Allergies, Asthma, Author Interviews, Pediatrics / 03.11.2015

[caption id="attachment_18950" align="alignleft" width="133"]Dr. Tove Fall, PhD Associate Professor in Epidemiology Ingelsson Group Upssala University Dr. Tove Fall[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Tove Fall, PhD Associate Professor in Epidemiology Ingelsson Group Upssala University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Fall: We wanted to make use of the Swedish national dog registers to study the question of whether children exposed to dogs are at lower risk of asthma and compare this to children living in farming environments. Previous studies on this question has been inconclusive. We linked health and population data from all children born in Sweden from 2001-2010 with dog ownership data, and with this detailed data set, we found that children in dog-households had 13% lower risk for asthma at age 6, accounting for factors such as parental asthma, area of residence and socioeconomic status. Children in farming households were at even lower risk, which is consistent with many previous studies.
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Chemotherapy, Cognitive Issues / 03.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kelly N. H. Nudelman, Ph.D. Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Indianapolis, IN 46202 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Nudelman: Varying levels of cognitive problems and related changes in brain structure and function have been reported in breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. Pain has also been associated with altered brain structure and function. However, the association of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a side-effect of chemotherapy treatment characterized by nerve damage primarily in the extremities, has not been specifically investigated for association with cognitive symptoms in breast cancer. We used data from a prospective, longitudinal breast cancer cohort to investigate the relationship of CIPN and neuroimaging measures of cognitive dysfunction.  Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Nudelman: We found that increased chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms were associated with resting brain blood flow increase in regions known to be involved in pain processing. We also found that decreased frontal lobe gray matter density was correlated with these changes, suggesting a link between chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and cognitive dysfunction.
Author Interviews, Emory, Flu - Influenza, Vaccine Studies / 02.11.2015

[caption id="attachment_18978" align="alignleft" width="142"]Saad Omer MBBS MPH PhD Associate Professor Emory Vaccine Center Associate Professor Global Health and Epidemiology Rollins School of Public Health Emory University Dr. Saad Omer[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Saad Omer MBBS MPH PhD Associate Professor Emory Vaccine Center Associate Professor Global Health and Epidemiology Rollins School of Public Health Emory University MedicalResearch: Can you give us a little background on this study? Dr. Omer: My background is in global health, epidemiology and pediatrics and I have been fortunate to conduct field and clinical vaccine trials in a number of countries and with multiple infectious diseases including influenza, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines. We were familiar with the data on investigating the potential effects of statins on other infections i.e. sepsis and community acquire pneumonia including Dr. Vandermeer’s study in 2012 suggesting that “statin use may be associated with reduced mortality in patients hospitalized with influenza”. Statins have lipid-lowering effects but they also exhibit anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. For lack of a better image, I think of statins as acting like a ‘big hammer made of Jell-O’: they have a broad, small dampening effect on immune response (as opposed to a narrow or deep effect).
Author Interviews, OBGYNE / 01.11.2015

Anick Bérard PhD FISPE Research chair FRQ-S on Medications and Pregnancy Director, Réseau Québécois de recherche sur le médicament (RQRM) Professor, Research Chair on Medications, Pregnancy and Lactation Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montreal Director, Research Unit on Medications and Pregnancy Research Center CHU Ste-JustineMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anick Bérard PhD FISPE Research chair FRQ-S on Medications and Pregnancy Director, Réseau Québécois de recherche sur le médicament (RQRM) Professor, Research Chair on Medications, Pregnancy and Lactation Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montreal Director, Research Unit on Medications and Pregnancy Research Center CHU Ste-Justine Medical Research:  Should we have any reservations about prescribing these macrolides during pregnancy? Dr. Bérard: With penicillin, macrolides are amongst the most used medications in the general population and in pregnancy. However, debate remained on whether it is the infections or in fact the macrolides used to treat them that put women and their unborn child at greater risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including birth defects. Our study was performed within the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort, one of the largest pregnancy cohorts in the World, and did not find a statistically significant association between macrolide use (a widely used class of antibiotics) during pregnancy and the risk of malformations. When looking at specific types of macrolides, no association was found between azithromycin, clarithromycin or erythromycin use during the first trimester of pregnancy and the risk of major malformations or cardiac malformations. This is reassuring when treating infections during pregnancy.
