Welcome to Benchmarks, your semi-weekly dose of research news and notes from the Mass General research community. With 9,500 people working across more than 30 departments, centers and institutes, there’s more research news at Mass General than we can get to each week. Here are a few highlights:

In this Issue:

• Research in the News
• Study Finds Proven Medicines for Alcohol Use Disorder
• Nursing Research: A Special Perspective
• Mass General Investigators Win Two SheSolves Awards
• Tweets of the Week
• This Week in MGH History
• Mass General Surgeons Are First in US to Perform Operation for Dropsy
• Mass General Still Looking for Another Cook to Join Base Hospital for Servicemen

Research in the News

Study Finds Proven Medicines for Alcohol Use Disorder

Heavy drinking commonly begins in adolescence and is a known risk factor for the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Data from adult clinical trials suggest offering evidence-based medications for AUD to younger adults could promote their engagement in treatment and improve clinical outcomes.

But are those medications being used when and where they are needed? In a review of claims data for youths insured by Medicated in 15 U.S. states, a team of researchers found that most youths with a diagnosis of AUD do not receive medications as part of their therapy, despite recommendations from national organizations to consider their use.

The team, which was led by Scott Hadland, MD, MPH, chief of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Mass General for Children, recently published their findings in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Read more.

Nursing Research: A Special Perspective

“Nurses have a unique window into a patient’s experience of care,” says Diane Carroll, RN, PhD, FAAN, FAHA, Nurse Researcher in the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research at Massachusetts General Hospital.

At Mass General, Dr. Carroll has turned that perspective into decades of clinical nursing research, focusing primarily on her area of expertise as a cardiac nurse. In addition to her clinical work to ease recovery and improve outcomes for cardiac patients and their families, Dr. Carroll mentors nurses interested in research aimed at improving the care of patients in the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center as well as other clinical areas at Mass General. Read more.

Mass General Investigators Win Two SheSolves Awards

SheSolves is a new initiative from the Springboard Studio at Massachusetts General Hospital that aims to increase the participation of women in healthcare innovation across Mass General Brigham.

SheSolves awards are open to any MGB employee who identifies as a woman and provides funding and product development support for innovative new ideas that improve healthcare.

Mass General has two investigators whose projects received funding in the inaugural SheSolves awards cohort.

Audrey Kurash Cohen, MCSO, MS, CCC-SLP, received an award to support her project, Collaborative Speech Language Pathologist Training. This will support the creation of an innovative, remote program that will train clinicians to provide best-practice care to their patients with swallowing disorders no matter where they work.

Wei Sum Li, MD, of the MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center, received an award to support the formation of a Women’s Substance Use Disorder Group. They aim to use a combination of psychoeducational, skills development, cognitive behavioral, and support group elements to promote recovery. They hope to include elements of art therapy and movement therapy such as yoga.
Learn more about SheSolves and see the complete list of award winners.

Tweets of the Week

This Week in MGH History

Mass General Surgeons Are First in US to Perform Operation for Dropsy

June 30, 1910 (Richmond Palladium)—Dropsy, one of the most dreaded diseases to which human beings are subject and hitherto considered incurable, has at last yielded to the knife, so it is reported by the surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

In proof of the truth of their statement they point to Henry Lemay. a shoemaker of Marlboro. Mass., who, after having undergone an operation, has so Improved, under the constant operation of the experts, he is now reported cured.

The operation on Lemay was the first of the kind in this country, and the sixth in the world. It was performed by Dr. William A. Brooks Jr., of the hospital staff. Read more.

Mass General Still Looking for Another Cook to Join Base Hospital for Servicemen

June 26, 1917 (Terre Haute Daily Tribune)—Mobilizing base hospitals to care for 500 or 1,000 sick or wounded men at the front would be comparatively easy if it were not for the scarcity of cooks.

Base hospital No. 6 organized by the Massachusetts General Hospital is under mobilization orders for duty.

The intricate task of picking 25 doctors, 65 nurses and 153 orderlies, privates, electricians, barbers, tailors, a head chef and seven able assistants was carried through smoothly as far as the nineth cook.

The organizers of the unit are frankly puzzled at their inability to supply this one missing link, which is holding up an otherwise complete outfit.

Somewhere in the land, they believe, there must be a ninth cook. The requirements are simple. He may be anywhere between the ages of 21 and 45 years, provided he can cook.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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