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UMass Memorial Health of Worcester announced on Tuesday it helped create a new TeamBirth partnership with Wellesley insurer Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Boston health center Ariadne Labs to launch a new initiative at the UMass hospitals in Leominster and Worcester, aimed at improving maternal health and birth outcomes.

The TeamBirth process will initially launch in May at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital in Leominster and UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The results of this effort will be used to establish a standard of care for all of New England.

 Julian, along with 24 other babies, set a new record last week at UMass Memorial Medical Center - Memorial Campus. 

From 3:50 p.m. Wednesday to 3:50 p.m. Thursday, 14 boys and 11 girls were born in the Maternity Center at UMass Memorial, surpassing the typical number of babies — 12 — they deliver in a day.

UMass Memorial Health, the largest healthcare provider in Central Massachusetts, on Friday confirmed it is starting its own health insurance division.

The insurance company -- called Central Mass Health LLC -- will be organized under the UMass Memorial Health Ventures umbrella, which is for all the non-hospital aspects of the UMass Memorial system.

The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission will not conduct a detailed review of market costs for a proposed merger between UMass Memorial Health and Harrington Hospital, based on preliminary findings the deal isn't likely to lead to additional costs for patients.

For intensive care nurse Elizabeth Phelan, and others at UMass Memorial Health Care, its one day at a time right now.

“We keep telling ourselves this is not how it’s going to be forever, this will all end eventually, and we will get back to normal eventually, we just have to take it day by day,” said Phelan.

In response to the fighting spirit of health care employees like Phelan, more than 30 cities and towns joined forces to help with the tough days in a massive show of support.

Childhood obesity has increased seriously in the last decade and has reached crisis levels, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Approximately 12.7 million, or 17 percent, of children and adolescents are obese. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise, notes the group. The disorder is also one of the easiest to recognize, yet most difficult to treat, according to AACAP.

As a military veteran, it may be a natural comparison for Dr. Eric Dickson to make a war analogy to the coronavirus pandemic he, UMass Memorial Health Care, and the entire Central Massachusetts region are starting to emerge from after a nearly year-long fight.

“We’re approaching V-Day,” Dickson said, referring to the day World War II ended. “We’re feeling that the end of this is near.” 

There was a time when it was possible for the average resident to not know anyone who died from, or even came down with, the COVID-19 virus. 

Not anymore. Few of us remain who don't know someone who simply had to isolate for a few weeks with mild symptoms, or someone who spent time in the hospital, or someone who had it with no symptoms at all. Or someone who died. A grandparent. A cousin. An in-law. 

It was a press briefing a year ago on Sunday which started it all.

In an interview March 14, 2020, City Manager Ed Augustus said, "Things are literally changing by the hour. We're continuing to monitor those situations, guidance from the state and federal government, as well as folks who are being tested."

The City had just confirmed it's first case of coronavirus. Thousands would follow in Worcester, millions worldwide.