Archives
Study: Statins for Primary Prevention in Old and Very Old Adults
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:26h | UTCEditorial: Primary prevention with statins for older adults (free)
Commentaries: Expert reaction to study on use of statins in older people – Science Media Centre (free) AND Widespread use of statins in healthy older people to prevent heart disease not recommended in new study – BMJ, via ScienceDaily (free)
“New research does not support widespread use of statins in healthy older people to prevent heart disease and stroke. Results found that any protective effect was limited to those with type 2 diabetes aged between 75 and 84” (via @bmj_latest see Tweet)
ASCO Guideline Endorsement: Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:29h | UTC
Systematic Analysis: Mortality Due to Low-quality Health Systems in 137 countries
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:25h | UTCHigh-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: time for a revolution – The Lancet Global Health (free articles)
Related Article: Mortality due to low-quality health systems in the universal health coverage era: a systematic analysis of amenable deaths in 137 countries – The Lancet (free)
Editorial: Putting quality and people at the centre of health systems – The Lancet (free)
Commentaries: Political and technical barriers to improving quality of health care – The Lancet (free) AND What Kills 5 Million People A Year? It’s Not Just Disease – NPR (free)
Related Report: Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide (free report and commentaries)
Tuberculosis: the Curable Disease on the Rise, and How to Tackle It
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:23h | UTCTuberculosis: the curable disease on the rise, and how to tackle it – The Guardian (free)
Study: Telehealth for Promoting Safe Antibiotic Prescribing Practices in Remote Healthcare Settings
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:19h | UTCNews Release: Telehealth Proves Valuable for Promoting Safe Antibiotic Prescribing Practices in Remote Healthcare Settings – Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (free)
Commentary: VA pilot study finds telehealth could aid stewardship – CIDRAP (free)
The 2018 Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s Treatment Bundle: When Guidelines Outpace the Evidence Supporting Their Use
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:24h | UTCThe 2018 Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s Treatment Bundle: When Guidelines Outpace the Evidence Supporting Their Use – Annals of Emergency Medicine (free) (via @EMNerd)
Related Opinions: Petition to retire the surviving sepsis campaign guidelines – PulmCrit (free) AND The Surviving Sepsis Campaign: A Rush to Judgment – NEJM Journal Watch (free)
Original Guideline: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Bundle: 2018 update – Intensive Care Medicine (free)
Position Statement: The Treatment of Anal Fistula
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:22h | UTCThe treatment of anal fistula: second ACPGBI Position Statement – 2018 – Colorectal Disease (free)
Guidelines for the Evaluation and Treatment of Perimenopausal Depression
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:20h | UTCCommentaries: First-Ever Guidelines for Detecting, Treating Perimenopausal Depression – University of Illinois at Chicago, via NewsWise (free) AND Guidelines for Managing Perimenopausal Depression Now Available – MPR (free)
Probiotics: Does the Evidence Match the Hype?
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:18h | UTCRelated Article: Post-Antibiotic Gut Mucosal Microbiome Reconstitution Is Impaired by Probiotics and Improved by Autologous FMT – Cell (free)
Commentaries: Probiotics: Does the evidence match the hype? – Medical News Today (free) AND Probiotics labelled ‘quite useless’ – BBC (free)
Wed, September 12 – 10 Stories of The Day!
12 Sep, 2018 | 01:52h | UTC
1 – Effect of Piperacillin-Tazobactam vs Meropenem on 30-Day Mortality for Patients With E coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae Bloodstream Infection and Ceftriaxone Resistance: A Randomized Clinical Trial – JAMA (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Video Summary: Effect of Piperacillin-Tazobactam vs Meropenem on Mortality in Gram-Negative Bloodstream Infection – JAMA (free)
Commentaries: Combo antibiotic found inferior for MDR bloodstream infections – CIDRAP (free) AND Drug Combo No Better for Hard-to-Treat Bloodstream Infections – Medscape (free registration required)
“The results do not support the use of Pip/Tazo as 30 d mortality was 12.3% in Pip/Tazo vs 3.7% in Mero arms” (via @CarlosdelRio7 see Tweet)
2 – Antibiotics for acute rhinosinusitis in adults – Cochrane Library (free for a limited period)
Summary: Antibiotics for sinus infection of short duration in adults – Cochrane Library (free)
“Considering antibiotic resistance, and the very low incidence of serious complications, we conclude there is no place for antibiotics for people with uncomplicated acute rhinosinusitis.”
