Medical Research Journals
31 Oct Workplace Mistreatment During Surgical Training Linked to Physician Burnout
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51961" align="alignleft" width="99"] Dr. Ellis[/caption]
Ryan J. Ellis, MD MS
General Surgery Resident
Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC)
Northwestern Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Burnout has emerged as a significant problem affecting the entire healthcare workforce and it has been likely to myriad downstream problems such as increases in medical errors, alcoholism, and depression. Despite the attention on clinician burnout, there are significant gaps in our understanding of how the workplace environment may lead to burnout. Moreover, there are particular concerns about the workplace environment in training, specifically with regards to abuse, discrimination, and harassment.
We had the opportunity to survey all U.S. general surgery residents to comprehensively define the frequency of workplace mistreatment and its relationship with burnout and suicidal thoughts among surgical residents.
30 Oct Bariatric Surgery Linked to Reduced Melanoma Risk
Posted at 21:17h
in Author Interviews, Cancer Research, JAMA, Melanoma, Surgical Research, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Magdalena Taube, PhD
Institute of Medicine, Dept of Molecular and Clinical Medicine
Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University
Wallenberg laboratory
Gothenburg Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Obesity is a cancer risk factor, and bariatric surgery in patients with obesity is associated with reduced cancer risk. However, evidence of an association among obesity, bariatric surgery and skin cancer is limited.
In this study we used data from the Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study– a prospective controlled intervention trial examining bariatric surgery outcomes – to analyze the impact of bariatric surgery on skin cancer incidence.
29 Oct Pediatricians Often Reluctant to Speak with Parents About Gun Safety
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51965" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. STIPELMAN[/caption]
Carole Stipelman MD MPH
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Physician Informatics Team
Medical Director, University Pediatric Clinic
Salt Lake City, Utah
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
- Guns are the second leading cause of death in children and adolescents.
- 6 million children live in homes with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked.
- Safe storage of guns increases when physicians speak with parents about how to prevent children from having access to guns. However, these conversations happen infrequently.
28 Oct Exercise Linked to Reduced Hip Fractures in Post-Menopausal Women
Posted at 14:43h
in Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, Hip Fractures, JAMA, Menopause
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_51934" align="alignleft" width="140"] Dr. Wactawski-Wende[/caption]
Jean Wactawski-Wende PhD
Dean, SUNY Distinguished Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
School of Public Health and Health Professions
University of Buffalo
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: This study included data from the Women’s Health Initiative, a prospective study of postmenopausal women from across the United States. We assessed physical activity in 77,206 women over an average of 14 years of follow-up. Approximately 1/3 of these women (average age 63.4 years) had at least one fracture occur.
Higher physical activity levels were associated with lower risk of hip and total fracture. Even levels of activity that were moderate, including regular walking and doing household chores, were beneficial.
23 Oct Kids Who Starting Smoking with Flavored Tobacco More Likely to Keep Smoking
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51902" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Villanti[/caption]
Andrea Villanti, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Vermont Center on Behavior and Health
University of Vermont
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Our earlier work documented a significant association between first use of a flavored tobacco product and current tobacco use (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522636/) in a cross-sectional sample. The goal of this study was to examine whether there was a prospective relationship between first use of a flavored tobacco product and subsequent use of that product in longitudinal data..
23 Oct Online Searches for CBD Skyrocket
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51918" align="alignleft" width="158"] Dr. Ayers[/caption]
John W. Ayers, PhD, MA
Vice Chief of Innovation | Assoc. Professor
Div. Infectious Disease & Global Public Health
University of California San Diego
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Touted as a “cure all,” researchers have documented unfounded claims
that cannabidiol (CBD) treats acne, anxiety, opioid addiction, pain,
and menstrual problems. You can buy CBD droplets, massage oils,
CBD gummies, or even ice cream.
But public health leaders have been mostly silent on the subject because they lacked data
that demonstrates just how popular CBD is and the future trajectory might be.
To fill this data-gap we analyzed Google search queries that mentioned
“CBD” or “cannabidiol” emerging from the United States from January
2004 through April 2019 and forecasted searches through December 2019.
Rather than relying on self reports, where some might not be willing
to discuss CBD openly, our strategy allowed us to directly observed
millions of instances of people seeking out information or even
shopping for CBD online.
