Dining Out? Check the Bill for a ‘Health Insurance’ Surcharge
A restaurant in Atlanta took some heat on social media for adding a 4% health insurance surcharge to customers’ bills, but it wasn’t the first and likely won’t be the last. Restaurant owner Emily Chan told CNN that the fee covered almost all health insurance costs for employees. “We feel like there’s a pretty huge […]
Opinion | I Never Asked Why the Bodies Kept Coming
Brian H. Williams, MD, is a trauma surgeon. Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, first opened as a 14-bed public hospital in 1892, the same year the first immigrants passed through Ellis Island. Grady Hospital is also where I trained to become a trauma surgeon and critical care specialist. It’s hard to imagine a clearer […]
Traumatic Experiences Tied to Lower Estrogen Levels in Menopause
ATLANTA — Traumatic life experiences were linked with lower levels of estrogens in menopause, especially for women who got fewer hours of sleep. The finding “underscores the importance of considering trauma in relation to endogenous estrogens, which have implications for women’s midlife health,” researchers noted. In the MsBrain study, postmenopausal women who experienced a traumatic […]
Could Hot Flashes and Night Sweats Serve as Early Signs of Poor Brain Health?
ATLANTA — Hot flashes and night sweats, particularly those that happen during sleep, may be an an early marker for cognitive illness, a study found. Frequent vasomotor symptoms that occurred during sleep were associated with increased white matter hyperintensity volumes (B[SE]=0.17 [0.06], P<0.05), brain lesions that have been linked with cognitive impairment, reported Rebecca Thurston, […]
Paclitaxel Devices Safe in PAD In Medicare Data Beyond 3 Years
ATLANTA — Paclitaxel-coated devices for femoropopliteal artery revascularization were not associated with any excess mortality risk in the latest update from Medicare data. The risk of death from any cause, if anything, trended slightly lower (hazard ratio 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-0.99) with paclitaxel-eluting stents or -coated balloons compared with bare metal stent or percutaneous transluminal […]
Chronic Total Occlusion PCI Is Getting Safer — At Least Until the Pandemic
ATLANTA — Percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (CTO PCI) has improved in success rates, but the pandemic might have impacted complication rates, a registry study showed. Technical and procedural success rates steadily improved over time from 2016 to 2021, rising from 81.6% to 88.1% and 80.0% to 87.0%, respectively (both P<0.0001). And the […]
Lithotripsy Advantage in Calcified Peripheral Vessels Holds Up at 1 Year
ATLANTA — Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) beat percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for keeping calcified peripheral artery lesions open at 1 year, the Disrupt PAD III trial showed. Primary patency at 1 year was 80.5% for the IVL arm compared with 68.0% for the PTA arm (P=0.017), reported William Gray, MD, co-director of the Lankenau Heart Institute […]
My Patient Had Declined the COVID Vaccine … Every. Single. Time.
I currently work part-time at a local HIV clinic in Atlanta. Our patient population is predominantly Black and uninsured, and sometimes ensuring their access to good care and antiretroviral treatment (ART) is more challenging than finding a politician who is 100% truthful. Since I started working there in February, I have had many conversations with […]