Bouvé News

June 4

How does the COVID-19 vaccine help us reach herd immunity

Amid the pause in the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and widespread vaccine hesitancy, it’s important to maintain confidence in the overall vaccine rollout process in order to reach herd immunity, say Brandon Dionne, assistant clinical professor of pharmacy and health systems sciences, and Neil Maniar, professor of the practice and director of the Master of Public Health program.

June 4

He’s on the vaccine frontlines in D.C. – and pushing for statehood

As if the licensed pharmacist and Bouve College of Health Sciences graduate weren’t busy enough administering the COVID-19 vaccine to the mostly Black residents in his District of Columbia neighborhood, he’s using a political perch as an elected representative of D.C.’s voters to turn the nation’s capital into the 51st state.

June 4

Zoom-free Fridays aim to combat video fatigue

Enough is enough. The new head of Citigroup, one of the world's largest banks, told her 210,000 employees last week. Enough Zoom calls.

June 4

Children have more access to guns than their parents may think

New research by Carmel Salhi, a Northeastern professor, shows that 70 percent of parents believe their children cannot access the guns they keep in their homes. The children tell a different story.

June 4

Boston Healthcare Workers Grassroots Fundraiser

To bring some sense of normalcy and express our continued gratitude towards these healthcare workers, several student organizations from Northeastern University teamed up in a grassroots effort to raise funds for meal deliveries to local Boston hospitals!

June 4

African American Unemployment and the Disparity in Periviable Births

African American women contribute about 14% of live births in the US, but these include nearly a third of the country’s periviable births.

June 4

Congratulations to the 2020-2021 IPhO VIP Case Competition Award Winners!

Northeastern University students scored 2nd place nationally among 71 student chapters participating in the annual Value of Industry Pharmacists (VIP) Case Competition.

June 4

Vaccinated? Don’t toss that mask just yet.

The fight to end the pandemic has become a race against formidable opponents: variants. Although the vaccines being administered offer hope, it’s not yet time to stop and celebrate, says Neil Maniar, associate chair of the Department of Health Sciences at Northeastern. “We’re not at the finish line yet.”

June 4

Helping young women in the juvenile justice system avoid violent relationships

Lifespan researcher and Northeastern professor Dr. Christie Rizzo developed the Date SMART program, which uses techniques to help teens build skills necessary for healthy relationships.

June 4

Intergenerational Tutoring: Supporting Children’s Academic Needs During COVID-19 and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic left the education system with no choice but to adjust to new teaching and learning methodologies. A remote format became the standard, but it came with challenges.

June 4

Americans’ health may be affected by pandemic weight gain and lack of exercise

The health of millions of Americans may have been affected by weight gain and lack of exercise during the pandemic, even if they have avoided acute dangers of Covid-19 infection, emerging evidence collected by obesity researchers – and the anecdotal experiences of family physicians – suggests.

June 4

What Will a Legal Cannabis Market Mean for Mexico?

On March 10, Mexico’s lower house approved a long-awaited bill to legalize marijuana for adult use.

June 4

With new May 1 vaccine push, communication key to pushing past resistance

While the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has offered hope, it also has been characterized by confusion.

June 4

Cogent Biosciences Reports Fourth Quarter 2020 and Full Year 2020 Financial Results

Cogent Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: COGT), a biotechnology company focused on developing precision therapies for genetically defined diseases, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020 and provided several corporate updates.

June 4

Predictive Model-Driven Hotspotting to Decrease Emergency Department Visits

Emergency department (ED) visits contribute substantially to health care expenditures. Case management has been proposed as a strategy to address the medical and social needs of complex patients.

June 4

Parent and Adolescent Reports of Adolescent Access to Household Firearms in the United States

In this nationally representative survey study of 280 parent-child dyads who live in households with firearms, more than one-third of adolescents reported being able to access a loaded household firearm in less than 5 minutes; this proportion fell to nearly one-quarter when all firearms were locked.

June 4

Why kids hold the key to herd immunity

To win the battle against the pandemic, kids will be vital. The fight against COVID-19 has long been focused on adults – particularly older adults. But kids are becoming a more prominent part of the conversation. We likely won’t see an end to the pandemic, experts say, until children can get vaccinated.

June 4

How a clinical professor helps to tackle vaccination hesitancy, one clinic at a time

As an immunization-certified pharmacist, Thomas M. Matta began vaccinating the public for COVID-19 as soon as he could. Now he’s taken his involvement a significant step further: the Northeastern professor helped set up a vaccination clinic in Dorchester this month serving at-risk patients.

June 4

What’s happening in your brain when you’re spacing out?

We all do it. One second you’re fully focused on the task in front of you, a conversation with a friend, or a professor’s lecture, and the next second your mind is wandering to your dinner plans. But how does that happen?

June 4

Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex

Arup provided comprehensive strategies for Northeastern University’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC).

June 4

What To Expect After Getting A COVID-19 Vaccine

While some of the delays in Massachusetts have been due to logistical hurdles and limited supplies, many people are also hesitant about getting the vaccine because they worry about side effects.

June 4

Why It’s Time to Abandon Drug Courts

Drug overdoses dramatically rose during the pandemic to make 2020 our deadliest year so far.

June 4

This Bouve graduate is helping his war-ravaged country of Armenia heal

In late November, while most Americans were busy planning their holiday get-togethers, Haig Haroutunian was dealing with more pressing matters.

June 4

Major Physician Reimbursement Gap for Independent Versus Hospital Docs

A new study shows that Medicare physician reimbursement would have been $114K higher per physician a year if the doctor was integrated with a hospital system.

June 4

Covid-19 Vaccine Side Effects Vary by Type, Remain Mild

As the United States closes in on three months of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, more than 57 million people have been able to receive at least one shot. The recent authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine means more Americans will be able to make an appointment soon.

June 4

Local Pharmacy and Global System: Two Ways to Improve COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

As the COVID-19 vaccine slowly penetrates the arms of people around the world, two teachers in the northeast are looking at ways to make distribution at the regional and global levels more equitable.

June 4

Busting 5 common myths about COVID-19 and masks

After nearly a year of COVID-19, mask-wearing has become an integral part of our everyday pandemic routine. It’s now second nature to put on your mask as you leave your home, and the familiar muffled breathing can feel like an omnipresent reminder of the global struggle to fight COVID-19.

June 4

Ernest Robert Anderson Jr. Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award

An accomplished listee, Mr. Anderson celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field.

June 4

Yes, COVID’s still here, but it is time to live again

So, when exactly will all this be over, anyway? I’ve been pondering that question a lot lately. Every time a public health official is asked about the pandemic, whether they are national or here in the state of Maine, the answer is vague.

June 4

Boston Sports Medicine Promotes Swampscott Native Michelle Perry to Director of Clinical Physical Therapy

Boston Sports Medicine, a provider of exceptional physical therapy care to thousands in the Boston area and beyond, recently promoted Michelle Perry, a Swampscott native, to Clinic Director of the Swampscott clinic. Perry begins her new role this month.

June 4

Northeastern and Moderna establish fellowship that will bring big data to drug development

Northeastern University has teamed up with Moderna, the biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to create a two-year fellowship for postdoctoral researcher to get hands-on experience in drug discovery, development, delivery, and evaluation.

June 4

Johnson & Johnson vaccine may provide critical aid

A wave of new COVID-19 vaccines appears to be on the horizon, bringing with them the expanded possibilities of reaching people outside traditional health care settings and with only one dose.

June 4

Orthorexia nervosa, intuitive eating, and eating competence in female and male college students

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) has emerged as a new pattern of disordered eating behaviors characterized by preoccupations related to diet quality and health concerns, rather than driven by weight and shape concerns.

June 4

Love in the Sun: Rep. Jerry Knirk and Cam Spence

The secret to Jerry Knirk and Cam Spence’s wedded bliss, they say, is balancing time together and time apart.

June 4

Associations between Dating Aggression Involvement and Subsequent Relationship Commitment

Little is known about how an individual’s commitment to their romantic partner evolves over the course of a relationship following involvement in dating aggression (DA).

June 4

The Rise of Exoskeletons in Logistics

It might be an understatement that technology has drastically changed modern logistics. From RFID and robotics to TMS systems that drive elastic logistics, there are few areas left untouched. One area we’re seeing that evolution, particularly in the past five years, is with companies utilizing exoskeletons to gain a competitive advantage by keeping workers healthy.

June 4

Letter to the Editor: Comment on “Gabapentinoid Benefit and Risk Stratification: Mechanisms Over Myth”

This letter was written to bridge the knowledge gap not addressed by the authors related to the significant, original research evidence that supports gabapentinoid abuse. The authors argue that gabapentinoids are overwhelmingly safe, which may be true for some populations, but not all.

June 4

Despite the Stigma, Cancer Patients Look to Cannabis for Relief

Cancer is the most feared disease among Americans and faced by many families every day. Currently, about 17 million Americans live with a history of cancer. Because of advances in cancer treatment, the number of survivors is expected to grow.

