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Author Interviews, JAMA, Orthopedics, Vitamin D / 26.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robert Clarke MD, FRCP, FFPH, FFPHI, MSc, DCH Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) Nuffield Department of Population Health University of Oxford MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Approximately 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men aged 50 years or older will suffer from an osteoporotic fracture in their remaining lifetime. Hip fracture is the most serious type of osteoporotic fracture with an approximately 30% risk of death in the year following a hip fracture. Vitamin D is essential for optimal musculoskeletal health by promotion of calcium absorption, and mineralisation of osteoid tissue formation in bone and maintenance of muscle function. Low vitamin D status causes secondary hyperparathyroidism, bone loss and muscle weakness. Observational studies have reported that lower blood concentrations of vitamin D are associated with higher risks of falls and fractures. Combined supplementation with 800 IU/day vitamin D and 1200 mg/day calcium has been recommended for prevention of fractures in older adults living in institutions and in those with low vitamin D status. However, previous trials and meta-analyses of vitamin D alone, or in combination with calcium for prevention of fracture in either community-dwelling or general population settings reported conflicting results, with some reporting protective effects against fractures, but others demonstrated no beneficial effects. However, most of the previous trials had only limited power to detect differences in risk of fracture predicted by the observational studies, largely because of a combination of small sample size, relatively low equivalent daily doses of vitamin D, intermittent dosing regimens (>1 month), and short duration of follow-up. In addition, interpretation of the results of previous meta-analyses of such trials is complicated by use of variable inclusion criteria, inappropriate statistical methods, inclusion of multiple small trials with very few fracture events, in addition to failure to report achieved differences in blood 25(OH)D concentrations. We summarised the available evidence to guide clinical practice and future research, by conducting parallel meta-analyses of:
  • (i) observational studies of risks of fracture associated with prolonged differences in blood concentrations of 25(OH)D;
  • (ii) randomised trials of vitamin D alone versus placebo or no treatment for prevention of fracture; and
  • (iii) randomised trials of calcium and vitamin D versus placebo or no treatment for prevention of fracture.In addition, we reviewed the design of the ongoing randomised trials assessing the effects of higher doses of vitamin D alone or in combination with calcium for prevention of fracture.
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Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, Pediatrics / 20.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hongying (Daisy) Dai, PhD Associate Professor Department of Biostatistics | College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: E-cigarette use increased significantly from 2017 to 2019 among U.S. adolescents, and marijuana and other substances besides can be used in e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, restrictions on marijuana use have been relaxing and social acceptability of marijuana use is shifting among youth. This study analyzed 38,061 middle and high school students from the 2017 and 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods, Pediatrics, University of Michigan / 19.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kao-Ping Chua, MD PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Opioids are frequently prescribed to adolescents and young adults aged 12-21 years – in a recent study, 1 in 8 patients in this population were prescribed opioids during the year. At the same time, almost 30% of the 3000 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016 among adolescents and young adults involved prescription opioids. Given the frequency of opioid prescribing and the risk of overdose, it is important to understand how to prescribe opioids safely to adolescents and young adults. However, there have been few studies that examine which opioid prescribing patterns are associated with prescription opioid overdose in adolescents and young adults. Prior studies examining these patterns have focused on older adults, particularly U.S. Veterans, so the generalizability of these findings to younger populations is unclear. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA / 18.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John Breck, DO,  CAQSM Medical Services at University of Colorado, Boulder MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: To date, most concussion research has focused on sport-related concussion, though it is known that a substantial number of concussions occur outside of participating in sport. Focusing solely on sport-related concussion may result in an underestimation of the underlying incidence and prevalence of concussion in the general population and leads to the widely held perception that most concussions are sport-related. An understudied population at risk for concussion are United States undergraduate college students.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, USPSTF / 18.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Michael Barry MD Director of the Informed Medical Decisions Program Health Decision Sciences Center at Massachusetts General Hospital Physician at Massachusetts General Hospit Professor of Medicine,Harvard Medical School  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a bulge in the wall of the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the lower part of the body. While AAA often has no signs or symptoms, the aneurysms can grow silently and burst without warning, which can be deadly.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, JAMA, Nutrition / 18.