2022 TT HealthWatch Archive

TT HealthWatch - Friday, December 30, 2022

This week's topics include daily steps and CVD, income and child health, a genetic basis for obesity and maladaptive behavior, and unionizing medical workers.

0:45 Steps and CVD
1:42 40-50% lowered risk
2:45 Consider an electronic device to help
3:20 Family income and morbidity and mortality in children
4:20 Association with lower income and health outcomes
5:20 Wasn't due to differential access to medical care
6:20 Cessation of expanded credit
6:40 Association of serotonin receptor with obesity and behavior
7:40 Receptor in the hypothalamus
8:45 Can increase suppressant molecule
9:00 Unionization among health care workers
10:08 More likely to have employer-paid health insurance
11:01 Only 8% of physicians unionized
12:05 May offer leverage if they are corporate employees
12:58 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, December 23, 2022

This week's topics include an Advent themed exercise program, conservative strategies for neck and back pain, substance use and road user accidents, and misdiagnosis in the ED.

0:36 Diagnostic errors in the ED
1:35 About 370,000 per year
2:35 Female and non-White experienced more
3:35 Spine care randomized trial
4:35 How much did it cost the healthcare system?
5:35 Usual care comparison
6:25 Alcohol and drug prevalence in road user accidents
7:25 Active THC at 25%
8:28 National epidemic
8:44 Advent themed exercise
9:44 Easy elf
10:45 Calendar with dates
12:23 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, December 16, 2022

This week's topics include cognitive function, diet and exercise, intermittent vigorous exercise, bispecific antibodies, and weight loss, exercise and osteoarthritis pain.

0:43 New bispecific antibodies
1:44 Two arms that can be manipulated separately
2:44 Will antibodies be patient specific?
3:00 Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity
4:00 The more VILPA the lower your risk
5:01 Also in exercisers
6:00 Osteoarthritis pain, exercise and weight loss
7:00 Both groups experienced pain reduction
8:00 If it showed a benefit
8:18 Mindfulness training, exercise and cognitive function
9:18 Hippocampal volume examined
10:20 Delay cognitive impairment?
11:28 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, December 9, 2022

This week's topics include benefits of 13 valent pneumococcal vaccine, a new therapy for advanced melanoma, is there any advantage to Medicare Advantage plans, and alcohol and drug overdose deaths in those over 65 years of age.

0:38 Medicare Advantage and outcomes from heart attacks
1:35 No difference in mortality
2:35 If you want to pick your own physician
2:40 Alcohol and drug overdose deaths in those 65 and older
3:40 Higher for non-Hispanic black men
4:40 Dramatic increase in things like fentanyl
5:30 Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and melanoma
6:30 Progression free survival doubled
7:30 Use earlier in disease course
7:40 13 valent pneumococcal vaccine and pneumonia hospitalizations
8:40 Varying types of pneumonia
9:40 Don't get vaccine very often
10:35 Vaccine helps in high risk individuals
11:40 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, December 2, 2022

This week's topics include community-based asymptomatic testing, for COVID-19 and hospitalizations, a computerized driving program for kids with ADHD, particulate matter in the lungs, and immune response, and organ donation and motorcycle rallies.

0:40 Community-based COVID-19 testing and hospitalizations
1:40 In those without symptoms
2:42 Conducted in a community with higher deprivation
3:46 Inhaled particulate accumulation with age
4:48 Lymph nodes have accumulated particles
5:45 Any way to get rid of it?
6:10 Motorcycle accidents and organ transplants
7:13 More when motorcycle rallies taking place
8:14 Need to educate about organ donation
9:15 Much more likely on a motorcycle
9:33 Training teen drivers with ADHD
10:35 Tried to distract the kids
11:35 Switch to skill training
12:54 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, November 25, 2022

This week's topics include stopping cervical cancer screening, low dose opioids for breathlessness in COPD, the burden of death from bacterial infections worldwide, and hearing loss and dementia.

0:40 The global burden of bacterial infections and death
1:40 Four times as many deaths in low income countries
2:40 Treating the right bacteria
3:10 Can we associate hearing loss with dementia?
4:12 1200 participants
5:12 Three previous studies
6:12 Social withdrawal and depression
6:45 Breathlessness in COPD
7:45 Treated over three weeks with low dose opioids
8:30 Skipping cervical cancer screening
9:30 How many women still being screened?
10:30 Two normal HPV tests
11:30 If you've had negative screening before
12:33 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, November 18, 2022

This week's topics include consequences of COVID-19 reinfection, tobacco use among U.S. youth, USPSTF recommendations on screening for obstructive sleep apnea, and a new agent for treatment-resistant hypertension.

