As the new administration considers the future direction of the Food and Drug Administration, a group of leading researchers has created a Blueprint for Transparency at the agency to advance the development of safe and effective new products.
In a Viewpoint published this week in JAMA Surgery, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, argue for more research on firearm injury, including the establishment of a national database on incidents of gun violence. The authors point to recent research showing that in Philadelphia, gun murders and injuries are much more strongly associated with race than neighborhood income levels.
By the end of the third and final year of residency, evaluations of female physicians placed them three to four months behind male colleagues in the same training program. Male residents, on average, received higher evaluations on all 23 training categories. The gap emerged early in the second year of training and steadily widened until graduation.
Scalp cooling can lessen some chemotherapy-induced hair loss – one of the most devastating hallmarks of cancer – in certain breast cancer patients, according to a new multicenter study from UC San Francisco, Weill Cornell Medicine and three other medical centers. A majority of the study’s patients, all women with stage 1 or 2 breast cancer who underwent scalp cooling, retained more than half of their hair after completing chemotherapy, the investigators learned.
A UAB study shows children receiving early preventive dental care from a dentist had more frequent tooth decay-related treatment, a higher rate of visits and higher annual dental expenditures.
Since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, which provided access to health insurance to millions of previously uninsured adults in the United States, the availability of appointments with primary care physicians has improved for patients with Medicaid and remains unchanged for patients with private coverage, according to new research led by the Perelman School of Medicine and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, which compared new patient appointment availability in 10 states between 2012/13 (before the Affordable Care Act came into effect) and 2016, is published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The implementation of state laws legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with a significant reduction in the rate of suicide attempts among high school students – and an even greater reduction among gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.
Recording and analyzing patient and family reports about rude and disrespectful behavior can identify surgeons with higher rates of surgical site infections and other avoidable adverse outcomes, according to a study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) investigators in collaboration with six other major academic health systems.
The number of older Americans who take three or more medicines that affect their brains has more than doubled in just a decade, a new study finds. The sharpest rise occurred in seniors living in rural areas.
“Every cancer diagnosis should come with a referral to genetic counseling,” says cancer expert Dr. Antonio Giordano, President of the Sbarro Health Research Organization at Temple University.
Over the past two decades there has been a sharp rise in the number and severity of infections caused by the bacteria Clostridium difficile often shortened to C. diff now the most common hospital acquired infection in the United States. But a new study suggests that the most routinely prescribed antibiotic is not the best treatment for severe cases. Scientists at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and University of Utah School of Medicine report that patients with a severe C. diff infection (CDI) were less likely to die when treated with the antibiotic vancomycin compared to the standard treatment of metronidazole.
After a decade of using a novel approach to select patients for laryngeal cancer treatment, researchers are reporting "exceptional" survival rates nearing 80 percent, even for the most advanced patients.
A nationwide cancer registry of almost one million patients treated for hormone-sensitive breast cancer shows that one out of six women who should have received post-surgical treatment known as adjuvant endocrine therapy did not get this recommended component of care, which can reduce the odds of recurrence.
Frequent soccer ball heading is a common and under recognized cause of concussion symptoms, according to a study of amateur players led by Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers. The findings run counter to earlier soccer studies suggesting concussion injuries mainly result from inadvertent head impacts, such as collisions with other players or a goalpost. The study was published online today in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
PHOENIX – Mayo Clinic researchers have found that engaging in mentally stimulating activities, even late in life, may protect against new-onset mild cognitive impairment, which is the intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and dementia. The study found that cognitively normal people 70 or older who engaged in computer use, craft activities, social activities and playing games had a decreased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment. The results are published in the Jan. 30 edition of JAMA Neurology.
Young and middle-aged patients with colon cancer are nearly two to eight times more likely to receive postoperative chemotherapy than older patients, yet there seems to be no added survival benefits for these patients, according to a study published today in JAMA Surgery by researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU).