3 – Opinion: Are We Being Misled About Precision Medicine? – The New York Times (10 articles per month are free)
“Doctors and hospitals love to talk about the cancer patients they’ve saved, and reporters love to write about them. But deaths still vastly outnumber the rare successes.”
5 – Screening: How overdiagnosis and other harms can undermine the benefits – Health News Review (free)
“All screening programs do harm, some do good as well.”
6 – Last Month in Oncology with Dr. Bishal Gyawali: August 2018 – eCancer News (free)
7 – Alex Nowbar’s research reviews, 10 September 2018 – The BMJ (free)
8 – How well do you know your anticholinergic (antimuscarinic) drugs? – Therapeutics Initiative (free)
Commentary: Pharmacist-Led BP Telemonitoring Intervention Works Up to 1 Year After Program Stops – TCTMD (free)
10 – Association of dairy intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 21 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study – The Lancet (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: The Lancet: Dairy consumption linked to lower rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality – EurekAlert (free) AND Dairy food in moderation ‘may protect the heart’ – The Guardian (free) AND Is Whole-Fat Dairy Good for the Heart? – New York Times (free)
Related: Meta-Analysis: Cheese consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease (link to abstract and commentaries) AND Milk and dairy consumption and risk of cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality (free study and commentaries)
“It is not the ultimate seal of approval for recommending whole-fat dairy over its low-fat or skimmed counterparts. Readers should be cautious, and treat this study only as yet another piece of the evidence (albeit a large one) in the literature.”
Thu, September 13 – 10 Stories of The Day!
13 Sep, 2018 | 00:09h | UTC
1 – Guideline: Chronic heart failure in adults: diagnosis and management – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (free)
2 – European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care – European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (free PDF in several languages) (via @ECDC_TB and @Onisillos)
3 – Review: Arterial Hypertension: Diagnosis and treatment – Deutsches Ärzteblatt international (free)
4 – USPSTF Draft Recommendation Statement: Ocular Prophylaxis for Gonococcal Ophthalmia Neonatorum (free)
Commentaries: USPSTF Again Recommends Ointment to Prevent Gonococcal Eye Infection in Newborns – Physician’s First Watch (free) AND USPSTF Reaffirms Ocular Prophylaxis for All Newborns – MedPage Today (free)
5 – New watch can help doctors monitor your heart in real time – American Heart Association News (free)
See also: The new Apple Watch, with FDA’s blessing, comes with an EKG app – STAT (free)
Related: USPSTF Statement: Screening with Resting or Exercise Electrocardiography (ECG) Not Recommended (free Guideline and commentaries) AND Wearable technology to screen for atrial fibrillation: does it raise more questions than it answers? (free commentaries) AND Get Ready For A Tsunami Of ECGs (free commentaries)
6 – Overdiagnosis: causes and consequences in primary health care – Canadian Family Physician (free) (via @cantaskforce)
Related: Overdiagnosis across medical disciplines: a scoping review – The BMJ Open (free) AND Too much medical care: bad for you, bad for health care systems – STAT News (free) AND Overdiagnosis: what it is and what it isn’t – BMJ Evidence Based Medicine (free) AND Position Paper on Overdiagnosis and Action to be Taken – Wonca (free PDF)
7 – FDA News Release: FDA takes new steps to address epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, including a historic action against more than 1,300 retailers and 5 major manufacturers for their roles perpetuating youth access (free)
Commentaries: FDA: we might have to ban some e-cigarettes to stop teens from vaping – VOX (free) AND FDA Intensifies Crackdown On E-Cigarette Sales To Teenagers – NPR (free)
“The agency is eyeing a crackdown on flavored e-cigs in the face of an “epidemic” of teen use.” (from VOX)
Related study: Outcomes after Restrictive or Liberal Transfusion for Cardiac Surgery (link to abstract)
9 – Report: Egg freezing in fertility treatment Trends and figures: 2010-2016 – Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) (free PDF)
Press release: Age is the key factor for egg freezing success says new HFEA report, as overall treatment numbers remain low (free)
Commentaries: Expert reaction to HFEA report on trends in egg freezing – Science Media Centre (free) AND Freeze eggs before 35 for a better chance of IVF success, says report – The Guardian (free)
10 – Factors Associated With Long-term Benzodiazepine Use Among Older Adults – JAMA Internal Medicine (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: 1 in 4 Older Adults Prescribed a Benzodiazepine Goes on to Risky Long-Term Use, Study Finds – Michigan Medicine, via NewsWise (free) AND Long-Term Benzodiazepine Use Common Among Older Adults – Physician’s First Watch (free) AND Factors Predicting Long-term Benzodiazepine Use Identified – Medscape (free registration required) AND Larger Number of Benzodiazepine Pills in Initial Prescription Associated With Long Term Use – MedicalResearch.com (free)
Related: A Quiet Drug Problem Among the Elderly – The New York Times (free) AND Our Other Prescription Drug Problem – New England Journal of Medicine (free) AND Benzodiazepines: our other prescription drug epidemic – STAT (free) AND Deprescribing benzodiazepine receptor agonists – Canadian Family Physician (free)
New Watch can Help Doctors Monitor your Heart in Real Time
13 Sep, 2018 | 22:58h | UTCNew watch can help doctors monitor your heart in real time – American Heart Association News (free)
See also: The new Apple Watch, with FDA’s blessing, comes with an EKG app – STAT (free)
Related: USPSTF Statement: Screening with Resting or Exercise Electrocardiography (ECG) Not Recommended (free Guideline and commentaries) AND Wearable technology to screen for atrial fibrillation: does it raise more questions than it answers? (free commentaries) AND Get Ready For A Tsunami Of ECGs (free commentaries)
Tue, September 11 – 10 Stories of The Day!