0:31 Second COVID-19 infection consequences
1:35 Risk elevated regardless of vaccination status
2:35 Is it the same variant?
3:35 Older and sicker individuals?
3:55 New blood pressure medicine (NEJM)
4:55 In addition to their existing medicines
6:00 Tobacco use among U.S. youth
7:00 Almost 14% of Alaskan or Native American
8:05 State and federal interventions underway
9:00 Screening for OSA in nonsymptomatic individuals (JAMA)
10:01 Does it affect outcomes?
11:00 As many as a third of men
12:10 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, November 11, 2022

This week's topics include early ablation for atrial fibrillation, treating heart attacks promptly, triglyceride lowering and cardiovascular outcomes, and making defibrillation more effective.

0:51 Heart attack treatment times
1:51 Only 17% of the time by guidelines
2:51 Each hospital must evaluate
3:50 Thrombolytic therapy
4:01 Pemafibrate and cardiovascular outcomes
5:01 67% with previous CVD
6:04 Higher incidence of adverse renal events
6:23 Refractory defibrillation
7:23 Double defibrillation had higher survival
8:23 Just experience
8:30 Early treatment of atrial fibrillation
9:30 Much less recurrent fibrillation
10:30 Remodels atrial tissue
11:30 Both done safely in experienced centers
12:49 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, November 4, 2022

This week's topics include the best direct oral anticoagulant, effect of unplanned pregnancy on maternal and infant outcomes, psilocybin for depression, and hormone therapy for prevention of chronic disease in postmenopausal women.

0:40 Hormone therapy for chronic disease prevention
1:40 Lower risk of colorectal cancer, diabetes and fractures
2:40 Is there a rationale to take this?
3:40 Timing hypothesis
4:40 Careful not to exclude vasomotor symptom relief
5:10 Unintended pregnancy and outcomes for mother and child
6:10 Higher risk of low birth weight
7:12 Depression and psilocybin
8:12 Development of a relationship with a therapist prior
9:12 Casts doubt on utility in long haul
10:25 Direct oral anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation
11:41 Apixaban seems best
12:49 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, October 28, 2022

This week's topics include surveying London sewage for polio, physical activity and Covid vaccines, diet changes and mortality, and maternal hypertension and offspring mortality.

0:37 Physical activity and Covid vaccination
1:37 High activity 86% effective
2:37 Quarantine and isolation?
3:00 Detection of poliovirus in sewage
4:01 118 genetically linked isolates found
5:01 Surveillance tool powerful
6:01 Identify specific genotypes
6:30 Changes in diet and mortality
7:30 Thirteen to thirty percent improvement
8:32 Two groups included
9:30 Maternal hypertension and offspring mortality
10:31 Eclampsia associated with highest mortality
11:31 Doesn't show that treatment prevents death
13:00 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, October 21, 2022

This week's topics include using ads to keep teenagers from vaping, the burden of antimicrobial resistance in Europe, the Burden of Proof Studies, and costs of drugs to Medicare recipients.

0:38 Medicare recipients and prescription drug costs
1:39 Rose to 27% over 10 years
2:40 No limits on prices of new drugs
3:14 Burden of Proof Studies
4:14 Smoking and lung cancer
5:15 Assess conflicting studies
6:15 You replace foods with something else
6:34 Antimicrobial resistance in European region
7:36 Bloodstream infections, respiratory infections
8:35 Global travels spreads these bugs
8:48 Vaping prevention with ads
9:48 Any impact on susceptibility?
10:52 How to get them to watch
12:00 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, October 14, 2022

This week's topics include mom's diet and childhood obesity, neurodegenerative disease in rugby players, a new way to diagnose idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and HbA1c measures versus oral glucose tolerance tests.

0:44 Oral glucose tolerance tests versus HbA1c
1:44 How many had elevated HbA1c?
2:45 Much easier test than oral glucose tolerance
3:10 Diagnosing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
4:10 Nonspecific symptoms
5:10 Using data already in the electronic health record
6:11 Using information on hand
7:00 Neurodegenerative disease risk in rugby players
8:00 Not higher death rate, twice as likely for neurodegeneration
9:00 The tackler being injured
9:30 Maternal consumption of ultraprocessed foods
10:30 Three thousand mother child pairs
11:30 Ultraprocessing and inflammation
12:31 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, October 7, 2022

This week's topics include eye scans to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, preventing stroke in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), should the newer diabetic medications be first line? and intensive care units in the ED.

0:40 Devices to prevent strokes during TAVR
1:40 Approved on basis of debris presence
2:40 Overall risk of stroke is low
3:20 ICU care in the ED
4:20 Economic drivers?
5:20 ICU doc floors away
6:20 Also board certified in critical care medicine
6:40 First-line therapy for Type 2 diabetes
7:40 Benefits in mortality and other outcomes
8:40 In people without existing heart disease
9:12 AI look at the retina and prediction of mortality
10:12 Vascular photographs and AI interpretation
11:14 Offers no additional value
12:55 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, September 30, 2022

This week's topics include the benefits of weightlifting, neurologic long COVID-19, syphilis screening guidelines, and a bionic pancreas.

