Welcome to Benchmarks, your weekly dose of research news and notes from the Mass General research community.

With more than 9,500 people working across 30 centers, departments and institutes here at the hospital, there’s more research news that we can get to each week. Here are some highlights:

• This Week in Research News
• People Who Cram Week’s Exercise into Two Days Still Reap Heart Benefits
• Mass General Totes Up its Waste in a Move To Tackle Climate Change
• Eddy Receives Award for Leadership in Eating Disorders Research
• Tweets of the Week
• This Week in Mass General History
• Woman, Comatose For Last 6 Months, Has a Normal Baby
• Now You Can Visit a Psychiatrist Via Television

This Week in Research News

People Who Cram Week’s Exercise into Two Days Still Reap Heart Benefits

People who fit an entire week’s recommended exercise into a couple of days have a similarly low risk of heart disease and stroke as those who spread out their physical activity, researchers say.

The results from a major study on “weekend warriors” against more regular exercisers suggest that even when people are too busy to exercise in the working week, making up for the inactivity at the weekend can still improve cardiovascular health.

“Our findings suggest that efforts to improve physical activity, even if concentrated within one to two days of the week, should be beneficial for cardiovascular risk,” said Patrick Ellinor, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “It appears that it is the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most.” Read more.

Mass General Totes Up its Waste in a Move To Tackle Climate Change

On an August Thursday in 2021, deep into the pandemic, two Massachusetts General Hospital doctors stood gowned, gloved, bootied up and ready in a retrofitted lounge on the 21st floor of Phillips, a 20-single-room, inpatient area with sweeping views of Boston, the Charles River and neighboring Cambridge.

Just after 3 p.m. cleaning staff, who usually wheeled the floor’s trash to a collection area, instead took their haul to the lounge, where the floors, walls and heavy antique furniture had been cleaned, covered and taped off — a process that in itself took three people roughly two hours.

The 21st floor’s refuse items — every mask, gown, box, glove and empty bottle — were weighed, sorted, and cataloged, as part of a 24-hour waste audit aimed at cutting plastic use and the hospital’s contribution to climate change.

“As they kept coming in, we were like, ‘Oh my God, another, you know, dumpster of waste,’” said Jonathan Eisen, MD, who, with another hospitalist, Christian Mewaldt, proposed and executed the waste audit.

In all, the day produced 168 kilograms (more than 370 pounds) of waste — a majority of it plastic — an amount equal to more than 8 kilograms (almost 18 pounds) per patient, in a single day. Read more.

Eddy Receives Award for Leadership in Eating Disorders Research

Kamryn Eddy, PhD, co-director, MGH Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, received the Academy for Eating Disorders Leadership in Research Award.

This award recognizes an individual who has developed new knowledge about eating disorders and impacted the field by furthering understanding of the etiology of eating disorders, changing treatment or prevention, or by fostering new lines of research. Learn more about Dr. Eddy’s work.

Tweets of the Week

This Week in Mass General History

Woman, Comatose For Last 6 Months, Has a Normal Baby

July 21, 1967 (New York Times) – A 36-year-old woman who has been in a coma since last January gave birth to a healthy six-pound girl at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Mrs. Shirley May Sweeney of Somerville showed no signs of coming out of her coma during her delivery, which was described by physicians as normal.

Dr. Barry G. Aronson, Harvard neurologist who has cared for Mrs. Sweeney since she entered the coma after suffering a stroke, said he never heard of a woman who had been comatose for such a long time giving birth. Read more.  

Now You Can Visit a Psychiatrist Via Television

July 21, 1974 (San Bernadino Sun) – Is the traditional psychiatrist’s couch being replaced by the television screen? It seems to be happening here in a highly unlikely setting: a medical outpost at bustling Logan International Airport linked by a two-way television setup to Massachusetts General Hospital in downtown Boston.

The experiment, called telepsychiatry, has dramatic potential to expand diagnosis and treatment of mental problems. The novel concept evolved as part of an experimental medical diagnosis-by-television program launched six years ago and financed by the U.S. Public Health Service.

So far 109 psychiatrists have handled more than 550 cases through the airport television system, called Interactive Television (IATV). Read more.