Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, Nutrition / 22.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zhilei Shan PhD Postdoctoral fellow on Nutritional Epidemiology Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Long-standing controversies have focused on the health consequences of dietary fat and carbohydrate. Previous evidence has shown that different types of carbohydrates and fats have varying effects on disease risk and health. For example, carbohydrates from refined grains and added sugars may contribute to insulin resistance and other metabolic problems while carbohydrates from whole grains and whole fruits appear to be beneficial. Likewise, replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat was associated with lower risk of heart disease and mortality. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate quality and types of carbohydrate and fat when investigating the associations of low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets with mortality. (more…)
Author Interviews, Depression, Dermatology, Pediatrics / 21.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jonathan L. Silverberg MD PhD MPH Director of Clinical Research and Contact Dermatitis Associate Professor of Dermatology George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Washington, DC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We previously found that children from single parent families, and unsafe or unsupportive neighborhoods are more likely to have atopic dermatitis. Parents in these settings may experience greater psychosocial distress and higher rates of depression in the post-partum period and beyond. As such, we sought to understand the relationship of maternal depression with atopic dermatitis in their children. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Gender Differences, Genetic Research / 21.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alejandro Cáceres PhD Juan R. González, PhD Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) Barcelona, Spain. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Men have more risk and worse prognosis to cancer than women. There are many environmental factors but also biological differences. We find that the loss of function of six genes (DDX3Y, EIF1AY, KDM5D, RPS4Y1, UTY and ZFY) in chromosome Y is one of the biological factors for the differences between sexes in relation to cancer risk and prognosis.  (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, Nutrition, Sugar / 21.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Winterdahl PhD Associate Professor in Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center Aarhus University, Denmark  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Opioids and dopamine mediate the rewarding effects of drugs. We aimed to determine whether the intake of palatable food could lead to changes in the brain similar to those triggered by addictive substances, so we studied the effects of repeated intermittent access to sugar on opioid and dopamine receptors in porcine brain using neuroimaging. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, Columbia, Heart Disease, JACC / 21.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ersilia DeFilippis, MD Second-year cardiology fellow Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Marijuana use has been increasing significantly and is the most commonly illicit drug used in the United States. In recent years, more states have been legalizing its use for both recreational and medicinal purposes. We have all seen news reports regarding the rise of vaping-related health hazards. Yet, data are limited regarding the cardiovascular effects of marijuana which is what drove us to explore this topic. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Global Health / 20.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Andrea On Yan LUK (陸安欣) Associate Professor, Department of Medicine & Therapeutics Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Specialist in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Honorary Associate Consultant, Hospital Authority MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The overall mortality in people with diabetes has declined in many developed countries but little is known about the mortality trend in Asia. In this study, we examined the trend in mortality rates using a territory-wide database of 770,000 people with diabetes in Hong Kong. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Genetic Research, PNAS / 20.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Per Engzell PhD Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Felix C. Tropf, PhD Assistant Professor in Social Science Genetics, CREST-ENSAE, Paris
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We know that parents and offspring often resemble each other in their socio-economic outcomes: higher-educated parents tend to have children who reach a similar level of education while children of disadvantaged families struggle in school. To the extent that this compromises equality of opportunity – that is, some children end up better educated only because of their social background – social policies aim to compensate for it and promote social mobility. At the same time, not all similarity between parents and offspring can be seen as equally troubling. A society that blocked entry to university for any child born to academics would achieve high mobility, but few of us would see it as a model of equal opportunity. So some channels of transmission then, it seems, are more fair than others. Although we may disagree where to draw the line, things like parents’ ability to pay for good neighborhoods, schools, or access to college appear clearly more troubling than the inheritance of traits that make for educational success. In this study, we ask whether societies that have achieved a high degree of intergenerational mobility have done so by limiting the reach of "nature" (inherited traits), "nurture" (other family advantages), or both. We do so by combining the rich literatures of social mobility research and behavior genetics, comparing variation across several cohorts of men and women in 10 countries.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Cognitive Issues / 20.