0:41 Neurologic long COVID-19
1:38 42% increased risk
2:38 Across all ages increased risk
3:00 USPSTF syphilis screening update
4:00 Women's rate has nearly tripled
5:00 Make individuals aware
5:55 Bionic pancreas
6:55 Type 1 diabetes
7:55 Didn't quantitate carbohydrate
8:35 Weights in addition to aerobic exercise
9:35 Additional mortality benefit in addition to aerobic
10:35 Doesn't look at duration of activity
11:35 Usually less than 10% meet activity guidelines
13:00 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, September 23, 2022

This week's topics include the impact of genetics on healthy life years, multivitamins and Alzheimer's disease, predicting who will respond to CART therapy, and active surveillance for prostate cancer and outcomes.

0:38 Alzheimer's and multivitamins
1:36 Multivitamins slowed rate of progression
2:36 Slight benefit
3:36 Uniform benefit
3:40 CAR-T therapy and relapse
4:40 Blood factors to predict
5:26 Genetic risk factors and healthy years
6:26 Maybe see genes and disease in the future
7:26 Is it genes or evironment?
8:03 Active surveillance for prostate cancer and outcomes
9:02 Most with prostate cancer in active surveillance
10:02 The younger you are with cancer
11:01 Does it apply to Black men?
12:00 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, September 16, 2022

This week's topics include the benefits of walking at different intensities, food analysis and mortality, screening for prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes in youth, and use of artificial sweeteners and disease and cardiovascular disease.

0:44 Screening for Type 2 diabetes in children
1:44 Don't know the benefits
2:44 During the pandemic increasing
3:44 How well does that treat it?
4:30 Categorizing foods and mortality
5:30 Cardiovascular and all-cause mortality
6:30 Higher mortality from both
7:30 Increased inflammation and CVD
8:35 Artificial sweeteners and CVD
9:35 Frequently found in ultraprocessed foods
10:23 Steps, intensity, and mortality
11:23 Cancer and diagnosis
12:54 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, September 9, 2022

This week's topics include autoimmune disease and cardiovascular conditions, reducing unnecessary radiographs, preventing kidney injury in cardiac catheterization, and use of effective diabetes drugs in different ethnicities.

0:43 Preventing acute kidney injury in cardiac catheterization
1:43 Point of care clinical decision support
2:43 Audit and feedback
3:30 Autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases
4:30 23.3 events per 1000 patient years
5:30 Even degenerative heart disorders
6:26 Reducing use of X-rays where they may not be useful
7:30 Looked at 3800 practitioners
8:30 Physicians get upset about being told
9:20 Use of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP1 agonists in ethnic groups
10:20 Self identified race
11:20 There is some disparity
12:51 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, September 2, 2022

This week's topics include clots after COVID-19 vaccination, predicting how bad COVID-19 might be based on blood proteins, TBI and markers of severity, and looking in sewage for COVID-19 variants.

0:43 Looking at sewage for emerging COVID-19 variants
1:42 Capture all the viruses magnetically
2:42 Capture cryptic transmission
3:42 Detection 14 days earlier
4:30 Increased risk for heart attack, stroke or PE after COVID-19 vaccination
5:31 30% increased risk with adenovirus vaccine
6:01 Plasma antigens and clinical course of hospitalized patients with COVID-19
7:01 Elevated baseline antigen levels and worse outcomes
8:03 Many patients already treated
9:10 Predictors of outcomes related to traumatic brain injury (TBI)
10:15 Measured proteins seen after CNS injury
11:15 If we can predict outcome we can apply therapy
12:03 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, August 26, 2022

This week's topics include physical activity and Covid risk, statin use update, standing desks and reduced sitting time, and how often do modifiable risk factors contribute to cancer?

0:37 Physical activity and Covid infection
1:37 Greatest benefit by 500 METS
2:37 Tolerate viral illnesses better
3:39 Statin use update
4:39 Greater than 10% risk
5:39 Guidelines based largely on men
6:36 Not risky
7:02 Getting office workers moving
8:03 Electronic reminders
9:04 Organization theory, teamwork
10:04 How they felt
10:20 Global burden of cancer and modifiable risk factors
11:20 Changed geographically across the globe
12:03 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, August 19, 2022

This week's topics include risk of thrombosis in patients hospitalized with Covid, cutoffs for gestational diabetes, monkeypox clinical guidelines, and remote ischemic conditioning and stroke outcomes.

