Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Eli Lilly, Lung Cancer / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Martin Reck, MD, PhD Head of the Department of Thoracic Oncology Head of the Clinical Trial Department Department of Thoracic Oncology at the Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There is an urgent medical need to improve outcomes in pretreated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in particular those with fast progressing tumors. The Phase 3 REVEL study, which included patients with nonsquamous and squamous forms of NSCLC, demonstrated improved overall survival (OS), progression‐free survival (PFS), and objective response rate (ORR) – independent of histology. This analysis confirmed efficacy - with improvement of ORR, PFS and OS - in poor prognosis patients with fast progressing tumors (after 9, 12 or 18 weeks) without additional toxicity or impact on Quality of Life compared to the intent-to-treat (ITT) population results of REVEL. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Social Issues / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jennifer Buher Kane PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology University of California, Irvine 92697-510  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It’s not uncommon for new parents to relocate in search of neighborhoods with better schools, safer streets and healthier, more kid-friendly activities. But our new study found that living in such neighborhoods before a baby is born protects against the risks of poor birth outcomes. Published online this month in SSM – Population Health, the research shows that having highly educated, wealthy neighbors reduces an expectant mother’s risk of delivering a low-weight or preterm baby – health markers that can be associated with neurodevelopmental problems, language disorders, learning disabilities and poor health later in life. Our study is the first to look at how both the level of affluence and disadvantage — two sociologically distinct attributes of neighborhoods — affect newborn health; past studies have only explored the impact of neighborhood disadvantage. Neighborhood disadvantage signals factors such as poverty, unemployment, or underemployment. On the other hand, neighborhood affluence is thought to signal the presence of locally-based community organizations that can meet the needs of all residents – health-related and otherwise – regardless of one’s own socioeconomic resources. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cancer Research, Mammograms, Technology / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Manisha Bahl, MD, MPH Director, Breast Imaging Fellowship Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Image-guided biopsies that we perform based on suspicious findings on mammography can yield one of three pathology results: cancer, high-risk, or benign. Most high-risk breast lesions are noncancerous, but surgical excision is typically recommended because some high-risk lesions can be upgraded to cancer at surgery. Currently, there are no imaging or other features that reliably allow us to distinguish between high-risk lesions that warrant surgery from those that can be safely followed, which has led to unnecessary surgery of high-risk lesions that are not associated with cancer. We decided to apply machine learning algorithms to help us with this challenging clinical scenario: to distinguish between high-risk lesions that warrant surgery from those that can be safely followed. Machine learning allows us to incorporate the full spectrum of diverse and complex data that we have available, such as patient risk factors and imaging features, in order to predict which high-risk lesions are likely to be upgraded to cancer and, ultimately, to help our patients make more informed decisions about surgery versus surveillance. We developed the machine learning model with almost 700 high-risk lesions, then tested it with more than 300 high-risk lesions. Instead of surgical excision of all high-risk lesions, if those categorized with the model to be at low risk for upgrade were surveilled and the remainder were excised, then 97.4% malignancies would have been diagnosed at surgery, and 30.6% of surgeries of benign lesions could have been avoided. (more…)
Author Interviews, Emergency Care / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David Marcozzi, MD, MHS-CL, FACEP Associate Professor Director of Population Health Department of Emergency Medicine Adjunct Associate Professor Co-Director of the Program in Health Disparities and Population Health Department of Epidemiology and Public Health University of Maryland School of Medicine Assistant Chief Medical Officer for Acute Care University of Maryland Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Nearly half of all US medical care is delivered by emergency departments, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). And in recent years, the percentage of care delivered by emergency departments has grown. The study highlights what many experts argue is a major flaw in American health care: the use of emergency care in non-urgent cases, where clinics and doctor’s offices would be more appropriate. “I was shocked by this result. This really helps us understand health care in this country. This research underscores the fact that emergency departments are critical to our nation’s healthcare delivery system, particularly for Americans who have no access to care.” said David Marcozzi, MD, MHS-CL, FACEP, an associate professor in the UMSOM Department of Emergency Medicine, and co-director of the UMSOM Program in Health Disparities and Population Health. “Patients seek care delivered in emergency departments for many reasons, and we need to face this fact this is a significant segment of healthcare and actually it may be delivering the type of care that individuals want and need—24/7, 365 days.”  