Opinion | Nursing Homes Have More Than Just a COVID Problem
For more than a year, my colleagues and I have been publishing a monthly COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard tracking the impact of COVID-19 on nursing home residents and staff. That’s 14 months assembling data on how many nursing homes are understaffed or don’t have enough personal protective equipment (PPE), 14 months documenting the rates of […]
Year in Review: Psoriatic Arthritis
The year 2021 saw additional advances and refinements in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a heterogeneous condition that in the past has lagged behind rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in therapeutic progress. But improved understanding of the pathogenesis of PsA has allowed more targeted, safer, and more effective treatment approaches. In particular, data have begun to […]
Year in Review: HIV
Long-acting therapies headlined a year of continued drug development, both in the treatment and prevention of HIV. Meanwhile, CDC recommended a third dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for certain patients living with advanced or untreated HIV to boost their protection. Cabotegravir’s Big Year The year started with the approval of cabotegravir-rilpivirine (Cabenuva), the first […]
The ‘Healthy’ Pandemic Habit Secretly Messing With Your Mental Health
Spending more time at home ― as we’ve all been doing for over a year and a half ― has certainly had some perks. More time with family, less time commuting and more time wearing pants with an elastic waistband. One shift not on this list? The number of body image issues that have materialized […]
5 Sneaky Signs Your Kid Is Struggling Being Back In School
Few back-to-school seasons have been as emotionally loaded as the start to the 2021 academic year. So many kids were stepping back into the classroom for the first time in 18 months — or ever. Children, parents, and teachers were elated, nervous, frustrated ― all of it. While the first month or so of school […]
Q&A: Loice Swisher, MD, on National Physician Suicide Awareness Day
Each year since 2018, doctors around the country recognize National Physician Suicide Awareness Day on September 17. One of the co-founders of this awareness campaign, Loice Swisher, MD, of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, shared her own experience of suicidal thoughts after her daughter was left “neurologically devastated” following surgery on a malignant […]
Can Lighter-Weight Mesh Cut Pain in Open Ventral Hernia Repair?
While offering similar clinical benefits at 1 year, a medium-weight polypropylene mesh was no better for pain control than a heavy-weight mesh in patients who underwent open retromuscular ventral hernia repair, a randomized multicenter trial showed. In fact, for the more than 300 patients in the trial, the two meshes resulted in identical pain scores […]
Experts Predict What Flu Season Will Be Like This Year
You probably didn’t hear too much about the flu season last year, since the COVID-19 pandemic took the spotlight from the usual fall and winter viruses. But while you may still be focused on the coronavirus (as you should be), flu season is fast approaching. Below, experts share their predictions for the flu season, how […]
Despite Pandemic, Poverty Declined Thanks To Stimulus Checks
The coronavirus pandemic threw millions of Americans into unemployment last year, leading to the first drop in household income from work since 2011, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. But even though the official poverty rate also increased, a supplementary measure that accounts for stimulus payments found that poverty actually fell […]
What Happens If You Get Your Flu Shot And COVID Booster At The Same Time?
Last year, public health experts were deeply concerned about the prospect of a flu and a COVID-19 “twindemic.” But as it turned out, seasonal flu activity was unusually low. This was likely due to the combination of masking, stay-at-home orders, reduced travel and people paying close attention to things like indoor ventilation. No one yet […]