{"id":83541,"date":"2020-04-30T10:46:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T14:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=83541"},"modified":"2020-04-30T10:46:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T14:46:49","slug":"how-one-infectious-disease-expert-researches-coronavirus-while-treating-patients-who-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2020\/04\/30\/how-one-infectious-disease-expert-researches-coronavirus-while-treating-patients-who-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How One Infectious Disease Expert Researches Coronavirus While Treating Patients Who Have It"},"content":{"rendered":"

BU physician-scientist Joshua Barocas works on the front lines of the pandemic at Boston Medical Center<\/h4>\n
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After treating coronavirus patients, Joshua Barocas removes his shoes, and sometimes his clothes, before entering his home to protect his family. Photos courtesy of Joshua Barocas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Joshua Barocas<\/a> has what he calls a \u201cdad decontamination protocol,\u201d essential for a family man who cannot take his work home from the office: as a physician-scientist working at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center (BMC), he both researches the novel coronavirus in the lab and treats patients infected with it in the clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have two little kids and a spouse,\u201d says Barocas, an assistant professor at the School of Medicine, whose teaching hospital is BMC. \u201cWe have a dad decontamination protocol that involves taking off my shoes before coming in the house. If I\u2019ve been in the hospital, then I take off my clothes before I come into the house and wash up before I do anything active with the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joshua Barocas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To date, the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 infections has been detected in more than 58,000 people and killed more than 3,000 in Massachusetts. Barocas coleads an interdisciplinary infectious diseases research project, predating the pandemic, that\u2019s now studying the coronavirus\u2019 effects on some of the most vulnerable patients\u2014those with substance abuse and other underlying disorders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe estimate that about 4.6 percent, if not more\u2014probably nearing 5 or 6 percent\u2014of the population of Massachusetts has opioid use disorders,\u201d Barocas says. BMC, as Boston\u2019s safety net hospital for disadvantaged patients, sees a lot of people with opioid use disorders, \u201cworking literally around the clock,\u201d he says, a circumstance that preceded the current surge of COVID-19 patients flooding state hospitals. No hospital is harder-hit than BMC, which recently saw 70 percent of all admitted patients<\/a> ill with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Barocas spoke with The Brink<\/em> about his research and how it\u2019s informed by his frontline work treating patients.<\/p>\n

Read the Q&A on The Brink<\/em><\/a>. Story written by Rich Barlow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BU physician-scientist Joshua Barocas works on the front lines of the pandemic at Boston Medical Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[254,91,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83548,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83541\/revisions\/83548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}