Although he now focuses on population health and hospital throughput, Dr. Marcozzi is an emergency room doctor himself, and works one or two days a week in the University of Maryland Medical Center emergency department, treating patients. (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, CDC, Cocaine / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Pills” by Kurtis Garbutt is licensed under CC BY 2.0Christopher M. Jones, PharmD Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Office of the Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Drug overdoses are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, resulting in approximately 52,000 deaths in 2015. Although prescription drugs, in particular opioid pain relievers, were primarily responsible for the rapid expansion of this large and growing public health crisis, illicit drugs (heroin, illicit fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamines) now are contributing substantially to the problem. Understanding differences in illicit drug use, illicit drug use disorders, and overall drug overdose deaths in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas is important for informing public health programs, interventions, and policies. We found that the prevalence of self-reported past-month use of illicit drugs increased significantly across urban status (large metropolitan, small metropolitan, and nonmetropolitan) between 2003-2005 and 2012-2014. Prevalence was higher for males than females, however, in the large metropolitan group, the percentage increase in prevalence from 2003–2005 to 2012–2014 was greater for females (23.4%) than for males (21.6%). There were notable differences by age. During 2012–2014, respondents aged 18–25 years had the highest prevalence of past-month use of illicit drugs for all urban levels. For respondents in this age group, the prevalence increased slightly from 2003–2005 to 2012–2014 in large metropolitan areas while the prevalence remained stable among small metropolitan area respondents and nonmetropolitan area respondents. Past-month use of illicit drugs declined over the study period for the youngest respondents (aged 12–17 years), with the largest decline among small metropolitan area youth. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Me holding USP gun” by Nghị Trần is licensed under CC BY 2.0Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, MD, MPH, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The impact of firearm carrying on public health and public safety is a topic of considerable interest in the US.  Nonetheless, contemporary national data on some of the most fundamental questions about the scope of firearm carrying among adults in the US do not exist. We used data collected through a nationally representative survey designed by investigators at Harvard University and Northeastern University and conducted in 2015 to understand why, how frequently, or in what manner (i.e., concealed or openly) US adults carry loaded handguns on their person. We also examined the prevalence of handgun carrying among this group by the stringency of state laws regulating concealed carry permits. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, JAMA / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Siegel, MD, MPH Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences Boston University School of Public Health Boston, MA 02118 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A central question in the debate about public policies to reduce firearm violence is whether easier access to concealed handguns increases or decreases the rate of firearm-related homicides. Previous studies on the impact of concealed carry permitting laws have yielded inconsistent results. Most of these studies were conducted more than a decade ago. This study provided a reexamination of this research question with more recent data, up to and including the year 2015. While all states allow certain persons to carry concealed handguns, there are 3 major variations in permitting policy. In 9 states, law enforcement officials have wide discretion over whether to issue concealed carry permits; these are referred to as “may issue” states because police chiefs can deny a permit if they deem the applicant to be at risk of committing violence, even if there is not a criminal history. In 29 states, there is little or no discretion; these are referred to as “shall-issue” states because permits must be issued if requisite criteria are met. In an additional 12 states, no permit is necessary to carry a concealed handgun. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Pain Research / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fu-Chi Yang, M.D., Ph.D.Assistant Professor Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital National Defense Medical Center Taipei, Taiwan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Migraineurs are likely to suffer from comorbid depression and anxiety. Furthermore, increased migraine frequency is associated with an increased risk of mood/anxiety disorders. It is not distinguished by grouping frequency of migraine attacks, whether it is associated with severity scores of depression and anxiety. Thus, we evaluated the relationship between severity of depression/anxiety and migraine frequency We mainly found that the severity of depression (BDI and HADS-depression scores) and anxiety (HADS anxiety score) were related to migraine frequency, after adjusting confounding factors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Environmental Risks, Global Health / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, FAAP Dean for Global Health Professor of Preventive Medicine and Pediatrics Arnhold Institute for Global Health Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
  1.  Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world today.  It is responsible for 9 million deaths per year – 16% of all deaths worldwide – three times more deaths than AIDS, malaria and TB combined.  These numbers are growing from year to year as pollution in many parts of the world increase.
