Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 22.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David C. Grossman, M.D., M.P.H. US Preventive Services Task Force Chair Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Senior Associate Medical Director, Market Strategy & Public Policy Kaiser Permanente Washington Physician, Washington Permanente Medical Group, Pediatrics MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this recommendation? Response: Recognizing that obesity is a nation-wide health problem, affecting approximately 17% of 2-to 19-year-old children and adolescents in the U.S., the Task Force finalized its recommendation on screening for obesity in children and adolescents and the benefits and harms of weight management interventions. The Task Force found sufficient evidence to recommend screening for obesity in children and adolescents age 6 years and older and then offering or referring those who are found to be obese comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions to manage their weight and improve overall health. MedicalResearch.com: What are the potential benefits and harms of early screening and intervention for obesity in children? Response: The Task Force found that intensive behavioral interventions for children and adolescents who have obesity can result in benefits of improvement in weight status for up to 12 months’ post-intervention. Additionally, the evidence indicated very little harm from screening and comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions. This is due to likely minimal harms of using BMI (body mass index), the absence of reported harms of behavioral interventions, and the noninvasive nature of the programs. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Colon Cancer, JAMA / 19.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anastasia Katsoula, MD MSc Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) has proven to be effective in reduction of cancer-related mortality. Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) has been recently advocated for population-based screening for CRC in average-risk individuals due to its high accuracy and potential for adherence, based on results from previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses in average-risk populations. However, the potential role of FIT for screening of subjects at increased risk for CRC has not yet been elucidated, hence colonoscopy is currently the only recommended screening option for subjects at increased risk of CRC. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the diagnostic accuracy of FIT for CRC or advanced neoplasia (AN) in patientswith personal or familial history of CRC, using colonoscopy as the reference standard. (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods, Pediatrics / 19.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Scott Hadland, MD, MPH, MS Youth Addiction Specialist Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Boston University School of Medicine Director, Urban Health and Advocacy Track, Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center Associate Program Director, Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Almost no data have been available on this topic to date.  A recent study showed that teens in subspecialty treatment for opioid addiction were significantly less likely than adults to receive a medication.  Our study was the first to comprehensively look across the health care system, including looking at adolescents and young adults diagnosed with opioid use disorder in outpatient clinics, emergency departments, and inpatient hospitals. We had three important findings.  First, looking at a large sample of 9.7 million adolescents and young adults between the age of 13 and 25 years, we found that the number of youth diagnosed with opioid use disorder increased six-fold from 2001 to 2014.  This is perhaps not surprising given the national opioid crisis we know to be occurring. Second, we found that only a minority of youth (1 in 4) received buprenorphine or naltrexone, the two medications available for opioid addiction that can be prescribed in usual medical settings.  These two medications are evidence-based and their use is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Utilizing them is critical to ensure that we offer effective treatment early in the life course of addiction, which can help prevent the long-term harms of addiction. Third, we found significant differences in who received medications.  Whereas approximately 1 in 3 young adults in our study received a medication, only 1 in 10 of the 16- and 17-year-olds we studied received one, and among adolescents under 15 years of age, 1 in 67 received a medication.  Females were less likely than males to receive medications, as were black youth and Hispanic youth relative to white youth. (more…)
Author Interviews, ENT, Hearing Loss, JAMA, University of Michigan / 17.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aileen Wertz, MD Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery University of Michigan  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The key finding of this study is: free, comprehensive audiologic care, including hearing aids and fitting, is feasible within a well-established free clinic model. We found that donated hearing aids and volunteer health care providers were able to run the clinic and that 20 patients have thus far been fit with hearing aids. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Stroke / 15.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregory Y. H. Lip, MD Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine University of Birmingham Adjunct Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences, Thrombosis Research Unit, Aalborg University, Denmark National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator. Visiting Professor of Haemostasis Thrombosis & Vascular Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences City Hospital Birmingham England UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The randomized clinical trials comparing non-Vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) vs warfarin largely focused on recruitment of high risk atrial fibrillation(AF) patients with >2 stroke risk factors, with only the trials testing dabigatran or apixaban including a minority of patients with 1 stroke risk factor. Despite this, regulatory approvals of all NOACs have been for stroke prevention in AF patients with ≥1 stroke risk factors. No difference between NOACs compared to warfarin in risk of ischemic stroke/systemic embolism, was seen but for ‘any bleeding’, this was lower for apixaban and dabigatran compared to warfarin. