Veronica Hackethal News Today

'I know of no precedent of a long-term effect that comes up 5 or 10 years later,' expert says

The AMA and AOA release statements against the rebrand

email article When the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) recently voted to change the name of their profession from physician assistant to physician associate, it was a decision several years in the making. "The title physician associate will position PAs to successfully compete in the ever-changing healthcare marketplace by boosting the professions relevance and impact among stakeholder groups, especially patients," AAPA CEO Lisa Gables told MedPage Today via email. PAs have at least a mas...

email article For decades, surgical residents who became parents during training often did so at a cost, but a culture shift may be in the works. A group of three surgical trainees has posted an open letter online asking the American Board of Surgery (ABS) to update its family leave policy to keep up with a policy change from the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which calls for at least 6 weeks of leave during training for parental, caregiver, or medical purposes. The group i...

This past week in healthcare investigations

email article An external review has concluded that racial bias as well as lack of empathy and compassion were present in the care of Black physician Susan Moore, MD, who died of COVID-19 at an Indiana University (IU) Health hospital in December 2020. "We owe it to our patients to always show up for them, to treat them with dignity and respect, to appreciate their perspectives, and to validate their feelings when they are in our care. We did not live up to these values with Dr. Moore and ...

email article Despite an arsenal of highly effective injectable vaccines, drugmakers are looking into products that will be easier to store, transport, and administer in the global crisis -- particularly, intranasal vaccines. Could these vaccines also hold an advantage when it comes to blocking transmission? While more data has suggested the vaccines authorized in the U.S. cut transmission, some experts have argued that intranasal vaccines may do an even better job of this. MedPage Toda...

email article Researchers have had an unprecedented front-row seat to real-time viral evolution with SARS-CoV-2, which has achieved significant genetic diversity in the year that its been circulating widely. What have they learned about how closely its following traditional patterns of viral evolution, and what does that imply about its future? SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged rapidly during the pandemic because of high transmission rates, said Robert Cyril Bollinger, MD, MPH, a professor...

email article Reports of unusual blood clots in the setting of low platelets associated with COVID-19 vaccines have brought attention to these tiny blood cells tasked with preventing humans from fatally bleeding. The European Medicines Agency has said that, as of April 20, there have been 287 reports of rare blood clots with low platelets after administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, eight with Johnson & Johnson, 25 with Pfizer, and five with Moderna. The clots are notable because many...

Early in the pandemic, researchers began exploring various avenues to repurposing drugs for COVID-19. There are many paths to repurposing, including high-throughput drug screening, which uses automated methods to screen thousands or even millions of molecules for targeted biological activity in a disease of interest. Other approaches include focusing on a certain biological mechanism of action (like testing other antivirals in COVID); combing through clinical trial data and public records; or, ...