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In Focus

Troubled Passage

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More Americans are dying with dementia and Alzheimer's. A Proto video series explores how hospitals, doctors and policy makers may be failing them.

In Long Last Moments, Cathryn Delude details the events of her mother's slow death from Alzheimer's. She describes a health care system that seems calibrated to undermine her mother's w...

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In Depth

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Dr. Darwin

Can a refresher course in the laws of natural selection help doctors better understand human health and illness?

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Long Last Moments

Dementia care has an end-of-life problem. The author explores the system’s shortfalls through her mother’s last days.

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Doctors in the Machine

The next generation of medical software offers extraordinary support. But how can such tools be used to the best effect?

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Betrayal Within

Researchers are narrowing in on a compelling explanation for narcolepsy: the body at war with itself.

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From the Black Death to SARS

A brief history of quarantine in policy and popular prose.

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Deconstructing Happiness

Exploring 75 years of data, researchers trace the emotional highs and lows in the lives of hundreds of men and their descendants.

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From the Bottom Up

Infusing colons with donated feces has led to remarkable cures and big questions about what's safe and what's next.

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After the Cure

The success of pediatric cancer therapies has a downside: adults with lingering health problems caused by their treatments.

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(Out of) Office Visit

Telehealth technology takes primary and specialty care to distant patients. But will nagging issues slow its rapid growth?

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Printing a New You

Using 3-D printers to create skull implants or replacement joints is exciting; running off living organs would be revolutionary.

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Comprehension Test

For patients to be effective partners in their own care requires a basic grasp of medical terms that, shockingly, many don't have.

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Tangled Up in Tau

Trouble with the protein may underlie most kinds of dementia, potentially including Alzheimer's. New drugs could help.

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Calming the Explosive Child

When troubled kids erupt, the traditional view calls for tougher parenting. A new approach substitutes skill building for punishment.

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Dispatches

The Tragedy that Powers Still Alice

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The Oscar-nominated film puts Alzheimer’s front and center. An MGH social worker talks about the disease behind the story.

A Race to Resilience

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Stephen Friend is looking for new cures in the genes of a million volunteers.

Feeling Nature’s Pull

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Researchers have harnessed the power of the immune system to remove foreign pathogens from the blood.

Second Opinion Winter 2015

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Readers weight in on the promise of 3D printing in medicine and the importance of telehealth technology.

X-Ray Vision

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Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled upon one of medicine’s first imaging techniques 120 years ago.

Checklist Item 31

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What is empathy, and how can it be taught to young doctors?

Of Elephants and Evolution

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Animals may hold a key to cancer’s origins and treatment.

The Right to Try

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Five state legislatures now allow terminal patients to circumvent the FDA. Will this new path to experimental drugs help or hurt?

My Father's House

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An immigrant physician’s daughter defines her American dream.

Fixing Medicare's Hospice Problem

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New approaches can combat the steep costs of caring for dementia patients.

A Killer Still on the Loose

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MRSA infections are down by more than half, and new treatments are on the way. But the pathogen still takes a deadly toll.

The Rise of the Robot Scientists

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Artificial intelligence may also prove key to the future of research, as computers serve up relevant studies and make connections that humans might miss.

The Brain Extended

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A wounded World War II veteran transformed thinking about artificial limbs.

Are Hospitals Shrinking?

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In one metric — inpatient stays — hospitals are seeing a steady decline.

Do Ebola Quarantines Make Sense?

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Treating the epidemic means re-evaluating a public health tool with a storied past.

Tech Meets Quarantine

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New digital systems can help keep infectious agents at arm’s length — or further away.

A Tragedy of Rural Proportions

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A new documentary explores health care inequality in rural America, and why the Affordable Care Act isn’t enough.

The Value of Good Feelings

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New research suggests that having a positive outlook may improve health and longevity.

Where Have All the Microbes Gone?

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Internist and researcher Martin Blaser believes that disturbances in the gut may underlie several modern maladies.

Acting Out

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Reflections on being a minor character in a disaster drill.

The Lost Ward

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Beds for psychiatric care are steadily declining. What can be done?

Gut Feelings

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The mysteries of celiac disease prove to be more intricate than expected.

Making Trials Multitask

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A funding shift may encourage more fundamental brain research.

Drawing From Experience

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Cartoonist Ben Schwartz discusses the visual side of learning medicine.

Going the Distance

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Longitudinal studies have provided both puzzles and insights about human health and well being.

Carolyn Greene: The Data Miner

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Epidemiologist Carolyn Greene aims to use electronic health records to track chronic disease trends.

PTSD Timeline: Centuries of Trauma

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A brief history of the observation and study of PTSD

Søren Sørenson: The Pioneer of pH

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A century ago, chemist Søren Sørensen invented what would become a crucial diagnostic tool: the pH scale.

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From Mass General

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What the Pill Sees

A new micro-imaging “pill” lets doctors peer inside the esophagus and beyond.

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Foreign Wars, Domestic Tragedies

Families of returning veterans sometimes develop mental health problems of their own. An MGH team studies the problem and looks for solutions.

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New Allies in the HIV Fight

An MGH program in South Africa partners with young women to research the earliest phase of HIV infection.

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The Warren Triennial Prize Goes to…

The storied award from MGH goes to a molecular biologist breaking new ground in cancer genetics.

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Cancer: Take Two Aspirin

The connection between aspirin use and a reduced risk for certain cancers is becoming clearer. MGH researcher Andrew Chan outlines who stands to benefit most.

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On the Origin of Life

Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak discusses how research on chromosomes led to current investigations into Earth's first organisms.

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The Same As Being There

MGH’s pioneering telestroke network brings virtual consultations to outlying hospitals

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A Call for Replication

Peter L. Slavin and David F. Torchiana on the value of reproducing research.

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The Legacy of Ward 4

MGH’s clinical research center, opened in 1925, created a model for the NIH to open similar facilities across the country.

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Charts & Data

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20 Years After Apartheid

In the 1980s physician Miguel Ribeiro took stunning photographs of his South African patients. How has the nation’s health care fared in the years since?

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Grand Theft Medical

The move to electronic medical records may be helping identity thieves.

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Kidneys Wanted

A shortfall has repercussions in policy and an international black market.

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Living Anatomy

Artist Danny Quirk paints the living structures of the body on live models.

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From MRI to Bronze Sculpture

Artists use medical scans of tumors to make stunning, informative sculptures

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A New Epidemic Model

SARS led to the discovery of "super-spreaders," who can infect dozens of people. They also exist, it appears, in other infectious diseases.

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A Brief History of Staph

Charting the progression of today’s hospital terror.

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