Asthma, Author Interviews, Immunotherapy, Pediatrics / 31.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18959" align="alignleft" width="135"]Stephen J. Teach, MD, MPH Chair, Department of Pediatrics Children's National Health System Washington, DC Dr. Stephen Teach[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stephen J. Teach, MD, MPH Chair, Department of Pediatrics Children's National Health System Washington, DC  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Teach: Inner-city children aged 6 to 17 years with moderate to severe asthma continue to experience exacerbations at high rates during the fall season despite therapy which follows the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health. These exacerbations are most common among children with a history of prior exacerbations and sensitivities to common indoor allergens who develop an upper respiratory infection with the common cold virus (rhinovirus). The PROSE study found that treatment with omalizumab begun 4 to 6 weeks before the children return to school, significantly reduced exacerbations of asthma in the first 90 days of the school year. This effect was most dramatic among those children who had experienced an exacerbation in the months preceding the beginning of the school year. Omalizumab is an antibody which binds and deactivates the IgE antibody. The IgE antibody serves as the basis for allergic sensitivity.
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Technology / 31.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anuradha Godavarty PhD and Dr. Sarah J Erickson-Bhatt PhD Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University Miami, FL Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It is well known that early detection and staging of breast cancer is crucial in order to save lives. While the current gold standard for breast cancer screening is x-ray mammography, this method still misses many cancers especially in younger women with denser tissue. Our group and others have explored diffuse optical tomography using near-infrared light to image breast tumors. We have developed a unique optical imager with a hand-held probe that can contour to breast curvature in order to image the tissue without painful compression and without ionizing radiation (like x-rays). This study demonstrated the ability of the device to detect lesions in breast cancer patients due to elevated levels of total hemoglobin concentration in tumor vasculature. The hand-held has a potential to not only image the breast contours, but the probe was flexible to image the surrounding chest wall regions, thus expanding its application to image lymphatic spread as well.
Author Interviews, Emergency Care, OBGYNE, Primary Care / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18885" align="alignleft" width="192"]Alfred Sacchetti, M.D. Department of Emergency Medicine Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, NJ Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA Dr. Sacchetti[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alfred Sacchetti, M.D. Department of Emergency Medicine Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden, NJ Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Sacchetti: Much of the value of the "Affordable Care Act" is based on the concept that a primary care provider will limit the need for Emergency Department visits.  Unfortunately, this has never been proven, particularly for women's health issues. The purpose of our study was to determine if a relationship with a primary care provider did limit the need to access Emergency Department services. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Sacchetti: What our results demonstrated was that patients with a primary care Obstetrical / Gynecologic provider utilized the emergency department to the same extent as patients without a documented primary OB/GYN relationship.   Patients with women's health issues still required the services of the ED, even with an established primary care provider.  What was very interesting was that Emergency Department use was not restricted to off hours in the evenings and on weekends.  In fact the use of the ED occurred as much during the 9-5 hours on the weekdays as it did during other times.  The majority of the ED visits were for ambulatory complaints, with most patients being discharged to home after their care.
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Diabetes, Heart Disease / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18935" align="alignleft" width="157"]Dr. Yung-Tai Chen MD Division of Nephrology Department of Medicine Taipei City Hospital Heping Fuyou Branch Taipei, Taiwan Dr. Yung-Tai Chen[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Yung-Tai Chen MD Division of Nephrology Department of Medicine Taipei City Hospital Heping Fuyou Branch Taipei, Taiwan Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Chen: Recent studies concluded that dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors can provide glycemic control but also raised concerns about the risk of heart failure in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). However, large-scale studies of the effects of DPP-4 inhibitors versus sulfonylureas (SUs) on cardiovascular outcomes when used as add-ons to metformin therapy remain scarce. Our study showed that compared to SUs, DPP-4 inhibitors were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, stroke and hypoglycemia as an add-on to metformin. Besides, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors had comparable risks of hospitalization for heart failure to sulfonylureas as add-ons to metformin.
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Electronic Records, Heart Disease / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18882" align="alignleft" width="120"]Jonathan R. Enriquez, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Cardiology University of Missouri- Kansas City Director, Coronary Care Unit Truman Medical Center Dr. Enriquez[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonathan R. Enriquez, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Cardiology University of Missouri- Kansas City Director, Coronary Care Unit Truman Medical Center  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Enriquez:  
  • In 2009, U.S. legislation appropriated tens of billions of dollars to promote the use of electronic health records (EHRs).
