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In Focus

Who Has the Right to Repair Medical Equipment?

If a simple latch breaks, a lifesaving device could be down for months. Should hospitals be allowed to fix their machines themselves?

In early 2020 during the first surge of COVID-19, J. Scot Mackeil was helping the state of Massachusetts evaluate some ventilators it had received from the federal government stockpile. Mackeil, a senior biomedical electronics technician for Massachusetts General Hospital, found that one of the machine’s...

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In Depth

The Cholesterol Deniers

For decades, a tiny encampment of researchers has held that statin treatment is a hoax. In a time when contrarian views roar to life on social media, how can medicine keep minority opinions from doing irreparable harm?

An Epochal Change in Care Delivery

During the lockdowns, virtual care took a giant step forward. Can it surmount the obstacles ahead?

Telemedicine and its Discontents

Not everyone stands to benefit from digital care. How can we change that?

The Cracks in Walls That Divide Us

In the COVID-19 crisis, rival institutions joined forces. Can those collaborations endure?

Hard Lessons in Health Care Economics

The economic pinch weakened hospitals and providers. How can we build them up again?

A Turned Page on Racialized Medicine

Bias gets baked into algorithms that guide medical care. Rooting it out will take patience and cooperation.

A Future Informed by Gender-Affirming Care

The transgender community is quietly reinventing the medical paradigm.

A Reckoning for Nurses and Nursing

In the isolation of the COVID-19 wards, nurses were a lifeline. Hospitals stand to benefit from their insight.

A Turning Point in the Burnout Crisis

Mental health treatment for medical practitioners will never be the same.

Medical Education Will Be Transformed

Dozens of pandemic-era innovations, and the experience of teaching during a crisis, have all left an indelible mark.

Our Call to Communicate the Truth

Science and public health have been under steady attack. It is up to medical professionals to fight back.

Two Takes on a Pandemic

Every nation has had its own experience of COVID-19. The stories of Denmark, a model of socialized care, and Rwanda, a bright spot among developing nations, both hold wider lessons for the world.

Chapter 1: In the Path of the Pandemic

A novel coronavirus would come to affect every ward, clinician, researcher and patient at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Chapter 2: The Virtues of Necessity

As the first COVID-19 patients arrived, pressure mounted to discover how the disease worked and how it could be beaten back.

Chapter 3: The Fight That Lies Ahead

When the caseload began to ease, clinicians came to grips with the new normal as researchers set their sights on ending the pandemic for good.

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Dispatches

Podcast: Diagnosing the Long Dead

New data may solve two of the most famous “cold cases” in medical history—the deaths of Ernest Shackleton and Edgar Allen Poe.

Telemedicine for All?

The technology could benefit people with disabilities—but only with design and policy changes that improve access and useability.

Should We Insist on Shots?

Massachusetts broke ground on mandatory vaccination in 1905. History may repeat itself with COVID-19.

Clinician Violence Moves Online

As practice goes digital, so too does a brutal workplace hazard.

The Rage Room

A woman finds therapeutic value in sledgehammers and broken plates.

The Year of the Nurse

The World Health Organization gave Elizabeth Iro the job of advocating for nurses everywhere.

The Doses Left Over

Is there any hope for saving wasted medications?

Racism in the Black Body

For decades, researchers have looked at social factors to explain the greater presence of disease in Black populations. But the stress of experiencing racism causes great harm, too.

Is Health Care’s Racism Treatable?

In the wake of a landmark year of activism, medical schools, hospitals and the research establishment are seeking to excise racial discrimination. How well have they done?

Made to Be Invaded

Mini gut models give scientists a front row seat to some of the most puzzling pathogen behaviors.

Fathers-to-Be, Take Note

A wave of research shows how a pregnancy can be put at risk by drinking, diet and exposures to toxins—on the part of the male.

Podcast: Do Better by Disabled Patients

People who live with a disability are no stranger to overcoming obstacles. But the bias of a clinician shouldn’t be one of them.

What Makes a Kid Clumsy?

More research into coordination disorders shows why some children are more prone to trip, fumble and spill the milk.

Eyes in the Sky

Satellite data can be used to assess the health impact of dust storms and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Additional applications could be on the horizon.

Could This One Change Help Curb the Opioid Crisis?

To prescribe an effective bridge to addiction treatment, emergency physicians must get special training and receive a waiver. Making that process easier—or eliminating the requirement altogether—could make a big impact.

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From Mass General

What a Hospital is Built For

As COVID-19 first swept through Boston, the people of Massachusetts General Hospital responded. Their efforts offer a portrait of medicine in motion.

Our Response to a Pandemic

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss how Massachusetts General Hospital is tackling COVID-19.

The Changing Landscape of Primary Care

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss a shortage of primary care physicians and how to address the problem.

A Safe and Controversial Place

Physician Mark Eisenberg discusses the furor over (and the desperate need for) safer injection sites.

Next-Generation Vaccines

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the revolution of rational vaccine design.

A Revolution in Cancer Treatment

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the promise of CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors.

Climate Change Meets an Aging Population

The most common victims of extreme weather events are older people. New research looks into how the health system fails them, and how it can be fixed.

Singular Exceptions

Should primary care physicians be trained to spot unusual, medically important cases?

Silent No More

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the need to end workplace violence in health care.

An Extra Pair of (A)Is

Machine intelligence takes a big step into the clinic, with a technology that helps identify patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer.

Doctoring on a Screen

Telemedicine made its first broadcast 50 years ago in an airport clinic.

Ending the AIDS Epidemic

Since the early 1980s, AIDS has killed more than 35 million people worldwide. But researchers are determined to find better treatments, cures and preventions that many finally put an end to the epidemic.

For Some Clots, It Takes a Village

Treatment of pulmonary embolisms may benefit from a team approach. But that model faces obstacles inside and outside the hospital.

Shining a Light on Depression

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris highlight the need for new approaches to treating depression.

A (Small) Cause of Big Pain

Neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander investigates a cause of chronic pain that is treatable without opioids.

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Charts & Data

What Is a Collaborative Community?

An unconventional new model makes industry meetups a key part of medical device regulation.

The Body on Chips

An engineered model of human physiology hits an important milestone.

How to Green a Hospital

Health care leaders look for ways to scale back an outsized carbon footprint.

The New Anatomy

Parts of the body are constantly being proposed or discovered. Where do they come from?

Anatomy of a Hashtag

Public health messaging online yields beautiful—but sometimes worrying—data.

How Did COVID-19 Get Here?

Genomic analysis details how SARS-CoV-2 spread through Boston.

The Village Without Memory

In France, a home for people with dementia is designed from the ground up.

To Choose Death

Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act crosses the 20-year mark.

In Passing

How does a hospital keep patient details from getting lost in the shuffle?

To Catch a Protein

The world of protein imaging undergoes a chilly revolution.

The Next Zika

Vaccines are most helpful before an epidemic hits. So which diseases should researchers prepare for next?

ResearchKit

A software platform from Apple is helping medical researchers collect health data from any iPhone user

White Coats

The standard garb of the physician comes with surprising risks and benefits.

Unsound the Alarm

Hundreds of alarms compete for a clinician's attention. Can less noise mean better care?

Babel in the ICU

Machines in an ICU can't speak to one another—but what if they could?

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