  2. Pollution is highly unjust. 92% of all pollution-related deaths occur in low-and middle- income countries, and in the United States and other high-income countries pollution-related disease and death are concentrated among minorities and the poor.  Think Flint.
  3. Pollution is very costly.  Pollution-related diseases cause productivity losses that reduce GDP in low- and middle-income countries by up to 2% per year. Pollution-related disease also results in health-care costs that are responsible for 1.7% of annual health spending in high-income countries like the US and for up to 7% of health spending in heavily polluted and rapidly developing low- and middle-income countries.
  4. Pollution is neglected and its control is seriously underfunded.
  5. The good news is that despite its great magnitude and long-standing neglect, pollution can be controlled, and pollution prevention is highly cost-effective. Pollution is not the inevitable consequence of economic development. High-income and some middle-income countries have enacted legislation and issued regulations mandating clean air and clean water, established chemical safety policies, and curbed their most flagrant forms of pollution. As a result, our air and water are now cleaner, the blood lead concentrations of our children have decreased by more than 90%, our rivers no longer catch fire, our worst hazardous waste sites have been remediated, and many of our cities are less polluted and more livable. Health has improved and people are living longer. High-income countries have achieved this progress while increasing GDP by nearly 250%. The claim that pollution control stifles economic growth, kills jobs and drags down the economy is false and has repeatedly been proven to be untrue. Pollution control is a winnable battle, and the control of pollution will return billions of dollars to the economies of countries around the world as it has already in the United States.
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Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care, JAMA / 20.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aparna Soni, MA Department of Business Economics and Public Policy Kelley School of Business Indiana University, Bloomington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cancer is the leading cause of death among the non-elderly population in the United States. Unfortunately, uninsured people are less likely to get screened for cancer, and treatment is often unaffordable for those who are uninsured. One of the key objectives of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to improve outcomes for cancer patients. Our objective in this study was therefore to assess changes under the ACA in insurance coverage among patients newly diagnosed with cancer. Our main finding is that uninsurance among patients with newly diagnosed cancer fell by one-third in 2014. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Medicare / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan G. Haber, Sc.D. Director, Health Coverage for Low-Income and Uninsured Populations RTI International Waltham, MA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In 2014, the state of Maryland and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began testing an alternative payment structure for inpatient and outpatient hospital services. Known as the All-Payer Model, the new system limits hospitals’ revenues from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers to a global budget for the year. This builds on Maryland’s hospital rate-setting system that had operated since the 1970s, where all payers pay the same rates. CMS wanted to test whether global budgets could help Maryland limit cost growth and reduce avoidable hospital use. The goal of the model is to limit per capita total hospital cost growth for both Medicare and all payers and to generate $330 million in Medicare savings over 5 years. RTI researchers studied the impact of hospital global budgets on Medicare beneficiary expenditures and utilization, using Medicare claims data to compare changes in Maryland before and after adoption of global budgets with changes in matched comparison areas outside of the state. Our report found Maryland has reduced total Medicare expenditures by approximately $293 million and total hospital expenditures by about $200 million in its first two years of operation. The reduction in overall expenditures indicates that “squeezing the balloon” on hospital expenditures did not simply produce a cost-shift to other health care sectors. Hospital expenditure savings for Medicare were achieved by reducing expenditures for outpatient emergency department and other hospital outpatient department services. Although inpatient admissions declined, there were no savings in Medicare expenditures for inpatient hospital services because the payment per admission increased. Maryland hospitals reduced avoidable utilization, including admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions, and readmissions and emergency department visits following hospital discharge. Despite the success in reducing expenditures, interviews with senior leaders at Maryland hospitals and focus group discussions with physicians and nurses suggest that many hospitals had not yet made fundamental changes in how they operate or developed partnerships with community physicians to divert care from the hospital, although there was variation in how hospitals responded. