PrimeCuts

Kevin Hsueh, MD

This week finally sees the passage of a belated, but significant milestone in healthcare reform in the United States.  On Christmas Eve ’09, the Senate passed its version of the healthcare reform bill,  potentially setting in motion a radical shift in the way health coverage is provided in the United States.  Of course, significant political wrangling still is yet to be done, as both the House and Senate versions need to be reconciled prior to the bill being signed into law.  Luckily …

Read more »

Ishmeal Bradley, MD

The year 2009 could aptly be named “The Year of the Swine Flu.” Indeed, the emergence of a new influenza pandemic was the biggest health story of the year. In a rather tongue-in-cheek approach, the journal Science named the new H1N1 strain “Virus of the Year.” (1) While the public health community had been focused on Asia as the source of the next great influenza pandemic, especially given the outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in 2003, H1N1 surfaced unexpectedly in North America. …

Read more »

Sarah Lee, MD

As the national healthcare debate rages on and while winter decides to give us a premature hello,  Primecuts turns its view towards the overuse of antibiotics in the Petri dish we call the intensive care unit, more discussion on the HIV vaccine we discussed last week, the plight of the uninsured and an in depth analysis of the Tiger Woods story… ok now that we have your attention…

Throughout the world today, infection continues to be one of the main contributors to …

Read more »

Joshua Strauss MD

Faculty peer reviewed

The weather in the Northeast dipped below freezing over the weekend, along with our first snowfall of the season.  Breaking out the heavy coats, scarves and gloves, we have become acutely aware that the winter is fast approaching.  This also means that we are still in the midst of flu season.  Of course, this flu season is not a typical one, with the country worrying about both the seasonal flu as well as the pandemic H1N1 virus. 

On Saturday, …

Read more »

David Ecker MD

Faculty peer reviewed

With Thanksgiving behind us, hopefully we have all had a chance to ruminate on the flurry of changes to cancer screening guidelines and the public reaction they generated. This week the NEJM has published a series of perspectives that not only detail the rationale for those changes but also provide a guide for their interpretation in order to facilitate advice for concerned patient populations.(1,2,3)  They also address some of the missteps in framing discussions for the public. Together they …

Read more »

Rennie Rhee MD

Less is more, some say, and this past week the general direction of screening guidelines seems to affirm this mantra.  After an unprecedented change in the United States Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) guidelines for breast cancer screening, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists1 (ACOG) announced on Friday, November 20th their new recommendation to delay the onset of cervical cancer screening and to screen less frequently. Of course, following years of aggressive campaigning for preventive medicine and innumerable cancer awareness programs, …

Read more »

Katie Miro MD

Faculty peer reviewed

Americans took the time last week to honor the men and women who fought for our country as Veteran’s Day was marked with parades and celebration throughout the nation. Clinical Correlations would like to send special thanks not only to the many veterans of this country, but also to the brave men and women serving in the military today. While the war on terrorism continues abroad, President Obama’s battle for health care reform continues at home. Sunday’s front page  …

Read more »

Megha Shah MD

Faculty peer reviewed

Do we fail to make healthy choices simply because we lack information? If we knew that a tall sized Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino with whip had 300 calories, would we order it anyway? Or would we go for the zero calorie Tazo tea option instead? Well, the jury’s still out…In April 2008, a law was passed that required calorie counts to be posted next to prices in all chains with at least 15 outlets nationwide, affecting close to 2,000 restaurants …

Read more »

Tao Xu MD

Faculty peer reviewed

As we approach the end of fall, with large crowds in a variety of costumes gleefully marching in the pouring rain during the 36th Annual Village Halloween Parade, thoughts about flu season warnings seemed far away. But here is a story that will remind us of the global threat of the H1N1 virus. At the end of November, the annual Mecca will take place in Saudi Arabia, where an estimated 2.5 million pilgrims from 160 countries will find themselves …

Read more »

Todd Cutler MD

Faculty peer reviewed

It’s a tired cliché, but this week the flies on the wall at the American Cancer Society were undoubtedly privy to some fascinating conversation. The dialogue began, in the popular press at least, with a special communication published in JAMA, in which the authors sounded a clarion call for a nationwide overhaul of the current breast and prostate cancer screening guidelines. In a strongly-worded argument, the authors synthesized the results of multiple studies at the levels of epidemiology, clinical …

Read more »

Chau Che MD

This week ended on a high note in the financial world. The Dow bounced back and crossed the 10,000 mark this week, ultimately ending the week slightly below that mark and Goldman Sachs posted a profit of 3.19 billion in the third quarter, signifying a hopeful return to the days before the financial crisis. However, in retrospect, the financial crisis of 2007 was preventable and could have been avoided if the banks gave out loans with a bit more discretion. The hopeful …

Read more »

Michael Tees, MD, MPH

While the news was dominated by President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, other American Nobel Laureates should not be forgotten. After all, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak waited over 20 years for theirs. These American scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this week “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”. American scientists this year are also sharing the Nobel Prize in the field of Chemistry as well …

Read more »