MedicalResearch.com specializes in exclusive interviews with medical researchers from major and specialty journals and presenters at health care meetings.
Learn directly from the researchers as they discuss the ideas behind their investigations and their plans for future studies. Over 7923 interviews to date!
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Shanthanna
Harsha Shanthanna MBBS, MD, MSc
Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Chronic Pain Physician
St Joseph’s Healthcare,McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada
Diplomate in National Board, Anesthesiology (India)
Fellow in Interventional Pain Practice (WIP)
European Diplomate in Regional Anesthesia and Pain
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Pregabalin (PG) and gabapentin (GB) are increasingly used for nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) despite a lack of evidence. There have been concerns expressed over their increased prescribing for various non cancer pain indications in recent years. Their use requires slow titration to therapeutic doses and establishing maintenance on a long-term basis. With prolonged treatment, the potential gain over possible adverse effects and risks could become unclear.
We searched Cochrane, MEDLINE and EMBASE databases for randomized control trials reporting the use of gabapentinoids for chronic lower back pain treatment of 3 months or more in adult patients.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Traci K. Gillig
Traci K. Gillig
Doctoral Candidate
Annenberg School of Communication and
Erica L. Rosenthal
Erica L. Rosenthal
Senior Research Associate
Hollywood, Health & Society
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90211
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Time magazine declared America reached a “transgender tipping point” in 2014, with the media visibility of transgender people reaching new levels. While research has shown that entertainment shapes viewers’ attitudes, no prior studies had explored the cumulative effects of exposure to media portrayals of transgender people. To address this gap, we worked with the TV show Royal Pains (USA Network) to assess how viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people and related policy issues were influenced by seeing a brief fictional portrayal of a transgender teen as well as other transgender TV characters.
We had advance notice of the storyline through Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S), an organization affiliated with the USC Annenberg School of Communication. HH&S serves as a free resource to the entertainment industry, providing accurate health (and other) information through consultation with subject matter experts. Royal Pains assisted us in recruiting viewers for our study through their social media accounts. A total of 391 viewers who saw the episode featuring a transgender teen participated in our study, and we supplemented this sample with Royal Pains viewers who had not seen the episode, accessed through market research panels.
Findings of our study showed that viewers who saw the Royal Pains episode featuring a transgender character had more supportive attitudes toward transgender people and related policies, compared to viewers who did not see the episode. Additionally, cumulative exposure to transgender entertainment narratives improved viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people and policies. Neither exposure to transgender issues in the news nor Caitlyn Jenner’s story influenced attitudes.
Further, aligning with prior research, viewers who were more politically conservative reported more negative attitudes toward transgender people and less support for transgender-affirming policies. However, seeing multiple such storylines reduced the strength of this link by one half. Political ideology also influenced viewers’ responses to the Royal Pains episode. Those who were politically liberal were more likely to feel hope or identify with the transgender character in the episode, while those who were politically conservative were more likely to react with disgust.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Gary M. Halliday
Discipline of Dermatology, Bosch Institute
Central Clinical School
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The recently published article is a review paper- we reviewed previous laboratory studies of the effects of nicotinamide on normal pigment cells and on melanoma, and also the previous studies showing that nicotinamide can reduce rates of non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma) in high risk patients. We have not done any clinical investigations of nicotinamide as a preventive agent for melanoma.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Shroyer
A. Laurie Shroyer, Ph.D., M.S.H.A.
WOC Health Science Officer
Northport VAMC
Research and Development Office (151)
Northport, NY 11768
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Surgery
Stony Brook University, School of Medicine
Stony Brook, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Since the 1990’s, two different approaches have been commonly used by cardiac surgeons to perform an adult coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure, these approaches have been referred to as “on-pump” (with cardiopulmonary bypass) or “off-pump” (without cardiopulmonary bypass) procedures. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Randomized On/Off Bypass Follow-up Study” (ROOBY-FS) compared the relative performance of off-pump versus on-pump approaches upon 5-year patients’ clinical outcomes including mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Runhaar
Jos Runhaar, PhD
Erasmus MC
Department of General Practice
Rotterdam
The Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Most international guidelines report an overall lack of efficacy of glucosamine for osteoarthrits. We however know that it is a very heterogeneous disease. Therefore, it is possible that there are certain subgroups of osteoarthritis patients that actually might have effect from glucosamine; for instance subgroups based on different pathologies underlying the clinical presentation, different co-morbidities, or different disease stages.