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Parkinson's / 15.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rajesh Pahwa MD Department of Neurology University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Dyskinesia are one of the major unmet needs in Parkinson Disease patients. At the present time there are no approved medication for dyskinesia, however immediate release amantadine is used in PD patients with dyskinesia. ADS-5102 is a long acting, extended release capsule formulation of amantadine HCl administered once daily at bedtime. This study investigated the safety, efficacy and tolerability of ADS-5102 in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with levodopa-induced dyskinesia. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of Parkinson’s disease patients with levodopa-induced dyskinesia. In total, 126 patients were randomized to placebo or 274 mg ADS-5102 administered orally at bedtime. ADS-5102 was associated with a significant reduction in dyskinesia at 12 weeks compared with placebo, as measured by the mean change in Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (treatment difference, –7.9; P =.0009). OFF time was significantly reduced in ADS-5102 patients compared to placebo (treatment difference -0.9 hours, p=.017). (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Johns Hopkins, Outcomes & Safety / 14.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pranita Tamma, MD Assistant Professor Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Dr. Pranita D. Tamma Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: A study examining the impact of antibiotics prescribed for nearly 1500 adult patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital found that adverse side effects occurred in a fifth of them, and that nearly a fifth of those side effects occurred in patients who didn’t need antibiotics in the first place. In the study, the researchers evaluated the electronic medical records of 1488 adults admitted to the general medicine services at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between September 2013 and June 2014. The patients were admitted for reasons ranging from trauma to chronic disease, but all received at least 24 hours of antibiotic treatment. The researchers followed patients for 30 days after hospital discharge to evaluate for the development of antibiotic-associated adverse events. To determine the likelihood that an adverse reaction was most likely due to antibiotics and to identify how many adverse reactions could be avoided by eliminating unnecessary antibiotic use, two infectious disease clinicians reviewed all of the data. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Heart Disease, JAMA, Social Issues / 14.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yasuhiko Kubota, MD, MPH Visiting Scholar Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Educational inequality is one of the most important socioeconomic factors contributing to cardiovascular disease. Since education is usually completed by young adulthood, educational inequality may affect risk of cardiovascular disease early in the life course. We thought it would be useful to calculate the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease according to educational levels in order to increase public awareness of the importance of education. Thus, our aim was to evaluate the association of educational attainment with cardiovascular disease risk by estimating the lifetime risks of cardiovascular disease using a US. biracial cohort. Furthermore, we also assessed how other important socioeconomic factors were related to the association of educational attainment with lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, JAMA, Pediatrics, Surgical Research / 13.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mackenzie M. Herzog, MPH PhD Candidate, Injury Epidemiology The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In 1999, a study by Arendt et al. reported that women were more likely to tear their ACL than men while playing the same sport. Since then, numerous studies have investigated this sex difference in ACL injury, and many prevention programs targeting youth athletes have been developed and tested. Although randomized trials have demonstrated the value of injury prevention programs in reducing the risk of ACL injury, the overall impact of these programs has not been examined in the general population. Our study investigated the net impact of research and prevention efforts over nearly 20 years in reducing ACL injuries by assessing time trends of ACL reconstruction, a consequence of ACL injury, among commercially-insured individuals in the United States. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Geriatrics, JAMA, Johns Hopkins / 12.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nancy Schoenborn, MD Assistant Professor Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Nancy Schoenborn, MD Assistant Professor Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: A lot of cancer screenings are not expected to save lives until up to 10 years later; however, the side effects of the test happen right away. Because of this, clinical guidelines have recommended against routine screening for those patients who will not live long enough to benefit but may experience the potential harm of the test in the short term. However, many patients with limited life expectancy still receive screening and clinicians are worried about how patients would react if they recommended that patients stop screening. This research is important because it is the first study that explores how patients think about the decision of stopping cancer screening and how patients want to talk to their doctors about this issue. Understanding patient perspectives would help improve screening practices and better align recommendations and patient preference. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Nutrition, Stanford / 12.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bradley P. Turnwald MS Stanford University, Department of Psychology Stanford, California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study tested an intervention to encourage people to consume healthier foods. Encouraging healthy eating is difficult because many people think that healthy foods do not taste good, and most people prioritize taste over health when choosing what to eat. In fact, lab studies suggest that people rate foods as less tasty, less enjoyable, and less filling when they are labeled as healthy compared to when the same foods are not labeled as healthy. A recent study from the Stanford Mind & Body Lab published last month in Health Psychology showed that healthy foods are even described with less tasty, exciting, and indulgent descriptions compared to standard items on the menus of top-selling chain restaurants in America. This led us to ask the question, what if healthy foods were described with the tasty and indulgent descriptions that are typically reserved for the more classic, unhealthy foods? (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research / 12.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Virginia Sun, RN, PhD Assistant Professor Division of Nursing Research and Education Department of Population Sciences Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program City of Hope Duarte, CA 91010  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Surgery is one of the most effective and important treatment strategies for cancer. Surgical procedures are by definition invasive, and patients are at risk for unpleasant symptoms, impaired functional status, and poor quality of life. Traditionally, mortality has been the sole measure to assess the risk of most surgical procedures. However, as surgical mortality has sharply declined, focus has shifted toward other endpoints, including patient-centered outcomes. There are critical gaps to assessing and integrating patient-centered outcomes into the surgical oncology workflow. We conducted this proof-of-concept study to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a wireless monitoring approach for patient-centered outcomes before and after a major abdominal cancer surgery. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, Surgical Research / 10.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Monica Morrow, MD, FACS Chief, Breast Service Department of Surgery Anne Burnett Windfohr Chair of Clinical Oncology Memorial Sloan Kettering MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Although we know that bigger surgery does not result in better patient outcomes in breast cancer, since 2005 rates of lumpectomy have been decreasing accompanied by an increase in bilateral mastectomy for unilateral cancer. High rates of second surgery after initial lumpectomy are one deterrent for patients. In 2013 the SSO and ASTRO developed an evidence based consensus guideline endorsing no ink on tumor as the standard negative margin width for women with stage 1 and 2 cancer having breast conserving surgery with whole breast irradiation. The purpose of our study was to examine time trends in the use of additional surgery after lumpectomy before and after guideline dissemination and to determine the impact of these trends on final rates of breast conservation. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Karolinski Institute, Pharmacology, Schizophrenia / 09.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jari Tiihonen, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Clinical Neuroscience Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden  MedicalResearch.com: What are the limitations of existing analyses of the comparative effectiveness of antipsychotics? Response: It has remained unclear if there are clinically meaningful differences between antipsychotic treatments in relapse prevention of schizophrenia, due to the impossibility of including large unselected patient populations in randomized controlled trials, and due to residual confounding from selection biases in observational studies. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Social Issues / 09.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ayodele Odutayo MD MSc DPhil(pending) Centre For Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford Resident Physician (PGY1), Post-Doctoral Fellow, Applied Health Research Centre St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previously published studies have reported increasing gaps in life expectancy among adults belonging to different socioeconomic strata and suggested that much of this gap was mediated through behavioural and metabolic risk factors. In this study, we found that from 1999-2014, there was an increasing gap in the control of cardiovascular risk factors between high income adults compared to adults with incomes at or below the poverty line. The proportion of adults at high cardiovascular risk (predicted risk of a cardiovascular event ≥20%), the mean systolic blood pressure and the percentage of current smokers decreased for high income adults but did not change for adults with incomes at or below the poverty line. Notably, the income disparity in these cardiovascular risk factors was not wholly explained by access to health insurance or educational attainment. Trends in the percentage of adults with diabetes and the average total cholesterol level did not vary by income. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 07.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH Ofer and Shelly Nemirovsky MGH Research Scholar Chief, Division of General Academic Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics Mass General Hospital for Children Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We designed this study to test the effectiveness of two interventions that linked clinical and community approaches in improving childhood body mass index (BMI) and obesity prevalence. Another important question we set out to understand was whether there were outcomes aside from BMI and obesity that mattered most to families of children with obesity. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Lifestyle & Health, OBGYNE, Weight Research / 07.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:   Professor Helena Teede MBBS, FRACP, PhD Executive Director Monash Partners Academic Health Research Translation Centre Director Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation Monash University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Reproductive aged women are gaining weight rapidly both before and during pregnancy. Here in 1.3 million pregnancies internationally we show that almost 3 in 4 have unhealthy weight gain (half with excess weight gain and one quarter with inadequate gain) MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Response: For women establish your healthy weight for your height and try to stay within this for better fertility, pregnancy and for your and your child's health. Regardless of your starting weigh,  aim to gain within targets in pregnancy. Seek help to do so. For health professionals: unhealthy weight gain in pregnancy is now the norm, we must monitor women in pregnancy wand support them to gain healthy weight for better health outcomes. Weighing is not enough with health professionals needing skills in healthy conversations and support strategies for women. For governments and policy makers this life stage around pregnancy is an optimal time to tackle obesity prevention and is targeted by WHO. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Nursing, University of Pittsburgh / 06.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kristin Ray, MD, MS Assistant Professor Health Policy Institute University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We were interested in understanding how nurse practitioners and physician assistants are working with specialist physicians to provide specialty care. Much has been described and studied about nurse practitioners and physician assistants providing primary care, but the literature about their role in specialty care is more sparse. There have been many concerns over time about the supply of specialist physicians, heightening our interest in the role of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in working with specialist physicians. We focused on examining whether care to physician specialist's patients by nurse practitioners and physician assistants has increased over time as well as examining characteristics of patients seen by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. We found that visits with NPs and PAs for specialty care have increased over time, but remains a small fraction of specialty care overall. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Gender Differences, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 05.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carl G Streed Jr. M.D. Pronouns: he, him, his, himself Fellow, Division General Internal Medicine & Primary Care  Brigham & Women’s Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has underscored the need to better understand the health of gender minorities, including transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. Prior investigations of gender minorities are limited by the lack of national gender identity data. In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a gender identity question for the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS); states had the option to administer this module beginning 2014. Our study aims to examine the health status of gender minorities in the US compared to cisgender peers. Compared to cisgender adults, gender minority adults are younger, less likely to be non-Hispanic white, married or living with a partner, have a minor child in the household, or be English speaking; but are more likely to have lower income, be unemployed, be uninsured, have unmet medical care due to cost, be overweight, and report depression. Gender minority adults, compared to cisgender adults, are more likely to report: poor or fair health; difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions; and being limited in any way. These outcomes remained significant after adjustment. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Salt-Sodium / 05.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jennifer Poti, PhD Research Assistant Professor Nutritional Epidemiology Gillings School of Global Public Health University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Although strong evidence links excessive sodium intake to hypertension, a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the majority of American children and adults have sodium intake that exceeds the recommended upper limit for daily sodium intake. To lower sodium intake at the population-level, the Institute of Medicine has recommended that reducing sodium in packaged foods will be essential and has emphasized the need to monitor sodium in the US food supply. However, little is known about whether sodium in packaged foods has changed during the past 15 years. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Cancer - Brain Tumors, JAMA, Radiation Therapy / 01.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Rakesh Jalali, MD Professor of Radiation Oncology President, Indian Society of Neuro-Oncology Tata Memorial Parel, Mumbai India  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Randomized controlled trials to test the efficacy of radiotherapy techniques are challenging to perform. High-precision conformal techniques such as stereotactic radiosurgery/radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and particle therapy, etc have been incorporated into routine clinical practice including for brain tumors without always being supported by level-1 evidence. We therefore conducted a prospective, randomized, controlled trial of stereotactic conformal radiotherapy compared to conventional radiotherapy in young patients with residual/progressive bening and low grade brain tumors requiring radiotherapy for optimal disease control. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 31.