0:40 Thromboembolism in people hospitalized with Covid versus flu
1:40 60-100% increased DVT or PE
2:40 Continue after hospitalization?
3:44 Effect of remote ischemic conditioning in stroke
4:45 Outcomes five percent improved
5:45 Have to treat 100 to improve five
6:48 Biologic plausibility?
7:10 Treating monkeypox clinically
8:10 Lack of evidence to guide clinical decision making
8:43 Treating gestational diabetes
9:45 Several hundred in each arm
10:45 Maybe lower glucose level would help?
11:56 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, August 12, 2022

This week's topics include long COVID-19 and variants, treatment of asymptomatic kidney stones, a new blood marker for diabetes and cancer, and managing intracranial atherosclerosis.

0:45 Post-COVID-19 syndromes associated with variants
1:45 Systemic inflammatory cluster
2:43 Treatment of asymptomatic kidney stones
3:45 Time to relapse 75% longer with treatment
4:45 New techniques and equipment
5:45 Millions of people with stones
6:05 Two studies in intracranial atherosclerosis
7:05 Also got an additional antiplatelet agent
8:05 Risk of recurrent stroke
9:00 Novel risk marker plasma prostasin
10:01 Significantly associated with both diabetes and cancer
11:30 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, August 5, 2022

This week's topics include the best medications for insomnia, calorie labeling of supermarket foods, the global burden of COPD, and restricting driving in people who faint.

0:40 Fainting or syncope and driving restrictions
1:40 Followed after ED visit for six months
2:40 Not able to assess risk better
2:55 Pharmacologic treatment of insomnia
3:55 Two medications with favorable profile
4:55 Melatonin had no effect
5:20 Worldwide burden of COPD
6:20 More people with it even with declining percentage
7:25 Women disproportionately affected in low income countries
7:50 Labeling of prepared foods in supermarkets
8:50 Bakery and deli items decreased
9:50 Education not sufficient for behavior change
10:50 An app that might help
11:50 Business must be involved in change
12:39 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, July 29, 2022

This week's topics include a second booster for Covid, sociodemographics of drug overdose deaths, increasing gestational diabetes, and cardiometabolic impact of Covid infection.

0:40 Fourth dose of Covid vaccine
1:42 Antibody titers before and after third and fourth dose
2:42 Nothing about how often vaccines needed
3:40 Cardiometabolic complications of Covid
4:40 Six fold increase in cardiovascular disease
5:40 Atrial arrhythmia in acute phase
5:55 Increases in gestational diabetes
6:55 Prepregnancy BMI
7:56 Need to understand better
8:40 Drug overdose sociodemographics
9:41 Black males over 65
10:53 Intentional and unintentional
11:58 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, July 22, 2022

This week's topics include hangriness, physical activity and poor diet, the state of men's health, and alcohol use and risk.

0:35 Outrunning a bad diet
1:35 Best outcome with both exercise and good diet
2:35 Need policy-level intervention
3:00 Commonwealth report on health for U.S. men
4:00 Least likely to have a regular doctor
5:01 ED visits instead
5:40 Alcohol consumption and impact
6:41 204 countries and territories
7:42 Change to none if you're younger than 40
8:20 Hangriness
9:20 Accounting for a number of traits
10:20 Changes in insulin or other hormones
11:20 Only 58% had breakfast
12:37 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, July 15, 2022

This week's topics include factors that contribute to severe outcomes in immunocompromised people with COVID-19, a new oral medication for severe COVID-19, lack of benefit in knee injections for osteoarthritis, and insight into long COVID-19.

0:52 Insight into long COVID-19
1:53 What about the variants?
2:42 Factors related to severe COVID-19 in immunocompromised
3:42 Non-immunocompromised lowest risk
4:42 Vaccination does not decrease death risk if hospitalized
5:15 Oral therapy for COVID-19
6:15 How long in hospital?
7:15 How microtubule disruption works
8:15 Hyaluronic acid injections in knees in BMJ
9:20 560 million worldwide living with knee OA
10:20 Many of the studies haven't been published
11:30 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, July 8, 2022

This week's topics include outcomes for babies in women infected with Covid during pregnancy, new cardiovascular health guidelines, targeting difference pathways in Alzheimer's, and monkeypox update.

0:40 Neurological outcomes for babies whose moms had Covid
1:40 Adjusted for other factors still had twice the risk
2:40 One year of follow up
3:00 Targeting noradrenergic pathways in Alzheimer's
4:00 Large positive effect on apathy
5:00 Have more global effects
5:49 Monkeypox in the UK
6:49 Direct contact spread
7:50 Administration of vaccines?
8:00 Cardiovascular health calculator
9:00 Very rare for people to meet them
10:00 Red, yellow or green and an overall score
11:36 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, July 1, 2022

This week's topics include computer-based therapy for PTSD, maternal mortality during COVID-19, life stress and immune response, and smoking cessation basis.

