NEWSROOM

Two years of wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and trying not to catch COVID-19 had a welcome, if unplanned, byproduct: many people caught fewer colds and stomach bugs. But that could soon change.

When to use blood, and how much to transfuse, is not always a given, said Dr. Vishesh Chhibber, the medical director for the transfusion service at UMass Memorial Health in Worcester.

To have a drug like that on hand would be a “game-changer,” said Lawrence Rhein, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and a specialist in pediatric pulmonology.

A phase 1 clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine recently kicked off, said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, the study's principal investigator and chair of biomedical research for UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass.

Results of the study are also intended to provide clinical evidence to support an application for FDA clearance.

Above all, Dr. Shlomit Schaal considers her greatest strength to be her fierce curiosity; she finds beauty in grappling with scientific questions, learning the stories of her patients and approaching the mentorship of her students always with curiosity.

A phase 1 clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine recently kicked off, said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, the study's principal investigator and chair of biomedical research for UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass.

Mothers inspire daughters in untold ways, including choice of profession. However, that dynamic takes on special meaning when the profession is nursing during a pandemic – and when the mother and daughter work at the same organization.

Rare are the moments a person can later pinpoint as life-changing. But when they happen, they pack a punch.

“When you have an informal pipeline of sorts to professional development opportunities, it’s going to lead into disparities of who ultimately moves through,” said Desiree Murphy, senior labor and employee relations specialist at UMass Memorial Health.

The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic could very well have spelled the end of the nonprofit human services agency that I run. Thrive has some of the largest residential programs in the state.

Hospitals throughout Massachusetts may receive additional federal funding over the next five years, thanks to a proposed change to how the state collects fees from hospitals.