Treating mucus plugs in COPD could affect mortality

Targeting mucus plugs could lower mortality from COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Researchers reported this finding on May 21, 2023 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings were also reported on the same day at the American Thoracic Society 2023 International Conference. “As a chronic disease, […]

Survey: Nearly 7 in 10 parents believe social media image editing apps and filters have a negative influence on their children’s body image

With children more plugged in to social media than ever before, a wave of new image editing apps and filters along with trends related to appearance have parents concerned about damage to body image. According to a new national survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of The On Our Sleeves Movement For Children’s Mental Health, 69% of parents […]

Too few primary care doctors address obesity with their patients, highlighting need for weight loss tool

Too Few Primary Care Doctors Address Obesity With Their Patients, Highlighting Need for Weight Loss Tool After finding that few to no clinicians provided weight management care, researchers developed a weight loss tool called PATHWEIGH. This tool was designed to remove clinician barriers in providing patient care that addressed weight. Early success with the tool led to PATHWEIGH being implemented […]

Skin patch shows promise for toddlers with peanut allergy

A global phase 3 clinical trial that included Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that a year-long immunotherapy through a skin patch safely desensitized toddlers with peanut allergy, lowering the risk of a severe allergic reaction from accidental exposure. Results of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial for children 1-3 years of age, funded by DBV Technologies, […]

Previous smallpox vaccine provides immunity to mpox

Vaccines against smallpox given until the mid-1970s offer continuing cross-reactive immunity to mpox (previously known as monkeypox), researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a study published in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe. During last year’s mpox outbreak, the virus spread for the first time outside Africa, causing over 85,000 cases of the disease to date. Men who […]

Artificial intelligence can help categorize and triage primary care patients with respiratory symptoms

Researchers from Iceland trained a machine learning model with artificial intelligence to triage patients with respiratory symptoms before the patients visit a primary care clinic. To train the machine learning model, the researchers used only questions that a patient might be asked about before a clinic visit. Information was extracted from 1,500 clinical text notes that included a physician’s interpretation […]

A commonly used tool is suboptimal in predicting osteoporosis fracture risk in younger post-menopausal women

The commonly used Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX), which includes self-identified race and ethnicity information, and the Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool (OST), which does not, had suboptimal performance in determining major osteoporotic fracture risk across racial/ethnic categories in younger postmenopausal women. But OST was excellent for identifying who had osteoporosis within each racial/ethnic category. BACKGROUND The researchers sought to compare the […]

Drug significantly reduces chorea symptoms in patients with Huntington’s disease

The drug valbenazine statistically improves chorea, a movement disorder commonly associated with Huntington’s disease, when compared to a placebo, according to a recent international study led by UTHealth Houston researcher Erin Furr Stimming, MD, who served as principal investigator on behalf of the KINECT-HD Huntington Study Group. The study results – which were published online today and will appear in the June 2023 print […]

Rising rates of induced labor need to be reconsidered in the context of the UK maternity services staffing crisis, study suggests

A new study suggests that increasing rates of induction of labour (IOL) of pregnant women and people in the UK, without considering the accompanying, real-world impact on staffing workloads and patient care, may have unintended consequences. The study from City, University of London, the University of Edinburgh and others highlights the limited evidence around the delivery of home-based IOL services, which were […]