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Annelise Madison Lead author of the study Graduate Student in Clinical Psychology Ohio State MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Recently, there have been some reports of cognitive problems among those using proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Some breast cancer survivors use PPIs during and after treatment to manage gastrointestinal side effects of cancer treatment or to prevent damage to the gut lining. We were interested in whether PPI use among breast cancer survivors related to cognitive problems. We conducted secondary analyses on data from three studies with breast cancer survivors. We found that breast cancer survivors taking PPIs reported cognitive problems that were between 20-29% worse than those reported by non-users. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care, JAMA / 18.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Evan M. Graboyes, MD Surveillance and Health Services Research American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia Department of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior studies have shown that Medication Expansions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) are associated with a decrease in uninsured individuals and increases in the percentage of nonelderly patients diagnosed with localized (stage I-II) cancer, primarily for cancers for which effective screening tests exist. Because no screening test exists for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), access to care for physical examination and tissue-based biopsy- and thus health insurance coverage- are critical for the timely recognition of symptoms, early disease stage at diagnosis, and treatment initiation. However, the downstream association of changes in health insurance coverage following Medicaid expansion under the ACA with stage at diagnosis and time to treatment initiation, key metrics for access to care for HNSCC, remain unknown. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pain Research / 17.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rafael Maldonado Lopez MD PhD Full professor Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Endometriosis is a common, chronic and painful disease caused when the endometrium grows outside of the uterine cavity. These growths mainly affect organs in the pelvis causing pain and infertility, symptoms that are often accompanied with anxiety, depression, loss of working ability, and a substantial impact on quality of life. Current treatments include hormonal therapy and surgery, but the effectiveness of these treatments is rather limited, often have important unwanted side effects, and patients usually rely on self-management strategies. Therefore, there is an urgent need for researching new possible therapeutic approaches.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Gastrointestinal Disease, JAMA / 17.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Paul Young MBChB, BSc (Hons), FCICM Medical Director of the Wakefield Hospital ICU Head of the Intensive Care Research Unit Wellington Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the intensive care unit (ICU) in the world.   Many, if not most, prescriptions of PPIs in the ICU are for stress ulcer prophylaxis.  Although PPIs are used most widely for this indication, histamine-2 receptor blockers (H2RBs) are used in preference to PPIs in some ICUs.  This practice variation, which appears to be largely dependent on clinician preference rather than based on patient-specific factors, has continued for decades.  The PPIs vs. H2RBs for Ulcer Prophylaxis Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit (PEPTIC) trial results raise the possibility that PPIs, the most commonly used medicines for stress ulcer prophylaxis, may be responsible for a clinically important increase in the risk of death that, in global health terms could equate to many tens of 1000s of deaths per year. (more…)
Author Interviews, Beth Israel Deaconess, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 17.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John Danziger, MD Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, Nephrology Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Racial health disparities have long been described, extending even into the highest levels of medical care, namely the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Accordingly, we wanted to know whether improvements in ICU care seen over the last decade are equally observed in minority and non-minority serving hospitals. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Surgical Research / 17.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Juan P. Herrera-Escobar, MD, MPH Research Director, Long-term Outcomes in Trauma Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital Instructor in Surgery, Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Firearm injuries are a pressing public health problem in the United States. Until now, most of the research on this problematic has focused on mortality, which of course is critical, but is only one piece of the story. For every person who dies from a firearm injury, three survive every year. As trauma systems continue to improve and save more lives every year, our attention should start shifting to the impact that firearm injuries have on survivors.  (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 16.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP Director of The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute Mount Sinai Health System Vice Chair for Research Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science Associate Dean for Academic Development Professor Department of Population Health Science and Policy Icahn Mount Sinai, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous research has demonstrated racial and ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity rates in hospitals and that between-hospital differences -- i.e., Black and Latina mothers receiving care at hospitals with worse outcomes -- explain a sizable portion of these disparities.  However, less attention has been paid to within-hospital disparities -- whether Black and Latina mothers have worse outcomes than White mothers who deliver in the SAME hospital. In this paper, we set out to measure within-hospital racial and ethnic disparities and to evaluate the potential contribution of insurance type to these disparities.  Our study question was based on the observation that women with Medicaid can follow different care pathways than women with private insurance. Pregnant women insured by Medicaid are often seen by resident physicians with attending coverage that may differ from attending physicians caring for commercially insured women. In addition, Medicaid reimbursement for delivery hospitalization is far less than that for commercially insured.