Mon, Apr 10 – Top 10 Medical News Stories

Links = Interest ≠ Endorsement

1 – Hypertension Canada’s 2017 Guidelines for Diagnosis, Risk Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment of Hypertension in Adults (free)

2 – Surgical or Transcatheter Aortic-Valve Replacement in Intermediate-Risk Patients – New England Journal of Medicine (link to abstract – $ required for full text)

Quick Take Video Summary: SURTAVI Study: TAVR versus Open Surgery (free)

See this and other highlights from the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session (some articles are no longer free)

This innovative technology seems to be useful for patients with aortic stenosis at high risk for surgery. In this new study, it was noninferior to surgery at 2 years of follow-up in old patients (averaged nearly 80 years) at intermediate risk. Longer follow up data will be important to see if it is a suitable alternative for younger patients.

3 – The cross-cutting contribution of the end of neglected tropical diseases to the sustainable development goals – Infectious Diseases of Poverty (free) (RT @ghn_news see Tweet)

Related commentary from the author: Impact beyond the neglected (free)

See also: United Nations – Sustainable Development Goals

This review examines how the interventions being used against neglected tropical diseases are contributing to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

4 – The World Health Organization Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5 – JAMA Psychiatry (free)

Invited commentary: Good News for Screening for Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder – JAMA Psychiatry (free)

See also: Do You Zone Out? Procrastinate? Might Be Adult ADHD – NPR Health News (free)

Others disagree… call it “disease mongering”, “overdiagnosis”. For example, Prof Allen Francis, author of Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life, wrote some remarks about the study, see Tweet 1, Tweet 2 and Tweet 3

See also: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder – The New York Times (10 articles per month are free)

5 – F.D.A. Will Allow 23andMe to Sell Genetic Tests for Disease Risk to Consumers – The New York Times (10 articles per month are free)

See also: Before you send your spit to 23andMe, what you need to know – STAT News (free) AND 23andMe given green light to sell DNA tests for 10 diseases – Nature News (free) AND 23andMe Rides Again: FDA Clears Genetic Tests To Predict Disease Risk – Forbes (free) AND Too Much Information? FDA Clears 23AndMe to Sell Home Genetic Tests for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – Scientific American (free)

“The controversial step will significantly expand direct-to-consumer testing – but what if the news is bad?” (from Scientific American above)

6 – TV. How much is too much for our kids? – World Economic Forum (free)

Original Article Abstract ($ required for full-text): Family Socioeconomic Status Moderates Associations Between Television Viewing and School Readiness Skills – Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics

See also: Media and Young Minds – Recommendations from The American Academy of Pediatrics (free) AND Pediatricians relax guidelines on screen time for kids to give more flexibility – STAT News (free)

7 – No TV during meals may lower obesity risk – Medical News Today (free)

Original article abstract ($ required for full-text): Television, Home-Cooked Meals, and Family Meal Frequency: Associations with Adult Obesity – Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Related article: Screen time is associated with adiposity and insulin resistance in children – Archives of Diseases in Childhood (free) AND Screentime linked to greater diabetes risk among children – The Guardian (free)

The first study in adults and the second study in children suggest there might be a link between screen time and weight gain or adiposity.

8 – Here’s why one tech investor thinks some doctors will be ‘obsolete’ in five years – CNBC (free) (RT @CMichaelGibson)

According to this point of view, radiologists will be the first ones that are affected by Artificial Intelligence. As we can see below, other specialists that work by interpreting medical images may follow, like dermatologists, ophthalmologists and pathologists.

See also: If You Look at X-Rays or Moles for a Living, AI Is Coming for Your Job – Wired (free) AND Adapting to Artificial Intelligence: Radiologists and Pathologists as Information Specialists – JAMA Viewpoint (free – and legal – PDF found with Unpaywall) AND Development and Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy in Retinal Fundus Photographs – JAMA Internal Medicine (link to abstract – $ required for full-text) AND Predicting non-small cell lung cancer prognosis by fully automated microscopic pathology image features – Nature (free) see commentary in Computers trounce pathologists in predicting lung cancer type, severity, researchers find – Science News (free)

9 – When Globalization Brings Brain-Invading Worms – The Atlantic (free) (RT @PreetiNMalani and @AdrienneLaF)

Infectious diseases are spreading faster and emerging quicker due to globalization.

10 – Seniors are given so many drugs, it’s madness – The Globe and Mail (free) (RT @RasoiniR)

“While most prescribing is well-intentioned, it’s also unco-ordinated; there is a tendency to overmedicate and leave people on drugs for too long”.