0:40 Maternal mortality during COVID-19
1:40 Based on codes related to death
2:40 Immunization helpful
3:25 Computer-based CBT for PTSD
4:25 12 individual sessions or online
5:25 Requires less therapist time
6:30 Smoking cessation for those who've been hospitalized
7:31 Community-based quit line
8:30 Motivated individuals
9:27 Immune aging and life stressors
10:31 Lower naive T-cells
11:32 Other significant associations dropped out
12:43 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, June 24, 2022

This week's topics include Medicaid expansion and suicide, long Covid and Delta versus Omicron, green areas and mortality, and multivitamins, supplements, CVD and cancer.

0:47 Omicron and Delta and long Covid,
1:50 Self reported symptom studies
2:50 Lots more since more people are getting infected
3:08 State Medicaid expansion and suicide in adults
4:10 Difference might be linked to increased access to mental healthcare
5:10 Men at higher risk
6:00 USPSTF and supplements and minerals
7:00 May increase risk of cancer
8:00 Only a big longitudinal study will define
9:00 What do you say to a patient?
9:25 Green space and mortality
10:25 All cause mortality in those 65 and older
11:25 For recreational activity?
12:34 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, June 17, 2022

This week's topics include breast screening imaging comparison, varenicline for smoking cessation in African Americans, voting and health outcomes across the U.S., and testosterone supplements and CVD.

0:40 Testosterone supplements and cardiovascular outcomes
1:43 Over 20 years of data
2:43 In short term, appears safe
3:00 Tomosynthesis in breast screening
4:03 No difference in interval breast cancers
5:03 Better than either technique
6:02 Surrogate for effectiveness of screening
6:31 Political environment and mortality rates
7:33 Contributions to mortality gap
8:31 Evidence base with regard to policy
9:10 Varenicline and smoking in African Americans
10:10 Varenicline 1mg twice daily
11:10 Less likely to stop smoking
12:10 Multimodality important
13:20 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, June 10, 2022

This week's topics include a new treatment for rectal cancer, using circulating DNA to guide colorectal cancer treatment, type 1 diabetes and obesity, and obesity and cancer.

0:40 Bariatric surgery and cancer risk
1:40 Followed for six years
2:41 Longer term follow up needed
3:22 Obesity and type 1 diabetes in late adolescence
4:22 Increased two to three fold
5:22 Gut microbiota involved
6:02 Management of colorectal cancer with circulating DNA
7:02 If DNA is circulating continue treatment
8:02 Personalized approach to medicine
8:35 Rectal adenocarcinoma
9:35 100% remission
10:35 Weeks to months complete disappearance
11:53 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, June 3, 2022

This week's topics include atrial fibrillation after pneumonia, a new treatment for pancreas cancer, harms experienced by hospitalized Medicare patients, and risk of long COVID-19 after COVID-19 infection in fully vaccinated people.

0:41 Long COVID-19 after breakthrough infection
1:43 34% lower risk of death
2:43 Still have to isolate
3:05 Report on adverse events among hospitalized Medicare patients
4:05 2018 43% preventable issues
5:05 Medication that caused delirium
6:10 Atrial fibrillation after pneumonia
7:10 Higher risk 2.8% at one year
8:10 People with increased risk anyway
8:15 Case report of T-cell therapy in pancreas cancer
9:15 Reduce visceral metastases by 72%
10:14 T cells infiltrate tumor
11:36 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, May 27, 2022

How to inactivate pathogens in a room, flu vaccine helps in COVID-19, unintended consequences of a cancer treatment, and COVID-19 vaccines and long COVID-19.

0:50 Flu vaccine and Covid
1:50 90% protection against fatal infection
2:45 How to inactivate pathogens in a room
3:45 Helps in laboratory
4:45 Germicidal light and skin and eye exposure
5:41 Covid vaccines as a treatment for long Covid
6:42 Second dose additional 9% decrease
7:45 Vaccine resets immune system
8:15 Demethylation and upregulation of an oncogene
9:15 Used a CRISPR technique to assess
10:15 Oncogene activation in about a third
11:15 Other gene interactions
12:05 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, May 20, 2022

This week's topics include proning non-ventilated COVID-19 patients, increased numbers of people screened for prediabetes and diabetes, TAVI versus surgery, and a new agent for pulmonary fibrosis.

0:42 Awake prone positioning in COVID-19
1:44 Mean duration of prone positioning 4.8 hours
2:45 Goal of eight to 10 hours
3:47 New treatment for pulmonary fibrosis
4:45 Compared with no therapy or standard treatment
5:45 Need larger numbers of patients
6:03 Changing guidelines for screening for prediabetes and diabetes
7:05 Increase screening with both sets of guidelines
8:05 May be cost prohibitive
8:42 Treatment of aortic stenosis
9:43 Mortality similar in transcatheter versus surgery
10:40 May be the only valve they ever need
11:24 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, May 13, 2022

This week's topics include use of ECMO in people with COVID-19, variations in treatment of heart attack in high-income countries, variations is excess mortality during COVID-19, should we screen for COPD.