11 Sep, 2018 | 01:41h | UTC
World #SuicidePrevention Day Highlights (10 September 2018)
1 – Preventing suicide A community engagement toolkit – World Health Organization (free PDF)
Fact Sheet: Suicide – World Health Organization (free)
2 – Guideline: Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (free)
Editorial: Pain, Opioids, and Suicide Mortality in the United States (free)
Commentaries: Chronic pain may contribute to suicide, study warns – Reuters (free) AND Chronic Pain Tied to Increased Suicide Risk – NEJM Physician’s First Watch (free) AND Increasing rates of chronic pain found among those who die by suicide – ACP Internist (free)
4 – It’s Hard for Doctors to Unlearn Things. That’s Costly for All of Us – The New York Times (10 articles per month are free) (via @CaulfieldTim)
5 – State of The Art Review: Perioperative lung protective ventilation – The BMJ (free for a limited period)
6 – Podcast: #113 Gout: Uric acid targets, urate lowering therapy, and random questions from social media – The Curbsiders Internal Medicine Podcast (free)
Commentary: Lifestyle Interventions Cut Need for Antihypertensives Within Months – NEJM Physician’s First Watch (free)
8 – Pharmacist services for non‐hospitalised patients – Cochrane Library (free)
Summary: Can services delivered by pharmacists improve patient health? – Cochrane Library (free)
Commentaries: Pharmacists play vital role in improving patient health shows biggest review of evidence to date – University of Bath (free) AND Community pharmacy can significantly improve care in long-term conditions, large-scale analysis finds – The Pharmaceutical Journal (free)
Commentaries: Tai Chi May Work Best to Prevent Falls in Old Age – WebMD (free) AND Tai Ji Quan Can Reduce Falls in Elderly – MedicalResearch.com (free)
10 – Preventing Cognitive Decline in Black Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Clinical Trial – JAMA Neurology (free for a limited period)
Commentary: Study provides evidence to prevent memory decline in older blacks with mild cognitive impairment – News Medical (free) AND Novel Intervention Markedly Slows Cognitive Decline in MCI – Medscape (free registration required)
Fri, September 14 – 10 Stories of The Day!
