Journal Club 2025-2026

The Boston MCRC Methodology Journal Club meets on the 1st Wednesday of each month, from 12:15pm to 1pm.

Please contact mcrc@bu.edu if you’re interested in registering
Date Article Title Presenter Teaching Points
9/3/2025 PodGPT: an audio augmented large language model for research and education Vijaya Kolachalama, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
10/1/2025 High tibial osteotomy for medial compartment knee osteoarthritis David Felson MD, MPH
Professor, Rheumatology
Trevor Birmingham, PhD
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
  • Varus malalignment is common among persons with knee OA and it increases load across the medial knee compartment, the most affected compartment.
  • Various nonsurgical attempts to realign the knee such as knee braces and modified shoes have not been successful in reducing pain substantially. Their treatment effects are small. Major load reducing surgeries have not been examined in RCTs. The trial discussed tested whether cartilage loss was reduced in knees of patients undergoing high tibial osteotomy. The trial showed that this operation both slowed cartilage loss and substantially reduced pain.
  • Trials testing the efficacy of surgical treatments need to achieve a large effect size compared with nonsurgical treatments and therefore the needed sample size is often more modest than trials of nonsurgical treatments.
11/5/2025 Andrew Stokes, PhD
Associate Professor
12/3/2025 Maggie Westerland, MA
Biostatistician I
1/7/2026 Roberta Irvin, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
2/4/2026 Jean Liew, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
3/4/2026 Michael LaValley, PhD
Professor
4/1/2026 Michelle Yau, PhD, MPH
Visiting researcher
5/6/2026 Gillian Fennell, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
6/3/2026 Hung Vo, MD
Instructor, Rheumatology