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Heart Disease, PLoS / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Kazem Rahimi, FRCP MD DM MSc FES Deputy Director, The George Institute for Global Health UK Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Mitral regurgitation, the most common heart valve disorder in high-income countries, has until now been considered a degenerative disorder, which results from damage over time due to ‘wear and tear’. As a result, the focus of medical practitioners has been on treating the disorder – by repairing or replacing the valve – rather than preventing it. This is partly because there has been a lack of large-scale, longitudinal studies investigating the effect of risk factors on the condition. We set out to analyse data on 5.5 million patients in the UK over 10 years. Our findings show, for the first time, that elevated blood pressure is an important risk factor for mitral regurgitation. Consistent with prior evidence on blood pressure associations with other cardiovascular disease - such as stroke and heart attacks – we found an association with mitral regurgitation that is continuous across the whole spectrum of blood pressure. More specifically, every 20 mmHg higher baseline systolic blood pressure is associated with a 26% increased risk of mitral regurgitation, with no threshold below or above which this relationship is not true. The association we found was only partially mediated by conditions that are established causes of secondary mitral regurgitation, which suggests that high blood pressure has a direct and independent effect on valve degeneration. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sheryl Cates RTI International Durham, NC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The goal of this research was to provide a better understanding of consumer perceptions of edible marijuana products, including why users prefer edibles relative to other forms of marijuana such as smoking and vaping and concerns regarding the consumption and questions related to, how long do edibles last? And many more! This is important as more states legalize the use of recreational marijuana products. With the increasing popularity of edibles, concerns exist that do not exist with other methods of using marijuana, such as smoking or vaping. These concerns include delayed activation time; accidental ingestion, particularly by children and older adults; and dose titration.

The study team conducted eight focus groups (four groups in Denver, Colorado, and four groups in Seattle, Washington) with users of edibles. Most participants preferred edibles to smoking marijuana because there is no smell from smoke and no secondhand smoke. Other reasons participants like edibles included convenience, discreetness, longer-lasting highs, less intense highs, and edibles’ ability to aid in relaxation, reduce anxiety, and alleviate pain more so than smoking marijuana. Concerns and dislikes about edibles included delayed effects, unexpected highs, the unpredictability of the high, and inconsistency of distribution of marijuana in the product. No participants in either location mentioned harmful health effects from consuming edibles as a concern. Although focus group findings are not generalizable, the findings are useful for helping inform policy makers and regulators as they establish regulations regarding the manufacture, labeling, and sale of edibles.

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Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Pain Research, UCSD / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erik Groessl PhD Associate Adjunct Professor Family Medicine and Public Health University of California, San Diego MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is prevalent among military veterans, but cLBP treatment options have limited benefits and side effects. This has resulted in efforts to reduce opioid use and embrace nonpharmacological pain treatments. Yoga has been shown to improve health outcomes and have few side effects in non-veteran community samples. Our objective was to study the effectiveness and safety of yoga for military veterans with chronic low back pain. In a study of 150 veterans with cLBP, we found that yoga participants had greater reductions in disability and pain than those receiving usual. Opioid medication use declined among all participants, and no serious side effects occurred. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, Kidney Disease, Microbiome, Supplements / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ron Walborn Jr. Prebiotin CEO  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The product Prebiotin™ Prebiotic Fiber was brought to market in 2007 by Dr. Frank Jackson, a gastroenterologist out of Harrisburg, PA. He found through 40 years of experience with his patients that a variety of digestive issues benefitted from daily supplementation with a soluble prebiotic fiber, specifically, oligofructose-enriched inulin (OEI) derived from chicory root. In the late summer of 2012, Prebiotin caught the attention of Dr. Dominic Raj at the Internal Medicine Department of George Washington University. Dr. Raj’s laboratory showed that patients with kidney disease may have a higher level of release of endotoxins like p-Cresol sulfate and indole from the bacteria in the gut, which can move into the bloodstream and promote inflammation. This early work was the basis of a successful grant application. Researchers were interested in investigating the therapeutic potential of altering the composition and/or function of the gut microbiome in this patient population, based on the understanding that by building up the levels of healthy bacteria in the gut, undesirable bacteria is eventually crowded out, thereby reducing the release of harmful endotoxins into the system. (more…)