14 Sep, 2018 | 00:01h | UTC
News Release: Diagnosing and treating resistant hypertension (free)
Commentaries: Tackling Resistant Hypertension – Opportunities and Challenges (free) AND Heart Group Updates Guidelines on Resistant Hypertension – Physician’s First Watch (free)
Top Ten Things to Know: Resistant Hypertension: Detection, Evaluation, and Management (free PDF)
Commentary: Elevated blood pressure is linked to increased risk of aortic valve disease – European Society of Cardiology (free)
See also: Latest global cancer data: Cancer burden rises to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths in 2018 – International Agency for Research on Cancer (free PDF)
Infographic: Global Cancer Data 2018 (free)
Commentaries: WHO: 9.6 million cancer deaths, 18 million new cases this year – UPI (free) AND Cancer will kill nearly 10 million people this year, report estimates – CNN (free) AND Cancer deaths rise to 9.6 million as populations grow and age – Reuters (free)
4 – Are Invasive Procedures Effective for Chronic Pain? A Systematic Review – Pain Medicine (free)
Commentaries: New study questions effectiveness of invasive procedures for chronic pain – The Reis Group (free) AND Invasive Procedures For Chronic Pain Have Not Been Proven to Work – MedicalResearch.com (free)
Related: Needless procedures: knee arthroscopy is one of the most common but least effective surgeries – The Conversation (free)
5 – What 21st Century Health Care Should Learn from 20th Century Business – NEJM Catalyst (free)
6 – The New ECG Apple Watch Could do More Harm Than Good – Wired (a few articles per month are free) (via @EricTopol)
See also: New Watch can Help Doctors Monitor your Heart in Real Time (free commentaries)
7 – Opinion: Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research – it should be free – The Guardian (free)
Related: cOAlition S: Making Open Access a Reality by 2020 (free Statement and commentaries)
8 – Thousands of scientists publish a paper every five days – Nature (free)
Related: Some scientists publish more than 70 papers a year. Here’s how—and why—they do it – Science (free)
Commentaries: Breast cancer screening does not reduce mortality – eCancer News (free) AND Danish study attributes improved treatment, not screening, to decline in breast cancer deaths – Health Imaging (free)
10 – Fatal Toxic Effects Associated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis – JAMA Oncology (free for a limited period)
Commentaries: Study Discerns Rare Risks of Fatal Side Effects From Cancer Immunotherapy – AJMC (free) AND Fatal Toxicities Rare With Checkpoint Inhibitors – MedicalResearch.com (free)
Related Guidelines: Management of Immune-Related Adverse Events in Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline (free) AND Managing toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: consensus recommendations from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Toxicity Management Working Group (free)
Related Review: New drugs, new toxicities: severe side effects of modern targeted and immunotherapy of cancer and their management – Critical Care (free)
Mon, September 10 – 10 Stories of The Day!
10 Sep, 2018 | 00:10h | UTC
1 – 2018 European Thyroid Association Guideline for the Management of Graves’ Hyperthyroidism – European Thyroid Journal (free) (via @CristobMorales and @Abraham_RMI)
3 – Viewpoint: Aligning Patient and Physician Incentives – JAMA (free for a limited period)
5 – Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Oncologist Authors of Reports of Clinical Drug Trials – JAMA Oncology (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: Financial disclosure lacking in publication of clinical trials – eCancer News (free) AND Oncologist-Authors Often Do Not Fully Disclose Financial Relationships with Pharmaceutical Companies – MedicalResearch.com (free) AND One-third of oncologist authors fail to disclosure industry payments – Healio News (free registration required)
6 – Palliative care in intensive care units: why, where, what, who, when, how – BMC Anesthesiology (free)
7 – Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF): An Overview – Journal of Clinical Medicine (free)
8 – Perspective: The Moral Dilemma of Learning Medicine from the Poor – The Doctors Weight In (free) (via @kennylinafp)
“I learned good skills because I was allowed to practice on people who had no other option.”
9 – Peer reviewers unmasked: largest global survey reveals trends – Nature News (free)
Original Report: 2018 Global State of Peer Review (free)
10 – Variability in Ejection Fraction Measured By Echocardiography, Gated Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography, and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease and Left Ventricular Dysfunction – JAMA Network Open (free) (via @LuisCLCorreia)
“There is substantial variability in LVEF assessment between modalities, which should be considered in trial design and clinical management.”
Fri, September 7 – 10 Stories of The Day!