22 Oct Avoiding Cow’s Milk Formula at Birth May Reduce Food Allergies
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mitsuyoshi Urashima MD, PhD, MPH Professor of Molecular Epidemiology Jikei University School of Medicine Tokyo, JAPAN MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: IgE-mediated food allergy is becoming a global concern, because its prevalence and severity are worsening. Many Japanese maternity wards encourage breastfeeding, but allow mothers or nurses to supplement breastfeeding with cow’s milk formula, e.g., approximately 6 to 10 hours after birth or even earlier, based on maternal preferences, but not based on clinical evidence. However, more than 20 to 30 years ago, sugar water was given instead of cow’s milk formula supplement at birth. Thus, we hypothesized that early exposure to cow’s milk formula at birth is, at least in part, associated with the recent increase in children with food allergy. Therefore, a randomized clinical trial, named ABC (Atopy induced by Breast feeding or Cow's milk formula), was conducted to assess whether the risk of cow’s milk formula sensitization and food allergy is decreased by either avoiding or supplementing cow’s milk formula at birth. Immediately after birth, newborns were randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to either breastfeeding with or without amino acid-based elemental formula for at least the first 3 days of life (breastfeeding ± elemental formula), or breastfeeding supplemented with cow’s milk formula (≥5 mL/day) from the first day of life to 5 months of age (breastfeeding + cow's milk formula).
21 Oct DERM: AI Algorithm Helps Determine Likelihood of Melanoma from Dermoscopic Images
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Helen Marsden PhD
Skin Analytics Limited
London, United Kingdom
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: In this technology age, with the explosion of interest and applications using Artificial Intelligence, it is easy to accept the output of a technology-based test - such as a smartphone app designed to identify skin cancer - without thinking too much about it. In reality, technology is only as good as the way it has been developed, tested and validated. In particular, AI algorithms are prone to a lack of “generalisation” - i.e. their performance drops when presented with data it has not seen before. In the medical field, and particularly in areas where AI is being developed to direct a patient’s diagnosis or care, this is particularly problematic. Inappropriate diagnosis or advice to patients can lead to false reassurance, heightened concern and pressure on NHS services, or worse. It is concerning, therefore, that there are a large number of smartphone apps available that provide an assessment of skin lesions, including some that provide an estimate of the probability of malignancy, that have not been assessed for diagnostic accuracy.
Skin Analytics has developed an AI-based algorithm, named: Deep Ensemble for Recognition of Malignancy (DERM), for use as a decision support tool for healthcare providers. DERM determines the likelihood of skin cancer from dermoscopic images of skin lesions. It was developed using deep learning techniques that identify and assess features of these lesions which are associated with melanoma, using over 7,000 archived dermoscopic images. Using these images, it was shown to identify melanoma with similar accuracy to specialist physicians. However, to prove the algorithm could be used in a real life clinical setting, Skin Analytics set out to conduct a clinical validation study.
18 Oct Lower Risk of Diabetes and Hypertension in Moms Who Breastfed for Over a Year
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51869" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Dr. Ahmed[/caption]
Haitham M. Ahmed, MD, MPH
Chair of Cardiology, Advantage Care Physicians
Brooklyn, New York
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This was a meta-analysis of more than a quarter m illion mothers looking at the long-term cardiovascular risk reduction of mothers who breastfed their babies.
18 Oct Newly Recognized Trigger Mechanism of Atopic Dermatitis Identified
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stephen J. Galli, MD Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD Professor Professor of Pathology and of Microbiology and Immunology Department of Pathology Stanford University School of Medicine Center for Clinical Sciences Research Stanford, CA and Nicolas Gaudenzio PhD Unité de Différenciation Epithéliale et Autoimmunité Rhumatoïde INSERM, Université de Toulouse Toulouse, France MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We took a lead from existing clinical data showing that patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, an increasingly common disorder producing skin pathology, also have elevated levels of neuropeptides in their blood, particularly one neuropeptide, named “substance P”, whose level is correlated with disease severity. These patients also have high levels of mast cell-specific proteases in the blood, indicating that mast cells, which are innate immune cells present in the skin, and which can be activated when exposed to substance P, might play an essential role in modulating inflammatory and allergic processes. Based on these observations, our teams (Galli Lab at Stanford University, USA and Gaudenzio Lab at Inserm Toulouse, France) decided to focus on the possible interactions between sensory neurons, which are a source of substance P, and mast cells. The results of this work have now been published in the journal Nature Immunology.
