Harvard University

Cleveland Clinic will pay tuition for med school students

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:56 -0400

Following a practice that is growing increasingly common, the Cleveland Clinic says that it plans to pay the entire tuition bill for the 32 students entering its medical education program later this year. The program, the Lerner College of Medicine, is offered at Case Western Reserve University. The new policy has boosted applications to what already was a competitive program; more than 1,400 students applied for the 32 slots. Leaders with Cleveland Clinic said that they're establishing the scholarships to make sure students feel free to go into academic and research-oriented medicine rather than opting for the highest-paying specialties possible.

In taking this step, the Clinic is following in the footsteps of other institutions, including Mayo Clinic, which lets about 60 percent of students attend tuition-free, and the University of Central Florida, whose new med school will start out in 2009 with students getting not only free tuition, but also their living expenses paid. Also, Harvard University recently announced that it would eliminate the $12,500 per year family contribution expected for med students in families with incomes of $120,000 a year or less.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this Cleveland Plain Dealer article

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Tobacco giants funding MA universities' research

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

It's discomforting--the more you look, the more you find tobacco companies funding medical research. Last week, we learn that a 2006 study concluding that 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented by CT scan use was paid for by cigarette-maker Liggett Group. Now, a Boston Globe article reports that cigarette giant Philip Morris USA has been funding scientific research for at least four Massachusetts universities for several years. Philip Morris has been providing grants to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University and the University of Massachusetts. Research supported by the company included studies on conditions like heart disease and cancer, which have been linked to smoking by other research. While researchers accepting the grants disclosed the source of their funding when publishing results in journals, and Philip Morris, in turn, promised to keep its hand out of things, critics contend that cigarette-maker influence taints such research beyond repair.

To learn more about Philip Morris's grant program:
- read this article in The Boston Globe

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Study: Health views vary along ethnic lines

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

A new study suggests that how you rate your healthcare provider may depend somewhat on your ethnic background. The study, which will be published in the journal Health Affairs, found that minorities are more likely than white patients to rate their healthcare as fair or poor, particularly Chinese-Americans, blacks born in Africa and Vietnamese-Americans. This is a particular concern given that improving patients' perception of their care is important to improving outcomes; patients who don't feel their care is satisfactory spend less time with physicians and may suffer as a result. Unfortunately, many minorities feel that their time spent with doctors isn't that productive. While three-quarters of whites reported that their doctor listened to them carefully, that percentage fell sharply, to 62 percent, for Korean-Americans, and 58 percent for Central and South Americans. These statistics were drawn from a survey of 4,334 adults by researchers with Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

To get more data from the study:
- read this Associated Press piece

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Boston hospital plans $1B in upgrades, expansion

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:59:57 -0400

Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has big investment plans, even for a large, high-profile academic medical center. Over the next 15 years, the Harvard University teaching hospital expects to spend $1 billion to build a new suburban clinic, add 130 beds to its main campus, replace buildings at a satellite campus and upgrade facilities. Beth Israel probably will begin with the clinic, which targets patients who don't need to stay overnight. Other planned expansion moves will add about 700,000 square feet of patient care space to the hospital's 2.1 million square foot Longwood campus.

These moves are a big change from just four years ago when the hospital was selling off buildings to generate some cash. Beth Israel's inpatient volume has grown in recent years, albeit slowly, from 37,221 patients in fiscal 2002 to 39,023 in fiscal 2006. Meanwhile, clinical treatments for patients who weren't admitted shot up dramatically, from 282,261 in fiscal 2002 to 451,033 in fiscal 2006.

To learn more about the medical center's plans:
- read this article from The Boston Globe

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