Opinion | Hospital-at-Home Could Be a Double-Edged Sword
Knighton is a nurse, scientist, and infection preventionist. By now, you’ve likely heard of the emerging care model of “hospital-at-home,” which enables patients who require acute hospital care to receive it in the comfort of their own homes. Given persisting healthcare worker shortages, hospital closures, and increasing costs of care, innovative patient care models are […]
VA Can Be a Leader in Healthcare AI, Lawmakers Say
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must balance innovation with careful implementation of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technology, lawmakers and witnesses said during a House hearing on Thursday. “The VA is not an island. AI efforts within the federal government are proceeding in parallel, while private industry is significantly ahead of the public sector. Even […]
U.S. Attempts to Get Its Xylazine Problem Under Control
In February, we reported on the emerging problem of xylazine-laced fentanyl. In this report, we follow up on what has happened since doctors first started raising concerns about this contaminant and its effects. Early in 2023, word started to spread among physicians that a veterinary tranquilizer called xylazine — also known as “tranq” — was […]
How Are Americans Using Emerging Cannabinoids?
About a quarter of Americans have used emerging cannabinoids — such as cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN) — in the past year, according to a cross-sectional survey. Among 1,169 participants who completed the poll, 25.2% reported past-year use of these compounds, which have been cropping up after the passage of the 2018 Farm […]
Mysterious White Blood Cell Disorder Not Just ‘AIDS Without HIV’
Decades after its discovery, the emerging view of idiopathic CD4 lymphocytopenia (ICL) — popularly dubbed “AIDS without HIV” — is that it may be more homogeneous than originally thought, despite patients being prone to various cancers and opportunistic infections. In 91 individuals with this disorder of the immune system, the most common opportunistic infections contracted […]
Arterial stiffness raises blood pressure in adolescents via insulin resistance
In the young population, arterial stiffness, an emerging risk factor for hypertension, indirectly raises blood pressure via an increase in insulin resistance but not via an increase in body fat, a paper published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine concludes. There is a global effort aimed at screening, identification, and early diagnosis of hypertension in order […]
Opinion | Can Antivirals Help in the Treatment of Long COVID?
Let me begin by stating some basic emerging facts: COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in combating COVID-associated mortality COVID-19 vaccines may reduce the risk of getting long COVID by 50% Of all people who get infected with COVID-19 after vaccination, 15-30% will develop long COVID There is no sufficient evidence to show COVID-19 vaccines help […]
Opinion | Our Lab Testing Capacity Is Getting Dangerously Low
Continued mutations in SARS-CoV-2 mean new and emerging variants, a sign that COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, despite a relaxing of public health measures around the country. And due to the increased availability of at-home antigen-based testing, published case counts are likely being underreported by public health officials, making a COVID-19 resurgence more difficult […]