August 3rd, 2011
Podcast 127: Why QALYs matter
This time we talk with Dr. Katia Noyes, first author on a study of the cost-effectiveness of disease-modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis. If you don’t treat MS, don’t think that the topic is irrelevant. Noyes brings the issues of cost-effectiveness and the dreaded QALY into focus for clinicians who see patients. After all, medical costs will […]
July 16th, 2011
Podcast 126: Placebos and Medical ‘Meaning’
Last week’s New England Journal of Medicine paper on the placebo effect in evaluating asthma treatments was fascinating in itself. The editorial that accompanied it, however, was a delight. It asks clinicians to think less about laboratory measures of cure, and more about the patient’s satisfaction with treatment — whether the treatment was “real” or not. […]
July 8th, 2011
Podcast 125: The smoking-cessation drug varenicline poses some difficult tradeoffs.
There is a new meta-analysis from the Canadian Medical Association Journal that finds increased risks among smokers trying to quit and taking varenicline (Chantix). Among smokers with stable cardiovascular disease, the number needed to treat to cause an adverse cardiovascular event is about 30, yet the number needed to treat to achieve smoking cessation is 10. […]
June 25th, 2011
Podcast 124: Getting more accuracy into blood pressure measurements
Patients’ systolic pressures vary by about 10%, regardless of whether they are measured at home or under the duress of a visit to the doctor. That variation is troubling when deciding whether to put a patient on an antihypertensive regimen: how reliable are the measurements that will form the basis of your decision? How do […]
June 3rd, 2011
Podcast 123: Calcium’s benefits seem to peak out at about 800 mg daily
On the basis of evidence from a Swedish cohort, calcium intakes much above that country’s recommended 800 mg daily don’t have added protective value against fracture and osteoporosis. The authors of this BMJ paper suggest we’d be better off making sure those at the low end of the calcium-intake spectrum get their 800 mg, rather than […]
May 19th, 2011
Podcast 122: Most newer antiepileptics apparently safer in early pregnancy — but not all.
A paper from Denmark looks at five newer-generation antiepileptics and finds no strong birth-defects signal associated with their use in the first trimester. However, as the senior author points out in a statement to Clinical Conversations, one of the drugs — topiramate — has only recently been cited by the FDA as carrying a risk […]
About the Podcast
Comments, suggestions, and story ideas welcome. Learn more about Clinical Conversations.
Follow us:
