Posts by Kimberly G. Blumenthal, MD, MSc
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Most Prior Drug Allergies Can Be Disproved in Older Adults
John J.O. Accarino, MD, Kimberly G. Blumenthal, MD, MSc, and colleagues in a multicenter registry study found most prior drug allergies reported by adults ages 65 and older were disproved on evaluation in allergy–immunology clinics, including 97% of allergies to penicillin and 95% of allergies to other antibiotics.
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Novel Schema Classifies Allergy-related Safety Events in Healthcare Settings
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed 299,031 safety reports and identified 744 allergy-related safety events they used to create a novel allergy safety event classification schema. With further development, it could be used to reduce patient exposure to known allergens in healthcare settings.
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Hospitalized Pneumonia Patients Who Have Unconfirmed Penicillin/Cephalosporin Allergy Likely to Receive Suboptimal Treatment
Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, and colleagues found that inpatients with pneumonia who have an allergy to penicillin or cephalosporin recorded in their charts were less likely to receive a guideline-indicated beta-lactam antibiotic than those without it noted.
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Severe Allergic Reactions Are Rare with COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines
A prospective study of employee mRNA COVID-19 vaccination at Mass General Brigham linked self-reported history of high-risk allergy to increased risk of self-reported allergic reactions, but only 0.3% of employees had severe reactions and the vast majority completed the two-dose series.
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Data Reveal Risks of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Allergic Reactions
New data on vaccinations among employees at Mass General Brigham has alleviated some concern about the safety of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.
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Asthma Not Associated with Poorer Outcomes in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers found that inpatients with COVID-19 who had asthma were less likely than COVID-19 inpatients without asthma to require ICU admission or mechanical ventilation and were not at increased risk of death.
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What Physicians Should Know About COVID-19 Vaccine Allergy: Q&A with Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc
In this Q&A, Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, explains what may cause an allergic reaction to the vaccine, what makes someone higher risk for an adverse event, and what doctors can do to help patients understand and manage the risk.
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Clinical Decision Support to Challenge Penicillin Allergy
A Massachusetts General Hospital allergist is developing a clinical decision support algorithm to safely challenge and confirm documented penicillin allergy.
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Suboptimal Antibiotic Prescribing May Be Common for Patients with Documented Penicillin Allergy
In a nationwide study, 16% of inpatients that had a penicillin allergy noted on their medical record—not necessarily confirmed by formal testing— were at high risk of receiving a β-lactam alternative antibiotic.
Biography
Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, is an allergist/immunologist and drug allergy researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the co-director of the Clinical Epidemiology Program within the Division of Rheumatology Allergy and Immunology and director of research for the Drug and Vaccine Allergy Center. Dr. Blumenthal performs drug allergy research that uses methods of epidemiology, informatics, economics and decision science. Her research is funded by the NIH/NIAID, AHRQ and foundations, including the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Foundation and CRICO, the risk management foundation. Dr. Blumenthal is recognized nationally for having identified the morbidity and mortality associated with unverified penicillin allergy labels and creating innovative approaches to the evaluation of penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotic allergies in the hospital setting. Dr. Blumenthal has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications including manuscripts published in high-impact journals such as Lancet, JAMA, and the BMJ.
Dr. Blumenthal graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Economics. She studied medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, before training at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology. She completed a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2017.
Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology
The Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital provides leading-edge treatment and transformative care to patients with rheumatic disease and autoimmune conditions.