08 Oct How Much Does Physician Burnout Affect Quality of Health Care?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51734" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Tawfik[/caption]
Daniel Tawfik, MD, MS
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Professional burnout is very common among health care providers and is frequently associated with poor quality of care in the published literature. However, we know that reporting biases are common in many fields of literature, and these biases typically result in exaggerated effects being published relative to the true effect. Research on burnout and quality of care appears especially vulnerable, because many studies are not pre-specified or have several potential methods of analysis. If the studies or analyses with more impressive results are more likely to be published, this would result in a skewed picture of the relationship between burnout and quality of care.
08 Oct Reducing Administrative Complexity Biggest Opportunity to Reduce Health Care Waste
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51752" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Shrank[/caption]
William Shrank, MD, MSHS
Chief Medical Officer
Humana
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Health care waste is a serious problem in the system and the rising and uncontrolled costs of healthcare remain one of the top political and social issues in the U.S. We thought that sufficient time had passed since the 2012 groundbreaking analysis that was developed by Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP and Andrew D. Hackbarth, MPhil, that first characterized waste in the US health system.
07 Oct Indoor Tanning More Available in Neighborhoods with More Gay Men
Posted at 16:23h
in Author Interviews, Dermatology, Environmental Risks, General Medicine, JAMA, Melanoma, Stanford
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_18136" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Linos[/caption]
Eleni Linos MD MPH DrPH
Professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology
Stanford University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We know that tanning beds are harmful: people who use tanning beds are more likely to get skin cancer. Sexual minority men are much more likely to use tanning beds and also more likely to get skin cancer. In a separate study we discovered that one reason sexual minority men use tanning beds is if it is convenient: e.g. if close to home, cheap, and easy. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjd.17684). Recent research showed that tobacco retailers cluster in LGB neighborhoods: https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/more-tobacco-retailers-in-lgbt-neighborhoods-may-explain-smoking-disparities/. This made us wonder if tanning salons also cluster in neighborhoods with more gay men.
05 Oct Marijuana Use More Common Among Adults With Medical Conditions
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51463" align="alignleft" width="165"]
Dr. Hongying (Daisy) Dai[/caption]
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: Although marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug at the Federal level, as of June 2019, 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized one or more forms of marijuana; 11 states and the District of Columbia have approved both medical and recreational uses. Public opinion on marijuana has changed dramatically over the last two decades and support for legalization has doubled since 2010. However, very little is known about the prevalence and patterns of marijuana use among adults with medical conditions.
This study analyzed the 2016 and 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to report the prevalence and patterns of marijuana use among adults with self-reported medical conditions.
04 Oct Rotavirus Vaccination Reduced Severe Illness and Hospitalizations in Young Children
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51743" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Payne[/caption]
Daniel C. Payne, PhD, MSPH
Senior Scientific Advisor
Viral Gastroenteritis Branch
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Rotavirus vaccines have been recommended for US infants for more than 10 years. This study used seven years of active surveillance data from seven hospitals around the US to evaluate the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines in the US.
03 Oct How Did the Female Orgasm Evolve?
The main conclusion is that female orgasm is a physiological process that originated for a reproductive role, namely to trigger the release of egg cells from the ovary, but has lost this function in the primate [including human] lineage....
03 Oct Most BRCA Testing Done in Women Already Diagnosed With Breast Cancer
Posted at 16:48h
in Antibiotic Resistance, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Genetic Research, Journal Clinical Oncology, University Texas
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_33272" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Fangjian Guo[/caption]
Fangjian Guo, MD, PhD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston TX
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The identification of BRCA1/BRCA2 pathogenic variants in women susceptible to breast or ovarian cancer in the 1990s created an opportunity for targeted, individualized cancer prevention. BRCA testing in young women before cancer onset enables early detection of those with increased cancer risk and creates an opportunity to offer life-saving prophylactic procedures and medication.
We used insurance claims data to assess the use of BRCA testing in unaffected young women <40 years of age between 2006 and 2017 and found that BRCA testing among cancer-free women under 40 has more than doubled in recent years. However, only about 25% of all BRCA testing done in 2017 was performed in unaffected young women under 40.
02 Oct Medicare Part D Spent $22 Billion on Diabetes Medications in 2017
Posted at 23:11h
in Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cost of Health Care, Diabetes, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_51730" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Sumarsono[/caption]
Andrew Sumarsono, MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There are currently 12 types of medications used to treat type 2 diabetes. With approximately 30 million adults living with diabetes in the United States, the rising cost of insulin has raised concerns about the affordability of diabetes care.
