May 2nd, 2010
Podcast 85: B vitamins lower homocysteine levels, so why don’t they retard the progression of diabetic nephropathy?
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A surprise finding: homocysteine is supposed to be a factor in vascular inflammation, but lowering hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with diabetic nephropathy actually accelerated the decline of their GFRs. What gives?
We have a conversation with Dr. J. David Spence, whose results were just published in JAMA.
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News-related links:
April 23rd, 2010
Podcast 84: One year later, what have we learned from 2009 H1N1? A conversation with Richard Wenzel.
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I’d forgotten that it’s only been a year since 2009 H1N1 (remember when we called it “swine flu”?) struck, but then I saw Richard Wenzel’s op-ed essay in the New York Times. Dr. Wenzel kindly agreed to a conversation, and that’s our offering this week.
Interview-related links:
News-related links:
- PTU gets a boxed warning
- False-positives in screening for lung cancer
- Hospitalizations for MI have declined
If you’d like to leave a comment, we’d love to have it. Give voice to more expressive messages at 1-617-440-4374.
April 16th, 2010
Podcast 83: An interview by CardioExchange’s editors on the COURAGE study
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This week’s conversation introduces you to CardioExchange, a joint effort by Journal Watch and the New England Journal of Medicine to create an online community of clinicians interested in cardiovascular diseases.
Two of CardioExchange’s editors, Dr. Richard Lange and Dr. L. David Hillis, interview Dr. William Boden of the COURAGE study, and Dr. Gregg Stone, an interventionalist. The exchange of views is interesting.
Interview-related links:
- The COURAGE study as it appeared in NEJM
- The COURAGE “Nuclear Substudy” as it appeared in Circulation
- Signing up for CardioExchange
News-related links:
April 9th, 2010
Podcast 82: Checklists save lives — lots of lives. Becoming a clinical automaton.
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Repetitive tasks, like making sure to wash your hands after seeing each patient, may seem like drudgery, but they save patients’ lives.
This week we talk with Prof. Elizabeth Robb and Sir Brian Jarman about their success at chopping hospital mortality rates with simple checklists. Sir Brian has offered to monitor your hospital’s stats for free. So give a listen.
Comments to 1-617-440-4374 or to jelia@jwatch.org.
Interview-related links:
- BMJ article
- Links to the checklists used
- Physician’s First Watch summary
- Prof. Robb’s You-Tube video
- Dr Foster Intelligence unit at Imperial College, London
News-related links:
April 2nd, 2010
Podcast 81: When should you start screening for type 2 diabetes?
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A large-scale computer simulation based on NHANES data plotted the most cost-effective strategy, which turns out to be to start screening before middle age and to repeat every 3 to 5 years. We talk with the first author of a Lancet paper that details the findings.
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March 27th, 2010
Podcast 80: Bisphosphonates and atypical hip fractures — how large is the risk?
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We talk with three of the academic authors of a New England Journal of Medicine study that pooled data from a few studies in an attempt to examine the possible link between use of bisphosphonates and femoral-shaft fractures.
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