7 Sep, 2018 | 02:15h | UTC
1 – Guideline: Pancreatitis – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (free)
Editorial: Primary prevention with statins for older adults (free)
Commentaries: Expert reaction to study on use of statins in older people – Science Media Centre (free) AND Widespread use of statins in healthy older people to prevent heart disease not recommended in new study – BMJ, via ScienceDaily (free)
“New research does not support widespread use of statins in healthy older people to prevent heart disease and stroke. Results found that any protective effect was limited to those with type 2 diabetes aged between 75 and 84” (via @bmj_latest see Tweet)
4 – Commission: High-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: time for a revolution – The Lancet Global Health (free articles)
Related Article: Mortality due to low-quality health systems in the universal health coverage era: a systematic analysis of amenable deaths in 137 countries – The Lancet (free)
Editorial: Putting quality and people at the centre of health systems – The Lancet (free)
Commentaries: Political and technical barriers to improving quality of health care – The Lancet (free) AND What Kills 5 Million People A Year? It’s Not Just Disease – NPR (free)
Related Report: Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide (free report and commentaries)
5 – The 2018 Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s Treatment Bundle: When Guidelines Outpace the Evidence Supporting Their Use – Annals of Emergency Medicine (free) (via @EMNerd)
Related Opinions: Petition to retire the surviving sepsis campaign guidelines – PulmCrit (free) AND The Surviving Sepsis Campaign: A Rush to Judgment – NEJM Journal Watch (free)
Original Guideline: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Bundle: 2018 update – Intensive Care Medicine (free)
6 – Tuberculosis: the curable disease on the rise, and how to tackle it – The Guardian (free)
7 – The treatment of anal fistula: second ACPGBI Position Statement – 2018 – Colorectal Disease (free)
Commentaries: First-Ever Guidelines for Detecting, Treating Perimenopausal Depression – University of Illinois at Chicago, via NewsWise (free) AND Guidelines for Managing Perimenopausal Depression Now Available – MPR (free)
News Release: Telehealth Proves Valuable for Promoting Safe Antibiotic Prescribing Practices in Remote Healthcare Settings – Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (free)
Commentary: VA pilot study finds telehealth could aid stewardship – CIDRAP (free)
Related Article: Post-Antibiotic Gut Mucosal Microbiome Reconstitution Is Impaired by Probiotics and Improved by Autologous FMT – Cell (free)
Commentaries: Probiotics: Does the evidence match the hype? – Medical News Today (free) AND Probiotics labelled ‘quite useless’ – BBC (free)
Ten Commandments of the 2018 ESC/ESH Hypertension Guidelines
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:14h | UTCTen Commandments of the 2018 ESC/ESH HTN Guidelines on Hypertension in Adults – European Heart Journal (free) (via @gonzaeperez)
Guideline: Prostate Cancer Screening with PSA Test
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:12h | UTCRelated guidelines: American Cancer Society Guideline for the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer (free) AND PSA-Based Prostate Cancer Screening in Men Aged 55-69 – American Academy of Family Physicians (free) AND USPSTF Recommendation Statement: Screening for Prostate Cancer (free guideline, editorial and commentaries)
ASCO Guideline: Antimicrobial Prophylaxis for Adult Patients With Cancer-Related Immunosuppression
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:11h | UTCSee also: Guideline Update Summary (free)
Guidance: Use Plain English to Write to Patients
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:09h | UTCWriting Outpatient Clinic Letters to Patients – Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (free PDF)
Commentaries: Doctors told to ditch Latin and use ‘plain English’ – BBC News (free) AND New drive to encourage doctors to write to patients in plain English – The Guardian (free) AND Rx for British Doctors: Use Plain English Instead of Latin – The New York Times (free)
“Guidance suggests specialists should avoid Latin terms, acronyms and convoluted language” (from The Guardian)
Subsegmental Pulmonary Embolism: Anticoagulation or Observation?
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:07h | UTCSubsegmental pulmonary embolism: anticoagulation or observation? – PulmCCM (free)
Perspective: “Precision” Public Health — Between Novelty and Hype
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:09h | UTC“Precision” Public Health — Between Novelty and Hype – New England Journal of Medicine (free)
Randomized Trial: Treatments for Uncomplicated Influenza in Adults and Adolescents Compared
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:10h | UTCBaloxavir Marboxil for Uncomplicated Influenza in Adults and Adolescents – New England Journal of Medicine (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Quick Take Video Summary: Baloxavir for Uncomplicated Influenza (free)
Commentary: New single-dose antiviral cuts flu symptoms, viral loads – CIDRAP (free)
cOAlition S: Making Open Access a Reality by 2020
6 Sep, 2018 | 02:59h | UTCcOAlition S: Making Open Access a Reality by 2020 – Science Europe (free)
See also: 10 principles of Plan S (free PDF) AND Press Release (free PDF)
Commentaries: Radical open-access plan could spell end to journal subscriptions – Nature News (free) AND ‘Plan S’ and ‘cOAlition S’ – Accelerating the transition to full and immediate Open Access to scientific publications – European Commission (free) AND Science without publication paywalls: cOAlition S for the realisation of full and immediate Open Access – PLOS Biology (free)
“…free access to all scientific publications from publicly funded research is a moral right of citizens.” (from European Comission)
Cohort Studies: Diclofenac Use and Cardiovascular Risks
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:04h | UTCDiclofenac use and cardiovascular risks: series of nationwide cohort studies – The BMJ (free)
Commentary: Diclofenac Again Tied to Major Cardiovascular Events – NEJM Physician’s First Watch (free) AND ‘A major safety concern’: World’s most common NSAID doubles CVD risk – Cardiovascular Business (free)