Author Interviews, Psychological Science, UC Davis / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Karen L. Bales PhD Professor of Psychology University of California Davis, CA 95616 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  Titi monkeys are a socially monogamous species in which adults form pair bonds.  In my laboratory we are studying the neurobiology of pair bonding, and understanding jealousy is important because it's one mechanism by which the pair bond is maintained.  In this study, male titi monkeys viewed their pair mate next to a stranger male, and we examined the neural, behavioral, and hormonal consequences.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Psychological Science / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tobias Gerstenberg, PhD MIT MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The question of how causation is best understood has been troubling philosophers for a long time. As psychologists, we are particularly interested in understanding how people make causal judgments. In our experiments, we showed participants video clips of colliding billiard balls. Participants were asked to say whether one ball (ball A) caused another (ball B) to go through a gate, or prevented it from going through. We used eye-tracking technology to record participants' eye-movements as they were watching the clips. The results showed that participants spontaneously engaged in counterfactual simulation when asked to make causal judgments. They not only looked at what actually happened, but also tried to anticipate where ball B would have gone if ball A hadn't been present. The more certain participants were that ball B would have missed the goal if ball A hadn't been there, the more they agreed that ball A caused ball B to go through the gate. In a control condition we asked participants about what actually happened. In this condition, participants were much less likely to simulate where ball B would have gone. Together, these findings demonstrate a very close link between counterfactual simulation and causal judgment. (more…)
Author Interviews, Technology / 19.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Wenyao Xu, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science & Engineering University at Buffalo, the State University of New York (SUNY)  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We try to resolve the challenge of Logging-in and logging-out tedious routine. We find it is possible to remotely "listen" to the heartbeat and recognize the user's identity by using a novel doppler radar sensor. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Peanuts” by Daniella Segura is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Aida Eslami, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Denise Daley's research group Centre for Heart and Lung innovation Providence Heart + Lung Institute St. Paul's Hospital Vancouver, BC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Peanut allergy and food allergies in general are caused by a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. Currently, the genetic basis of peanut allergy is unclear due to a lack of studies on food related allergies. Our study was comprised of 850 individuals with peanut allergy from the Canadian Peanut Allergy Registry (CanPAR), and nearly 1,000 individuals without peanut allergy and other food allergies. We looked at over 7.5 million genetic markers through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genes potentially associated with peanut allergy and other food allergies. Our findings are based on results from the CanPAR in combination with the results from other countries: USA, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. We identified a gene that is associated with both peanut allergy and other food allergies. This gene is called c11orf30/EMSY and has previously been shown to be involved in other conditions such as asthma, eczema, and allergic rhinitis. (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Infections, JAMA, Outcomes & Safety / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Robert Hiensch MD Assistant Professor, Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: New sepsis guidelines that recommend screening and early treatment for sepsis cases appear to have significant positive impacts on patient outcomes. Less research has been published on what potential side effects may result from these guidelines. Antibiotics are a cornerstone of sepsis treatment and early antibiotic administration is strongly recommended.  We examined whether the introduction of an electronic based sepsis initiative changed antibiotic prescribing patterns at our hospital. Antibiotics, even when appropriate, contribute to hospital onset Clostridium difficile infections (HO CDIs).  While the authors do not dispute the importance of antibiotic administration in sepsis, it is valuable to know whether the sepsis initiative coincided with both increased antibiotic administration and HO CDIs. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, JAMA, Pediatrics / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. med. Reinhard Holl Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Medical Faculty Aachen University, Aachen, Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry University of Ulm, Ulm Germany  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Today there are two accepted strategies to treat type-1 diabetes: pump or multiple daily injections. In a large group of patients we compared both strategies, and our results indicate advantages for pump therapy with fewer severe hypos, fewer events of diabetic ketoacidosis, and better metabolic control. