Gary Boas

More than a decade after a pair of randomized sham trials called into question the efficacy of vertebral augmentation, leading to a sharp decline in its use, Joshua A. Hirsch, MD, and colleagues demonstrated a dramatic increase in mortality in patients who underwent the procedure.

Manufacturers of computed tomography (CT) scanners have devoted considerable time and effort to reducing the amount of radiation patients receive in a single scan. What remains to be fully addressed is the patients’ cumulative exposure over time. Madan Rehani, PhD, director of Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at Massachusetts General Hospital, wants to change this.

The COVID-19 pandemic put a tremendous strain on hospital translation services, especially in the hardest-hit communities, including those with large populations of patients with limited English proficiency. Using artificial intelligence, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found a way to break the bottleneck.

Scientists Daphne J. Holt, MD, PhD, and Roger Tootell, PhD, have long studied the neuroscience of what we know as ‘personal space.’ The social distancing requirements that came with the COVID-19 pandemic opened up a whole new dimension to their work.

Removing the need for magnetically shielded rooms and liquid helium baths, the state-of-the-art technology points to an array of potential applications, including scanning in small clinics and at other point-of-care locations.

The deep learning approach identifies high-risk smokers who should undergo lung cancer screening with chest CT.

Ralph Weissleder, MD, PhD, an interventional radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, developed the technology after traveling to Africa seeking better understandings of how to fight cancer in the developing world.

A recently introduced algorithm can provide objective measures of COVID-19 disease severity on a continuous spectrum. The algorithm could play an important role in clinical decision-making.