Quick digital surveys before eye health appointments could help clinicians target care and improve record keeping, a Michigan Medicine study finds.
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute led a study that provides some of the strongest evidence to date that microorganisms living in the large intestine can serve as a link between diet and certain types of colorectal cancer.
It sounds simple and harmless—an electronic sensor attached to a baby’s sock that monitors vital signs and alerts parents on their smart phones if, for instance, an infant’s oxygen saturation level drops. But pediatric experts argue that such devices may cause undue alarm to parents, with no evidence of medical benefits, especially to healthy babies.
Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are tumors that arise is the wall of the digestive tract, and most often occur in the stomach or small intestine. Though more common in later in life, GISTs can occur in adolescents and young adults (AYA) under 40 years old as well. Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine report findings from the first population-based analysis of AYA patients with GIST.
When hospitalised, people can become acutely confused and disorientated. This condition, known as delirium, affects a quarter of older patients and new research by UCL and the University of Cambridge shows it may have long-lasting consequences, including accelerating the dementia process.
The average anesthesiologist, emergency physician, pathologist and radiologist charge more than four times what Medicare pays for similar services, often leaving privately-insured consumers stuck with surprise medical bills that are much higher than they anticipated, new research in JAMA suggests.
For tens of millions of Americans, the start of a new year means the counter has gone back to zero on their health insurance deductible. If they need health care, they’ll pay for some of it out of their own pockets before their insurance takes over. As insurance plans with deductibles grow in popularity, a new study takes a national look at what those plans mean for people with common chronic health conditions.
U.S. hospitals are reducing bloodstream infections related to catheters by implementing rigorous safeguards that also save millions of healthcare dollars each year, according to research led by Cedars-Sinai.
Anticoagulant therapy is important for stroke prevention in people with atrial fibrillation, but a new study shows many people don’t stick with it.
Researchers have found that people with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and the KRAS-variant inherited genetic mutation have significantly improved survival when given a short course of the drug cetuximab in combination with standard chemotherapy and radiation.
A new Northwestern Medicine study offers a bleak assessment in a rare look at the outcomes of delinquent youth five and 12 years after juvenile detention. Central to poor outcomes for the youth post detention are stark and persistent racial, ethnic and gender disparities, according to the massive study that began in the mid-1990s.
Nearly half of early stage breast cancer patients considered having double mastectomy and one in six received it – including many who were at low risk of developing a second breast cancer, a new study finds.
Online platforms that allow users to read and write reviews of businesses and services afford health care providers an opportunity to learn by listening, Penn Medicine physicians say in a new Viewpoint published today in JAMA. The authors point to a growing body of literature supporting the value of unstructured reviews in supplementing ratings from formal sources such as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Heathcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). They call on hospital leaders to pay attention to online reviews to show current and prospective patients that they are being heard.
A pilot study demonstrated that with the implementation of a “local” learning health system, clinical quality can be improved while reducing health care costs. A group of 131 children treated through our Cerebral Palsy Program during the 12-month study period experienced a 43 percent reduction in total inpatient days; a 27 percent reduction in inpatient admissions; a 30 percent reduction in emergency department visits; and a 29 percent reduction in urgent care visits. LFEP Program implementation resulted in reductions in health care costs of $1.36 million. Introducing electronic health record-supported care that integrated clinical care, quality improvement and distinct, clinician-driven research resulted in large reductions in health care utilization, greatly reduced healthcare charges and improved care coordination.
Results of the largest Canadian clinical trial to date comparing standard treatment for locally advanced squamous cell head and neck cancer with an experimental treatment, did not show the new treatment is superior.
Paleontologists at the University of Washington report that an extinct mammal relative harbored a benign tumor made up of miniature, tooth-like structures. The tumor, a compound odontoma, is common to mammals today. But this animal lived 255 million years ago, before mammals even existed.
Writing in JAMA, medical ethics Matthew DeCamp, MD PhD, and Kevin Riggs, MD, MPH, call for an “unwavering focus on the primacy of patient welfare,” in integrating the concept of high-value care (HVC) in medical education curricula.