  • Approximately 4 million hospitalizations for cardiovascular diagnoses occur annually in the U.S., which are more hospitalizations than for any other category of disease.  Therefore, evaluating the use of EHRs in these settings can help us understand how to best optimize the care and outcomes of a huge set of patients.
Antibiotic Resistance, Author Interviews, Dermatology, NYU/NYMC, Pharmacology / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18899" align="alignleft" width="185"]Arielle Nagler MD Instructor, Department of Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology NYU Langone Medical Center Dr. Nagler[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Arielle Nagler MD Instructor, Department of Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology NYU Langone Medical Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study of acne patient who eventually require isotretinoin? Dr. Nagler: Isotretinoin is a highly effective medication for the treatment of severe acne. In fact, it is the only medication that has been shown to provide patients with a durable cure for acne. However, its use is limited by its known teratogenicity as well as controversies regarding its relationship with psychiatric disturbances and inflammatory bowel disease. For many patients, systemic antibiotics provide an effective treatment for inflammatory acne. However, antibiotics do not provide the long term clearance that isotretinoin provides. Moreover, antibiotics are getting increasing attention due to fears of emerging bacterial resistance. There has been a recent emphasis on limiting antibiotic use in acne. As a result, this study sought to understand antibiotic use patterns amongst patients who eventually received isotretinoin. 
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, End of Life Care, Nursing / 30.10.2015

Dr-Hsien-SeowMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Hsien Seow, PhD Associate Professor Department of Oncology Cancer Care Ontario Research Chair in Health Services Research Associate Member, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics McMaster University Canadian Institutes of Health Research Young Investigator Hamilton, Ontario Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Seow: Despite being commonplace in healthcare systems, little research has described the effectiveness of publicly-provided generalist homecare nursing to reduce unnecessary acute care use at end-of-life, such as emergency department (ED) visits. It is also unclear how homecare nursing intent, which varies by standard care or end-of-life, affects this relationship. Our study examined a population-based cohort of cancer decedents in Ontario, Canada who used homecare nursing in their last six months of life. Specifically, we examined the relationship between homecare nursing rate in a given week on the ED visit rate in the subsequent week. In our cohort of 54,576 decedents, there was a temporal association between receiving end-of-life nursing in a given week during the last six months of life, and of more standard nursing in the last month of life, with a reduced ED rate in the subsequent week. Homecare nursing for those who are receving end of life care will find that it can provide immediate assistance when needed.
Author Interviews, Orthopedics, Pediatrics / 30.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alex L. Gornitzky Medical Student and Theodore J. Ganley, M.D. Director of Sports Medicine, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Currently, more than half of all high school students participate in organized athletics, and with increasing participation the incidence of ACL injury and subsequent reconstruction are also rising. Furthermore, researchers also know that adolescent and high school athletes have a number of unique risk factors that differentially affect their ACL injury risk profile as compared to older and/or more experienced athletes. To our knowledge, however, no previous studies have described sport-specific seasonal risk for ACL tears in the high school athlete by gender and by sport. More specifically, parents and athletes currently have no available information to more accurately define what their personal risk is for such an important and devastating injury. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to pool data from across the literature in order to objectively quantify an average high school athlete’s risk for ACL injury per season across a variety of varsity-level sports. If a student is injured while playing sports and the school doesn't deal with the injury correctly then it could make the issue worse. This is why it is important for schools to correctly identify is the player has suffered an ACL injury. If you have suffered an injury at school that wasn't properly dealt with then you may want to check out someone like these new york personal injury lawyers to see if you can get compensation. This study will hopefully help students see the risk of them getting an injury meaning they can take measures to prevent one happening to them. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Response: Overall, there is an approximately 1.6 times greater rate of ACL tear per athletic exposure in high school female athletes as compared to males. On a per-season basis, the highest risk sports in females were soccer, basketball and lacrosse at 1.1%, 0.9% and 0.5% risk of ACL tear per athletic season. Comparatively, in males, the highest risk sports were football, lacrosse and soccer at 0.8%, 0.4% and 0.3% risk of ACL tear per athletic season. Looking further at the year-round, multi-sport athlete, this may correspond to either a 2.5% risk per-year or 10% risk per high school career for the female athlete who participates in soccer, basketball and lacrosse, or 1% and 4%, respectively, for the male athlete who plays football, basketball and baseball.