0:40 ECMO in people with Covid
1:40 844 patients on ECMO
2:40 Bias toward who gets on ECMO
3:30 Treatment after heart attack in six high income countries
4:30 Death within one year of admission
5:30 No country excelled in all of the outcomes
6:00 Excess mortality from external causes during Covid
7:00 17,000 additional fatalities
8:02 Ethnic groups with higher rates of poverty
9:00 Screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
10:01 Can treatment improve quality of life
11:36 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, May 6, 2022

This week's topics include assessing long COVID-19, self-monitoring and blood pressure in pregnancy, exercise to slow kidney function decline, and failure of nonoperative management of appendicitis in children.

0:40 Long COVID-19 symptom assessment
1:40 123 symptoms items
2:40 What can we do to minimize?
3:00 Nonoperative management of appendicitis in kids
4:00 Pain helped predict failure
5:00 Ultrasonography associated with failure
6:01 Self-monitoring blood pressure in pregnancy
7:02 Didn't diagnose earlier
8:03 If it's done routinely
8:30 Exercise and slowing down kidney function decline
9:30 Did slow the rate of decline
10:30 Pharmacologic interventions
11:42 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, April 29, 2022

This week's topics include long COVID, mix and match COVID vaccines, WHO living guideline on outpatient treatment of COVID, and aspirin for primary prevention of heart disease.

0:50 Clinical characteristics of long COVID
1:55 28% on mechanical ventilation
2:55 Minority fully recovered
3:59 Mix and match COVID vaccines
4:58 4 million completed
5:56 Many don't have a choice
6:30 WHO living guideline on COVID drugs
7:30 Use in patients at highest risk for hospitalization
8:30 Paxlovid trade name
9:22 Update from USPSTF on aspirin
10:22 Evolving story
11:20 Increased risk for mortality
12:11 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, April 22, 2022

This week's topics include healthy lifestyle and Alzheimer's, racial groups and Alzheimer's risk, time-restricted eating and weight loss, and treating moderate to severe asthma in Black and Latinx adults.

0:50 Time-restricted eating
1:50 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
2:50 Watching what we're eating
3:22 Healthy lifestyle and Alzheimer's
4:24 Lived longer with more healthy factors
5:24 Why lengthen life if we get Alzheimer's
6:24 Easy things to modify
6:30 Treating moderate to severe asthma in Black and Latinx adults
7:32 Use same therapy for exacerbations
8:35 Should increase compliance
8:45 Race and ethnicity with regard to dementia
9:45 Higher rate of Alzheimer's for ethnic groups
10:45 No real regional or geographic difference
11:43 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, April 15, 2022

This week's topics include hip injections for osteoarthritis, treatment of Achilles tendon rupture, neoadjuvant therapy for lung cancer, and overdose deaths among U.S. adolescents.

0:50 Overdose deaths in U.S. adolescents
1:51 1146 overdose deaths in 2021
2:53 Use of drugs down but mortality up
3:56 Improving early-stage lung cancer treatment
4:55 Three doses of nivolumab
5:55 CT scans in those with a history of smoking
6:10 Operative versus nonoperative treatment of Achilles rupture
7:10 Follow up for a year
8:10 More likely to have nerve injury
9:00 Osteoarthritis in hip
10:00 Much better at 2 and 4 months
11:00 When pain is removed
12:00 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, April 8, 2022

This week's topics include COVID-19 and wastewater, blood clots and COVID-19, treating mild hypertension in pregnancy, and use of a PCSK9 with statins after heart attack.

0:35 Wastewater and COVID-19
1:35 Broke down by age group also
2:35 People may not have symptoms
3:36 Blood clots, bleeding and COVID-19
4:37 Pulmonary embolism risk for six months
5:36 Prophylaxis not useful usually
6:32 Mild hypertension treatment in pregnancy
7:32 Enrolled women less than 23 weeks of pregnancy
8:33 Used to just wait it out
9:27 Treating people who've had a heart attack
10:30 Plaque less likely to rupture
11:29 Very expensive
12:05 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, April 1, 2022

This week's topics include GI impact of GLP-1 agonists, coinfection with flu and COVID-19, tomosynthesis and recall, and the best statin for those with diabetes.