An online program designed to help people overcome insomnia significantly improves both the amount and quality of sleep, a new study has found. The study is the first to look closely at the effects of the Sleep Healthy Using the Internet (SHUTi) program on people with health conditions that could be affecting their sleep.
In a small study of young or recently retired NFL players, researchers at Johns Hopkins report finding evidence of brain injury and repair that is visible on imaging from the players compared to a control group of men without a history of concussion.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have conducted the first study of its kind, using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to look at brain regions in both adults and children who stutter.
Beneficiaries of Medicare who develop cancer and don’t have supplemental health insurance incur out-of-pocket expenditures for their treatments averaging one-quarter of their income with some paying as high as 63 percent, according to results of a survey-based study published Nov. 23 in JAMA Oncology.
Although both group and individual therapy can ease post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in active-duty military service members, individual therapy relieved PTSD symptoms better and quicker, according to a study led by a Duke University School of Medicine researcher. The randomized clinical trial is the largest to date to examine an evidence-based treatment for active-duty military service members, with 268 participants from the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Findings will be published Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.
People living with serious illness who receive palliative care have better quality of life.
Only a minority of medical studies take sex and gender into account when analyzing and reporting research results. Dr. Cara Tannenbaum (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) and Dr. Janine Austin Clayton, (National Institutes of Health, USA), have written a Viewpoint article published in JAMA highlighting the problem.
In a hopeful sign for the health of the nation’s brains, the percentage of American seniors with dementia is dropping, a new study finds. The downward trend has emerged despite something else the study shows: a rising tide of three factors that are thought to raise dementia risk by interfering with brain blood flow, namely diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
Children who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting are more likely to survive, and to have better neurological outcomes, when they receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Researchers studying a large U.S. registry of cardiac arrests compared outcomes for two bystander resuscitation techniques, and also recommend improving provision of bystander CPR in minority communities to improve outcomes in children.
According to a recent study published in JAMA Neurology, Northwestern Medicine scientists have examined more than a century of data of the genetic makeup of ataxias, a neurodegenerative disorder, to better understand the different forms of this devastating disease and how it affects patients. This research has the potential for scientists to have a better understanding on how to diagnose and treat the disease, which has no known cure for patients suffering from the condition.
Roughly 30,000 sports-related eye injuries serious enough to end in a visit to the emergency room occur each year in the United States, and the majority happen to those under the age of 18, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research suggests.
When the USPSTF recommended against prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer in 2012, researchers began studying what effect this would have on diagnosing and treating prostate cancer.
While schizophrenia is best known for episodes of psychosis – a break with reality during which an individual may experience delusions and hallucinations – it is also marked by chronic neurocognitive deficits, such as problems with memory and attention. A multi-site cognition study led by psychologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) found that these neurocognitive symptoms are evident prior to the onset of psychosis in a high-risk stage of the disorder called the prodromal phase. The findings suggest that these impairments may serve as early warning signs of schizophrenia, as well as potential targets for intervention that could mitigate the onset of the psychotic disorder and significantly improve cognitive function.
A Cardiff University study has found that children using screen-based media devices at bedtime have over double the risk of inadequate sleep duration compared to children without access to such a device.
In the past decade, ophthalmologists have been prescribing nutritional supplements to be taken daily to prevent or slow vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Now, using nutritional supplements for eye health has become more common. But does increasing the recommended dose increase your protection? A case report appearing online in JAMA Ophthalmology from the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah reveals what can happen when a patient takes more of a supplement than their body needs.
A new analysis suggests that Medicare should focus more on how well hospitals do at actually keeping patients alive during the first 30 days after a hospitalization, in addition to how well they do at keeping patients from being readmitted..
Pregnancy was not found to raise the risk of stroke in older women, but the risk was significantly higher in young women, according to a study from Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian.
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