June 4

Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence in the Time of COVID -19

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families in a variety of ways with much being written on the potential impact of sheltering in place and quarantining on intimate partner violence and parent-to-child abuse. One area that has received scant attention is that of physical and emotional sibling violence.

June 4

These Films Are Guided Tours of Lost Urban Landscapes

I am sitting in the dark, in a crowded room of strangers, watching black and white images of the city of Los Angeles, circa 1940, flicker past on a screen. The film has no traceable plot, and the city itself is the only character — other than the people in the audience, who, I come to realize, are the real performers.

June 4

U.S. Nursing Homes See Covid-19 Cases Fall as Vaccines Roll Out

There were 15,154 new cases reported among nursing-home residents in the week ending Jan. 24, according to the latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That is a steep drop from the previous week and the fifth week in a row nursing homes have reported lower new-case counts.

June 4

Physical discipline and cognitive deprivation associated with specific types of developmental delay

In a cross-national sample, the strength of association between these traits were associated with a higher risk of socioemotional and cognitive delay.

June 4

Proprioceptive afferents differentially contribute to effortful perception of object heaviness and length

When humans handle a tool, such as a tennis racket or hammer, for the first time, they often wield it to determine its inertial properties. The mechanisms that contribute to perception of inertial properties are not fully understood.

June 4

34 bus stops away: the hurdles rural Americans face to reach vaccine sites

If you live in Belle Glade, Florida, a rural, predominantly African American town on the southern bank of Lake Okeechobee, and you want to get to a Covid-19 vaccine appointment, you’re going to either need a car or $2 and a lot of time.

June 4

State slows vaccine rollout at Northeastern

At least two Massachusetts universities that have been distributing COVID-19 vaccines have had extras, The Boston Globe reported. At one, Northeastern University, the doses are sitting in freezers because the state has asked the university not to vaccinate anyone who is on the current priority list.

June 4

Dr. Melvin H. Sher, 89, Naval Veteran & Surgeon

Dr. Melvin H. Sher, M.D., a respected surgeon in the Framingham community, died, Thursday, January 28, 2021 at the age of 89.

June 4

We’re relying on the wrong pharmacies for vaccinations

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Massachusetts has administered about 50 percent of the vaccine distributed. This is about average when compared to other states, but when one considers the resources available to develop the vaccination plan, the number of large healthcare systems, the population density, and the number of pharmacies located here the results are more disappointing.

June 4

The Medical Advertising Hall of Fame opens its doors to agency-world giants

Over the course of a career that saw her cofound two successful agencies and lead three others, Risa Bernstein returned time and again to a phrase that clearly articulated her professional philosophy: Big thinkers think better together.

June 4

While others struggle to get vaccine, colleges and hospitals face a different problem: what to do with surplus doses

Northeastern University had nearly 2,000 doses of precious COVID vaccine sitting in freezers last week after most of its front-line and emergency workers already had been immunized.

June 4

Local nursing school staff member, student talk COVID-19 challenges

There’s a critical need for nurses, and students like Lauren McCoy are ready to put their scrubs and stethoscope to good use. “Helping patients and seeing how they look at you and everything that I’m learning from them, I just really like that aspect of nursing,” McCoy said.

June 4

Forced addiction treatment could be death sentence during COVID-19

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to devastate communities across this country, correctional facilities have become one of the most explosive epicenters of this public health crisis.

June 4

Los Angeles Health Crisis Failed Policies Could Be Repeated Across the U.S. in the Next Few Months

Los Angeles has killed tens of thousands of jobs, forced the end of over 10,000 businesses, closed schools and sued churches that dared to abide by the First Amendment. Los Angles has a massive crime wave and the LA City Council cut $150 million from its budget.

June 4

In LA, ambulances circle for hours and ICUs are full. Is this what Covid-19 has in store for the rest of the country?

The situation here is dire. Every minute, 10 people test positive for Covid-19. Every eight minutes, someone dies. Ambulances circle for hours, unable to find ERs that can accept patients. Hospitals are running out of oxygen. ICU capacity is at zero. Patients lie in hallways and tents.

June 4

‘It is frustrating’: U.S-educated nurse from Ottawa hits barriers to getting licensed in Ontario

Before she accepted a swimming scholarship to attend Boston’s Northeastern University, Ottawa’s Rachael Geiger made sure it had the kind of nursing program she wanted.

June 4

Drug overdoses a ‘pandemic within the pandemic’

As COVID-19 deaths continue to surge around the country, so do deaths related to drug overdoses. "We're talking about a crisis that in New York, and everywhere, is getting to horrific levels," said Harry Nelson, author of "The United States of Opioids."

June 4

California warns against using batch of Moderna vaccine after allergic reactions reported in state

At least two other counties in the Bay Area, KGO-TV first reported, have received doses from the lot of Moderna vaccines California's leading epidemiologist advised against using for the time being.

June 4

Students with autism get a new tool for independence — A Smartwatch

For students with autism, receiving extra help in school is often crucial to their academic success. But fitting in and feeling accepted is equally important, especially in the classroom.

June 4

Physical Therapy — But Socially Distanced

Christopher J. Hasson, director of the Neuromotor Systems Laboratory at Northeastern, is pioneering research that combines physical therapy with tele-robotics — creating a robotic arm that attaches to a patient and takes the place of a therapist, helping maintain distance while still providing patients the support they need.

June 4

Protecting Those That Protect Us

Exergen Provides Critical Protective Equipment to School of Nursing Students Northeastern University’s School of Nursing, part of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, has accepted a generous gift-in-kind of over 1,800 temporal artery thermometers made by Drs. Frank and Marybeth Pompei, on behalf of the Exergen Corporation. The temporal thermometers were provided to students, faculty, […]

June 4

Should I be worried about an allergic reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine?

Following two severe allergic reactions to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on the United Kingdom’s first day of vaccine administration, nurses in the U.K. are being instructed to monitor patients for 15 minutes after receiving the injection for possible adverse side effects.

June 4

Artificial Intelligence Is Now Shockingly Good at Sounding Human

Rupal Patel heads a research group at Northeastern University that studies speech prosody—the changes in pitch, loudness and duration that we use to convey intent and emotion through voice. “Sometimes people think of it as the icing on the cake,” she explains.

June 4

Traveling, Talking and Becoming an Author.

Debby has always been willing push herself. While in high school, she spent a month in India making friends she still contacts. These friends have been the helpful support needed as she continues her educational Journey.

June 4

No, you don’t have to go to your company’s virtual holiday party

While employers might feel a virtual holiday party is a great way to get people in the holiday spirit, they still need to be mindful that some employees might not want to celebrate at all.

June 4

All your COVID-19 vaccine questions answered

When can I get a vaccine? How does it work? And will I still need to wear a mask afterward?

June 4

Researchers observe the bizarre behavior of shipworms for the first time

One afternoon, a researcher walked into his lab at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center and saw something shocking: A competitive sexual frenzy was happening right before his eyes, with individuals wrestling and sparring for dominance. The participants? A cluster of shipworms—marking the first time this unusual sexual behavior has been observed and documented.

June 4

Prisons should be COVID-19 vaccine priority

“Patients in nursing homes are being put in the front of the line for vaccine access, which makes sense,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. “But lots of people in prison are of same age and same health status as people in nursing homes.”

June 4

What Lessons Should We Learn from the PFAS Crisis?

How a problem is framed often shapes the range of solutions considered. Ubiquitous global contamination by PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), human-synthesized chemicals that are water and grease repellent and found in human blood, drinking water, and wildlife, is a problem that has been framed in a number of ways.

June 4

New study reveals just how bad overdoses got during the pandemic

Leo Beletsky is one of those who knew it was going to be bad; after all, some 40 states have reported increases in overdose deaths. He just didn’t realize how bad.

June 4

What you should know as the world waits for a vaccine

Dr. Brandon Dionne, assistant clinical professor at Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy and an infectious disease specialist, says that there are still plenty of unanswered questions. These include how long the immunity lasts, how much asymptomatic transmission by vaccinated people will occur, and how many people are willing to receive the vaccine.

June 4

How to spot a counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine

As public health officials plan for widespread distribution of the long-awaited vaccines, ensuring that vaccines are authentic could emerge as an important issue.

June 4

No, the vaccine will not give you COVID-19

There are a lot of myths floating around about the COVID-19 vaccine, but Todd Brown, a registered pharmacist and clinical instructor in the department of pharmacy and health systems sciences at Northeastern, can disprove at least one of them: The vaccine, he says, will not give you COVID-19.

June 4

With limited Boston homeless shelter beds this winter, could taking private property be a solution?

“Lives certainly take precedence over private property interests, especially when private property owners will be compensated,” Beletsky said. “This could also apply to all the hotels that are sitting empty.”

