Hospital Medicine News

• AMA 2019AMA Backs Extending Medicaid to 12 Months After Childbirth Current policy only covers women to 60 days postpartum, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say one in three pregnancy-related deaths occur between a week and 1 full year after birth.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• Mini-Biographies Help Clinicians Connect With Patients The "My Life, My Story" project has writers crafting a story of a patient's life to be included in the EHR. The idea came from a resident doing a rotation at a Wisconsin VA hospital in 2012.
  Kaiser Health News, June 2019
• Prediction Model Helps Flag Sound-Alike, Look-Alike Drugs As many as 250,000 hospitalizations occur each year as a result of errors involving a drug being confused with another, say Harvard researchers who developed the model.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• Initial Volume Overload Tied to Death in Peritoneal Dialysis Largest study to date finds volume overload at start of peritoneal dialysis tied to increased death. Men and those with diabetes had higher levels of volume overload; dialysis practices vary around the world.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• EULAR 2019New JAK Inhibitor for Rheumatoid Arthritis Hits Targets Filgotinib is effective and well tolerated by patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, early phase 3 results show, and investigators speculate it will enter the market in about 2 years.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• ADA 2019High BP and HbA1c: Similar Risks for CVD in Youth With Type 1 Diabetes Blood pressure is as important a risk factor as glycemic control for cardiovascular events in young people with type 1 diabetes. Risk doubles if blood pressure is ≥ 120/80 mmHg, new data show.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• ASCO 2019Hashtag Medicine: Abstract Tweeted at ASCO Ignites Debate A tweet about how male and female presenters are introduced differently at ASCO meetings was divisive.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• Muscle-Pump Activator Cuts Hospital Time, Edema After Kidney Transplantation Switching standard compression stockings for muscle-pump activators (MPAs) on a kidney-transplantation patient's legs cuts hospitalization time and improves short-term outcomes, a new randomized trial suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2019
• Patients Give More '5-star' Ratings to Hospitals With Fewer Services Compared to smaller facilities, hospitals that provide complex care for critical illness or serious injury may find it harder to make patients happy, a U.S. study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2019
• Mortality May Increase as Red Meat Consumption Rises Data from large prospective cohorts suggest that increased red meat consumption was tied to higher mortality, whereas replacing red meat with healthier alternatives may lower risk for death.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• AMA 2019AMA, CMS Chief Strongly Oppose Single Payer System
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• FDA Overlooked Red Flags in Drugmaker's Testing of New Depression Medicine In March, esketamine was approved by the FDA for the treatment of intractable depression, but critics say the FDA was given little evidence of the drug's efficacy and its safety for long-term use.
  Kaiser Health News, June 2019
• Do You Consider Cost When Prescribing a Drug? A newly approved gene therapy for children with spinal muscular atrophy will cost more than $2 million for a one-time infusion.
  Medscape Reader Polls, June 2019
• USPSTF Now Recommends Preexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Clinicians should screen adolescents, adults, and pregnant people, and offer PrEP to those at high risk for HIV infection, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• PIONEER 6: Will Oral Semaglutide Live Up to Promise in Real World? The CV outcomes trial for the first oral version of a GLP-1 agonist shows semaglutide is safe in patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, but results not as impressive as with other agents.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• CAROLINA Reassures on CV Safety for Linagliptin, Glimepiride in T2D "We think we've vindicated sulfonylureas, at least glimepiride specifically," says an expert, who notes trial findings do inform decision-making, particularly when cost is an issue.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• Reassurance on TAVR for Bicuspid Valves A large registry study has shown similar outcomes for the transcatheter procedure in patients with bicuspid valves as those with tricuspid valves although some selection bias may have occurred.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• NICA 2019Infusion Centers Help Navigate Cost of Care Ambulatory infusion centers address the needs of their patients and can deliver therapy at half the cost of hospitals, experts report at the National Infusion Center Association Meeting.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• CDC Data Show Cancer, Heart Disease Mortality Trending Down The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics has released its most current quarterly data of provisional mortality rates for several top causes of death in the United States.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• Ordering Advanced Imaging? Get Ready for New Medicare Rules Starting in January 2020, Medicare will require that providers use a certified clinical decision support system when ordering advanced imaging tests for eight common conditions.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019