Alcohol, Author Interviews, Smoking / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18932" align="alignleft" width="120"]Mahesh Thakkar, Ph.D. Associate professor and director of research School of Medicine's Department of Neurology Missouri University Dr. Thakkar[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mahesh Thakkar, Ph.D. Associate professor and director of research School of Medicine's Department of Neurology Missouri University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Thakkar: It is well known that “smokers drink and drinkers smoke.” The question is why. In our previous research, we had observed that alcohol promotes sleepiness by inhibiting the brain region known as the basal forebrain. So we asked, “Does nicotine override alcohol-induced inhibition and activate the basal forebrain?” This study was performed to address these questions. The main finding of this study is that nicotine, when co-used with alcohol, attenuates alcohol-induced sleepiness by overriding alcohol-induced inhibition of the basal forebrain region.
Author Interviews, Weight Research / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18929" align="alignleft" width="142"]Joshua H. West, Ph.D., MPH Department of Health Science Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 Dr. West[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joshua H. West, Ph.D., MPH Department of Health Science Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. West: Americans consume too much food. Yet most of our focus is on the qualitative aspects of food. Overconsumption of ‘good’ food can also negative outcomes. Most diets are confusing, costly to the individual, and difficult to adhere to. Even counting calories can be cumbersome and time-consuming. We found that participants lost weight by prioritizing worrying less about what they were eating and simply reducing how much they were eating, as estimated using a bite counting method.
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Neurological Disorders, Radiology / 30.10.2015

Dr-Lise-EliotMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lise Eliot PhD Associate Professor of Neuroscience Chicago Medical School Rosalind Franklin University North Chicago, IL 60064    Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Eliot: The hippocampus participates in many behaviors that differ between men and women, such as episodic memory, emotion regulation, and spatial navigation.  Furthermore, the hippocampus is known to atrophy in diseases such as depression, anxiety disorders, and Alzheimer's disease, all of which are more prevalent in women.  It is conceivable that a premorbid difference in hippocampal volume contributes to females' greater vulnerability.  In the scientific literature, the hippocampus is often said to be proportionally larger in females than males.  We set out to test this by doing a systematic review of the literature for hippocampal volumes in matched samples of healthy males and females, measured using structural MRI data collected from over 6000 participants of all ages.
Author Interviews, CDC, Cost of Health Care, HPV, Vaccine Studies / 30.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18919" align="alignleft" width="300"]Shannon Stokley, MPH Epidemiologist in the CDC Immunization Services Division Shannon Stokley MPH[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Shannon Stokley, MPH Epidemiologist in the CDC Immunization Services Division Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: To determine whether the recommended HPV vaccination series is currently being administered to adolescents with health insurance, CDC and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) assessed 2013 data from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS). The HEDIS HPV Vaccine for Female Adolescents performance measure evaluates the proportion of female adolescent members in commercial and Medicaid health plans who complete the recommended HPV vaccination series by age 13 years. In 2013, in the United States, the median HPV vaccination coverage level for female adolescents among commercial and Medicaid plans was 12% and 19%, respectively (ranges = 0%–34% for commercial plans, 5%–52% for Medicaid plans). The results of this study indicate that there are significant opportunities for improvement as HPV vaccination coverage among female adolescents was low for both commercial and Medicaid plans.
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Health Care Systems, Outcomes & Safety, Stroke / 29.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18912" align="alignleft" width="169"]Mathew J. Reeves BVSc, PhD, FAHA Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 Prof. Reeves[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mathew J. Reeves BVSc, PhD, FAHA Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Reeves: The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is the single most important prognostic factor in predicting outcomes of individual stroke patients. NIHSS data is obviously important at the patient level but also at a hospital level since the case mix of stroke patients are assumed to vary widely across different hospitals and referral centers. Measuring stroke outcomes at a hospital level is becoming increasingly important as work proceeds in the US to develop integrated stroke systems of care. But it is also very relevant to the new payment models being introduced by CMS which are based on hospital rankings that are developed from statistical risk adjustment models. One would expect that NIHSS would be a major contributor to these models but currently a major limitation is that NIHSS is incompletely documented in clinical registries such as GWTG-Stroke, and is completely absent from administrative data. The problem of missing NIHSS data plays havoc with the ability to risk adjust stroke outcomes across hospitals. Missing data results is a smaller number of stroke cases being included in the risk adjusted calculations for a given hospital which results in greater uncertainty over what the actual hospital outcomes are. Further there is concern that NIHSS data is not missing at random, and so the NIHSS data that is documented may represent a biased selection of all the cases that a hospital admits. This too could have important consequences for hospital rankings. To determine the degree of potential bias in the documentation of NIHSS data this study examined trends in and predictors of documentation of NIHSS across 10 years of data (2003-2012) in the GWTG-Stroke program.