0:44 Coinfection with flu and COVID-19
1:50 A third each with flu, adenovirus or RSV
2:45 Vaccination status?
3:40 False positives with digital versus tomosynthesis mammography
4:41 Just shy of 50% versus about 56%
5:41 About one in nine women
7:00 Best statin in those with diabetes
8:00 Rosuvastatin was effective
9:00 Biological difference?
9:35 GLP-1 agonists and gallbladder and biliary diseases
10:35 When used at higher doses and for longer periods of time
11:35 Just losing weight increases gallstones
12:42 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, March 25, 2022

This week's topics include neurologic sequelae of vaccination for or infection with COVID-19, lack of benefit for those with COVID on aspirin or other antiplatelets, safety of history-based prescription of medications to terminate pregnancy, and quit attempts by adolescents using combustible and e-cigarettes.

0:44 Neurologic outcomes and COVID infection or vaccination
1:45 Bell's palsy, transverse myelitis
2:46 What is the background rate?
3:45 Even with variants prevent severe disease
4:00 Failed attempts to quit cigarettes among teens
5:00 Monitoring the Future study
6:00 Regulate e-cigarettes to not target this group
7:01 Antiplatelet agents in COVID infection
8:01 Wasn't effective in critically ill patients
8:44 Outcomes and safety of history-based prescription of medication abortion
9:44 Looked at adverse events
10:42 Approved up to 70 days of pregnancy
11:44 Meets six domains of health care quality
12:45 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, March 18, 2022

This week's topics include excess mortality relative to COVID-19, brain changes secondary to COVID-19 infection, a gene therapy for hemophilia A, and screening for eating disorders.

0:30 Excess mortality and COVID-19
1:30 Estimate 18.2 million deaths
2:31 Increase again?
3:00 Brain changes and COVID-19
4:00 Greater reduction in grey matter thickness
5:01 Largest brain imaging study we have
6:01 Relatively modest changes
6:15 Gene therapy for hemophilia A
7:01 Follow up a year and two years
8:01 Hepatitis treated with steroids
9:00 Screening for eating disorders in normal weight people
10:00 Screening in primary care nonexistent
11:06 No studies to show benefit
12:18 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, March 11, 2022

This week's topics include deaths related to tropical cyclones, treating low risk thyroid cancer, stopping steroids after COVID hospitalization, and using tablets for screening in primary care.

0:40 Continuation of steroids after COVID hospitalization
1:40 90% required oxygen during hospitalization
2:40 Can be associated with decreased immune response
3:10 Screening in primary care with tablets
4:10 Given a tablet with an app
5:13 These are issues that warrant immediate clinical attention
6:00 Low risk thyroid cancer treatment
7:01 Radioiodine after thyroidectomy or not
8:03 Isn't risk free
8:25 Increased mortality after tropical cyclones
9:27 In the month following increased deaths
10:35 Accrue over time
11:53 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, March 4, 2022

This week's topics include false negatives with COVID-19 testing, troponin after cardiac surgery, physician-prescribed physical activity, and a monoclonal for RSV infection prevention.

0:33 Lateral flow assays in COVID-19 testing
1:34 Not as reliable at excluding disease
2:34 Need further development and validation?
3:37 Primary care prescribed exercise
4:35 A little bit better with self-report or a device
5:35 75 to 100 minutes of vigorous activity
6:25 Troponin after cardiac surgery
7:25 Do the biomarkers predict poor outcomes?
8:25 Comorbidity impact?
8:40 A monoclonal antibody for RSV
9:40 Efficacy between 60 and 70%
10:31 Prevent infection in term infants
11:20 Use prior to RSV season
12:21 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, February 25, 2022

This week's topics include mental health sequelae of COVID, MIS-C after COVID vaccination, cardiovascular disease and vegetable intake, and ivermectin in COVID treatment.

0:40 MIS-C in kids after Covid vaccination
1:40 Mandatory reporting by providers
2:22 Mental health sequelae after Covid
3:22 Increased neurocognitive decline
4:22 No insight into why
5:25 Neural system directly impacted?
6:10 Ivermectin in the treatment of Covid
7:15 Did not improve outcomes at all
8:00 Frontiers in Nutrition
9:00 No cardiovascular disease at baseline
10:00 Large population with a survey
11:00 Not that cooked vegetables aren't good
12:10 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, February 18, 2022

This week's topics include waning immunity to COVID-19 after vaccination, costs of hospitalization for COVID-19, self-harm and loneliness, and treatment for respiratory syncytial virus.

0:39 Waning immunity against Covid after vaccination
1:40 After the third dose decreased after four months
2:40 Still best to have full vaccine regimen
3:01 Costs of Covid-related hospitalization
4:02 82 to 84% did have cost-sharing in 2021
5:02 Less than 5% had any bill at all early on
5:30 RSV and treatment
6:30 Use virus challenge
7:30 Targets RSV nucleoprotein
8:14 Loneliness across 113 countries
9:14 Almost one in ten
10:15 Those with a history of suicidal ideation
11:15 Perhaps increased risk of self-harm in one group
12:10 Online doesn't seem to help
13:18 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, February 11, 2022

This week's topics include sequelae of COVID, cemented versus uncemented hip arthroplasty, sleep length and obesity, and electronic exercise monitors.

