Welcome to Benchmarks, your weekly recap of research news and notes from the Mass General research community. With a research community of over 9,500 people across 30+ departments, centers and institutes, there is more news than we can get to each week. Here are some highlights:

In This Issue:

• In This Issue:
• Research in the News:
• Spotlight: Dr. Lucy Chen and Dr. Jianren Mao
• Simple Blood Test May Predict Future Heart, Kidney Risk for People With Type 2 Diabetes
• Learning More about the Emotional Aftereffects of Blood Clots
• Tweets of the Week
• This Week in Mass General History
• Mass General Clinicians Come Out on Top in Early Test of AI Software

Research in the News:

Spotlight: Dr. Lucy Chen and Dr. Jianren Mao

Lucy Chen, MD, and Jianren Mao, MD, PhD, clinician-researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital who have collaborated in research over many years, are known by their peers for the extraordinary impact they have made in pain management and patient care. 

One of the first female pioneers in the male-dominated field of pain medicine, Dr. Chen’s research has focused on chronic pain, opioid therapy, and alternative medicine such as acupuncture.

Throughout his 40-year career in pain research and nearly 25 years of pain practice at MGH, Dr. Mao has led basic science, clinical, and translational research to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of pain and the effects of opioid therapy.

In celebration of their next adventure together—retirement from clinical practice—Dr. Chen and Dr. Mao share more about their specific areas of clinical and research expertise, their experiences throughout their careers, and their visions for the future of pain management. Read more.

Simple Blood Test May Predict Future Heart, Kidney Risk for People With Type 2 Diabetes

A simple blood test may predict the risk of progressive heart and kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation.

“High levels of certain biomarkers are indicators of heart and kidney complications and may help predict future risk of disease progression,” said lead author James Januzzi, MD, the Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the director of heart failure and biomarker trials at the Baim Institute for Clinical Research in Boston.

“Treatment with canagliflozin, a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, lowered biomarker levels and reduced the risk of hospitalization for heart failure and other heart complications in people at the highest risk.” Read more.

Learning More about the Emotional Aftereffects of Blood Clots

A recent study led by Mass General’s Rachel Rosovsky, MD, MPH, took a closer look at the emotional suffering of patients who have been treated for a blood clot.

Rosovsky and colleagues surveyed 3,370+ people to learn more about the aftereffects of treatment for a blood clot and how it impacted their functional outcomes and quality of life.

Seventy-five percent of respondents reported feeling anxious or depressed after their blood clot; 60 percent reported having moderate or extreme pain; 53 percent reported having some or major problems performing their usual activities; and 40 percent reported experiencing sudden feelings of panic quite or very often.

“A blood clot is a traumatic event,” says Rosovsky. “It can be debilitating and can affect the quality of life on so many different levels.”

Caregivers, family members and friends can help patients recover from blood clot treatment by legitimizing their emotions, offering to attend medical appointments and advocating on their behalf. Learn more.

Tweets of the Week

This Week in Mass General History

Mass General Clinicians Come Out on Top in Early Test of AI Software

August 23, 1982 (New York Times and New England Journal of Medicine)—INTERNIST-I, an experimental program for computer-assisted diagnosis in general internal medicine, was pitted last week against clinicians from Massachusetts General Hospital in diagnosing especially complex cases.

INTERNIST-I program’s knowledge base, which represents 15 person-years of work, encompasses over 500 individual disease profiles and approximately 3,550 manifestations of disease.

In reviewing a series of 19 cases, the Mass General clinicians made 23 of 43 possible correct diagnoses (some cases involved more than one disease). The INTERNIST-I program performed at a lower—but comparable rate—of 17 out of 43 possible diagnoses. Read more.

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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