Health Matters

RELAXED ATMOSPHERE: Paul Byrne, the general manager of Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, inside the sensory room at the stadium, available for attendees who feel overwhelmed by the noises and large crowds. The stadium is one of only three sports venues in New England with such a feature.  PBN PHOTO/JAMES BESSETTE

Stadium has special place for sensory-sensitive fans

Health Matters 06/20/2025

Amid the cheering, chants, drumming and pyrotechnics during a Rhode Island FC soccer match, a small room located on Centreville Bank Stadium’s south end...

A CLOSE LOOK: Carolina Carrillo, a Warren Alpert Medical School student, conducts a health examination of a Calcutt Middle School student at the SMART Plus clinic at Calcutt in Central Falls. Medical students also serve as mentors for middle schoolers interested in the field of health care.  COURTESY WARREN ALPERT MEDICAL SCHOOL

At this school clinic, students get checkups, then career mentoring

Health Matters 05/23/2025

As Rhode Island continues to face a shortage of health care workers, a first-of-its-kind program using students from Brown University’s medical school is attempting...

HEAVY METAL: Gregory Mercurio, senior vice president of radiation oncology for American Shared Hospital Services and CEO of Precision Radiation Oncology of Rhode Island, stands in front of a cyclotron, which generates particles that create the protons used in proton beam radiation therapy for cancer patients. The cyclotron must be surrounded by a vault, which together weigh 230,000 pounds. COURTESY GREGORY MERCURIO

Proton radiation therapy center expects to boost cancer care in Rhode...

Health Matters 04/25/2025

Dr. David Wazer has sent hundreds of cancer patients to Boston because the treatment they needed didn’t exist in Rhode Island. Brown University Health, where...

HOUSE CALL: Dr. Tyler Weisberger, left, who works for Kent County Memorial Hospital’s Hospital at Home program, examines Doris Witt at her Warwick home. Witt was admitted to Kent in early March after experiencing symptoms from her congestive heart failure. The Hospital at Home program allowed her to be discharged early but still receive hospital-level care.  COURTESY CARE NEW ENGLAND HEALTH SYSTEM

Hospitals see benefits to bringing care home

Health Matters 03/28/2025

When 90-year-old Doris Witt was taken to the hospital a few weeks ago because she was having trouble breathing, the elderly Warwick resident wasn’t...

PRE-OP PREP: Dr. Clark Chen, left, director of the brain tumor program at Rhode Island Hospital, and Dr. Joshua Feler, a medical resident, prepare the GammaTile implants – the small white squares – for a recent procedure.  COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY HEALTH

Tiny brain implants aim potent radiation at tumors

Health Matters 02/28/2025

When Arnaldo Dacruz was diagnosed with brain cancer, he and his wife, Dorothy, were blindsided. Now they have hope with the help of a treatment...

NEW OPTION: Kent Hospital surgical team members assist Dr. Brian Temple, second from left in the background, as he performs a DIEP flap procedure as part of breast reconstruction surgery for a mastectomy patient. COURTESY CARE NEW ENGLAND HEALTH SYSTEM

Complex breast reconstruction procedure requires microsurgeon with ‘extreme’ talent

Health Matters 01/17/2025

Patients who will undergo mastectomies as part of breast cancer treatment now have a new option for natural breast reconstruction in Rhode Island. Care New...

A BETTER WAY? Derek Stein, a Brown University physics professor and researcher, examines equipment that is used in a new mass spectrometry technique that makes the analysis of materials much more accurate and efficient. The technique developed at Brown could have far-reaching implications, including in areas of health care.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

New Brown research on mass spectrometry could transform sample analysis

Health Matters 12/20/2024

After 10 years of trial and error, Brown University researchers have discovered a method to dramatically improve mass spectrometry technology, a development that could...

VISITING DAY: Interaction with pets is part of the Memory Cafe at the Wingate Residences on the East Side in Providence. The cafe, a kind of social group offered to those facing dementia, restarted in October for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.  PBN PHOTO/ARTISTIC IMAGES

In-person memory cafes return with help from assisted living communities

Health Matters 11/22/2024

Laurie Gunter Mantz tried hosting memory cafes over Zoom for months. But it just wasn’t working. Memory cafes are gatherings meant to provide those living...

POWER OF THE PEN: Gov. Daniel J. McKee, sitting, signs Rhode Island’s “shield law” that protects health care providers who provide reproductive and transgender care to patients from states where those services are illegal. The signing took place in June and was attended by health care professionals and state legislators.  COURTESY RHODE ISLAND MEDICAL SOCIETY

R.I.’s new ‘shield law’ protecting providers of abortions, gender-affirming care

Health Matters 10/25/2024

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, some health care providers have...