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Mathilde Touvier, MPH, PhD Head of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team Dr Bernard Srour, PharmD, PhD Inserm, Inrae, University of Paris MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We found that for an increase of 10 in the percentage of ultra-processed food quantity in the diet, we had a significant 15% increase in Type 2 diabetes risk. We have already shown, in the NutriNet-Santé cohort, associations between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and overall cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular, coronary heart diseases risk, mortality and depressive symptoms. However, no prior study had studies the associations between ultra-processed food and Type 2 diabetes risk. We suspected that we would find these associations since some components of ultra-processed foods light have metabolic interactions with human health (some food additives for instance). (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cognitive Issues, JAMA, Supplements / 16.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pieter A. Cohen, MD Department of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance Somerville, Massachusetts Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There has been increasing interest in the use of over-the-counter supplements to help improve memory and cognitive function.  However, prior studies have suggested that these types of supplements might contain unapproved investigational drugs. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Ophthalmology, Rheumatology / 15.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robert Ritch, MD, FACS, FARVO Shelley and Steven Einhorn Distinguished Chair Professor of Ophthalmology, Surgeon Director Emeritus Chief, Glaucoma Services Emeritus The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai New York, NY 10003 Founder, Medical Director and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board The Glaucoma Foundation  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Nailfold capillaroscopy (NFC), long used in rheumatology is a new approach to investigation of glaucoma. Posterior to the nailbed and just anterior to the proximal nailfold is the cuticle, which has no structural elements visible to the naked eye. NFC is a non-invasive imaging modality that provides a highly magnified view of the capillaries at the nailfold of digits. It has also been used in ophthalmology to show morphological changes at the nailfold capillaries of POAG and XFG/XFS patients, helping to confirm the systemic nature of these diseases. With nailfold capillaroscopy, an extensive array of capillaries can be seen greatly enlarged on a monitor screen. Capillary loops can be imaged, stored, recorded with videoscopy, and blood flow actively imaged and measured.. The first series of papers on glaucoma were written by Prof Josef Flammer’s group at the turn of the 21st century, looking at vasospasm, blood flow in normal-tension and high-tension glaucoma, and relating ocular blood flow alterations to systemic vascular regulation and relating laser Doppler flowmetry to NFC. Studies from Korea later associated nailbed hemorrhages and loss of nailbed capillaries to the presence of optic disc hemorrhages and investigated correlation of of heart rate variability with visual field defects and nailfold capillaroscopy. Studies by our group began with the publication in 2015 of a paper by Pasquale et al (Nailfold Capillary Abnormalities in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma: A Multisite Study. IOVS;56:7021) using NFC video microscopy, associating dilated capillaries, avascular zones, and hemorrhages with primary open-angle glaucoma. Successive manuscripts and presentations at conferences have indicated differences between capillary loop patterns in high-tension and normal-tension POAG and exfoliation syndrome/exfoliation glaucoma. Our goal in this paper was to compare nailfold peripheral blood flow in XFG, which had not previously been compared to control subjects using NFC. We explored the peripheral blood flow at the nailfold of patients with high-tension glaucoma, normal-tension glaucoma, exfoliation glaucoma (XFG) and compared it to control subjects further evaluate the possible differences between these glaucoma entities. We examined the morphology and extent of nailfold capillary loops, vascular tortuosity, blood flow, and nailfold hemorrhages. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Dermatology, JAMA / 11.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lily Wang Student at University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  Impaired skin barrier and aberrant immune function in atopic dermatitis (AD) may impact immune response to malignancy. Conflicting data exist on the risk of cancer in patients with AD. The purpose of our study was to determine the risk of non-cutaneous and cutaneous cancers in patients with atopic dermatitis compared to the general population (i.e. without AD).  (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV, JAMA, Sexual Health, STD / 11.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason Ong, PhD, MMed, MBBS, FAChSHM, FRACGP Twitter: @DrJasonJOng Sexual Health Physician, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health Associate Professor (Hon), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Central Clinical School, Monash University, Australia Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia Associate Editor, Sexually Transmitted Infections Special Issues Editor, Sexual Health Board Director, ASHM   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is being rolled out globally. This will protect many people from HIV, however PrEP does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections (STI). So we wanted to quantify how much STIs are in PrEP users as a means to advocate to strengthen sexual health services in these settings where PrEP is being offered. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Primary Care / 11.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Julie Reiff BA Researcher Health Care Cost Institute  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior studies have attempted to define primary care spending and quantify such spending. Using definitions from the Milbank Memorial Fund, we used Health Care Cost Institute data to calculate primary care utilization and spending among those age 0-64 with employer-sponsored insurance. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, ENT, JAMA / 09.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Roman Povolotskiy MD Candidate '20 Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The idea for the study came from seeing a few patients with stories of their injuries related to cellphones. Aside from the now ubiquitous texting while driving, we also had patients who were dropping cellphones on their faces while texting in bed. We wanted to see how many head and neck injuries are related to these devices that we can’t seem to take out hands or eyes off of. The main findings were that the incidence of cell phone related injuries has seen a dramatic rise in the recent decade, starting around the time that smart phones really started to take off. We also found that this problem is most prevalent in the adolescent and young adult age groups. