April 6, 2021
Branded Rx Requests Up Medicare Costs by $1.6 Billion
TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Prescribers and patients motivated 30.4 percent of all branded dispensing of multisource drugs in the Medicare Part D program in 2017, according to a study published online March 2 in JAMA Network Open. Mariana P. Socal, M.D., Ph.D., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in...
Shelter-in-Place Orders Tied to Weight Gain
TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Shelter-in-place orders were associated with consistent weight gain, according to a research letter published online March 22 in JAMA Network Open. Anthony L. Lin, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues analyzed data (Feb. 1 to June 1, 2020) from 269 participants in the...
Trial of Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease Halted
TUESDAY, Feb. 23, 2021 — A clinical trial of a new gene therapy for sickle cell disease that has shown promise has been halted after two participants were diagnosed with cancer. Therapy developer Bluebird Bio said a patient who was treated five years ago developed myelodysplastic syndrome, while another developed acute myeloid leukemia, The New...
Sickle Cell Puts Black Patients at Higher Risk for Severe COVID
TUESDAY, Dec. 15, 2020 — Sickle cell disease increases the risk of death or serious complications from COVID-19 infection, a pair of new studies suggests. People with sickle cell disease — a genetic blood disorder predominantly found in Black people — are 6.2 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the general Black population...
1999 to 2018 Saw Decline in Mean BP Among U.S. Children, Teens
TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Although mean levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) have declined overall in U.S. children and adolescents during the past 20 years, recent patterns raise concerns about a reversal of this trend, according to a study published online April 1 in JAMA Network Open. Shakia T. Hardy,...
High Physical Activity, Low Air Pollution Exposure Cut T2DM Risk
TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Higher levels of physical activity and lower levels of exposure to air pollution are associated with a lower risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online March 4 in Diabetologia. Cui Guo, Ph.D., from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues evaluated the combined...
Making History at St. Jude: Dr. Rudolph Jackson
When St. Jude opened in 1962, Danny Thomas vowed the hospital would treat patients regardless of race, religion or ability to pay. Dr. Rudolph Jackson was one of the first black doctors at St. Jude. While he was finishing his training in Philadelphia, Dr. Rudolph Jackson fielded an offer to move 1,000 miles and begin...