Clinicians may avoid deprescribing a blood pressure medication because they fear that patients' blood pressure will rise dangerously. For those clinicians, the new OPTIMISE trial results may put their mind at ease. More
Some communities considered community antibody testing as a way out of lockdown. But they’ve pulled back as they realized antibody testing is the Wild West in an oversight vacuum. More
Producers looking to meet “unprecedented” demand were told they could sell tests as long as they validated them internally and filed for FDA emergency use authorization within 15 days. Shortly after came complaints of scams and unreliable tests. More
Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — Covid-19 — A Reminder to Reason More
Covid-19 makes it difficult to practice evidence-based medicine and just as hard to make decisions about the small questions that dictate day-to-day life. More
H. Gilbert Welch and Vinay Prasad write that since the pandemic forced the medical care system to cancel elective surgeries and have fewer outpatient visits, Covid-19 provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to study if some, who are not acutely ill, do better with less medical care. More
But an important caveat: exam quality matters More
As coronavirus health concerns, social isolation and job-loss stress take a toll, people turn to medications; “It can very quickly become a habit.” More
Overall, AI’s implementation in everyday clinical care is less common than hype over the technology would suggest. Yet the coronavirus crisis has inspired some hospital systems to accelerate promising applications. More
Without the underlying data, promising vaccines and treatments are impossible to evaluate. More