Research Drives Discovery

Among U.S. teens and young adults, firearm violence accounts for about 65,000 emergency department visits annually, and 60% of all firearm deaths in this age group are the result of interpersonal violence.

In this episode, Lauren & Matt speak with Neguine Rezaii, MD, an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a Board-Certified Neuropsychiatrist at Mass General Hospital. Dr. Rezaii’s research focuses on using natural language processing and artificial intelligence to improve the detection and classification of neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Rezaii talks about her recent study, “Voiceprints of Cognitive Impairment: Analyzing Digital Voice for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias,” which explores how artificial intelligence can analyze short speech samples to identify subtle signs of cognitive impairment. The study used speech recordings from 120 individuals and found that features such as pauses, word choice and the specificity of language can help distinguish cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. The conversation also explores how a simple 30-second speech test could potentially be used in clinical settings to support earlier detection and monitoring of cognitive impairment, as well as the challenges and ethical considerations that come with using AI to analyze something as personal as a person’s voice.

For many people living with chronic conditions like systemic sclerosis, pain can be persistent, unpredictable, and difficult to manage leading to a strong impact on a patient’s mental health.

Several cores within the Biomedical Research Core Facilities (BRCF) will be closed or have adjusted hours for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27) and Winter Break (Friday, December 25 - Friday, January 1).

Urinary catheters used by hospitals can lead to UTIs, bladder infections and bloodstream infections, yet hospital infection prevention efforts lag even after 20 years of effort.

Well-designed alerts for critically ill cardiac patients can change what happens at the bedside, according to new Michigan Medicine research.