regina Barzilay has struck up new research collaborations, drawn in MIT students, launched projects with local doctors, and begun empowering cancer treatment with the machine-learning insight that has already transformed many areas of modern life.

Putting data in the hands of doctors

Computer scientist Regina Barzilay empowers cancer treatment with machine learning.

February 16, 2017

A new study co-authored by MIT scholars shows regions of the U.S. where medical providers are most likely to offer tests and treatments, given populations with equivalent levels of underlying health. Areas with greater “diagnostic intensity,” as the researchers call it, are in red.

Measuring “diagnostic intensity”

New study maps U.S. regions where patients appear more ill than they are

February 15, 2017

How the U.S. can beat hepatitis C: Don’t buy the pills, buy the company

Pharma veteran and MIT visiting scientist Mark Trusheim advances a provocative solution to overcome treatment costs.

January 20, 2017

“My parents loved the idea of me being a doctor, and then when I decided on nuclear engineering, they wanted me to look into medical physics,” says Caroline Colbert, a senior in nuclear science and engineering.

Caroline Colbert: Paving a path to medicine

Nuclear science and engineering senior Caroline Colbert has found herself on an unexpected career path in the medical field.

December 12, 2016

J-PAL North America Executive Director Quentin Palfrey

Experts gather at MIT to urge more innovation in health care delivery

Two-day conference explores opportunities for research, innovation, and evidence-informed policymaking to address a range of national health care challenges.

December 7, 2016

Lauren Uhr: a brain researcher motivated by personal experience

MIT senior studies cognitive science and medicine from the vantage point of a person with dyslexia.

November 21, 2016

Common Sensing co-founders Richard Whalley (left) and James White

Data-driven diabetes management

Smart insulin-pen cap lets patients and doctors track dosage data to better manage treatment.

November 16, 2016

(Left to right): Heidi Williams, the Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Economics; and Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT. By scrutinizing millions of Medicare patients who have moved from one place to another, the researchers have found that patients and providers account for virtually equal shares of the diff...

Decoding the medical cost mystery

Providers and patients drive health care spending in roughly equal amounts, study shows.

November 3, 2016

“The process of how the neural circuits come back online following anesthesia has not really been studied in depth, and this is something that interested us from a clinical standpoint, because we are investigating ways to rapidly reverse anesthesia,” says Ken Solt, a research affiliate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hos...

Study suggests approach to waking patients after surgery

Activating certain brain neurons may spur recovery from general anesthesia.

October 24, 2016

A team led by Polina Golland’s group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has made a new algorithm for identifying organs in fetal MRI scans, which should make MRI monitoring much more useful. Pictured is a stock image of a fetal MRI.

MRIs for fetal health

Algorithm could help analyze fetal scans to determine whether interventions are warranted.

October 21, 2016

Karen Singleton will become chief of MIT Medical’s Mental Health and Counseling Service in January 2017.

Karen Singleton named chief of MIT Medical’s Mental Health and Counseling Service

October 20, 2016

MIT Medical averaged one shot every 4.4 seconds at the first flu clinic of 2016.

Nearly 5,000 shots given at first campus flu clinic of 2016

Second clinic to take place Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Stratton Student Center.

October 19, 2016

“Contrary to the conjecture that Medicaid would get people to [move] out of the emergency room and to the primary care physician, we’re seeing a persistent increase in emergency room use,” says Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT.

Study: With Medicaid, ER visits remain high for two years

Acquiring health insurance does not lead to drop in emergency room usage.