Some guts are better than others at harvesting energy
New research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that a portion of the Danish population has a composition of gut microbes that, on average, extracts more energy from food than do the microbes in the guts of their fellow Danes. The research is a step towards understanding why some people gain more weight than others, […]
Life Lessons From Death
“The Doctor’s Art” is a weekly podcast that explores what makes medicine meaningful, featuring profiles and stories from clinicians, patients, educators, leaders, and others working in healthcare. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Stitcher, and Podchaser. “Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with […]
Kid Homicides Surge in COVID; Physician Work Hours Drop; Vasectomies Up Post-Roe?
Note that some links may require subscriptions. The U.S. child homicide rate has been increasing around 4% each year since 2013, but skyrocketed by 28% during the first year of the pandemic. (JAMA Pediatrics) Firearm injuries among kids also surged by 52% during COVID, according to a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics. An independent review […]
Opinion | Learning From the Communications Failure
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” In that classic line from the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke” starring Paul Newman, the warden (played by Strother Martin) points out that much better communication would keep things moving smoothly — or at least the way he wants them going. For all of us in healthcare, […]
Opinion | ‘That’s a Big Deal, That’s Life and Death’: What We Heard This Week
“That’s a big deal, that’s life and death. That is the gold standard of all cancer research.” — Joshua Brody, MD, of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, commenting on a study that showed that high-dose chemotherapy followed by transplant as consolidation treatment for primary central nervous system lymphoma prolonged survival. “No one that’s […]
Help! My Kid Hates How They Look In Pictures
St. Louis mom Deidre Belton, like parents everywhere, knows that her child is absolutely adorable. When Alexander was small, he became accustomed to Belton and other doting relatives telling him, “You’re such a handsome little boy.” His usual response? “Yes, I am.” Belton has noticed, however, that as he approaches puberty, her now-fifth grader is […]
Jake Tapper Says His Daughter ‘Almost Died’ From Appendicitis After Misdiagnosis
Jake Tapper said Thursday that his 15-year-old daughter, Alice, “almost died” last year from appendicitis after she was misdiagnosed at the hospital. The CNN anchor shared his family’s terrifying experience in a segment, noting that 7.4 million patients are misdiagnosed each year out of about 130 million annual emergency department visits, according to a report […]
Flu/COVID Co-Infections Potentially More Severe in Kids, CDC Says
The CDC warned that co-infections with COVID-19 and influenza can potentially cause more severe illness in children, and need to be tracked. Surveillance data from the 2021-2022 influenza season revealed that 6% of flu-related hospitalizations and 16% of flu-related deaths involved children co-infected with COVID-19, Katherine Adams, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues […]
Funding, Policy Changes Needed to End Maternal Health Crisis, Federal Officials Say
WASHINGTON — Addressing the maternal mortality crisis requires a layered approach that includes extending Medicaid coverage for postpartum persons, expanding home visitation programs, and giving hospitals “gold stars,” government officials said. But without action from Congress and the states, they stressed during a stakeholder meeting here Tuesday, certain tools to reduce maternal illness and death […]
Love and Mercy in the ICU
“The Doctor’s Art” is a weekly podcast that explores what makes medicine meaningful, featuring profiles and stories from clinicians, patients, educators, leaders, and others working in healthcare. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Stitcher, and Podchaser. The ICU can be a traumatizing place for patients, who are frequently heavily sedated, rendered unable to […]