Meyers Primary Care Institute in the News
Chyke Doubeni was honored with a PECASE award by President Obama. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers was created by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to recognize innovative research and scientific leadership.
The research of Assistant Professor Becky Briesacher, PhD is featured in a Wall Street Journal article.
Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD was awarded the 2006 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Research, by The National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
An August 1 Wall Street Journal article examining the introduction of electronic medical record keeping systems in nursing homes quoted Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD, the Dr. John Meyers Professor of Primary Care Medicine and professor of medicine and family medicine & community health. Dr. Gurwitz provided insight into the complexities of the nursing home setting and patient population as a factor in medication errors.
On May 15, Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD, the Dr. John Meyers Professor of Primary Care Medicine, appeared on WUML FM’s “The Sunrise Show” to discuss his recent grant from the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Grant Program. Dr. Gurwitz will use funds from the two-year grant to create materials to teach medical professionals the tactics drug companies use to promote their products.
Research on post-treatment mammogram rates of breast cancer by survivors by Chyke Doubeni's MD, MPH, assistant professor of family medicine & community health, was featured on the front page of Worcester Telegram & Gazette April 24, and articles also appeared in The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, as well as 270 additional media outlets served by the Associated Press. The study, Patterns and Predictors of Mammography Utilization Among Breast Cancer Survivors, analyzed the incidence of post treatment mammograms in 797 insured women over the age of 55. The study will be published in the June issue of the journal Cancer.
Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD, the Dr. John Meyers Professor of Primary Care Medicine, was interviewed for an April 14 Worcester Telegram & Gazette article regarding educational grants funded through a settlement with a pharmaceutical company convicted of illegally marketing a particular drug for off-label use. The purpose of these grants, announced by the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, is to educate health care professionals and consumers about pharmaceutical industry marketing practices and to provide strategies for accessing unbiased sources of information about drugs so that healthcare providers and patients can make clear choices about prescription drugs.
Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD, the Dr. John Meyers Professor of Primary Care Medicine, was widely interviewed after publishing an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Serious Adverse Drug Effects: Seeing the Trees through the Forest.” The piece accompanied a study that found that the antibiotic Tequin can cause potentially fatal swings in blood sugar for a broad group of patients. According to Dr. Gurwitz in interviews on March 1 with CNN, The Boston Globe, Reuters, The Baltimore Sun, HealthDay and others, the FDA and Bristol-Myers should reconsider adding a black box to the label —the agency's strongest warning for high-risk patients.