June 4

This new drug will save lives until Coronavirus vaccines are approved

“The antibody is essentially a decoy for the human cell receptor,” Amiji said in a statement. The neutralizing antibody in bamlanivimab can target the spike protein of the virus. This would also happen after a plasma transfusion, and it’s exactly how COVID-19 survivors who are immune to the virus react. Vaccines will also trigger an immune response […]

June 4

With a meteoric rise in deaths, talk of waves is misguided, say COVID-19 modelers

The numbers have become both horrifying and numbing — and there is no end in sight.

June 4

She’s helping the hearing-impaired overcome barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mask-wearing and physical distancing have become essential safety measures in the pandemic. But for people who rely on lip-reading and facial expressions to communicate, the increased use of facial coverings can lead to even greater isolation.

June 4

New antibody treatment could help high risk patients recover from COVID-19

A newly approved antibody therapy for COVID-19, produced by the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company, could help high-risk patients recover from the disease as long as the virus is detected soon after infection, says Mansoor Amiji, university distinguished professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemical engineering at Northeastern.

June 4

Pfizer vaccine could prevent COVID-19 in 9 out of 10 people, but how does it work?

On Monday, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at preventing the disease according to preliminary Phase 3 clinical trial data, a percentage much higher than anticipated.

June 4

Decriminalizing drugs in Oregon a ‘victory for common sense and for science’

Fewer drug arrests should reduce Oregon residents’ interaction with the criminal justice and legal systems, and in turn, limit their risk for health problems associated with incarceration, including COVID-19 infection and drug overdose, Beletsky said. In his estimation, reinvesting criminal justice savings in under-resourced health and addiction services would go even further to make the […]

June 4

Here’s how Snell Library reinvented itself during the COVID-19 pandemic

“It really is a rapid evolution of the library,” says Dan Cohen, dean of libraries and vice provost for information collaboration at Northeastern. “Every single service that you would get in Snell, pre-COVID, is available to you as a student or faculty member.”

June 4

Telehealth impacting patient satisfaction in physical therapy

The feasibility of real-time, virtual touchpoints with patients appears to be an effective supplement that is an option to conventional methods of modern healthcare delivery. Telehealth, when appropriately used, enables the continuity of care and connection for physical therapists and their patients.

June 4

Almost half of South Dakota’s prison population tests positive for COVID-19

“Unfortunately, the result was predictable,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. “In many states, the top hotspots for COVID spread have been prisons and jails.”

June 4

Neonatal saliva research breakthrough to advance maternal & newborn care

“How do we understand babies who struggle to eat? How do we better take care of them as their speech emerges? In partnership with Dr. Emily Zimmerman at Northeastern University, we’ve been able to follow babies looking at salivary biomarkers that we believe are shared between the ability to eat and ultimately the ability for our speech to […]

June 4

A COVID-19 vaccine won’t mean a swift end for wearing masks or physical distancing

“In the early stages of the vaccine rollout, I don’t think that a vaccine should change anyone’s behaviors,” he says. “We’re still going to need to use that in conjunction with masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene—like we’ve been doing—until we have more information about how [a vaccine] actually affects transmission.”

June 4

Focusing on firearms proves contentious in struggle to reduce veterans’ suicides

“We know the risk is there,” Dr. Miller said. But studies show that only about 10 percent of gun owners are aware of the higher risk, he said, suggesting that there is enormous room to inform people and encourage them to change their habits.

June 4

These professors are forecasting and gauging public opinion about the COVID-19 pandemic

Since receiving that early warning about COVID-19 from Vespignani, the Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor of physics, computer science, and health sciences, Lazer has conducted a series of nationwide surveys that gauge everything from the public’s support of a vaccine to people’s satisfaction with how the government has handled the crisis.

June 4

Can disease forecasts tell apart the flu and COVID-19?

“Something like this is completely unprecedented,” says Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor of physics, computer science, and health sciences, and director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute. “Having a major pandemic and then trying to get insight on the seasonal flu—it’s a completely new game.”

June 4

Researchers are taking aim at the counterfeit drug and medical supplies market

Passas and two other Northeastern professors, Mansoor Amiji and Ravi Sundaram, are teaming up with researchers from Boston University and the University of Houston to develop techniques to disrupt the global trade of counterfeit medicines and medical equipment.

June 4

Podcast: Meet a refugee

An American passport changed her life. Alexandra Tarzikhan was born in the United States to her American mom and Syrian dad. She grew up in the city of Aleppo, returning to Boston to attend Northeastern. But in 2011 at the start of the Syrian civil war, Alexandra could easily hop on a plane thanks to […]

June 4

Here’s what it takes to test a COVID-19 vaccine with clinical trials

While we should be optimistic that the U.S. will have a COVID-19 vaccine in the coming months, Amiji says people should also be aware that the clinical trial process takes a long time. “I’m certainly very, very hopeful that we will have a product, but obviously not anything within the timeline that the President is […]

June 4

Amazon is tracking American opioid usage, but to what end?

“There may be an assumption that addiction rates are correlated with package theft at the point of delivery. There’s been some chatter about this, especially on NextDoor and Ring networks. Addiction rates and opioid use should not be conflated but they often are,” Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health science at Northeastern University, […]

June 4

Youth soccer is an excuse to get outside for kids cooped up because of COVID-19

Tess Willinger, a third-year health science major at Northeastern and a volunteer coach with South End Soccer, a free youth soccer program, isn’t going to let any of these changes stop her from getting kids back out on the field. “We’re just trying to get kids outside,” she says. “They’ve been inside playing video games […]

June 4

Sharpen your health science expertise at Northeastern University

“Our vision here at Bouvé College of Health Sciences is to change the paradigm of traditional care focused on the sick and the sickness, to one that is focused on healthspan, quality of life, and the self-care that we all need to practice in order to promote our own health and that of our networks, […]

June 4

Forendo Pharma Appoints Cristina Csimma as Chair of the Board of Directors

Forendo Pharma, a clinical-stage drug development company focusing on novel treatments in women’s health, today announced that Dr Cristina Csimma has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors. Cristina brings with her deep expertise in the biopharmaceutical, venture capital, and academic sectors.

June 4

How to help siblings get along better

“It’s been part of our culture, at least in the US, to think that siblings fight. That there’s going to be lots of times they don’t get along. That’s what they do,” said Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. “When social lives are so restricted, families really see the […]

June 4

In 2020, campus life is masked, distant and strictly monitored

Harrington, 18, said people weren’t making much of an effort to say hello in the hallways, because COVID-19 safety protocols restrict freshmen from entering anyone’s dorm room but their own. Worse, she knew that if she found herself caught up in camaraderie and decided to visit someone else’s room, she could be dismissed and sent […]

June 4

Mandatory Rehab for Drug Users Are Rebranded Jails

“With mandatory or coerced treatment, you actually have something that’s neither ethical nor effective,” said Leo Beletsky, professor of Law and Health Sciences at Northeastern University School of Law. “The evidence certainly does not support replacing incarceration with quote unquote mandatory rehab, which in many corners of this country looks pretty much like incarceration, just […]

June 4

Celebrating Five Years in the Top 100

Since its founding in 2010, the National Academy of Inventors has published a list of the Top 100 Universities to have been granted U.S. utility patents from across the world. Since 2015, Northeastern University has held a placed in top 100 and continues this streak through 2019.

June 4

Meet the ambassadors of Women Who Empower

They’re engineers, health professionals, and entrepreneurs. They’re architects, scientists, and business leaders. And representing 19 countries, from South Africa to Switzerland, and from Italy to India, they are members of Northeastern’s inaugural cohort of Women Who Empower ambassadors.

June 4

How do you learn hands-on medical skills during a pandemic?

Clad in masks, face shields, and gloves, a dozen students in Northeastern’s physician assistant program begin to pore over each other’s hands, arms, neck, and scalp—their first hands-on practice conducting skin examinations. Six more students begin the same process without all the protective equipment; their patients are family members, friends, and partners, and their exam […]

June 4

Taking the “physical” out of physical therapy

Kristin Dunn, a graduate who works as an inpatient physical therapist at the Boston Medical Center, suggested that the process of rehabilitation will have to shift to accommodate patients recovering from COVID-19. Another challenge facing providers is looking differently at how socioeconomic status affects health status, she said.

June 4

40 Under Forty 2020: Dr. Sean T. Lordan, 32

This is how you launch and grow a business right: Sean Lordan, who started Concierge Physical Therapy less than five years ago without a physical space of its own, tripled gross revenue from his first year to his third, and added five full-time doctors to his staff of what’s now more than 20 people.

June 4

Merrimack Valley Hospice stacks deck with Card

“Ms. Card is fully committed to nursing excellence in both palliative and complex care, as well as end-of-life care, and brings her expertise to this key leadership role within our organization. Her focus is on the patient and the family, as well as her team of caring staff who provide these much needed services in […]

June 4

How word detectives solved the mystery of teaching reading from afar

In a normal summer, the kids enrolled in Word Detectives, a month-long reading camp, would meet on Northeastern’s Boston campus to improve their literacy skills. But this summer is anything but normal. Instead, the team behind Word Detectives moved the program online, with a virtual camp and specialized tutoring.

