In the News
In the News
For medical researchers who aim to understand the patient experince, "collecting abundant social-media data is cost-effective, does not involve burdening participants, and is available in real time,” Graciela Gonzalez Hernandez, PhD, commented—and it may help highight the voices of groups typically underrepresented in clinical trials.
Negative descriptors appear more often in clinical notes for Black patients — new findings that build on what we already know, says Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, MPH: “Such biases won't go anywhere without systemic interventions,” she comments.
How do we define “asymptomatic” COVID-19 cases? That can vary, says Michael David, MS, MD, PhD. Some patients have chronic respiratory symptoms as baseline, from congestive heart failure to allergies.
Amid the omicron surge, more patients are coming into the hospital for other reasons but testing positive for Covid-19 once they arrive. M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, says that many now come with chronic conditions that normally are treated elsewhere — but now, because of the strain that the latest surge is placing on the system, hospitals are the only option available to them.
A diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis finally explained Christi Taylor-Gentry’s throbbing joint pain. But as recently as 2006, when Alexis Ogdie-Beatty, MD, MSCE, became a doctor, she was taught that the disorder was only “a white young man’s disease.”
Epidemiology PhD candidate Katherine Strelau reached a new understanding when she tested positive for Covid-19: We have entered a new era of the pandemic, she wrote in an opinion piece.
Increasing numbers of breakthrough infections among vaccinated people may skew hospitalization data, comments Jeffrey Morris, PhD.
Jeffrey Morris, PhD, commented on how expanded reporting requirements and intense scrutiny of the hundreds of millions administered COVID-19 vaccine doses have driven record-high reporting of potential side effects to one of the government’s vaccine safety monitoring systems.
There's no good evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines "dramatically increase" heart attack risk — contrary to claims circulated widely on social media. The claims are based on an abstract that skips important details and so is “impossible to evaluate,” per Jeffrey Morris, PhD.
“We may have underestimated our ability to pivot and change rapidly,” Peter Merkel, M D, MPH, comments about the many ways Covid-19 has reshaped the way we conduct clinical trials — and some of those changes could help democratize trials.
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