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Global Health, JAMA, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 09.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily Parker Hyle, M.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine Massachusetts General Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We found that many children who were planning to travel internationally were eligible for MMR vaccination prior to departure but often did not receive it - especially if they were aged 6 months to 6 years. That is because most children do not routinely receive their first dose of MMR till 12-15 months of age and their second dose of MMR till 4-6 years of age. However, ACIP recommendations are different for children who are traveling internationally. The risk of being infected with measles is much higher outside of the US, so it is recommended that children older than 1 year have had 2 MMR vaccinations and that children 6-12 months receive 1 MMR vaccination prior to travel. MMR vaccination is a safe and effective way to greatly reduce the risk of measles infection.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, JAMA, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Social Issues / 02.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lynn Blewett, PhD Mayo Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management Director, State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) University of Minnesota MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We used a new set of questions about patient's perspectives of cultural competence of their providers that was added to the National Health Interview Survey and accessed through the Minnesota Population Center IPUMS Health Surveys.   MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Response: Most patients (97%) report being treated with respect by their providers. BUT we also found important disparities.  Black or Hispanic (vs White), uninsured (vs insured), and low income (vs >200% FPL) individuals reported being treated with respect less often, viewed a shared culture as more important, and saw providers who shared culture less often. (more…)
Author Interviews, Depression, JAMA / 30.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Karina Pereira-Lima, PhD Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Questions regarding the magnitude and direction of the associations between physician depressive symptoms and medical errors remain open in recent literature. By pooling data from 11 studies involving 21,517 physicians, we were able to verify that depressive symptoms among physicians were associated with increased risk of reporting medical errors (RR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.63 – 2.33). (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, ENT, Hearing Loss, JAMA, Pediatrics / 30.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Carlijn M. P. le Clercq, MD Speech and Language Pathology, Pediatrics, Otolaryngology Erasmus MC, Rotterdam MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Recently, more reports have been publishes about the prevalence of slight to mild hearing loss among children in the general population. These studies showed that slight hearing loss is common, also within our population-based cohort in the Netherlands. Slight hearing loss is often scored as “not relevant”. We wanted to examine if we could find associations of hearing thresholds in children with performance scores in everyday life. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods / 27.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yong-Fang Kuo, PhD Professor and Director, Office of Biostatistics Don W. and Frances Powell Professor in Aging Research Mukaila Raji, MD, MS, FACP Professor & Director Edgar Gnitzinger Distinguished Professorship in Aging Preventive Medicine and Population Health UTMB Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Medicare beneficiaries who qualified because of disability constitute a growing population of patients hospitalized for opioid/heroin overdose. Although the CDC regularly generates reports of opioid overdose deaths by demographics and states, studies on policy actionable predictors of overdose mortality (e.g., clusters of medical and psychiatric conditions, types of disabling conditions) are lacking in this population.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods / 27.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH Director Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Center on Society and Health Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Distinguished Chair in Population Health and Health Equity Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Richmond, Virginia 23298-0212 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Life expectancy in the US has decreased for three years in a row, the first time this has occurred in this country since the Spanish flu epidemic a century ago. Meanwhile, life expectancy in other countries continues to climb. Our study found that the trend is being driven by an increase in death rates among working-age adults (ages 25-64 years), which began as early as the 1990s. The increase has involved deaths from drug overdoses—a major contributor—but also from alcoholism, suicides, and a long list of organ diseases. We found increases in 35 causes of death. We analyzed the trends across the 50 states and discovered that the trend is concentrated in certain regions, especially the Industrial Midwest (Rust Belt) and Appalachia, whereas other regions like the Pacific states were least affected. Increases in midlife mortality in four Ohio Valley states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky) accounted for one third of the excess deaths between 2010 and 2017. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA / 27.