For investigating efficacy in subgroups large sample sizes are needed, and certain methodological techniques are necessary, to get a valid and robust answer. Several years ago, a group of renowned international osteoarthritis researchers started the OA Trial Bank especially for investigating these subgroup effects of osteoarthritis treatments and collect individual patient data of worldwide-performed intervention studies in osteoarthritis patients. When using the individual patient data of multiple studies, it brings us the large sample size and allows us to use the right methods. We do these subgroup analyses in the OA Trial Bank for many different interventions, not just for glucosamine. The subgroup analyses for glucosamine and for corticosteroid injections are published, the others are ongoing (for instance exercise, orthoses and topicals) or planned and still waiting for funding.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kyle T. Amber, MD
Department of Dermatology
UC Irvine Health
Irvine, CA 92697-2400
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The use of IVIg has been shown in randomized controlled trials to be safe and highly effective in the treatment of both pemphigus and bullous pemphigoid. Despite its efficacy, its cost remains a deterrent to its use. Cost studies in the United States point towards IVIg being an overall cost-saving therapy in the treatment of Autoimmune Blistering Diseases when compared to traditional immunosuppressive treatment due to the decrease in associated infections, complications, and hospitalizations.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Harding
Jane E. Harding, DPhil
Liggins Institute
The University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Neonatal hypoglycaemia – low blood sugars in newborns – affects up to one in six babies born. It involves a sustained dip in blood sugar levels following birth. Blood glucose is the only fuel for babies’ brains (adults have alternative, back-up sources). So, if left untreated, this condition can cause developmental brain damage and lowered education outcomes later in life.
In developed economies, as many as a third of babies born are at risk. Risk factors include being born smaller or larger than usual, preterm babies and babies whose mothers have any form of diabetes – this last a growing group, with the rising incidence of gestational (pregnancy-related) diabetes.
We wanted to systematically track a cohort of babies to see if hypoglycaemia in babies affects their long-term health and development. So we designed the CHYLD study – Children with Hypoglycaemia and their Later Development. We are following 614 New Zealand babies born at risk of low blood sugar levels (neonatal hypoglycemia) into childhood to see if the condition affects their later growth and development. Our team includes researchers from the Liggins Institute, the University of Auckland, Waikato Hospital, the University of Canterbury and the University of Waterloo.
Half of the babies in the study were diagnosed with, and treated for low blood sugars. Seventy percent received extra, continuous monitoring of their blood sugar levels, which detected in some babies low levels that were not diagnosed by the heel-prick tests.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Hartnett
Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD, FACS, FARVO
Professor of Ophthalmology, Vitreoretinal Service and Surgery
Principal Investigator Retinal Angiogenesis Laboratory
Director of Pediatric Retina, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
John A. Moran Eye Center
Salt Lake City UT 84132
On behalf of the co-authors: Julia Shulman, Cindy Weng, Jacob Wilkes, Tom Greene, M. Elizabeth Hartnett
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Maternal preeclampsia causes morbidity to mothers and infants worldwide. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide. This study was done to gain insight into the effects of preeclampsia on ROP in a clinical population.
The literature is mixed with some reports that preeclampsia increases risk of Retinopathy of prematurity, whereas others suggest preeclampsia is protective or has no effect. The presence of circulating anti-angiogenic factors in preeclamptic mothers that can enter the fetal circulation lends biologic plausibility to the notion that maternal preeclampsia might interfere with developing vascular beds in the fetus, such as the retina, and potentially lead to severe ROP. However, a report using an experimental model provided evidence that uteroplacental insufficiency, a characteristic of preeclampsia, led to protective mechanisms in the offspring that reduced oxygen-induced retinopathy and promoted overall growth.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. White
Mary C. White, ScD MPH
Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control
CDC
Atlanta GA 30341
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Most cancers are caused not by just one thing, but instead by a combination of different factors over many years. Early adulthood is a time of many life changes and stresses, and exposure to harmful products and unhealthy habits during early adulthood can set the stage for developing cancer at older ages. We analyzed responses from a national sample of young adults to questions about diet, physical activity, tobacco products, alcohol, indoor tanning, sleep, the HPV vaccine, and obesity. These factors have been linked to higher risks of different types of cancer.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Brach
Jennifer Brach, Ph.D., P.T.
Associate professor, Department of physical therapy
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: This study compared two different group exercise programs to improve mobility in community-dwelling older adults. The first program, a seated program focused on strength, endurance and flexibility, was based on usual care. The second program, called On the Move, was conducted primarily in standing position and focused on the timing and coordination of movements important for walking. Both programs met two times per week for 12 weeks. It was found that the On the Move program was more effective at improving mobility than the usual seated program.