Jama Clinical Reviews: Interviews About Ideas & Innovations In Medicine, Science & Clinical Practice. Listen & Earn Cme Credi

Conjunctivitis and dry eye disease are some of the most common conditions patients present with. They are usually benign entities that respond well to conservative measures and usually don’t require medications. However, if medications are necessary, clinicians can find a comprehensive assessment of these drugs recently published in the December 2, 2019, issue of The Medical Letter. An excerpt from this article summarizing information about conjunctivitis and dry eye disease was published in the February 4, 2020 issue of JAMA. Kathryn Colby, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at the University of Chicago, explains in this podcast how to treat conjunctivitis and dry eye disease.

Controversy exists regarding how to best manage chronic stable angina. Intuitively, it seems that because it is usually caused by coronary artery lesions, addressing those lesions either via percutaneous coronary angiography or coronary artery bypass operations would be the best way to manage this problem. Several studies have suggested that this is not the case and that results of these interventions are no better than optimal medical management. Recently, a very large trial examining this clinical question has provided results suggesting that any approach works about the same. We interviewed Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, during the recent American Heart Association meeting about this issue. Related articles: Baseline Characteristics and Risk Profiles of Participants in the ISCHEMIA Randomized Clinical Trial Does This Patient With Chest Pain Have Acute Coronary Syndrome?: The Rational Clinical Examination Systematic Review Coronary Micro

A new virus known as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is rapidly spreading through China. The rapid spread and severity of this illness are worrisome and the possibility that it develops into a pandemic is very real. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provides an update on this new disease.

American football is a dangerous sport and is characterized by violent contact between people that often leads to repetitive head injury. A multitude of health effects may result from this sort of head injury, but a new finding reported in the December issue of JAMA Neurology maintains that football players are at risk for developing low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction. Rachel Grashow, PhD, from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Football Players Health Study at Harvard Medical School discusses the findings regarding the relationship between head injury and erectile dysfunction.

The keto diet is very popular and involves eating very few carbohydrates, a fair amount of fat, and normal amounts of protein. It is one of many ways to lose weight. David Heber, MD, formerly the chair of Clinical Nutrition at UCLA, explains the keto diet. Related article: Ketogenic Diets  

There are many named diets that receive a great deal of attention. But what are they and do they work? David Heber, MD, PhD, from the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition explains these diets. Related articles: Ketogenic Diets (Patient Page) Interest in the Ketogenic Diet Grows for Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Comparison of Weight Loss Among Named Diet Programs in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Meta-analysis

e-Cigarettes are dangerous, but the public has been falsely led to believe that they are safe. Because of this misconception and the inherent dangers, the American Heart Association (AHA) has taken an aggressive stance to educate the public about e-cigarettes, especially their use by kids. Rose Marie Robertson, MD,deputy chief science and medical officer for the AHA, spoke to JAMA about e-cigarettes and the frightening increase in their use among kids. Read the article: The American Heart Association Takes on Vaping

Animal bites can be a cause of significant injury and on occasion, fatalities. In this episode, JAMA Fishbein Fellow Angel Desai, MD, MPH discusses the prevention, treatment, and epidemiological oddities of animal bites with Dr Sandra Nelson, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Massachusetts General, Dr Justin Hensley from Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, and others. Desai also talks prevention and risk of rabies acquisition with Dr Catherine Brown, state epidemiologist and public health veterinarian from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently issued guidelines for how to manage heavy menstrual bleeding. Guidelines only provide guidance and they must be interpreted for an individual patient's clinical context. Andrew Kauntiz, MD, professor and associate chair in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, an expert in this topic, discusses these new NICE guidelines and how clinicians should use them. Read the article: Assessment and Management of Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

On March 15, 2019, a lone gunman walked into 2 mosques within minutes of each other in Christchurch, New Zealand, and opened fire with semiautomatic weapons, killing 51 and wounding many more. We spoke to Greg Robertson, MB ChB, the surgeon who coordinated the medical response to this mass casualty event. Robertson talks about what his hospital had to do to manage all these casualties and also how New Zealand quickly changed its laws to restrict the availability of weapons used for these sorts of attacks.

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, otherwise known as “vaping,” has been increasing since 2010. This podcast reviews research on the epidemiology and possible adverse health effects of e-cigarette and nicotine use, and the pitfalls associated with using e-cigarettes as a method to stop smoking. These issues are discussed by Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, PhD, a professor with the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, and JAMA Associate Editor George O’Connor, a professor of medicine at Boston University. Related article: e-Cigarette Use Among Youth in the United States, 2019

Barbra Streisand and Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California, discuss the problem of cardiovascular disease in women and especially coronary microvascular disease, which causes an unusual presentation of cardiac ischemic disease in women.

Atrial fibrillation is a very common problem that is treated with a variety of medications and interventions. Sandip Mukherjee, MD, a contributing editor to The Medical Letter, is the Medical Director of Physician Liaison Services with the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, and an associate professor of medicine at Yale. He summarizes the latest information published in The Medical Letter on treatments for atrial fibrillation.

Winter is coming…and with it, the onset of flu season. In this episode, Jean-Marie Pflomm, PharmD, Editor in Chief of The Medical Letter, decodes flu vaccines: trivalent vs quadrivalent, live attenuated vs inactivated, and much more.

Adolescent boys are notoriously difficult to deal with. However, some of their behaviors mask a need they have for developing intimate friendships. Being adolescent boys living in a macho culture, many deny that they need these relationships. Niobe Way, EdD, professor of Developmental Psychology at New York University, has spent her professional career studying adolescent boys’ relationships with each other and how they affect their behaviors. She explains how to intervene to help them better understand their needs for intimacy, which, in turn, helps them to better relate with people and avoid unpleasant behaviors. Related article: Loneliness Might Be a Killer, but What’s the Best Way to Protect Against It? CME Quiz The Listening Project  

Even though it gained notoriety for recreational uses, Ketamine is experiencing a resurgence in clinical settings given its versatility and potential applications, including for pain treatment and depression. David Juurlink, MD, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and John Krystal, MD from Yale University discuss current and emerging applications of this drug.

Pancreatic cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in the United States. Timothy Donohue, MD, chief of surgical oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, provides an overview of the disease. Read the articles: Screening for Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatic Cancer  

Mendelian randomization is a powerful technique that enables investigators to mimic randomized clinical trials by characterizing genetic differences between groups of people and studying their clinical outcomes. Brian A. Ference, MD, MPhil, from the University of Cambridge in England, is a leading expert on this topic and spoke with us about how mendelian randomization has facilitated a better understanding of lipid biology and how it relates to cardiovascular risk.

Personal protective equipment comprises gloves, gowns, masks, regular respirators, and powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs). In this Clinical Review podcast Trish Perl, MD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center reviews the indications for each and the results of the RESPECT trial, which reported no difference in incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza among health care personnel randomized to wear N95 respiratory or medical masks. She’s interviewed by JAMA Fishbein fellow Angel Desai, MD.

JAMA Fishbein Fellow Angel Desai, MD interviews Douglas S. Krakower, MD at the IDWeek 2019 conference in Washington, D.C. Related article: Rising PrEP Awareness