By Han Na Kim
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Case:
The patient is a 50-year-old woman with history of steroid-dependent, severe, persistent asthma since childhood and coronary artery disease who presented with dyspnea and URI symptoms admitted …
Category: Pharmacology
Clinical Correlations
The Placebo Effect: Can Understanding Its Role Improve Patient Care?
May 4, 2012
By Brian D. Clark
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The ability to critically assess the validity of a clinical trial is one of many important skills that a physician strives to develop. This skill helps guide …
Challenges in the Treatment of TB and HIV Co-Infection
March 16, 2012
By Santosh Vardhana, MD/PhD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Ms. T is a 32- year-old woman with no past medical history who presents with a three month history of productive cough, shortness of breath, and a twenty …
Ethical Considerations on the Use of Fear in Public Health Campaigns
November 23, 2011
By Ishmeal Bradley, MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The goal of public health is to prevent or minimize disease and injury on a population level. How to achieve this end has changed over time, though. …
Medicine By Numbers: 131 Million
October 28, 2011
By Maryann Kwa, MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
131 million: The number of times the most popular medication in the United States was prescribed in 2010.
Recently, IMS Health, a company that monitors annual sales for pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, published a list of …
They’re all the ‘roid rage: origins and mechanisms of corticosteroid therapy.
September 23, 2011
By Santosh Vardhana, MD
A 36-year-old obese male with hypertension and hyperlipidemia presents to the ER with new knee pain, swelling, and erythema. Joint aspiration reveals negatively birefringent crystals. He is started on oral prednisone.
A 26-year-old woman with lupus presents to ER …
Avastin and the Meaning of Evidence
September 9, 2011
By Antonella Surbone MD PhD and Jerome Lowenstein MD
The recent hearings at the Food and Drug Administration regarding the revocation of approval for the use of Avastin in the treatment of breast cancer [1,2,3] bring into sharp focus several very important …
More Pills, More Problems: The Polypill Revisited
August 3, 2011
By Jonathan Leventhal
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Polypharmacy has become an integral part of daily life for millions of chronically ill patients worldwide, and rightfully so. Evidence-based studies have repeatedly demonstrated that multiple drugs are required for optimal therapeutic management in chronic diseases including …