Harvard Medical School news stories on Newser

Mammograms Not Very Effective: Study

Kevin Spak — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:35:00 CDT

Mammograms don’t save as many lives as women may believe, according to a new study. Researchers from Harvard and Norway have concluded mammograms have only a “modest” impact on breast cancer deaths, accounting for about a third of the drop in deaths seen in Norway since the 1980s. And even...

Harvard Probes Poisoning at Med School Lab

M. Morris — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:47:34 CDT

Harvard Medical School is investigating after six workers in the pathology department were poisoned by coffee prepared near their lab. The researchers and students were treated and released after suffering dizziness, low blood pressure, and other symptoms during the August incident. "As the investigation continues, we are being prudent and...

Another Harvard Prof Accuses Police of Racism

Harry Kimball — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:48:59 CDT

Another black member of Harvard's faculty has accused the Cambridge Police Department of racism, the Boston Globe reports. S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor, was arrested outside his home in 2006 on assault and battery charges. “I was polite, and yet police lied and said I was loud,...

Terminally Ill Patients Avoid Hospice Talk

Kevin Spak — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:45:02 CDT

Doctors and patients are prone to procrastinate when it comes to tough end-of-life decisions, according to a Harvard study. Researchers found that only about half of the 1,517 terminal lung cancer patients surveyed had discussed hospice with their doctors within four to seven months of their diagnosis. Hospice care...

Pharma Infiltrates Harvard's Ivory Tower

Gabriel Winant — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:11:01 CST

The tentacles of big pharma have made their way into the upper echelons of academia, the New York Times reports: Harvard Medical School is packed with professors with industry ties, and that has students concerned. With 149 profs connected to Pfizer and 130 to Merck, fears that the influence of...

Vitamins Lower Risk of Vision Loss: Study

Erin Mendell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:03:32 CST

Folic acid and two B vitamins lowered the risk of vision loss in middle-age women who took the supplements for several years as part of a study, the Boston Globe reports. The study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that the combination lowered the...

Boob Tube Linked to Depression

Peter Fearon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:23:24 CST

Teenagers who watch too much television may risk depression as adults, according to a new study. Each additional hour of daily television viewing by adolescents boosted their odds of becoming depressed as young adults by 8%, reports the Los Angeles Times . Watching videos, playing computer games and listening to the...

New Drug Promises Better Sleep for the Jet-Lagged

Rebecca Smith Hurd — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:32:19 CST

A new drug promises to put an end to jet lag and enable better sleep for travelers, swing-shift crews, and insomniacs, the Economist reports. Tasimelteon works a lot like today's popular but unregulated melatonin supplements, bonding with brain receptors to stimulate melatonin production and REM sleep. The distinction is significant...

Study Backs Virtual Colonoscopy

Peter Fearon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:42:10 CDT

A new study has found a virtual colonoscopy to be almost as effective as a conventional invasive procedure in detecting colon cancer, USA Today reports. Virtual colonoscopies, using scans and computer imaging, discovered 90% of the cancers located by regular colonoscopies, in which a scope is physically passed through the...