Clinicians and researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have long benefited from close affiliation with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a leading center for genomics research in Cambridge.

Recently, the Broad communications team interviewed some of these investigators to learn more about their experiences during the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts.

Below are some excerpts from the stories they shared, but we’d encourage you to read their full stories–and hear from other affiliated investigators from other Boston area hospitals on the Broad website.

Deborah Hung, MD, PhD

Infectious Disease Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Physician-Investigator, Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital

“The thing that struck me the most, from the experience of treating COVID-19 patients, was how heartbreakingly dehumanizing it was. Patients weren’t allowed to have visitors, and those intubated and sedated in the ICUs couldn’t talk to you.

“As a physician, I only knew a name and the medical parameters associated with the individual. During usual times, we get to know a little more about the patient — the personal and human side, with families and friends visiting. But with COVID, it was heartbreaking to see people dying alone, and their families couldn’t come in.”

Michael Gillette, MD, PhD

Physician Investigator, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

“One thing that was striking during the first surge of the pandemic was the number of critically ill patients relative to hospital capacity.

“At Mass General, we got up to about 180 patients requiring ICU-level care. To put that number into perspective, our main medical intensive care unit, where I spent most of my time during the last couple of months, is an 18-bed unit.”

Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MSSc

Director of Preventive Cardiology, Massachusetts General Hospital

“The overwhelmingly large knowledge gap that physicians were dealing with in the face of this public health emergency was immediately apparent as I began treating patients with COVID-19.

“We don’t have multiple high-quality randomized controlled trials to go back and immediately reference in order to figure what’s the right thing to do for our patients.

“We are depending a lot on clinical intuition from experience with other acute respiratory processes, rapidly gaining experience, synthesizing and vetting scientific literature in real-time, and then immediately applying it to patients with COVID-19.”

Roby Bhattacharyya, MD, PhD

Physician-Investigator, Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital

“[One thing] I remember about the time leading up to my two weeks on service in April was how eerie it was to hear from doctors in Italy and Spain, then Washington, then New York City about how slammed they were, when our hospital was actually quieter than usual because we had cancelled elective surgeries in anticipation of the surge.”

“People were using the analogy of when the ocean is sucked out away from the beach before a tsunami hits—eerie calm in the moment with a strong sense of foreboding. And sure enough, the surge came. Fortunately, with the preparation measures the Boston area and Mass General took, it stretched us to the limits of our capacity but not past.”

COVID-19 Research at Mass General
Researchers and clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute are mobilizing to develop new strategies to diagnose, treat and prevent COVID-19. Learn more.