June 4

How Word Detectives solved the mystery of teaching reading from afar

“Normally, kids will come in and tell stories about home, but now we were seeing and living with them,” Young-Hong says. “In the past, parents haven’t come in during instructional times but some of the parents were there with their kids and seeing what was happening, and sending messages like ‘Wow I’m impressed with how my daughter is engaging, I didn’t think this would work but it did.’”

June 4

Grad Spotlight | Shashank Madhu

I started Northeastern wanting to be a doctor, plain and simple. I joined the Health Science major because I thought that it would be a good stepping stone to the healthcare field. To be quite honest, I actually didn’t even know what Health Science entailed. I just thought it would be more up my alley than going a traditional biology or biochem route to med school. It was only when I went on a Dialogue to London at the end of my freshman year that I learnt the importance of the Health Science major. Public health has shaped our entire lives in many unseen and unspoken ways, and now we are seeing the consequences of its failing.

June 4

Machine learning predicts adverse drug reactions based on drugs’ in vitro pharmacology

Through machine learning, they were able to systematically predict the drug effects on human patient populations from their target-based preclinical profiles

June 4

How Has COVID-19 Affected Mental Health And Well-Being?

"Thinking about those things as students come back and as people ease out of COVID-19—whenever that will be—will be super important, whether it’s social connection or thinking about the larger things on a societal level: Employment supports, supports for food insecurity, [which] not only affects eating behaviors but has a huge upstream or downstream—depending on which version you use—on all aspects of mental health and well-being,” said Lincoln, who serves as associate dean of research at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and director of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research.

June 4

Trying to separate life from work while stuck at home during COVID-19? Develop a ‘shutdown ritual’

“People are engaging in these behaviors and rituals to transition themselves from work to home,” said Laura Dudley, an associate clinical professor in applied psychology at Northeastern University. “These routines can be really beneficial, especially during uncertain or uncomfortable times, like we’re in right now.”

June 4

Is Contact Tracing Enough To Slow The Spread Of COVID-19?

The panelists, all three of whom are students in or graduates of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern, offered insights working as contract tracers in Massachusetts since April during a July 23 webinar hosted by Bouvé on the importance of contact tracing.

June 4

The research is clear: White people are not more likely than Black people to be killed by police.

Northeastern professor Matt Miller says that Trump’s response was a “grotesque” misdirection that fails to account for the fact that Black people are killed by police at a higher rate than white people. A recent study by Miller found that Black people are shot and killed by police at twice the rate that white people are.

June 4

Are these uncertain times keeping you up? The solution might be personal.

You might want a story on quick tips for a good night’s sleep. On how to stop dwelling about this uneasy 2020 and make up for the nights ruined by those damned fireworks. This is not that story.

June 4

Here’s Why Guns Increase The Risk Of Suicide–Especially In Stressful Times

“It reinforces what we in some ways already knew,” Miller says of the handguns study. “Which is that if someone is going through a hard time, the single most effective thing you can do to reduce the likelihood that that person is going to die is to get that gun out of the home, or otherwise make it inaccessible to the person who’s at risk.”

June 4

How one communication tool may fail some autistic people

Many parents spend 30 minutes or more a day practicing the method, and some attend regular sessions with providers in the hope that it will enable their child to one day type independently on a keyboard, as appeared to happen with Tito. His story was recounted by the BBC and 60 Minutes, and in the 2010 documentary “A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism,” narrated by actress Kate Winslet.

June 4

A Pandemic Problem for Older Workers: Will They Have to Retire Sooner?

I’m going to keep working virtually — the idea of going into an office building, and not knowing who’s going in and out — I’m really not sure about that,” she said. “And sitting in a room with clients with both of us wearing masks — I wouldn’t be able to see their facial expressions. So I am now for the first time feeling at a crossroads

June 4

How to talk to kids about systemic racism and anti-Black violence

Explaining racism to children is an essential conversation in families, irrespective of race or skin color, says Tracy Robinson-Wood, a professor of applied psychology who studies the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class, as well as racial socialization in interracial families

June 4

Sleep Solutions

Do you spend more time counting sheep than you do getting sleep? Lichuan Ye, associate professor of nursing, shares ways to calm your thoughts and secure some shut-eye

June 4

How to stay safe from a pandemic while protesting racial injustice

“We have the public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and we have the public health crisis of systemic racism,” says Neil Maniar, a professor of the practice and director of Northeastern’s Master of Public Health program. “I think the central question is, how do you protect yourself against one public health crisis, while advocating to address another?”

June 4

First-time gun owners at risk for suicide, major study confirms

The decision to buy a handgun for the first time is typically motivated by self-protection. But it also raises the purchasers’ risk of deliberately shooting themselves by ninefold on average, with the danger most acute in the weeks after purchase, scientists reported last week. The risk remains elevated for years, they said.

June 4

Women who own handguns at 35X risk of suicide

There were 24,432 gun suicides in the United States in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three-quarters of them involved handguns.

June 4

CNY suburbs rally against racial injustice: ‘Never shut up’

Protesters held signs that said “Silence is Violence” and “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” The speakers at Sunday’s rally asked the mostly white people in the crowd to count the number of black colleagues in their offices.

June 4

Masterclass: Healthcare funding during the COVID Crisis- Trends & Predictions

A question-and-answer session moderated by Carmen Sceppa, MD, PhD, dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Sceppa’s work focuses on healthy aging and health promotion—two areas that she is seeing through a new lens during the pandemic.

June 4

Racism, coronavirus, and African Americans

Heavy. Overwhelming. Daunting. Those were some of the words used at a recent panel to describe the two crises disproportionately affecting the black community right now: the novel coronavirus and the unjust killing of African Americans by white police officers. “You feel like it’s compounded to the point where you wonder: How do we get out from under?”

June 4

Handgun ownership associated with much higher suicide risk

Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don’t own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don’t...

June 4

First-Time Gun Owners at Risk for Suicide, Major Study Confirms

By linking gun purchases to the voter registry and suicide data, the team was able to track individuals over time, from October 2004 to December 2016. The researchers checked gun purchases back to 1985 to make sure that individuals in the study were in fact first-time buyers.

June 4

Handgun Ownership and Suicide in California

Research has consistently identified firearm availability as a risk factor for suicide. However, existing studies are relatively small in scale, estimates vary widely, and no study appears to have tracked risks from commencement of firearm ownership.

June 4

How Can We Stay Safe As Coronovirus Restrictions Are Lifted?

It can feel like people are responding with an all-or-nothing approach: Either you stay locked in your house alone, or you’re at a party with a hundred maskless strangers. But those aren’t the only choices, says Neil Maniar, a professor of the practice and director of Northeastern’s Master of Public Health program.

June 4

Measuring Speech Intelligibility in Children With Motor Speech Disorders

Reduced speech intelligibility limits functional communication for many children with motor speech disorders, and improving intelligibility is often a primary goal of intervention. Objective measurement of intelligibility is important for quantifying severity of speech impairment and tracking progress in therapy; however, there is little standardization of methods for measuring speech intelligibility in clinical settings.

June 4

‘We Have To Treat Everybody As Though They Have It’

During her shifts at two hospital emergency departments in Boston, Victoria Diaz braces for COVID-19 cases, whether they’re obvious or not. Some patients arrive in need of immediate intubation. “Sometimes other people who are completely asymptomatic come back positive,” says Diaz, a rising fifth-year nursing student at Northeastern. “We have to treat everybody as though they have it.”

June 4

‘This Was a Unique Time To Use My Passion’

Last year, Maura Eaton and her classmates stocked an orphanage in Latacunga, a plateau town in Ecuador, with ankle and foot braces, balls, mats, and wheelchairs. While they were in Ecuador, the nearly 20-member group of physical therapy students from Northeastern, their professor, and a pediatric physical therapist, also provided physical therapy to children at another orphanage in the country’s capital, Quito. The weeklong trip, said Eaton, a doctoral student of physical therapy at Northeastern, was easily one of the most rewarding experiences of her life

June 4

Providing Personal Protective Equipment To People In Need ‘Is Not a Sprint–It’s a Marathon’

“I feel that getting everyone access to personal protective equipment, and recovering from COVID-19 as a whole, is not a sprint, it’s more of a marathon,” says Hall. “I believed all along if every person just donated one mask, we would really be able to overcome the shortage of protective equipment.”

June 4

The person walking past you isn’t wearing a mask. What should you say?

So, when you spot a person going maskless in public, should you call them out? If you don’t, are you not doing enough to help protect people who are at higher risk of developing serious complications if they contract COVID-19? You know the feeling. You can’t possibly know why people aren’t wearing masks. They might have a health condition that makes it hard to breathe. Maybe they’re afraid of being racially profiled. Still, there’s tension when you see an uncovered face in public.

