The FDA added a warning that Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine may trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in a small number of people. Of the 12.5 million Americans who received this vaccine, about 100 people reported having GBS, which is an acquired demyelinating polyneuropathy that often begins in the lower extremities and ascends over time with […]
According to a study of 135,000 doctors by Doximity, male physicians made, on average, 28% more than females in 2020, a 3% increase from the 2019 numbers. The survey, along with Medscape’s poll in 2021 that showed male specialist physicians overall making 33% more than females, points to a few other large gender pay gaps, […]
According to a press release from April 2021, “the FDA is working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars.” Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, MD, said the agency had now “accumulated sufficient evidence establishing the addictiveness […]
Medical jargon and the complexity of medical information may cause misunderstandings and patient discomfort when bedside case presentations are taking place. To see if outside-the-room case presentations were more effective, the researchers examined the patients’ average knowledge of three dimensions of their medical care in both settings — understanding their disease, the therapeutic approach being […]
An extremely interesting case in New York is examined in this article, which chronicles a female patient suffering from multiple sclerosis and her suit against her neurologist for prescribing a new medication that her attorney feels goes beyond medical malpractice and into fraud under NY’s General Business Law 349: “deceptive acts or practices in the […]
There are several reasons why the COVID-19 Delta variant – responsible for the COVID crisis in India – has public health experts and doctors concerned, including its transmissibility and disease severity. You likely already know the Delta “variant of concern” is more contagious than previous variants (denoted by the Greek alphabet), but here are five […]
In this article/podcast from KevinMD.com, the author encourages readers to make some adjustments in their life to reduce the professional and personal risks associated with the stakeholders who target physicians, including corporate America, the government, patients, and the financial industry. The commentary is a response to President Biden’s multi-trillion spending plan, which targets rich corporations […]
Are you biased toward certain types of patients? “Sometimes” is likely your answer, but there are implicit biases that doctors may not be aware they have. To help answer this question, Medscape put together a survey to weigh these biases, with emotional problems coming in at No. 1. Whether they are implicit or explicit, here […]
In this JAMA Original Investigation, the researchers studied 19,529 patients with Medicare coverage who initiated first systemic therapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using 1 of 4 regimens of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and combined chemoimmunotherapy. The goal? To gauge the uptake and effectiveness of immunotherapy among older patients outside clinical trials.
We touched on the “non-medical” books that should be on every doctor’s list in a previous newsletter; in this article, we’re directing you to the most important books on pandemics throughout history. As COVID-19 slows down in the US – but still rages on in other countries – it’s important to prepare yourself for what […]