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Large, BSc, MBBS, FRANZCP, DMedSci School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales,  The Prince of Wales Hospitals, Randwick New South Wales, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It has been increasingly recognized that recently discharged patients have an increased suicide risk. We synthesized the global research over the last half century finding a dramatically elevated suicide rate in the months post discharge and a surprisingly high and enduring rate over much longer periods. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, JAMA, UCLA / 31.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregory John Moran, MD, FACEP Emergency Medicine Dept. & Infectious Diseases Service UCLA Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The bacterial etiology of cellulitis is difficult to determine because there is usually no material for culture, but streptococci are believed to be the most common etiology. Since the emergence of MRSA as a common cause of skin infections in the community, many clinicians add a second antibiotic with MRSA activity to an oral cephalosporin, such as a combination of cephalexin plus trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. It is unknown if there is an additional benefit to adding MRSA activity for treatment of cellulitis. This randomized, blinded trial compared cephalexin plus placebo to cephalexin plus trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for outpatient treatment of cellulitis without an abscess or wound. Bottom line: We did not find a benefit from addition of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. (more…)
Author Interviews, Geriatrics, JAMA, Surgical Research / 24.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cheryl Chia-Hui Chen, RN, DNSc Vice Dean for Student Affairs Professor of Nursing National Taiwan University Nurse Supervisor at National Taiwan University Hospital Taipei, Taiwan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Older patients undergoing abdominal surgery often experience preventable delirium, which greatly influences their postoperative recovery and hospital length of stay. The modified Hospital Elder Life Program (mHELP) utilizes nurses to reduce postoperative delirium and LOS among older patients undergoing abdominal surgery for resection of malignant tumor. The mHELP consisted of 3 protocols: oral and nutritional assistance, early mobilization, and orienting communication, researchers say. Researchers at the National Taiwan University Hospital randomly assigned 377 patients undergoing abdominal surgery for a malignant tumor to an intervention (n = 197) or usual care (n = 180). Postoperative delirium occurred in 6.6 percent of mHELP participants vs 15.1 percent of control individuals (odds of delirium reduced by 56 percent). Intervention group participants received the mHELP for a median of 7 days, and they had a median LOS that was two days shorter (12 vs 14 days). (more…)
Author Interviews, Geriatrics, JAMA, NYU, Primary Care / 22.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Benjamin Han, MD, MPH Assistant professor Departments of Medicine-Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care, and Population Health NYU Langone Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There are an increasing number of older adults being prescribed statins for primary prevention, but the evidence for the benefit for older adults is unclear. Our study finds that in the ALLHAT-LLT clinical trial, there were no benefits in either all-cause mortality or cardiovascular outcomes for older adults who did not have any evidence of cardiovascular disease at baseline. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Tobacco / 22.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Reto Auer, MD, MAS Institute of Primary Health Care (BIHAM), University of Bern, Bern, Department of Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: When the tobacco industry began to promote new “heat-not-burn” (HNB) tobacco cigarettes as a “safer” alternative to traditional cigarettes, we wanted to find out if their claims were true. Philip Morris International (PMI) created an HBN called IQOS® (I-Quit-Ordinary-Smoking). IQOS® uses tobacco sticks soaked in propylene glycol, which are inserted into a holder and heated to a maximum of 350°C. PMI claims that because its HNBs don’t combust, they emit far fewer harmful chemicals than conventional cigarettes. We decided to test their claims. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA / 21.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Gregory Roth MD MPH Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation University of Washington, Seattle MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: My colleagues and I at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, evaluated and analyzed mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) on the county level from throughout the United States. We obtained the data from: The National Center for Health Statistics and population counts from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Human Mortality Database. This data ranged from 1980 through 2014. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, JAMA, Surgical Research, Weight Research / 18.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrew Ibrahim, M.D., M.Sc Institute for HealthCare Policy and Innovation University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The laparoscopic gastric band was approved by the FDA in 2001 and widely adopted for the surgical treatment of morbid obesity. Reported rates of reoperation to revise or remove the device ranged from 4 to 60 percent in small scale studies, but no population estimates in the United States existed. In a review of Medicare Claims data between 2006 and 2013, we observed that reoperation was common with 18% of patients requiring at least one reoperation. More over, we found that on average, patients who did need a reoperation often underwent an average of 3.8 additional procedures. Taken together, nearly half (47%) of the $470 million paid by Medicare for device related procedures was for reoperations. (more…)