Clinical Conversations

February 28th, 2009

Podcast 32: Reprise of a June 2008 interview with Larry Allen from Duke, in which he talks about patients’ estimates of their life expectancy, compared with what disease models predict.

We’ve run into a scheduling problem with the person we wanted to talk with. We’ll try again next week, because his views are intriguing and I’m guessing you’d rather have intriguing than ho-hum. However, so that you won’t have wasted your time downloading the podcast, I’ve reprised an interview from last June, when few of […]

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February 20th, 2009

Podcast 31: Making your clinical life easier — with genetics. Dr. Julie Johnson talks about using a patient’s genetic profile to help set their initial warfarin dose more accurately. You got a problem with that?

Starting a patient on warfarin is nobody’s idea of a good time, but pharmacogenetic research can help. A study in this week’s NEJM shows the advantage of using genetic information (plus some clinical data) over the old “start at 5 mg a day and pray for success” approach. We talk with Julie Johnson of the […]

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February 16th, 2009

Podcast 30: Dr. Roger Chou of Oregon Health Sciences University talks about recent guidelines for opioid use in non-cancer pain and reflects on the FDA’s recent announcement of tighter regulation on use of the drugs.

The FDA announced an early-March meeting with manufacturers of opioids to discuss how problems with the drugs’ overuse and abuse might be addressed. We talk with an author of guidelines just published (and freely available) in the Journal of Pain that coincidentally address some of these concerns. Then, of course, there’s the usual news roundup, […]

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February 8th, 2009

Podcast 29: Dr. Brian Jack of Boston University sees RED (Re-Engineered Discharge) as a way to lower hospital readmissions.

Millions of people are discharged each year from U.S. hospitals. How many find themselves on the street with no clear idea of what they’ve been treated for, what drugs they should take and when, and how to get in touch with a clinician if something goes wrong? No surprise, many are readmitted — either directly […]

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