June 4

They chose to stay and help fight COVID-19

Before Susan Dawson enters Massachusetts General Hospital, she checks off a form affirming that she has no known symptoms of COVID-19. “I’m glad I had hospital experience before this all broke out,” says Dawson, a third-year nursing student at Northeastern who is serving her second co-op at Mass General. “I think I would have been a lot more scared and tentative if I had not.”

June 4

Models can predict how COVID-19 will spread. What goes into them, and how can we use what they tell us?

Countries around the world are grappling with how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the best tools global leaders have at their disposal are epidemiological models, which predict how the disease will spread. But what goes into these models, and how do leaders and public health authorities use this information? On Thursday, Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern, will sit down for a conversation with Alessandro Vespignani, the director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, who is leading one of the major efforts to model this disease.

June 4

A guilty pleasure to get you through quarantine–that’s actually good for you

Along with sourdough starter and Zoom calls, video games are enjoying a resurgence in popularity among people of all ages who are craving entertainment and social connection while stuck at home in quarantine. As far as guilty pleasures go, says Amy Lu, an associate professor of communication studies and health sciences at Northeastern, video games are worth indulging in for the benefits they provide to a player’s physical and mental health. One small caveat: She’s not talking about just any video game.

June 4

Homeless populations have been hit hard by COVID-19. She’s stepping in to help

Sanitize your hands. Put a pair of gloves on. Put on your gown. Put a second pair of gloves on. Put your mask on. Slide your face shield over your head. Finally, step into the patient area. Sarah Calnan recites the steps in rapid-fire succession; they’re as familiar to her now as the back of her gloved hand.

June 4

Zoom fatigue’ is real. Here’s why you’re feeling it, and what you can do about it

For those confined to their homes lately, chatting by video has become a crucial way to stay in touch from afar. But for all its benefits, our reliance upon video during isolation has spawned a surprising new problem: Being on so many video conferences is exhausting. That’s because many of the nonverbal cues that we typically rely upon during in-person conversations, says Laura Dudley, a behavior analyst at Northeastern University.

June 4

How COVID-19 is exposing — and widening — cracks in the US health system

The system was already flawed. The pandemic brings those failings into focus. "Any time you have a whole population exposed to a disease, it reflects the structural underpinnings and the failures of our society," Dr. Mary Bassett, a professor at Harvard's public health school, told ABC News in April.

June 4

Oh, Good, the Kids Are Fighting Again

“They’re fighting over who’s sitting in what chair,” said Ana Balich, a mother of three who lives in Chicago. “They always fought about stuff like that, but it just seems like its been worse.” In Meridian, Idaho, Mette Angerhofer Holden has watched her children battle over who gets to eat the most play food and which TV show to watch.

June 4

The patients are digital. The nursing students are real.

The patient is 61 years old, an African American man named Alex Carson who, according to the emergency technicians’ report, fainted at airport security after visiting his family in New York. His blood pressure is elevated, his heart rate is fast, and his temperature is 104 degrees. His history shows he is a daily smoker who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes. Jennifer Stand, who is pursuing a master’s degree in nursing at Northeastern, must determine how to proceed.

June 4

We’re the youngest people out there fighting this

It’s something Evelyn Goroza and Thomas Cava never would have anticipated when they began their jobs in January at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Over the last few weeks, the cardiovascular intensive-care unit and the cardiac surgery floor, where the two Northeastern co-ops work as patient care technicians, have been transformed into COVID-19 units—putting Goroza and Cava on the front lines of the effort to save lives.

June 4

Is Your Home Office Working For You?

By now, most people are working from home or working remotely in an effort to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But, our new at-home workstations present new challenges for us—and for our bodies. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to improving remote workspaces, Jack Dennerlein, a professor of physical therapy at Northeastern, says fitting your workspace to your body is essential for maintaining your health and productivity.

June 4

A Typology of Civilians Shot and Killed by US Police: a Latent Class Analysis of Firearm Legal Intervention Homicide in the 2014–2015 National Violent Death Reporting System

Approximately 1000 people are killed by police acting in the line of duty each year. These incidents, often referred to as legal intervention homicides (LIH), have been a topic of intense public and scholarly interest for several decades.

June 4

In It Together 4/22/2020

Host Arun Rath went over the news of the day and how his healthcare system is handling this pandemic with Dr. Kumara Sidhartha with Cape Cod Healthcare. Next, Rath spoke with Registered Nurse Amanda Weathers from Tufts Medical Center about her work in the COVID-19 ICU.

June 4

1,000 people in the US die every year in police shootings. Who are they?

African-Americans are at greater risk of being killed by police, even though they are less likely to pose an objective threat to law enforcement, according to new data-driven research by Northeastern professor Matt Miller. The Northeastern-Harvard study combs through shooting deaths by police across 27 states in 2014-15, based on details culled from police and medical-examiner reports by the relatively new National Violent Death Reporting System.

June 4

From the classroom to the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic

At the end of Alyson Dahlberg’s shift, which wraps up around 7 a.m., she can be found sitting, balancing on the driver’s seat of her car with her feet in a bucket. She’s removing her hospital shoes, which she just wore for the past 12 hours, and changing into her “normal” shoes before they ever touch the interior. The bucket goes into the trunk, and her scrubs stay behind at the hospital, where they’re washed. Also being disinfected before she uses it again during her next shift is her designated N95 mask.

June 4

COVID-19 has shut down many blood drives. Northeastern came to rescue on this one.

On Wednesday, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic forced college campuses across the country to close, voices echoed through Northeastern’s Matthews Arena. Not the voices of fans roaring for a goal or singing the verses of “Stacy’s Mom,” but the voices of Red Cross workers and volunteers setting up for a much-needed blood drive.

June 4

To fight the COVID-19 outbreak, first we have to track it

If we want to slow the spread of COVID-19, we need to stay apart from each other. But we also need to know where the disease is. “The reason we’re so focused on testing for this is so that we can identify patients that have [COVID-19] and who they could have spread it to,” says Brandon Dionne, an assistant clinical professor in Northeastern’s department of pharmacy and health systems sciences. “We can try to isolate cases and try to contain it before it can spread through the community.”

June 4

Public health authorities need help responding to COVID-19. Students are answering the call—by picking up the phone.

Northeastern students Cassandra Dechaine and Magda Pankowska have full course loads and full-time jobs. Starting this week, they’re adding one more task to their busy schedules: contact tracing. The concept is simple. Someone tests positive for COVID-19 and they either self-isolate at home to recover or, in some more serious cases, are admitted to a hospital. But who have they come into contact with? Where have they been? Where have they passed through?

June 4

We’ll never forget spending so much time together’

As millions of people around the world isolate themselves to protect their families from COVID-19, myriad legitimate challenges await inside their homes. “As we spend such uninterrupted time with one another, where our options are pretty limited, things can get frustrating, they could get boring, and we could see some conflict,” says Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied psychology at Northeastern.

June 4

Pharmacy Technicians Affected by State Regulator Actions to Address COVID-19 Crisis

As of April 1, 2020, regulatory authorities in 31 US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, have published emergency rules and guidance that has the potential to change the roles and duties of pharmacy technicians as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to pose new challenges to pharmacies.

June 4

Northeastern models are helping shape US COVID-19 policy

Northeastern researchers are part of the network of teams creating models to advise the Trump administration on the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, White House officials said Tuesday. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that the modeling estimates provided by Northeastern’s Network Science Institute and researchers from several other universities had made it possible to “see what these mitigations could do—how steeply they could depress the curve.”

June 4

Here’s what it’s like to be a student healthcare worker during the coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus is affecting everyday life — even for those who have not been infected. We are sharing stories of its impact on local people. My name is Jonathan Harris. I’m a third-year health science major at Northeastern University, and I work part-time in a Boston-area hospital emergency department.

June 4

Fight, Flight, or Foresight

For some people with severe autism, aggressive behavior is common. But what if there were a device that could predict those outbursts by monitoring physiological changes? Oftentimes they can’t communicate, so when they’re stressed, they either fight or flee. In this episode, we talk to Matthew Goodwin (associate professor of behavioral science and personal health informatics).

June 4

Cannabis Will Transform Medicine—Once We Figure Out How To Get Rid Of It’s Side Effects

Say that you smoked marijuana right now. It would do things to your mind and to your body. You could become overly excited and real giggly. Those are some of the effects that tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, might have on you and the trillions of cells within your body. Because of the abilities of compounds in marijuana to stimulate our sensations, some people use cannabis to cope with chronic pain, anxiety, and other health problems.

June 4

The Cruise Ship Was Kept At Bay. The Spread Of Coronavirus Was Not.