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, Global Health, Lancet / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gilaad Kaplan, MD, MPH, FRCPC Associate Professor CIHR New Investigator & AI-HS Population Health Investigator Co-Director, Environmental Health Research Group Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases & Institute of Public Health Departments of Medicine & Community Health Sciences University of Calgary MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The aim of the study was to provide a global perspective on the epidemiology of the inflammatory bowel diseases in the 21st century. During the 20th century IBD was considered a disease of the Western world. At the turn of the 21st century, IBD has become a global disease with accelerating number of cases in the developing world as it transition towards a westernized society. (more…)
Anesthesiology, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Surgical Research, Technology / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Sunghee Han Professor Seoul National Unversity College of Medicine Seoul National University Hospital Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicin What is the background for this new technology and study? What are the main findings? Response: The time from patient arrival in the operating theatre to induction of general anesthesia is one of the most stressful moments for children undergoing surgery. Various strategies such as 'pre-operative guided operating room tour' or 'therapeutic play intervention' have been developed in order to reduce children's pre-operative anxiety. Although these existing simulation-based approaches may be effective, they have not been widely used in real clinical settings with limited budget and resources such as manpower and space. Virtual Reality(VR), a relatively new technology in the field of healthcare, can allow the user to experience an immersive environment. In this study, using VR technology, we provided the children with a realistic trip to the operating theatre accompanied by ‘My best friend’ Pororo. “Pororo, The Little Penguin” is a very famous cartoon character in Korea and Asia. Most children in Korea watch Pororo in TV, play with Pororo toys since early yeas and perceive Pororo as a ‘close friend’. In the VR content used in this study, Pororo acts as a patient and is subjected to anesthesia and surgery himself. Pororo kindly brings his friend(the viewer; paediatric patient) to the theatre and shows all that is going on in there. Intervention with the VR content was able to reduce the level of anxiety in paediatric patients and promote collaborative behavior and acceptance of the invasive procedures, especially general anesthesia. Parental satisfaction level was also relatively higher in the VR group. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Craig Tendler, M.D. Vice President, Late-Stage Development and Global Medical Affairs for Oncology, Hematology and Supportive Care Janssen Research & Development, LLC.  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Janssen announced the submission of a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the FDA seeking to expand the indication of ZYTIGA in combination with prednisone and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to include treatment of patients with high-risk metastatic hormone naïve prostate cancer (HNPC) or newly diagnosed, high-risk metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (HSPC). This submission is based on the pivotal Phase 3 LATITUDE trial results presented earlier this year at the plenary session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which found that in patients with newly diagnosed high-risk metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHNPC), abiraterone acetate with prednisone in combination with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) demonstrated a significant improvement in median overall survival (OS) and in radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS). Additional data, which were presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Conference, demonstrated clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in patient reported outcomes (PRO) in patients with high-risk mHNPC who received ZYTIGA in combination with prednisone and ADT compared to placebo plus ADT alone. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, Microbiome / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Greg Gloor, PhD Principal investigator Professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We sampled the bacteria in the gut (stool) in over 1000 members of a super healthy population in China across the age ranges of 3 to over 100. Exclusion criteria included a history of genetic or chronic disease (intergenerational in the case of people younger than 30), no smoking, drinking or drug use (including no prescription drugs). Our goal was to identify what, if any changes in the makeup of the gut microbiota occurred in this population so that we could define "what is associated with health". We found three things.
  • First, that the expected differences between the very young and everyone else were found in this population. This indicates that we could observe the standards signatures of a maturing gut microbiota.
  • Second, that the gut microbiota of very healthy very elderly group (over 95 yo) was very similar to that of any very healthy person over the age of 30.
  • Third, we found that the gut microbiota of 20yo people (in three distinct groups) was different from all other age groups. The reason for the differences observed in the 20 yo groups from all the others is unknown, but is not methodological in origin.
