Health Care

UMass Chan Medical School has begun construction on the foundation for its nine-story education and research building in Worcester, about five months behind its original schedule.

Eleven Central Massachusetts communities are receiving a portion of the 2.1-million at-home COVID tests set to be distributed by the Gov. Charlie Baker administration, per a Monday announcement.

The healthcare system is in a moment of transition, according to panelists and speakers at WBJ’s annual Health Care Forum.

Baker said his administration is also working with manufacturers on a "bulk, cheap purchasing deal" that would allow municipalities to purchase tests by January at a fixed, state-negotiated price for distribution to residents.

The state's steps to combat the overdose epidemic include funding for 38 syringe service programs, 33 overdose education and naloxone-distribution sites and plans to create a temporary housing "cottage community" on the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital campus for people living in encampments at Boston's "Mass. and Cass" intersection, a top addiction services official told the Public Health Council.

Marlborough medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific Corp. announced on Thursday it is launching a clinical trial of its mCRM Modular Therapy System.

UMass Chan Medical School announced on Monday cancer biologist William Flavahan received a four-year, $600,000 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Sontag Foundation: Brain Cancer Research Foundation.

UMass Memorial Health in Worcester is activating its surge plans immediately across its entire network as a result of an ongoing COVID-19 case spike and an ongoing bed shortage.

Westborough medical technology firm Miach Orthopaedics, Inc. announced Wednesday it has successfully made its breakthrough ACL-healing technology commercially available in select cities around the United States.

State officials are eyeing ways to add COVID-19 testing capacity in Massachusetts and could make an announcement as to those efforts in the next few days.