WHERE EXTRAORDINARY CARES
CANCER CENTER
One in three people will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. The Cancer Center’s clinical and research efforts are seamlessly integrated to dramatically enhance care for this devastating disease. Patients who visit our multidisciplinary clinics have access to leading specialists—including breast, pancreatic, prostate, and blood cancer experts who are among the best in the world—as well as pioneering science to make treatments more targeted and effective.
Cancer Center researchers are working to perfect the concept of personalized medicine, in which the molecular analysis of individual tumors informs treatment, maximizing benefit and reducing side effects. By incorporating a variety of novel biomedical platforms and technologies into our patients’ treatment plans, they have created a groundbreaking ultraprecision medicine model that is not only more customized but also more dynamic, allowing our clinicians to adjust therapies in real time based on individual response.
CENTER FOR BRAIN HEALTH
BIDMC’s Center for Brain Health is a leader in the development and application of a variety of radical, yet promising, approaches in neuroscience—ranging from cognitive training to noninvasive stimulation to the implantation of engineered genes—to confront the full range of brain disorders. Building on the transformative concept of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt throughout a lifetime—these approaches do not simply mask the symptoms of neurological disease or aging, but actually change the brain and alter its long-term function.
The Center for Brain Health is exploring these revolutionary techniques in concert with our renowned clinical care programs in areas like epilepsy, cognitive and movement disorders, and stroke, and our innovative wellness offerings such as mind-body exercise classes and more. Our goals are both to restore brain function impaired by disease or injury, as well as prevent the no-longer-inevitable consequences of aging on the brain and nervous system.
DIGESTIVE DISEASE CENTER
BIDMC’s Digestive Disease Center is one of the nation’s leading programs focused on delivering excellent patient care and conducting groundbreaking translational research related to disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, and biliary system. The center is made up of a range of premier specialty practices and services that are committed to providing optimal experiences and outcomes for our patients. These nationally recognized programs include our Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, which provides comprehensive care to patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease; our Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Motility Center, which applies a multifaceted treatment approach to IBS; our Liver Center, which develops and provides novel therapies for viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and advanced liver disease; and our Pancreas Institute, which offers personalized care for patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis and has one of the first dedicated inpatient pancreatitis services in New England.
The Digestive Disease Center aims to augment and enhance these signature programs, particularly our Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center and our Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Motility Center. We also plan to expand our efforts specifically in women’s gastrointestinal health, gastrointestinal wellness, and nutrition. In addition, we need support to retain and recruit top leadership, to advance fellowships and other educational programs, and to bolster our translational research.
CARDIOVASCULAR INSTITUTE
Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., our CardioVascular Institute (CVI) has long been a powerful force in transforming the diagnosis and treatment of a wide spectrum of heart and blood vessel conditions. Our clinical experts provide patients with a full range of open and minimally invasive procedures and sophisticated therapies to preserve and improve heart health—all while maintaining an impressive quality and safety record. Our cardiac and vascular surgery programs lead the nation in low mortality rates, and our cardiac bypass program is the largest in the region.
The CVI is also focused on ensuring that advances in treatment are informed by rigorous science. At our Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology, physician–scientists are investigating the safety, benefit, and ethical and policy implications of new therapies and technologies to determine the best options for each individual. We are also currently developing an innovative program in the emerging field of cardiometabolics that will use novel tools and metabolic profiling to establish predictive models for identifying those at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
HEALTHCARE INNOVATION
Based in Boston, the epicenter of healthcare innovation, BIDMC is uniquely positioned to play a vital role in the design of future healthcare delivery systems and technologies. Our clinicians continuously strive to make healthcare safer, more integrated, and more cost-effective by evaluating and testing new tools and processes, as well as creating replicable models that can be taught and disseminated easily. Building on our unrivaled history of advancing patient-centered initiatives and ideas, the medical center has a wide range of core competencies—including leadership and original thinking in healthcare quality and safety, clinical information science and technology, and medical research and education—that allow us to be a driver of change.
Among our many pioneering efforts in healthcare, our Health Technology Exploration Center (HTEC) is an initiative dedicated to expanding the application of our expertise in clinical information technology to some of the nation’s and the world’s most relevant and challenging healthcare problems. This prominent, system-wide center will extend BIDMC’s international reach through formalized affiliations and technological advances that will be used to transform the medical landscape, making care more efficient, accessible, and integrated. HTEC experts will rapidly evaluate and develop emerging high-risk, high-reward technologies to bring innovation to the medical center and disseminate advances to partners around the country and across the globe.