0:34 Two studies looking at new symptoms and conditions after COVID
1:34 New and persistent sequelae in adults over 65
2:34 Long COVID symptoms
3:34 How long do they last?
3:45 Physical activity monitors
4:45 Walk 1235 more steps
5:45 Skeptical about their utility
6:02 Cemented versus uncemented hip arthroplasty
7:02 Uncemented have a bone integration material
8:03 Statistically significant but not clinically beneficial
9:03 Many have cognitive impairment
9:45 Sleep and overweight
10:45 Those who slept longer reduced their energy intake
11:45 Seldom talk about sleep habits and obesity
12:45 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, February 4, 2022

This week's topics include consumer use of home COVID-19 test kits, malaria net use and lifespan, vitamin D and omega-3s and autoimmune disease, and risk factors for opioid overdose among opioid naive patients.

0:42 Use of home tests kits for COVID-19 by consumers
1:44 High probability and test results
2:44 Authors made simpler instructions
3:45 Need proper instructions
4:08 Omega-3s and vitamin D and autoimmune disease
5:08 2000 IU per day vitamin D
6:11 Well-conducted study
7:10 Opioid overdose factors in opioid naive people
8:10 Most likely in those over 75
9:10 Relationship to suicidality
9:35 Malaria bed nets and lifespan
10:35 Use of bed nets in infants and young children
11:30 602,000 deaths due to malaria
12:56 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, January 28, 2022

This week's topics include treating young children for peanut allergy, myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination, Janus kinase inhibitors and rheumatoid arthritis, and screening for atrial fibrillation.

0:40 Myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination
1:40 Outcome overall fairly good
2:40 With virus symptoms weeks or months later
3:34 Treating very young children for peanut allergy
4:35 146 kids, 96 in treatment group
5:38 Started under age 2 most had remission
6:43 How can you tell you should treat?
7:05 Screening for atrial fibrillation
8:08 Used implantable loop recorder to detect
9:08 Controversy in populations at risk
9:40 Tofacitinib and rheumatoid arthritis
10:42 Followed for four years
11:42 Doesn't decrease as much as TNF inhibitor?
12:30 Five years of treatment
13:15 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, January 21, 2022

This week's topics include subcutaneous antibodies for COVID-19, use of monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19 in various ethnic and racial groups, treatment of displaced wrist fractures, and deaths due to antimicrobial resistance.

0:38 Subcutaneous administration of antibodies for COVID-19
1:38 Infected but asymptomatic
2:37 High enough to neutralize virus
3:25 Racial and ethnic disparities in use of monoclonals for COVID-19
4:25 Versus inpatient treatment with other agents
5:26 Have a primary care provider?
6:18 Treatment of wrist fracture that's displaced
7:20 No difference in treatments in pain, function
8:15 Deaths due to bacterial antimicrobial resistance
9:15 Percentage of resistant organisms
10:23 Only one have a vaccine
11:56 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, January 14, 2022

This week's topics include false positive COVID-19 tests, COVID-19 in kids and diabetes risk, cannabis and car accidents in Canada, and two diabetes drugs for weight loss.

0:51 COVID-19 in kids and diabetes development
1:53 Did increase in some more than 100%
2:50 An immune response?
3:23 False positives in antigen tests for COVID-19
4:23 Abbott antigen test device
5:25 Number of positive in almost a million
6:20 Cannabis among those who've had car accidents
7:21 Drivers treated in trauma centers
8:22 Put some teeth into reducing
8:45 Semaglutide and liraglutide in overweight adults without diabetes
9:50 Followed 68 weeks
10:35 Semaglutide appears better
11:30 Prevention first
12:18 End

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TT HealthWatch - Friday, January 7, 2022

This week's topics include characteristics of COVID-19 in the four waves in South Africa, a new treatment for prostate cancer, oral anticoagulants and respiratory infections, and treating advanced untreated melanoma.

0:40 Four waves of COVID-19 in South Africa
1:40 Average age of hospitalized people: 36
2:45 Oral anticoagulants and upper respiratory infections and bleeding
3:48 Major bleeding over two times more
4:48 Needs confirmation
5:48 May be another explanation
6:06 Treating men with advanced nonmetastatic prostate cancer
7:10 1,974 patients
8:10 With routine screening will that impact?
8:40 Treating advanced melanoma at time of diagnosis
9:45 Adverse events more common
10:45 Immune checkpoint inhibitors
11:45 Exciting area of cancer treatment
12:30 End

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