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James S. Goodwin, M.D. George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Medicine University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, TX  77555-0177James S. Goodwin, M.D. George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Medicine University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, TX  77555-0177 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Full time hospital doctors, called hospitalists, now provide the medical care for most patients hospitalized in the US. Depending on the hospital and also the hospitalist group, the working schedules of hospitalists can have vary greatly. For example, some might work 8 AM to 5PM for seven days followed by seven days off. Others might work 24 hours on and 72 hours off. Depending on the schedule of the hospitalists proving care, a patient  might have one or two or three or more different doctors proving care during their stay. Some patients see a new doctor each day. Our goal was to see if patients who received care from hospitalists who tended to work several days in a row did better than those who were cared for many different hospitalists with intermittent schedules. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Pain Research / 27.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Christoph Schankin Consultant Head University Headache Clinic Department of Neurology Inselspital, Bern University Hospital University of Bern MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Visual snow syndrome is a debilitating disorder with a continuous TV snow-like visual disturbance that persists over years. Patients have additional visual problems, such as severe afterimages, floaters or photophobia. The syndrome is associated with migraine and migraine aura, but the interaction between the two remains unclear. (more…)
Aging, Dermatology, JAMA / 26.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christian Sell, PhD Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Drexel University College of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In terms of background, the drug rapamycin targets a pathway that scientists know is critical for growth and development but is also a key regulator of lifespan in many model organisms such as worms, flies, and mice. This pathway is known as the mTOR pathway. Rapamycin is already in use clinically, it is given to people who have received organ transplants to prevent rejection and is also in trials to treat some forms of cancer, at very high doses. Many studies in mice have shown that rapamycin delays aging and prevents age-related disorders such as the decline in heart function and cognitive function. Based on this work, there is a strong expectation that these results will translate into humans, but no studies have been done due to concerns regarding potential side effects of rapamycin when the drug is given orally to prevent rejection. Our previous studies have shown that a very low dose of rapamcyin can reduce the aging of human cells and improve cell growth, while the high does used for organ transplant patients actually block cell growth.  We decided to test the impact of low dose rapamycin on aging in the skin because we could treat people safely. Previous studies have shown that the drug does not get into the blood stream when high doses were given topically to people with a rare genetic disorder, so we knew that the low doses used in our study would not get into the bloodstream and would be safe for the patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, JAMA / 26.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian S. Alper, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, FAMIA Board Certifications: Family Medicine, Clinical Informatics Founder of DynaMed Vice President of Innovations and Evidence-Based Medicine Development EBSCO Health  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We often use clinical practice guidelines as a “source of truth” for decision support for healthcare professionals and even as a standard of care for medical legal considerations.  However our experience evaluating guidelines for clinical reference support finds they are often inconsistent.  We picked one of the most common conditions managed in healthcare (ie hypertension, or high blood pressure) and sought out the top clinical practice guidelines that guide care around the world.   We systematically evaluated these guidelines against 70 specific recommendations to see how often the guidelines agreed or disagreed. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Osteoporosis / 26.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pamela L. Lutsey, PhD Associate Professor Division of Epidemiology and Community Health University of Minnesota School of Public Health Minneapolis MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Warfarin is prescribed to atrial fibrillation (AF) patients for the prevention of cardioembolic complications. However, whether it adversely impacts bone health is controversial. With the availability of alternate direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) options, it is now possible to evaluate the comparative safety of warfarin in relation to fracture risk. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Colon Cancer, JAMA, Omega-3 Fatty Acids / 26.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: MINGYANG SONG, MD, ScD Assistant Professor, Epidemiology Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health Assistant Professor of Medicine Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit Massachusetts General Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Increasing data indicate that high intake of omega-3 fatty acid may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Since effects of nutritional factors on risk of cancer, a slow-developing disease, typically emerge only after several years, it is useful to study the effect of preventive agents on cancer precursors such as colorectal polyps. Colorectal polyps are small growths on the lining of the colon or rectum. Most polyps are harmless, but some can become cancerous. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cannabis, JAMA, Pediatrics / 26.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bertha K. Madras PhD Director, Laboratory of Addiction Neurobiology Psychobiologist, Substance Use Disorders Division, Basic Neuroscience Division Professor of Psychobiology, Department of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Parent use of marijuana is rising, and I wondered whether this could be associated with offspring use of specific substances and across several substances
  • Several fathers have confided in me that they used marijuana to bond with their sons. They became horrified after witnessing their sons progress to using other drugs, especially heroin.