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Nature / 16.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Augusto Villanueva Rodriguez, MD, PhD Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There is limited understanding of the extent of molecular heterogeneity in liver cancer. This cancer is the second most lethal tumor and the fourth cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Most patients diagnosed at advanced stages have a dismal survival, as most of them will develop resistance to systemic therapies. One of the potential mechanisms for this relates to the presence of different tumor clones within the same tumor nodule. This heterogeneity has been barely studied in liver cancer and our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the extent and potential clinical implications of intra-tumoral heterogeneity (ITH) in liver cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research, Weight Research / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anita P. Courcoulas MD, MPH, FACS Anthony M. Harrison MD Chair and Professor of Surgery Chief, MIS Bariatric & General Surgery University of Pittsburgh Medical Center  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Fewer published studies in bariatric surgery address long term adverse outcomes or problems that can occur after different operations.  In addition, a lack of standardized reporting of potential adverse events limits the understanding of these issues. This paper results from one of the largest studies of bariatric surgery ever undertaken and includes both gastric bypass and gastric sleeve, the 2 most common operations performed in the U.S. and worldwide at the current time.  This study leverages large data sets from the electronic health record linked to insurance claims and death indices.  This is real-world data coming from a population-based cohort of 33,560 adults at 10 sites in 4 clinical data research networks throughout the U.S., so it may be different from data that accrues from a longitudinal observational study or randomized trial.  Patients and other important stakeholders in bariatric surgery were critical to the design, conduct, and dissemination of results from this study. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, MSc, FRCP The William Harvey Distinguished Chair in Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine Medical Director, Heart and Vascular Center Brigham and Women’s Hospital Executive Director Center for Advanced Heart Disease Brigham and Women’s Hospital Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School    MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Left Ventricular assist devices meaningfully prolong survival in patients with heart failure who are no longer responsive to guideline-directed medications. The MOMENTUM 3 trial tested a new generation device, the HeartMate 3 pump, to a more commonly used pump, the HeartMate II device. This trial showed the superiority of the new heart pump and found that survival free of a disabling stroke or need to place a second pump is improved considerably. In this prespecified analysis of the trial, we compared patients who were considered as eligible for transplantation to those considered ineligible for heart transplantation. We showed that these categories are associated with similar superiority of the HeartMate 3 pump compared to the control pump despite the categorization into these discrete buckets. (more…)
Author Interviews, Opiods / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Paul Christine, MD, PhD University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In an effort to increase employment and "community engagement" among Medicaid enrollees, several states are seeking to implement new Medicaid work requirements. While many proposals make exemptions for individuals with substance use disorders, some require active treatment to qualify for an exemption and maintain Medicaid eligibility. Since many enrollees with substance use disorder would thus need to access treatment to maintain coverage, we sought to quantify the availability of treatment resources in states with and without Medicaid work requirements. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Genetic Research / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Haining Zhu, PhD Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Frontotemporal dementia is the most common type of early onset dementia impacting people between ages 40 and 65. It affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which leads to behavior and personality changes, difficulty speaking and writing, and eventual memory deterioration. A subgroup of patients with frontotemporal dementia have a specific genetic mutation that prevents brain cells from making a protein called progranulin. Although progranulin is not well understood, its absence is linked to the disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lucia Diaz, M.D., is chief of pediatric dermatology, dermatology residency associate program director and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Dell Medical School. She is also co-director of the dermatology-rheumatology combined clinic at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Sasha Jaquez, Ph.D. is a pediatric psychologist at Dell Children's Medical School/Dell Children's Medical Center and specializes in seeing children with chronic medical illness, including skin disorders.     MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Trichotillomania (TTM) can be an extremely disabling chronic condition that impacts the psychosocial development of children. It is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, where a person recurrently pulls out hair from any region of their body resulting in hair loss. Recognizing this disorder and being informed of treatment options allows medical providers to correctly diagnose and intervene early in the disease course. We reviewed the psychosocial impacts of pediatric trichotillomania and the current evidence-based interventions used in the population.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Nutrition, Weight Research / 15.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Leigh Frame, PhD, MHS Director for the Integrative Medicine Program School of Medicine and Health Sciences George Washington University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: As food consumed in the U.S. becomes more and more processed, obesity may become more prevalent. Through reviewing overall trends in food, we concluded that detailed recommendations to improve diet quality and overall nutrition are needed for consumers, who are prioritizing food that is cheaper and more convenient, but also highly processed. When comparing the U.S. diet to the diet of those who live in "blue zones" - areas with populations living to age 100 without chronic disease - the differences are stark. Many of the food trends we reviewed are tied directly to a fast-paced U.S. lifestyle that contributes to the obesity epidemic we are now facing. (more…)