Author Interviews, Education, Pediatrics / 29.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18908" align="alignleft" width="135"]Chadi El Saleeby, MD. MS. Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Pediatric Infectious Disease Units Mass. General Hospital for Children Boston, MA 02114 Dr. El Saleeby[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chadi El Saleeby, MD. MS. Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Pediatric Infectious Disease Units Mass. General Hospital for Children Boston, MA 02114  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. El Saleeby: The Institute of Medicine, the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, and the American Board of Pediatrics stress the importance of appropriate supervision of trainees to reduce errors, lower patient mortality, and improve quality of care.  However, how appropriate supervision should be implemented in clinical practice is not well defined. After-hours supervision can be especially difficult when attendings or fellows may not be immediately available on-site and residents must determine when to contact a supervising physician regarding a clinical issue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate expectations when a pediatric resident should a contact a supervising physician while working after hours. To that effect, we developed 34 scenarios of the most common or the most serious issues encountered by residents on a general pediatric floor. We included these scenarios in an online survey, which was sent to the residents, fellows and attendings, asking for each scenario, if they would communicate immediately to discuss, or delay communication until the following day. There were two main findings of the study. First, in half of the scenarios, there were significant differences in communication preferences between residents and their supervisors. In all of these 17 discrepant scenarios without one single exception, more supervising clinicians wanted immediate communication compared to the residents. Second, there was no internal agreement between supervising physicians themselves. The junior attendings were more similar in their responses to residents while the more senior group (attendings with 5 or more years of clinical experience) asked to be immediately contacted much more frequently.
Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research / 29.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18904" align="alignleft" width="300"]Luke Rudmik, MD Division of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Department of Surgery University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada Dr. Luke  Rudmik[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Luke Rudmik, MD Division of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Department of Surgery University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Rudmik: The main findings were that patients with chronic sinusitis who have lower impairments in their quality of life can have their work productivity maintained with continuing medical therapy. Although there were no 'improvements' in the patients productivity with continuing medical therapy, it is important to note that patients in this study had better baseline quality of life and better baseline productivity compared to patients who chose to receive sinus surgery who had worse baseline quality of life and baseline productivity impairment.
Author Interviews, Cancer, Cancer Research, JAMA / 29.10.2015

Jiemin Ma, PhD, MHS Director of Surveillance and Health Services Research American Cancer SocietyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jiemin Ma, PhD, MHS Director of Surveillance and Health Services Research American Cancer Society Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ma: This study is an analysis of long-term trends in mortality for all causes combined and for 6 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), unintentional injuries, and diabetes, in the United States from 1969 through 2013. We found that death rates for all causes and for five of these 6 leading causes (except COPD) decreased during this time period, although the rate of decrease appears to have slowed for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. COPD death rates doubled during this time period, although the rate began to decrease in men since 1999.
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Weight Research / 29.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mirna Azar MD Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism University of Ottawa Weight Management Clinic The Ottawa Hospital Ottawa, ON, Canada  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Azar: Previous studies have shown an association between beta-blockers and weight gain but little is known about the effect of beta-blockers on weight loss. Here we demonstrate that patients treated with beta-blockers exhibit a reduced ability to lose weight in response to a standardized 900 kcal meal replacement program. From a database of 3,582 patients who participated in a 6-week 900 kcal/day Optifast meal replacement weight loss program, 173 patients were on beta-blockers. We determined differences in rate of weight loss and changes in waist circumference in the first 6 weeks of meal replacement program in these subjects as compared to controls, matched for sex, age and initial weight and to the entire population with adjustment for age, sex, initial body weight, ACE inhibitor and diuretic therapy and existing cardiovascular disease. In comparison with matched controls, beta-blocker treated subjects lost a mean of 0.67 kg less than their matched controls (P = 0.01) and their percent weight loss was 0.6% lower (P = 0.0001). Differences were also noted for changes in waist circumference (-24.2 vs -25.2 cm, P= 0.04). Findings were not altered after adjustment for cardiovascular indications for beta-blocker therapy.