Passengers of the cruise ship Diamond Princess got more than they bargained for when they left Japan on Jan. 20 for a luxury vacation to Vietnam, China, Taiwan and back—an extra two weeks aboard the ship, all expenses paid, room service included. Since Feb. 4, the ship has been in quarantine in Yokohama, Japan, because of an outbreak of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. As of Thursday, 634 cases of the virus have been confirmed among the 3,711 passengers and crew originally aboard the ship.

June 4

How to Raise Siblings Who Get Along

Playing together is part of it, but so is having chores kids can complete as a team. Laurie Kramer, a clinical psychologist and professor at Northeastern University and founder of the More Fun With Sisters and Brothers program, discovered in her research that mothers who had negative histories with their own siblings were most likely to raise kids with the most positive relationships.

June 4

Help Your Children Get Along (While Keeping Your Own Sanity Intact)

Not only is sibling rivalry as old as time—remember the story of Cain and Abel? But, although conflict between siblings may be unavoidable, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing that parents can do about it, says Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied psychology at Northeastern who studies sibling conflict.

June 4

The Perfect Fit(bit)

Smart fitness trackers are actually pretty dumb, and when it comes to self-reporting your activity, you aren’t much better.But with this new approach, devices like Fitbits could not just better track your behaviors—they could help you change them. In this episode, we talk to Stephen Intille (associate professor of computer sciences and health sciences).

June 4

People Who Might Have COVID-19 Are Benefiting From Virtual Healthcare. Everyone Else May, Too

Hospitals and doctors’ offices across the United States are offering to screen patients remotely for symptoms of COVID-19—by phone or video—in order to avoid filling waiting rooms and potentially spreading the virus to uninfected people. The rapid and widespread adaptation of telemedicine may help patients during the pandemic, and will almost certainly help other people down the road, says Janet Rico, assistant dean of nursing graduate programs at Northeastern.

June 4

Virus rules let construction workers keep building luxury towers

In the heart of Manhattan, work continues on an upscale Hard Rock Hotel, even after word spread that up to four workers had tested positive for the virus, prompting some laborers to storm off the site. In Brooklyn, workers at an apartment building who have had to reuse the same masks every day were ordered back on the job even after a fellow worker had contracted the virus.

June 4

‘Social Distancing’ Is Only The First Step Toward Stopping The COVID-19 Pandemic

After days of closed schools and businesses and requests—or orders—to say home, many people caught in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic are wondering if these efforts will be enough. The answer depends on how local, regional, and federal governments use this time, says Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern. It also depends on how well people heed the warning to maintain physical distance from others and avoid unnecessary social interactions.

June 4

In less than three hours you can donate a voice

A woman in a soundproof studio sits down at a computer and adjusts a headset microphone in front of her mouth. She’s going to donate her voice. What she’s about to say will eventually be turned into a synthetic voice for a woman who needs text-to-speech technology to communicate. The computer prompts her: “Your personality’s central organ is your voice.”

June 4

Global population, climate, and technology are changing human health. Here’s what we can do about it.

“The health challenges facing our world today are very different than those faced by previous generations,” Carmen Sceppa, dean of Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, told an audience of students, researchers, clinicians and industry experts on Friday. “And they are further complicated by the environmental factors and the globalized world we live in.”

June 4

‘This is where the proverbial rubber hits the road’

The inaugural Health in Translation event, hosted by Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, convened a wide range of people—including clinical professors, healthcare professionals, and researchers from disciplines across the university—to jumpstart collaboration in order to find novel solutions to grand health challenges.

June 4

Easy on the eyes. Easier on the feet.

Great ideas can come to you when you least expect it. Take the shower, for example. One minute you’re soaping up the loofah, the next you’re hatching an elaborate plan for the next multi-million dollar app. Or, if you’re Vidhan Bhaiya, the light bulb goes off at a family wedding, surrounded by brightly colored saris and the thumping of drums.

June 4

Can gun violence be traced back to its root causes?

Life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped as a result of gun violence, says Daniel Kim, an associate professor of health sciences at Northeastern.Kim found that the strongest association was between gun homicides and social mobility, or the ability of people to move to a higher social status than that of their parents. He discussed how his research can be used to influence policy and address trends of gun violence in the U.S.

June 4

Podcast: A Plague on Words

In the 1850s, John Snow mapped out the London cholera outbreak and discovered where the disease was coming from? In this episode, we talk to Alessandro Vespignani (Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor of Physics, Computer Sciences, and Health Sciences and the director of the Network Science Institute) and Sari Altschuler (Assistant Professor of English, associate director of the Northeastern Humanities Center, and founding director of the Health, Humanities, and Society minor).

June 4

Stay Healthy. Flu Season is Upon Us.

Roughly 40 million people come down with the flu every year. As we approach the midway point of flu season, here are some facts you need to know about the virus and vaccine from Brandon Dionne, an assistant clinical professor at Northeastern.

June 4

Podcast: Fake Patients, Real Stress

You can’t become a nurse before you practice on patients, but you can’t practice on patients before you’re a nurse… right? Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences has a solution: robots. And these ones can bleed. In this episode, we talk to Jamie Musler (director of interprofessional medical simulation and the Arnold S. Goldstein Simulation Labs) and nursing students Nathalie Garcia and Julia Thompson.

June 4

Is virtual reality the next frontier in physical therapy?

Mia is a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who plays soccer and hockey. Can she benefit from virtual reality therapy? That’s the question Danielle Levac, an assistant professor of physical therapy at Northeastern, wants to answer.

June 4

What you need to know about the ‘forever chemicals’ in your food, water, and air

They knew something was wrong when the cows started dying. The Tennant family kept around 200 cattle on their farm in West Virginia. But the animals began to get sick after the DuPont chemical company turned a nearby plot of farmland into a private landfill.

June 4

Listen to Matthew Goodwin discuss behavioral science and the rise of personal health informatics

Wearable technology like smartwatches and the related digital devices that now populate our homes and workplaces are starting to change the face of medicine, as they produce data that help us diagnose health issues, and capabilities to help treat them. Our guest is Matthew Goodwin, an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.

June 4

Not ready to pass the torch to robots? That’s fine—they can’t grab it yet.

A robot sorts fish in a processing plant, then passes them to a human worker for filleting. An astronaut floating in zero gravity exchanges tools with a robotic assistant. A robot hands a scalpel to a surgeon, freeing up a nurse for more complicated tasks. Neuroscientists and engineers at Northeastern are working together to make sure robots are up for the task, which is more complicated than it looks.

June 4

New cross-disciplinary major blends engineering and health sciences

It’s hard to become a visionary if your vision is narrow. That’s why Northeastern’s new combined major—Environmental Engineering and Health Sciences—provides students an opportunity to become more complete practitioners in their field. “The combination of these two disciplines will make better engineers and better public health professionals,” said Edward Beighley, a professor of civil and […]

June 4

Industry fellowships create pharmacy fast-track

What kind of a person gets to lead a high-profile project at an international corporation just one month out of college? Answer: A graduate who has landed a Northeastern pharmacy fellowship. “I was only here for a month when I took the lead on an important international project,” said Margaret Chuang, PharmD’19. is who Medical Affairs […]

June 4

The surprising reason that ‘real body’ marketing campaigns work

Over the past few years, a number of major brands have pledged not to airbrush or otherwise doctor the bodies of the models in their marketing campaigns. But do such campaigns have any effect on impressionable young people, who are more likely than adults to struggle with their body image?

June 4

It’s time for smart fitness trackers to smarten up

Smart fitness trackers are actually pretty dumb. And, when it comes to keeping track of activity, so are humans.Instead of relying on current, incomplete methods of tracking health, associate professor Stephen Intille is trying something different, something to ideally reduce the number of people who toss their Fitbits in a drawer, disillusioned by the device.

June 4

New Bouvè dean Carmen Sceppa asserts that technology can’t replace the human touch in healthcare

The crisis of American healthcare is a contentious issue throughout the United States, and Carmen Sceppa, the new dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, wants in on the debate. Among her many goals is to develop a national healthcare leadership role for Bouvé while also building consensus among its three divisions: the School of Pharmacy, the School of Nursing, and the School of Health Professions.

June 4

Cross-disciplinary co-op puts pharmacy student on an unexpected career path

If you ever wondered what the advantage is to choosing a pharmacy program located within a large university, Kathryn Prout is the answer. In July, the Doctor of Pharmacy student co-authored not one, but two, papers in published scholarly medical journals along with her mentor, business professor Tim Hoff. That’s right, her mentor is a business […]

June 4

Agility as a student researcher led to a job on the frontlines of the opioid crisis

Lauren Ansong was in an uncomfortable position. While earning her master’s in public health, she landed a prime internship with the Boston Public Health Commission and impressed them enough to be assigned one of their pet projects. It was a novel idea—locate mental health programs for young children in African American barbershops and beauty salons. […]

June 4

Northeastern hosts a national conference to explore new ways to fight addiction

Top addiction researchers from around the nation will gather on the Northeastern campus August 1 and 2 for the fourth annual conference dedicated to advances in medical treatments of drug abuse. The conference—The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Drug Abuse—is organized each year by Bouve’s Alexandros Makriyannis, director of Northeastern’s Center for Drug Discovery. “The conference […]

June 4

These children wanted to improve their reading skills. So they became detectives.