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AstraZeneca, Author Interviews, Boehringer Ingelheim, Diabetes, Eli Lilly, J&J-Janssen, Merck, Pharmacology / 18.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Melanie J Davies CBE MB ChB MD FRCP FRCGP Professor of Diabetes Medicine NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus Diabetes Research Centre Leicester Diabetes Centre – Bloom University of Leicester MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:  This was the first study to test the effectiveness of an oral GLP-1 in patients with type 2 diabetes. The main findings were that compared to both placebo and a GLP-1, Semaglutide, delivered by sub-cutaneous injection weekly, the oral therapy delivered once a day produced better results than placebo and similar results to injectable GLP-1 with regard to reductions in HbA1c and weight loss. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Radiology / 17.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Maria Grazia Andreassi, PhD Director, Genetics Research Unit CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa- Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In recent years, there has been a growing concern about the health risks for contemporary interventional cardiologists who have a high and unprecedented levels of occupational ionizing radiation (IR) exposure. Because dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown in many human diseases, we investigated the differential expression of miRNAs in the plasma of interventional cardiologists professionally exposed to IR and unexposed controls. In this study, our microarray analysis with 2,006 miRNAs and subsequent validation identified brain-specific miR-134 as one of the miRNAs that is highly dysregulated in the response to ionizing radiation exposure, supporting the notion that the brain damage is one of the main potential long-term risks of unprotected head irradiation in interventional cardiologists, with possible long-lasting cognitive consequences. Indeed, miR-134 was first identified as a brain-specific miRNA, which is involved in synapse development and directly implicated in learning and memory. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, JAMA, Neurological Disorders, Zika / 17.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emilio Dirlikov, PhD Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer CDC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In December 2015, Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) reported its first confirmed locally acquired case of Zika virus disease. In February 2016, PRDH reported the first person diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) who also had evidence of Zika virus infection. At the time, scientific evidence of the potential association between Zika virus infection and GBS was lacking, and rigorous studies were needed. Through a collaboration between PRDH, CDC, and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), we conducted a case-control study to determine risk factors for GBS during the 2016 Zika virus epidemic. By prospectively enrolling case-patients, we shortened the time to enrollment, increasing the likelihood of detecting Zika virus nucleic acids to confirm Zika virus infection. As a result, we found that an acute Zika virus infection confirmed by laboratory testing is a risk factor for developing Guillain-Barré syndrome. This is the first case-control study to find laboratory evidence showing this given the difficulty of confirming Zika virus infection among people diagnosed with GBS. (more…)
Author Interviews, Autism, Pediatrics, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 17.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maureen Durkin, PhD, DrPH Professor and Interim Chair Department of Population Health Sciences University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison, WI  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous studies of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children in the U.S. have found two consistent patterns.  One is a higher prevalence among white non-Hispanic children than among black non-Hispanic or Hispanic children.  The other is a positive socioeconomic gradient, meaning that ASD prevalence in the U.S. is found to increase with increasing income and other indicators of socioeconomic status. One of the findings of this new study is that the racial and ethnic differences in autism spectrum disorder prevalence are not explained by socioeconomic factors, because even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors, ASD prevalence was found to be significantly lower in black and Hispanic children than in white non-Hispanic children.  Another finding is that the gap in ASD prevalence between children of high and low socioeconomic status did not change over time between 2002 and 2010, though the overall prevalence of ASD more than doubled during this period. (more…)
Author Interviews, Psychological Science / 17.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tamara Masters, PhD Marketing Marriott School of Management Brigham Young University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: As a marketing professor I have studied the disparity of what people are willing to sell items/products for and how much that differs from how much others are willing to pay. I do research in consumer decision making and find the neurophysiological aspects of consumers fascinating.  I read medical and neuroscience research for fun and see many ways individuals may be effected in the use of their limited resources.  We are all consumers – many make purchases of some type daily – even it if it is to play online games or where and how to get our next meal. The main findings relate to how a person is either attached to or feels an aversion to losing an object.  There has been debate as to which of these factors leads to a difference in buy and selling prices.  This research provides a new and unique look at how BOTH factors must be present for this disparity to emerge.  This research is unique because it uses combines the fields neuroscience, psychology and economics to explain something we all experience. (more…)