Tag Archives: Medicine

Health Talk: “Prostate Cancer – Diagnosis And Treatments” (Mayo Clinic)

On the Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Derek Lomas, a Mayo Clinic urologist, discusses prostate cancer, including a new biopsy method.

This interview originally aired Feb. 22, 2020. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer — second to skin cancer — among men in the U.S. One in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Screening is important because early detection greatly improves the chances of survival. While some types of prostate cancer grow slowly, and may need minimal or even no treatment, other types are aggressive and can spread quickly. If prostate cancer is suspected, a biopsy can confirm the diagnosis.

Learn more about prostate cancer: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c…

Health Talk: “Treating Headaches, Migraines And Cluster” (Mayo Clinic)

On the Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Beth Robertson, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, discusses headaches and treatment for migraines.

This interview originally aired Feb. 22, 2020. Learn more about headaches: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c…

Medical Podcasts: “2020 U.S. Influenza Epidemic” – Very Serious Year-To-Date

JAMA Clinical Reviews logoAlthough coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dominates the news in early 2020, it affects few people in the US. In contrast, at the same time the US is experiencing a severe influenza epidemic, which has caused an estimated 250 000 hospitalizations and 14 000 deaths. 

Timothy Uyeki, MD, lead for the CDC’s 2019 novel coronavirus response team and Chief Medical Officer of CDC’s influenza division, discusses influenza in the US, how it compares to coronavirus, and what both patients and clinicians should know about this year’s flu season.

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Health: “Living With Arthritis” (Mayo Clinic)

On the Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. John M. Davis III, a Mayo Clinic rheumatologist, discusses arthritis, and the latest edition of the book, “Mayo Clinic on Arthritis — How to Manage Pain and Lead an Active Life”.

If you have arthritis, you are not alone. More than 50 million Americans suffer from arthritis and it is the No. 1 cause of disability in the country. Arthritis is the swelling and tenderness of one or more of your joints, causing joint pain and stiffness that typically worsen with age. Of the over 100 kinds of arthritis, the two most common are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Learn more about arthritis: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c…

Healthcare: “2018 Health Care Cost Report” Shows Spending Grew 18% Per-Person From 2014 – 2018

HCCI Releases 2018 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report 

Per-Person Health Care Spending Grew 18% from 2014 to 2018, Driven Mostly by Prices

Health Care Cost Institute 2018 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report Cumulative Change in Spending per Person by Service Category

 

The report examines four groups of health care services and dozens of sub-categories. Of the four major categories, outpatient visits and procedures saw the highest 2018 spending increase (5.5%). Other notable trends include:

  • Inpatient services. 
    • Per-person spending on inpatient admissions rose 11.4% between 2014 and 2018
    • Within each sub-category of inpatient admissions, average prices grew steadily between 2014 and 2018 while utilization trends varied. However, the 2.0% price increase in 2018 was lower than the near 4% annual increases from 2014 to 2017.
  • Outpatient services.
    • ​Increases in prices and use led to a 16% increase in spending from 2014 to 2018.
    • ver that period, ER visit spending increased 32% and spending on observation stays went up 29%.
  • Professional services.
    • ​Spending increased 16% and growth accelerated over the 5-year period, driven by office visits and administered drugs.
    • Psychiatry also saw strikingly high spending growth of 43% from 2014 to 2018, which was driven mostly by increased use.
  • Prescription Drugs.
    • Generic drugs accounted for 88% of all prescriptions. .
    • Out-of-pocket payments for prescriptions for generic drugs was less than one-fifth of out-of-pocket payments on brand drugs.

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Society: “How To Do The Most Good Possible” (The Economist Video)

Doing good is increasingly about more than giving away money. Living kidney donations are rising and a new movement is pushing altruistically minded people to choose careers in fields, such as AI, that will shape the world’s future.

Research: CalTech Scientists Target Cancer Cells With Ultrasound

From a CalTech news article (February 4, 2020):

Ultrasonic-Cancer-Treat-14-50.2e16d0ba.fill-310x200-c100The hope, Lee says, is that ultrasound will kill cancer cells in a specific way that will also engage the immune system and arouse it to attack any cancer cells remaining after the treatment.

A new technique could offer a targeted approach to fighting cancer: low-intensity pulses of ultrasound have been shown to selectively kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.

CalTech logoUltrasound waves—sound waves with frequencies higher than humans can hear—have been used as a cancer treatment before, albeit in a broad-brush approach: high-intensity bursts of ultrasound can heat up tissue, killing cancer and normal cells in a target area. Now, scientists and engineers are exploring the use of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) in an effort to create a more selective treatment.

A study describing the effectiveness of the new approach in cell models was published in Applied Physics Letters on January 7. The researchers behind the work caution that it is still preliminary—it still has not been tested in a live animal let alone in a human, and there remain several key challenges to address—but the results so far are promising.

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Top Medical Podcasts: Lung-Cancer Screenings, Placebo Effects (NEJM)

Lung-Cancer Mortality with Volume CT Screening NEJM February 2020Featuring articles on lung-cancer screening in the NELSON trial, ribociclib and fulvestrant in metastatic breast cancer, vitamin D in pregnancy and asthma, treatment thresholds for neonatal hypoglycemia, and CAR-NK cells in anti-CD19 lymphoid tumors; a review article on placebo and nocebo effects; a Clinical Problem-Solving describing a rapid change in pressure; and Perspective articles on altruism in Extremis, on abuses of FDA regulatory procedures, and on joining forces against delirium.

The New England Journal of Medicine logo