June 4

Amy Briesch will help evaluate integrated support systems in elementary schools

School Psychology professor Amy Briesch is a co-principal investigator on a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of academic, behavioral, and social supports at the elementary school level. The five-year study began on July 1, and will include the nation’s first study of the comprehensive integrated three-tiered framework […]

June 4

She battled her way out of adversity, and now she’s helping others do the same

Nicolle Potvin has gone through some hard times and come into young adulthood stronger, more confident, and determined to help others overcome the formidable obstacles that threaten to derail their lives. With a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Northeastern, she landed a job a program clinician at a Rhode Island program for women age 16 […]

June 4

The top mentor at the nation’s top children’s hospital—clinical education doesn’t get any better

She was so close to her achieving her dream. Cidney Moscovitch had been admitted to Northeastern’s Physican Assistant program with the condition that she meet the required clinical hours. While reviewing the program’s “prerequisites” page, she came across the university’s one-year graduate certificate in Exercise Science for Clinicians. It was the perfect opportunity. “I could […]

June 4

Take a virtual tour of the arboretum on Northeastern’s Boston campus

More than 1,400 trees representing 143 different species shelter the walkways between buildings and surround the open green spaces on campus.

June 4

How two high school friends became Instagram food guides

Three years ago, Northeastern student Rachel Eng and her friend from high school started an Instagram account to post photos of food to help each other decide where to eat next. Turns out a lot of other people wanted advice on where to dine.

June 4

What do a robotic teddy bear and a wearable biosensor have in common?

Health Sciences professor Matthew Goodwin is on a roll. In the past month, he has published two papers, one on the use of wearable devices to predict aggressive outbursts among youth with autism, and another on the use of a robotic teddy bear to ease anxiety in hospitalized children. Both harness the power of technology to […]

June 4

Bouve’s associate dean wins her field’s highest award

Maura Iversen has been honored with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Rheumatology, one of the most prestigious awards in the field. Iversen is both a tenured professor at Bouvé and Associate Dean for Clinical Education, Rehabilitation, and New Initiatives. She holds two doctorates, one in physical therapy from the MGH […]

June 4

When we discuss the opioid crisis, the words we use matter

Opioid and other substance overdoses are officially a public health emergency in the United States. But instead of treating victims of this crisis like medical patients, police, policymakers, and journalists have historically framed people with addictions as criminals, according to two Northeastern researchers.

June 4

She created a cookbook to help people heal

You might not expect a cookbook to help people cope with anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders, but that’s exactly what Northeastern graduate Dayna Altman has created. The stories in Altman’s book illustrate the different ways people can heal. A man who lost his arm in a car accident, struggling with painkillers, finds solace in yoga.

June 4

How can this researcher’s video game short-circuit dating violence?

They were the only humans on an alien planet—a mother and her middle school son. Tension was building among the aliens and violence was in the air. Their job was to use the skills they had learned in earlier episodes of the video game to diffuse a dispute between an alien couple. The game is […]

June 4

Our next healthcare crisis will be in the home—are we prepared?

A variety of factors have combined to increase the demand for home healthcare, but the number of nurses prepared to take on this role is not keeping pace. “This is a huge issue because healthcare is moving out of hospitals and into the community—and we’re not prepared for it,” said Janet Rico, assistant associate dean […]

June 4

A nine-hour road trip produces new insights into physical therapy

Four physical therapist students were working on their clinical rotations outside Florence, Italy, when they learned that seven of their professors were flying from Boston to Geneva, Switzerland, for the world’s largest international PT conference. Determined not to miss the opportunity, they rented a car and embarked on a nine-hour road trip through the Alps […]

June 4

Personal resilience was the key to success for this physician assistant

By Bill Ibelle, Editorial Director Sometimes it takes more than talent and academic prowess to achieve your professional dreams. For Klaus Grim, MS’18, it also took persistence, adaptability, and a Northeastern educator who was willing to go the extra mile for a promising applicant. As Grim neared the end of his undergraduate career at the […]

June 4

Ultrasound conference will teach frontline practitioners to save lives

When he was 22 years old and about to begin medical school, Northeastern’s team physician Gian Corrado was playing pickup basketball when one of the other players dropped dead in front of him. Since that day, he has dedicated a significant portion of his medical career to prevent similar tragedies. “Every year, 150 young men—one […]

June 4

How you store your guns matters. It could save lives.

A modest increase in the number of people who store firearms in their homes safely could help to save the lives of hundreds of children each year, according to a new study conducted by Northeastern researcher Matthew Miller. A study by Northeastern professor Mathew Miller, published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, revealed that gun deaths among young people could be significantly decreased if more gun owners locked up their firearms.

June 4

When is a Fitbit like a New Year’s resolution?

Wearable devices like the Fitbit and Apple Watch are all the rage in the fight against obesity. Yet their failure to encourage meaningful reflection on the data often relegates them to the waste bin of good intentions, alongside failed diets and household budgets. The tendency to stop using them is of heightened concern in low-socioeconomic […]

June 4

Global experiences led this student to embrace the resilience of the human spirit

By Bill Ibelle, Editorial Director When Adrienne Peng was a freshman studying in Greece, she visited the Eidomeni refugee camp near the Macedonian border. In addition to learning about horrors of the war in Syria, she witnessed the resilience of the human spirit and the enormous generosity of the Greek people. “At that time, Greece […]

June 4

Commencement 2019

Full coverage of Northeastern University’s 117th Commencement exercises and the 2019 graduates.

June 4

Policing public health

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) have exploded in popularity. In 2000, thirteen states used PDMPs; today, they exist in every state and Washington, D.C. These programs are ostensibly designed to respond to the opioid crisis by monitoring prescribed drugs and preventing abuse and doctor shopping.

June 4

He only tweets two words. He has 50,000 followers.

“Eating garlic can help to prevent age-related memory loss, study reveals” “This is the best time of day to work out, according to science” Enticing headlines like these may draw traffic to news sites, but they’re missing two vital words: in mice. That’s because, though the information gleaned from these studies may someday benefit humans, the research that yielded the results was done on mice. And humans and mice are not exactly interchangeable.

June 4

Being a first-generation American gives her an edge as a school psychologist

By Bill Ibelle, Editorial Director After fleeing the brutal civil war in El Salvador, Karen Alvarez’s parents never imagined that their second daughter would become the first person in the family to go to college, let alone earn a master’s degree from a prestigious American university. On Friday, Alvarez will receive her second graduate degree […]

June 4

As a professional athlete, she took a pounding; now she helps others overcome their injuries

By Bill Ibelle, Editorial Director Brittany Loweree has taken an unusual route to her doctorate in physical therapy—hurtling down alpine slopes while enduring thousands of knee-pounding moguls and backflips. When Loweree was a sophomore at Northeastern, she took a leave of absence to compete with the U.S. Ski Team. Her specialty—freestyle moguls—is as brutal as […]

June 4

Why did this nursing student also study experience design?

One of the advantages of studying at a large university like Northeastern is the opportunity to venture beyond your field of expertise and develop the tools you need to become an innovator in your profession. For Rachel Abarbanel, NP’19, seizing that opportunity meant earning a graduate certificate in experience design from Northeastern’s College of Arts, […]

June 4

Do you know the warning signs of human trafficking?

June 4

What’s that ringing in my ear?

By Bill Ibelle, Editorial Director The ringing in their ears never stops. It’s enough to drive a person crazy. When stacked up against afflictions like cancer and AIDS, tinnitus may seem like a second-tier malady, but for 50 million Americans, the symptoms destroy concentration, sleep, mental health, and even careers. Tinnitus is the number one cause […]

June 4

Bouvé students take a starring role at RISE research expo

A Northeastern PhD student has discovered a protein receptor that could vastly improve pharmacological treatment for a disease that affects an estimated 3 million Americans. Katlynn Bugda Gwilt, who successfully defended her Pharmacology PhD in April, won both the Outstanding Graduate Research Award in Health Sciences and the Excellence in Research Award at RISE, Northeastern’s […]

June 4

Blending mindfulness with traditional healthcare

Melanie Black embodies Northeastern’s cross-disciplinary approach to healthcare, working to integrate the skills she learned in her previous career as a mindfulness and yoga instructor with her training in Bouvé’s Master of Nursing program. Her current clinical rotation at the VA hospital in Bedford, MA, provides an excellent example of how mindfulness could be used […]

June 4

Northeastern’s nursing anesthesia program ranks #1

Northeastern’s Nurse Anesthesia Program was ranked #1 in the nation by an organization that evaluates top masters-level nursing programs throughout the country. The award praised Northeastern’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and collaboration across professions in clinical settings. “Students get a lot of hands-on experiences. In fact, clinical work starts in the first year,” said topRNtoBSN in […]

June 4

A simple fix that could save lives in the ICU

In a hospital’s intensive care unit, every second counts, and mistakes can have serious consequences. Nurses need to administer life-saving medications quickly and accurately, and are frequently caring for multiple patients. Karen Giuliano, an associate professor in Northeastern’s school of nursing, has designed a simple device that will prevent IV lines from tangling and help nurses administer medications quickly and accurately.