We evaluated trends in total spending and number of prescriptions of all diabetes therapies among Medicare Part D beneficiaries between 2012 and 2017.
02 Oct Cardiac Arrest with Nonshockable Rhythm: Targeted Temperature Management
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51678" align="alignleft" width="225"] Dr. Baptiste Lascarrou[/caption]
Dr Jean-Baptiste Lascarrou
Médecine Intensive Réanimation
CHU de Nantes
Nantes
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Ancillary study of TTM1 trial & meta-analyses of nonrandomized studies have provided conflicting data on moderate therapeutic hypothermia, or targeted temperature management, at 33°C in patients successfully resuscitated after nonshockable cardiac arrest.
Nevertheless, the latest recommendations issued by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation and by the European Resuscitation Council recommend moderate therapeutic hypothermia.
01 Oct USPSTF Recommends Clinicians Screen All Pregnant Women for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_44364" align="alignleft" width="170"] Dr. Simon[/caption]
Melissa A. Simon, M.D., M.P.H.
Member, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
George H. Gardner professor of clinical gynecology, Vice chair of clinical research
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Professor of preventive medicine and medical social sciences
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Asymptomatic bacteriuria, or ASB, is when someone has bacteria in their urine but does not have any signs or symptoms of a urinary tract infection. For pregnant people, this can be a major health concern resulting in severe, even life-threatening, infections that can lead to serious harms for both the mother and the baby.
The Task Force’s primary finding in updating its recommendation on this topic was that screening for ASB continues to be beneficial in preventing complications and preserving the health of mothers and their babies during pregnancy.
30 Sep Genetic Variants Linked To Schizophrenia Also Raise Risk of Other Mental Health Disorders
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51603" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Legge[/caption]
Dr Sophie Legge
Research Associate
MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics
Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences
Cardiff University
Cardiff
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations and delusions, are features of mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but they are also reported by approximately 5%-10% of the general population. Psychotic experiences are only considered to be symptoms of mental illness if there are other symptoms of that disorder. It is currently unclear what the genetic causes of psychotic experiences in the general population are, and whether these causes are related to the genetic causes of schizophrenia and other mental health disorders. Given that psychotic experiences are one of the key symptoms of schizophrenia, they may be more closely related than with other mental health conditions such as depression.
30 Sep Heart Disease Linked to Severe Skin Reactions to Gout Medicine Allopurinol
Posted at 19:28h
in Allergies, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, CMAJ, Dermatology, Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_51631" align="alignleft" width="120"] Dr. Choi[/caption]
Hyon K. Choi, MD, DrPH
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director, Gout and Crystal Arthropathy Center
Director, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Outcomes
Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology
Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Allopurinol is a very common and generally safe medication prescribed to lower serum urate levels, most commonly to patients with gout. However, it can be associated with very rare but serious cutaneous adverse events which includes Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis.
Prior studies have demonstrated several risk factors for these types of cutaneous adverse events, including presence of chronic kidney disease, older age, female sex, higher initial dose of allopurinol, and the HLA-B*5801 allele, which is more commonly found in Asians and Black patients. A prior study in Taiwan suggested that heart disease (ischemic heart disease and heart failure) may also be associated with an increased risk of hospitalizations for these cutaneous adverse reactions related to allopurinol.
Thus, our goal was to investigate this association using a general population cohort from Canada. Using Population Data BC, we found that heart disease was in fact independently associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for these cutaneous adverse reactions.
28 Sep BCG Vaccine Linked to Lower Risk of Lung Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Naomi E Aronson, MD, FIDA, FACP Professor and Director, Infectious Diseases Division Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Bethesda, MD MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: BCG is a live attenuated mycobacteria vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis which has been reported to have associated nonspecific effects such as treatment of diabetes, bladder cancer, prevention of severe respiratory infections in children, and suppressed autoimmune responses. In earlier reports in the 1970s, results of epidemiologic studies were divided as to whether BCG vaccine was associated with subsequent rates of malignancy, specifically leukemia (protective) and non Hodgkins lymphoma (higher rates). To further evaluate these observations we studied cancer data collected in the 60 year follow up of a controlled trial of BCG in American Indian/ Alaska Native schoolchildren.