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Education, JAMA / 29.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18889" align="alignleft" width="142"]Vinay Prasad, MD MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Hematology Oncology in the Knight Cancer Institute Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Senior Scholar in the Center for Health Care Ethics Oregon Health and Sciences University Portland, Oregon 97239 Dr. Prasad[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vinay Prasad, MD MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Hematology Oncology in the Knight Cancer Institute Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Senior Scholar in the Center for Health Care Ethics Oregon Health and Sciences University Portland, Oregon 97239   Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Prasad: We wanted to get some information about when and which cancer drugs were called "game changer" or "breakthrough" or "revolutionary".  What we found was surprising.  The use of these grandiose terms, or superlatives, was common in news articles.  They occurred across many classes of medication, were used for approved and unapproved drugs, and some of the use was questionable.
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Infections, Surgical Research / 29.10.2015

Emily Toth Martin, Ph.D. MPH Assistant Professor, Epidemiology University of Michigan School of Public HealthMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily Toth Martin, Ph.D. MPH Assistant Professor, Epidemiology University of Michigan School of Public Health  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Surgical site infections are responsible for billions in health care costs in the U.S. We are working to identify groups of people who are particularly impacted by surgical site infections. By looking at the results of 94 studies, we were able to take a 60,000 foot view of the connection between diabetes and surgical site infection. We found that diabetes raises the risk of infection across many types of surgeries.
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Cost of Health Care, End of Life Care / 28.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18871" align="alignleft" width="130"]Amy S. Kelley, MD, MSHS Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY Dr. Kelley[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Amy S. Kelley, MD, MSHS Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY Medical Research: Why is it so important to understand the financial burdens families may face in providing end-of-life care for a loved one and why do you think the burdens may be greater for dementia than for other medical conditions? Dr. Kelley: Understanding the financial risks that older adults face in the last years of life is important for individuals and families, in order to plan and save, if possible. It is also important for our policy makers, in particular, to know about these costs so that this information can help shape health and social policy that will best serve our society. Households of those with dementia face the greatest burden of costs, on average, particularly with regard to out-of-pocket expenses and the costs of caregiving.  Many costs related to daily care for patients with dementia are not covered by health insurance, and these care needs, including everything from supervision, to bathing and feeding, may span several years.
Author Interviews, Diabetes, NEJM / 28.10.2015

Marcus Lind, M.D., Ph.D Department of Medicine, Uddevalla Hospital Uddevalla, Swede MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marcus Lind, M.D., Ph.D Department of Medicine, Uddevalla Hospital Uddevalla, Swede Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Lind:  One of the main goals of the diabetes care is to reduce excess mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes close to that of the general population. We want patients to have a similar life expectancy as individuals in the general population. Earlier studies have shown that targeting good glucose levels, blood lipid and blood pressure levels are beneficial with respect to decrease cardiovascular disease being the main cause for mortality. We wanted to evaluate the prognosis for individuals with type 2 diabetes today in Sweden. Further, earlier population-based studies have generally assessed mortality rates only on a group level whereas we believe the prognosis differs greatly depending on various factors such as how well risk factor control is obtained in clinical practice. The Swedish Diabetes Registry include more than 90% of all individuals with type 2 diabetes in Sweden and information of e.g. the glycaemic control, measured by a biomarker called A1c exists for most persons. There were 97% who had at least 1 measurement. Also most patients had information of other risk factors, among others renal complications which we believed were of special concern. 
