Stop mandating narrow studies of cardiovascular and diabetes drugs

Meds
October 18, 2013

The state of diabetes drugs has gotten to the point where it is good news that a drug does not produce worse outcomes than a placebo.

I am not kidding.

The New England Journal of Medicine published two trials, each testing whether a diabetes drug increased the risk of heart attacks and death from heart disease. The trials are a result of FDA guidance for companies to assess the cardiovascular safety of new …

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Stop mandating narrow studies of cardiovascular and diabetes drugs

Improve health care by seeing through the patient’s eyes

Physician
September 27, 2013

Is there a patient who goes through a hospitalization who does not have stories to tell about the obstacles, errors and indignities that they endured? I just wonder sometimes.

A family relative was hospitalized this week with a stroke at a hospital a few hours from me — and his experience left me demoralized about medicine.

Joe (not his real name) is an 82-year-old grandfather, father, husband and one of a kind. …

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Improve health care by seeing through the patient’s eyes

Niaspan and how comparative effectiveness research was done well

Meds
June 3, 2011

Comparative effectiveness research — investigations that determine which treatments are best — has attracted attention in the health care debate. Critics charge that these studies are designed to restrict choice. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest released a report that suggested that they would stifle innovation. Often they are framed as studies to support efforts to keep useful but expensive …

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Niaspan and how comparative effectiveness research was done well

Do stroke centers improve patient outcomes?

Conditions
February 8, 2011

Another good paper for a journal club recently appeared in JAMA. What makes this one worth discussing is the research question the investigators posed and how they addressed it. Although this is not focused on cardiac care, the issues are germane to literature in our field and cardiac care certification is also spreading.

Do stroke centers improve patient outcomes?