  • In general, living with a parent using substances or having substance use disorders is an explicit risk for use of substances among young offspring. Yet, few studies have directly examined whether parental marijuana use elevates the risk for opioid misuse among adolescent and young adults living with parents.  Most importantly and to the best of our knowledge, none of the existing research  simultaneously explored frequency of  parental marijuana use and whether it related to adolescent and young adult offspring’s marijuana, tobacco, alcohol use, and opioid misuse.
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Author Interviews, JAMA, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 21.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Amy L. Nyman, MA Research Associate Georgia State University, School of Public Health Atlanta, GA 30303 Coauthors: Nyman, Huang, Weaver, Eriksen MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Though the negative health consequences of smoking combustible cigarettes have been well-established and widely accepted, there has been significant public debate about the health effects of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) use, and the extent to which use of ENDS may present less health risk to smokers than smoking combustible cigarettes. Many tobacco control researchers and scientists believe that ENDS use is safer than combustible cigarette smoking, though recent news of an expansive outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses and deaths has led to continued speculation. A prior study of perceived comparative harm of combustible cigarettes and ENDS revealed the proportion of US adults perceiving ENDS to be as harmful as, or more harmful than combustible cigarettes increased substantially between 2012 and 2017. Given recently proposed regulations and the escalating focus on the impact of ENDS use on youth in the past few years, our study assessed changes in perceived comparative harm of combustible cigarettes and ENDS among US adults since the prior study, between 2017 and 2018.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, JAMA, Melanoma / 17.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jennifer M. Gardner, MD Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology University of Washington School of Medicine  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study looked at age-specific differences of melanoma incidence in the United States. It was an observational study looking at population-based registry data extracted from the combined National Program of Cancer Registries-Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results United States Cancer Statistics (NPCR-SEER) database. The overall take home message from this study is that though melanoma incidence has continued to climb in the past decade for both men and women, most of the increase is seen in adults greater than age 40 years of age.  In contrast, melanoma incidence decreased in adolescents (ages 10-19 years of age) and young adults (ages 20-29) after peaking around 2004-2005. Melanoma is more common in males in older individuals (older than 50 years of age) but in younger individuals (<50 years of age), melanoma is more common in females.  According to a recently published JAMA-Otolaryngology paper by Bray and colleagues, there may be a subset of younger individuals where males are at a higher risk than females in regard to head and neck melanoma, and after that study was published we noted this to be true in our numbers, as well (we didn’t publish this in our study), further identifying a possibly “at risk” demographic within the younger age groups in addition to young women. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, Mammograms / 15.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Elham Kharazmi, MD, PhD Co-Leader, Risk Adapted Prevention (RAD) Group Division of Preventive Oncology National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women, exceeded only by lung cancer. Available evidence suggests that implementation of a screening program can decrease breast cancer mortality. Reductions in breast cancer mortality in Europe over the past two decades have been associated at least in part with the implementation of screening programs. Screening enables the detection of tumors at an early stage, when more treatment options are feasible and most effective. However, screening is associated with substantial risks, such as over-diagnosis, false-positive results, and physical and psychological harms, particularly when large numbers of women with low risk are frequently screened. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Gender Differences, JAMA / 13.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Shannon Ruzycki, MD, MPH, FRCPC, (she/hers) General Internist & Clinical Lecturer Department of Medicine Department of Community Health Sciences Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: After hearing about the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine 2018 report to congress on sexual harassment of women in academia, our Department Head asked myself and Dr. Aleem Bharwani to study experiences of gender inequity or equity in our Department. We conducted an in-depth, 18-month mixed methods study of women and men in our Department, including semi-structured interviews and survey. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cost of Health Care, Dermatology, JAMA, Rheumatology / 09.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily S. Ruiz, MD, MPH Director, High-Risk Skin Cancer Clinic, Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Dermatology Brigham And Women's Faulkner Hospital  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Innovation in oncology has led to increased development and market entry of anticancer drugs. For example, from 2009 to 2013, the US FDA approved 51 oral and systemic anticancer drugs for 63 indications. Prices for anticancer drugs have risen faster than inflation over time, especially for older drugs, and prices in the US have largely been set by market forces rather than novelty or efficacy. Understanding the evolving cancer economic landscape requires consideration of annual and cumulative rates of change for key metrics, such as total spending, drug cost per beneficiary, out-of-pocket cost, and utilization. This study sought to weigh the proportional impacts of rising drug costs and utilization on increased Medicare Part D spending for a cohort of oral anticancer drug utilized from 2013-2017.  (more…)