28 Sep Study Finds Need For Increased Diabetes Screening in Rural Communities
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Phoebe Tran
Doctoral Student
Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Yale School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: As the prevalence of diabetes risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and physical inactivity are considerably higher in US individuals residing in rural areas compared to their urban counterparts, rural residents face increased risk of developing diabetes. Diabetes screening is a useful tool that can be used to identify people with newly developed type 2 diabetes and offer them early treatment. In this study, we examined whether there are differences in diabetes screening levels between rural and urban areas across the US using nationally representative survey data from 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.
26 Sep High Pesticide Exposure Associated With Increased CAD and Stroke Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zara Berg, Ph.D Fort Peck Community College Poplar, Montana MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study is part of the cohort that consist of the Honolulu Heart Program (HHP) and what later became the Honolulu-Asia Aging study. HHP study cardiovascular research starting in the 1960’s, which is equivalent to the Framingham Study. This study was used to establish the epidemiology parameters for cardiovascular diseases and is one of the longest longitudinal (34 years of follow-up) study on cardiovascular diseases and other diseases that effect the elderly. The participants were all Japanese that fought in WWII which is a sample size of 8,006 participants. In additional, there is multiple studies based on this cohort for the last fifty plus years, ranging from occupational exposure, cancer, neurological diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.
25 Sep Younger Children in Same School Year More Likely To Be Diagnosed with Depression, ADHD and Intellectual Disability
Posted at 11:27h
in ADHD, Author Interviews, Depression, Education, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_51452" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jeremy Brown[/caption]
Jeremy Brown BA MSc
RESEARCH DEGREE STUDENT IN PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Given the way schools typically work, children in the same year as each other can be almost a whole year apart in terms of age. We’ve known for a while that children who are young in their year at school are also more likely to be diagnosed as having hyperactivity disorders and tend to do less well academically than the older children in the year. They also seem to be at increased risk of suicide. This is thankfully an extremely rare occurrence in children, but there is little evidence about whether younger children are more likely to be diagnosed with depression.
We used electronic health records for just over a million children in the UK to see if there was any association between how old the children were in their year and whether they got diagnosed with ADHD, intellectual disability and depression.
24 Sep When Hospital Data Systems Are Hacked, It’s Usually Financial Information That’s Leaked
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51411" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Jiang[/caption]
John (Xuefeng) Jiang PhD
Professor and Plante Moran Faculty Fellow
Eli Broad College of Business
Accounting & Information Systems
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI
MedicalResearch.com: How did you get interested in this issue?
Response: This is the third project of our data breach trilogy. We first examined which healthcare providers (focusing on hospitals) more likely suffer from a data breach. We documented large hospitals, despite their resources, are more likely to experience a data breach. Some hospitals experienced multiple incidents (https://jamanetwork.altmetric.com/details/18464149).
The findings made us wonder what happened? Besides size, what other factors contribute to data breaches? Based on detailed event descriptions, we documented the circumstances under which each data breach occurred (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2715158).
We found more than half of data breaches could be attributed to healthcare providers’ internal mistakes or negligence (e.g., forgot to encrypt laptop computers, used cc instead of bcc in emailing patients, didn’t revoke former employees’ login credentials after employment terminated) rather than external forces (e.g., hacking). We also found mobile devices (e.g. laptop computers, usb drives) are associated with most data breaches than paper records or network servers. Our results suggest if healthcare providers strengthen their internal control and limit the use of mobile device might be effective ways to reduce data breach risks.
24 Sep Snacking on Nuts Better for Weight Control than Chips
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Deirdre K Tobias, ScD Associate Epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical SchoolMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What types of nuts are helpful? Peanuts included?
Response: We did not have the granularity in our study to evaluate too many individual nut types, and did not perform head-to-head comparisons between types of nuts. All seemed to be better for long-term weight control compared with the snacks like potato chips that we know are not great for us on a regular basis.
23 Sep Almost 2 Million Diabetics Gained Health Insurance Under Affordable Care Act
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51566" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Myerson[/caption]
Rebecca Myerson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Population Health Sciences
School of Medicine and Public Health
University of Wisconsin, Madison
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Many people with diabetes are undiagnosed, and those who are diagnosed often are untreated and uncontrolled. Increasing access to health insurance for patients with health care needs was a goal of the Affordable Care Act.
We analyzed information from 11 years of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which gathers data that are nationally representative of the civilian population. The biennial survey includes biomarkers, including HbA1c, a measure of blood-sugar control. Using the NHANES data allowed the researchers to identify those with undiagnosed diabetes.