Alcohol, Author Interviews, Pediatrics / 28.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_19063" align="alignleft" width="133"]Heather Fay, MHS Program Services FCD Educational Services Newton, MA Heather Fay MHS[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Heather Fay, MHS Program Services FCD Educational Services Newton, MA Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was conducted by FCD Prevention Works, an international non-profit focused on school-based, substance abuse prevention. Using FCD’s database of over 50,000 6th-12th grade student survey responses, we sought to explore the relationship between parental permission of student substance use and negative consequences related to substance use. We compared student alcohol and other drug use in the home, with or without a parent’s knowledge, to students’ self-reported negative consequences related to their own alcohol use. As might be expected, students who used alcohol or other drugs at home without their parents knowing were more likely to report negative consequences in the past 12 months related to their alcohol own use. Students who used at home with their parents knowing were protected against some negative consequences. These students were less likely than students who did not report this behavior to feel guilty about their drinking or regret something they did while drinking. However, these same students were at an increased risk of experiencing negative consequences related to addiction. These consequences included those which are indicative of a mounting dependency on alcohol, such as needing a drink or other drug first thing in the morning, using alcohol or other drugs alone, passing out because of drinking, and getting hurt or injured as a direct result of their alcohol use.
Alcohol, Author Interviews, Pediatrics / 28.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel J. Dickson, M.A. Graduate Student and Brett Laursen PhD Department of Psychology Florida Atlantic University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: With age, adolescents spend more time with peers, and engage in drinking behaviors at increasing levels. In particular, girls who reach puberty at earlier ages than their peers are at higher risk for abusing alcohol. This may be because early maturing girls seek out the company of older more mature peers, ​who have greater access to alcohol and (in the case of those prone to delinquency) may be more welcoming to younger girls who are having difficulties with agemates. Our study investigates the association between changes in parental autonomy granting and girls’ alcohol abuse over a three year period (ages 13-16), as a function of timing of pubertal maturation.
Author Interviews, Geriatrics, Infections / 28.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18860" align="alignleft" width="225"]Christian Hammer, PhD École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Lausanne, Switzerland Clinical Neuroscience Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine Göttingen, Germany Dr. Hammer[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christian Hammer, PhD École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Lausanne, Switzerland Clinical Neuroscience Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine Göttingen, Germany Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hammer: The immune response after viral infection or vaccination varies considerably from person to person, which is important because these differences can account for clinical outcome or vaccine effectiveness. It has been shown before that part of this variability is heritable, indicating the possibility that differences in our genes might be involved. To test this, we performed a genome-wide association study in more than 2,300 individuals, using high-performance computing to analyze whether differences in the abundance of antibodies against 14 common viruses are caused by variable sites in our genome. We looked at about 6 million of these variants and found that a region on chromosome 6 that harbors many genes involved in immune regulation showed highly significant associations with immune response to influenza A virus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), JC polyomavirus, and Merkel Cell polyomavirus. The genetic variants result in structural differences in proteins whose job it is to present fragments of pathogens that have been taken up by cells to the immune system. Interestingly, a given variant can lead to an increased immune response to one virus, e.g. influenza A, and at the same time to a decreased immune response to another, e.g. EBV, which is likely due to an altered ability of the protein to bind and present specific viruses, depending on the genetic background.
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer / 28.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18857" align="alignleft" width="130"]Dr. Paolo Boffetta, MD, MPH Professor, Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Oncological Services, Preventive Medicine, Associate Director, Population Sciences Tish Cancer Institute, Chief, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Dr. Boffetta[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Paolo Boffetta, MD, MPH Professor, Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Oncological Services, Preventive Medicine, Associate Director, Population Sciences Tish Cancer Institute, Chief, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Boffetta: Evidence of a protective effect of breastfeeding on breast cancer risk is becoming stronger; hence the need for a systematic review and meta-analysis. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Boffetta: Breastfeeding appears to be protective against breast cancer, in particular the most aggressive forms (hormone receptor negative and in particular ‘triple negative’).
Author Interviews, Opiods, Pain Research / 28.10.2015

[caption id="attachment_18854" align="alignleft" width="133"]Richard L. Rauck, M.D. Director of Carolinas Pain Institute Winston Salem, NC Dr. Richard Rauck[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Richard L. Rauck, M.D. Director of Carolinas Pain Institute Winston Salem, NC Medical Research: How large is the problem of chronic pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for whom alternative treatment options are inadequate? Dr. Rauck: Chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans - more than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. It is the most common cause of long-term disability, costing the U.S. billions of dollars annually in medical costs and lost wages and productivity.   Medical Research: What are the main medical conditions associated with this type of pain?  Dr. Rauck: A National Institute of Health Statistics survey indicated that low back pain is the most common cause of chronic pain (27%), followed by severe headache or migraine pain (15%), neck pain (15%) and facial ache or pain (4%).