Author Interviews, Melanoma / 14.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Victoria Sanz-Moreno Professor of Cancer Cell Biology Cancer Research UK Senior Fellow and Cancer Research UK Werth Trust Fellow Barts Cancer Institute- a Cancer Research UK Centre of Excellence Queen Mary University of London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Malignant melanoma- a cancer of the skin- has very poor survival rates despite being at the forefront of personalised medicine. This is mostly due to therapy resistance. Our current study indicates that melanoma cells escape anti-cancer drugs by changing their internal skeleton (cytoskeleton) – opening up new therapeutic venues for melanoma. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nutrition, Supplements, UCSD / 14.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kellogg Parsons, MD, MHS Professor of Urology Moores UC San Diego Comprehensive Cancer Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Clinical guidelines for prostate cancer, circulated widely in the public domain, endorse the consumption of diets high in micronutrient-enriched vegetables. Drawing on expert opinion, epidemiological studies, and small preclinical experiments, these recommendations propose that vegetable-enriched diets may decrease cancer progression and death among prostate cancer survivors. However, data from randomized clinical trials focused on actionable clinical endpoints has been lacking. We utilized a specific behavioral intervention, grounded in the field of social psychology, to “nudge” patients with prostate cancer toward healthier food choices. The intervention is telephone-based, like a call center: patient-focused, convenient, and simple. (more…)
Author Interviews, Health Care Systems, JAMA, Social Issues / 14.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elizabeth Tung MD MS Section of General Internal Medicine Instructor of Medicine University of Chicago MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Medicare provides hospital ratings for all Medicare-certified hospitals in the U.S. based on quality metrics, including mortality, patient experience, hospital readmissions, and others. While ratings are important for comparing hospitals, there's been some concern that some of these quality metrics are outside a hospital's control, especially for hospitals taking care of vulnerable or socially complex patient populations. Take "timeliness of care" as a quality metric, for instance--this measure includes emergency room wait times. But in places that are medically underserved and have very few emergency rooms, these wait times will inevitably be much higher. What this means is that hospitals taking care of medically underserved populations end up getting lower quality ratings, even though they're addressing health disparities by filling an access gap. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research, Technology, University of Michigan / 13.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kyle Sheetz, MD Clinical Year 4 Resident, General Surgery Michigan Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There are concerns that robotic surgery is increasing for common surgical procedures with limited evidence and unclear clinical benefit. Prior studies describing the use of robotic surgery relied upon claims or billing data to identify robotic operations from laparoscopic or open ones. This may lead to inaccuracies as claims data may not provide specific codes for robotic operations. (more…)
Author Interviews, CMAJ, Hematology / 13.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stig E Bojesen Professor, chief physician, dr.med.sci. Dept of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev Gentofte Hospital Copenhagen University Hospital Department of Clinical Medicine University of Copenhagen MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Before this study, we did not know the value of an incidental finding of lymphopenia of an otherwise healthy individual from the general population. This is curious since lymphocyte count is a very simple measurement done almost every time you have a blood test done. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Emergency Care, Neurology / 10.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Simon Borghs MSc RWE Strategy Lead of Neurology UCB:  Union Chimique Belge MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Epilepsy is an episodic disease and so is associated with a more or less unpredictable occurrence of health care encounters. These encounters are costly and so reducing them, or their unpredictability, could be cost saving. The objective was to assess one half of this equation, that is the actual cost of those encounters to insurers. This could prompt insurers to consider addressing possible interventions in epilepsy to reduce the number of encounters (more…)
Author Interviews / 10.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Xinyan Wang Department of Epidemiology Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Disease Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Beijing,  China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Does the type of tea matter (green vs black etc.)? Response: Tea is one of the most popular beverages globally and has attracted great interest from both the public and scientific researchers due to its potential benefits for cardiovascular system and people’s general health as well. However, previous results from population-based studies remained inconsistent. Thus, we aimed to investigate the association between tea and cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of disease burden, using our unique long-term cohort data with multiple follow-up visits.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 09.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Naomi Y Ko, MD Director, Inpatient Medical Operations Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine Boston University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The background for this study is to help understand the association between risk of more advanced cancer in racial minorities and insurance.   (more…)