COVID-19 and surgery: Lessons in safety
When Massachusetts recorded its first COVID-19-positive test result in early March 2020, health officials knew little about the virus. They didn’t know, for instance, how it was transmitted or how to protect patients and clinicians during surgical procedures. In the weeks that followed, Boston Children’s Hospital made several difficult but necessary decisions. We cancelled elective ... Read More
Language barriers linked with medical errors in hospitalized children
A new study finds that hospitalized children whose families have limited comfort with English are twice as likely to experience medical errors. The study, which did not include patient data from Boston Children’s Hospital, highlights the need for improving communication between these families and the health care providers they interact with to ensure the safety ... Read More
Clinicians: Four tips for effective virtual visits
Now that we’re eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, most providers have had experience with virtual, or telehealth, visits. These visits have been a necessary, and very convenient way to continue to safely provide patients with care. Like many other hospitals around the country, Boston Children’s had to ramp up telehealth services quickly at the ... Read More
Monitoring for breast cancer after childhood chest radiation: When and how?
Chest radiation is used to treat children with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma as well as lung metastases in various solid tumors. But radiation itself is a potential cancer risk. That includes an increased risk for breast cancer later in life. Girls receiving chest radiation for childhood cancer face a breast cancer risk as high as ... Read More
Addressing racial and ethnic health disparities within primary care
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased awareness of existing racial and ethnic health disparities and inequities. The team at the Boston Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center serves a large population of Black and Latino children and recognizes that adults in these groups are at much higher risk of contracting — and dying from — ... Read More
When athletes push too hard: How to screen and when to refer
With the rise in the number and competitiveness of female athletes, overtraining has become a serious health risk for many young women. Whether it comes from a coach, parent, teammate, or the athlete herself, the pressure to perform drives many young athletes to practice unsafe behaviors in an effort to boost performance. Instead of building ... Read More