June 4

Investigating suicides and murders: co-op with the coroner’s office is never routine

At parties, Justine Newman tells people about the time she had to dig up a human skeleton half-buried in mud by the side of the road. In less public situations, she talks about the deep satisfaction of “giving voice to people who can no longer speak for themselves.” While on co-op at the coroner’s office […]

June 4

‘It’s a chronic illness, rather than a moral failure’

June 4

Online psychology program ranked “most unique” in the nation

Northeastern’s master’s program Applied Behavioral Analysis was recently ranked among the top ABA programs in the country. It received special recognition as “most unique” based on its unusual blend of online academics and real-world professional experience. OnlineMasters.com praised the Bouvé program’s emphasis on “developing a professional portfolio” hands-on work experiences in agencies around the country. […]

June 4

Can this professor’s technology help create an army of efficient cancer killers?

Tali Konry wants to design a more effective serial killer. That may sound a little sketchy until you learn that Konry’s serial killers are immune cells, and their target is cancer. Konry, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences, is developing a technology that will address one of the most daunting challenges in cellular immunotherapy: the low […]

June 4

‘When situations like this happen, we need everybody to help’

June 4

Measles vaccines don’t just protect you, they protect everyone around you

June 4

Does having a gun at home really make you safer?

June 4

What if you had a medical emergency during physical therapy and your PT wasn’t trained to deal with it?

The ability to think fast, act decisively, and respond correctly in the face of ambiguous information are not the skills typically associated with physical therapists. But that needs to change, according to physical therapy professor Kristin Greenwood, who led a national task force that emphasized rapid clinical decision-making skills in PT education. As lead author […]

June 4

Advocating for those who are often left on the sidelines

Too often they are the forgotten population—which is why Bouvé Dean Susan Parish has dedicated her career to improving the lives of women and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In recognition of her decades of scholarly work, Parish was awarded the 2019 research award from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The […]

June 4

A passion for healthcare and a mind for business

When Kelly Szaniawski arrived at Northeastern in 2015, her plan was to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor. Her career path took an interesting turn the following year, when she joined Northeastern’s business professional fraternity and soon discovered that she wanted to approach healthcare from a different perspective. “I realized that I […]

June 4

A week in Ecuador that changes lives on two continents

In an orphanage perched on a hill high above Quito, Ecuador, a 4-year-old boy with cerebral palsy was trapped inside himself. He was non-verbal and had never walked. But that was about to change. The night before, a group of Northeastern students, led by physical therapy professor Lorna Hayward, arrived at the orphanage with a […]

June 4

She’s studying the detriments of digitally altered photos

June 4

To solve the opioid crisis, we need to think about it differently

June 4

Are middle men driving up the cost of prescription drugs?

June 4

‘Northeastern was a lifesaver for me’

In 1984, Milliardaire Syverain was in the midst of a grueling journey—one that looked like it wasn’t going to end well. Soon after arriving in this country from Haiti at age 19, his parents abandoned him. He was living in public housing at the foot of Mission Hill and his job prospects were bleak. That’s […]

June 4

Two Bouvé profs among top 1% of researchers worldwide

June 4

A potential game changer for families affected by autism

June 4

‘Don’t wait for the perfect time; you will be waiting forever.’

Like many healthcare professionals, Sean O’Neill never envisioned himself as an entrepreneur. After earning his PharmD at Bouvé in 2003, O’Neill was on a traditional career path for 13 years, first as an ICU pharmacist and then as the medication safety officer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I wasn’t looking for a new job; I […]

June 4

Troubled veterans favor voluntary gun control that could save their lives

Veterans are killing themselves at a rate of 17 suicides a day, and among those at greatest risk, there is little resistance to voluntary measures that would limit their access to guns. “In fact, most veterans—including veteran gun owners—welcome the discussion,” said health sciences professor Matthew Miller, co-author of a new study published in General […]

June 4

Is citizen science the key to environmental justice?

With the EPA under siege and industrial regulation in full retreat, the work of health science professor Sara Wylie has become more relevant than ever. Wylie, who has a joint appointment at Bouvé and the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, is a pioneer in the field of citizen science, a movement dedicated to empowering […]

June 4

Professor discovers a way to help premature infants thrive in the hospital

June 4

Looking where others have not

For decades, scientists have searched for a synthetic alternative to medical marijuana that can deliver its medicinal benefits without the harmful side effects. The problem is that the positives and negatives are tied together at the molecular level, and no one has found a way to separate them. Like a determined prospector, pharmacy professor Ganesh […]

June 4

How can a soap opera help fight AIDS?

When you imagine the latest weapon in the war against AIDS, the image that comes to mind isn’t likely to be a soap opera. But that’s exactly what nursing professor Rachel Jones has produced—and it works. Love, Sex, and Choices went live in November (watch here) after being tested among a group of 5,000 women, […]

June 4

Preparation and Recovery, Red Sox trainer talks about the 2018 World Series

It was one for the record books—the longest game in World Series history. Over the course of 18 innings, the Boston Red Sox and L.A. Dodgers waged an epic war of endurance in Game 3 that lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes—longer than the entire 1939 World Series. The two teams went through 18 pitchers […]

June 4

Undergraduate research changed their outlook on what a nursing career can be

During the second semester of their sophomore year, Rachel Solomon and Abigail Caron boarded a plane to Seattle, compliments of Northeastern’s School of Nursing. Their destination was the Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth, where they would present their research on the correlation between serious mental illness and readmissions to medical-surgical units. Their review of the […]

June 4

Why does this professor have 20 bulging suitcases piled in her room?

When Jamie McGloin, HS’20, walked into professor Vanessa Johnson’s room in Ghana, she was both proud and amazed. “It was like walking into a fort made of suitcases,” said McGloin, who was one of 23 students studying abroad with Johnson last summer as part of a month-long Dialogue of Civilizations course comparing the healthcare systems […]

June 4

Family history in her bones

June 4

A passion for bringing healthcare to the disenfranchised

The woman was living under a bridge in Lowell, Massachusetts, when nursing student Celsea Tibbitt first met her. She was selling sex, shooting up, eating poorly, estranged from her family, and terrified of the men who controlled her daily life. Tibbitt encountered the woman as a public health RN and case manager on the Bouvé […]

June 4

They fled from war and landed in a new form of hell

June 4

A new strategy for reducing opioid relapse

One of the biggest challenges in our nation’s escalating opioid epidemic is the high risk of relapse. Barbara Waszczak, Professor, School of Pharmacy Nearly 60 percent of the opioid users who seek treatment use the drug again, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This is due, at least in part, to changes in the […]

June 4

An unexpected detour

Health Science alum takes an abrupt turn into the world of health technology. As an undergraduate health science major at Bouvé, Binja Basimike thought she would pursue a PhD in international nutrition and follow in the humanitarian footsteps of her globe-trotting father, a malaria expert who works for the World Health Organization. But while earning […]

June 4

Physical therapy grad spotted a need, then invented the solution

Haley Waud’s eureka moment came four years after she completed her doctorate in physical therapy at Bouvé. Waud was working with an elderly patient in San Antonio, Texas, when she noticed that the woman’s hips kept getting too far away from her walker, forcing her to slouch over to reach it in an unhealthy manner. […]

June 4

Students bring healthcare to patients who walk miles for medicine

June 4

Do more guns lead to more fatal police shootings?

June 4

Pharmacy grad’s knack for science communication leads to unusual career path

After earning two graduate degrees at the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Abhijit Kulkarni was on track for a promising career as a laboratory scientist. But something happened on the way to that ambition: He discovered a rare talent for translating complex scientific concepts into ordinary language—a talent that led him to an unusual and deeply […]

June 4

No benefit seen from antipsychotics used in delirious hospital patients

June 4

Clearing up misconceptions about gun violence could make suicide attempts less deadly

June 4

This is where health care innovation begins

Danny Jooyoung Kim stumbled into the world of entrepreneurship during his first week in Bouvé’s Doctor of Pharmacy program. On his way to a dinner date, he took a “wrong turn” into a lecture and became so absorbed that he texted the young woman to cancel. Needless to say, the budding romance died with the […]

June 4

Student publishes in medical journal as an undergraduate

Patrick Sheedy plans to go to medical school, and his co-op experience is likely to give him a leg up in that ambition. As a result of his co-op at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, he will be first author on a paper about to be published by the American Journal of Cancer Research. […]