USPSTF recommends biennial mammography for breast cancer screening in women aged 40 to 74 y.

US Preventive Services Task Force; Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, Wong JB, et al. JAMA. 2024;331:1918-1930.

The ENGAGE study: evaluation of a conversational virtual agent that provides tailored pre-test genetic education to cancer patients.

Purpose: Novel approaches are needed to ensure all patients with cancer have access to quality genetic education before genetic testing to enable informed treatment decisions. The purpose of this study was to test the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) intervention for the delivery of genetic education by non-genetic providers to patients with cancer undergoing active treatment.

Methods: A conversational AI-based application was developed on the HealthFAX platform to provide tailored genetic education to patients with cancer and tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital between April 2021 and Feb 2022.

Residency Program Directors' Views on Research Conducted During Medical School: A National Survey.

Purpose: With the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 transition to pass/fail in 2022, uncertainty exists regarding how other residency application components, including research conducted during medical school, will inform interview and ranking decisions. The authors explore program director (PD) views on medical student research, the importance of disseminating that work, and the translatable skill set of research participation.

Method: Surveys were distributed to all U.

Screening and Testing for Hepatitis B Virus Infection: CDC Recommendations - United States, 2023.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can lead to substantial morbidity and mortality. Although treatment is not considered curative, antiviral treatment, monitoring, and liver cancer surveillance can reduce morbidity and mortality. Effective vaccines to prevent hepatitis B are available.

Knowledge translation concerns for the CONSORT-PRO extension reporting guidance: a review of reviews.

This review of reviews aimed to appraise the use of the CONSORT-PRO Extension as an evaluation tool for assessing the reporting of patient-reported outcome (PROs) in publications, and to describe the reporting of PRO research across reviews. We also outlined how variation in such evaluations impacts knowledge translation and may lead to potential misuse of the CONSORT-PRO Extension. We systematically searched Medline, Pubmed and CINAHL from 2013 to 2025 March 2021 for reviews of the completeness of reporting of PRO endpoints according to CONSORT-PRO criteria.

Harms in Systematic Reviews Paper 2: Methods used to assess harms are neglected in systematic reviews of gabapentin.

Objective: We compared methods used with current recommendations for synthesizing harms in systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRMAs) of gabapentin.

Study Design & Setting: We followed recommended systematic review practices. We selected reliable SRMAs of gabapentin (i.

Use of a structured approach and virtual simulation practice to improve diagnostic reasoning.

Objectives: In 2015, the National Academy of Medicine IOM estimated that 12 million patients were misdiagnosed annually. This suggests that despite prolonged training in medical school and residency there remains a need to improve diagnostic reasoning education. This study evaluates a new approach.

Impact of exercise on older adults' mood is moderated by sleep and mediated by altered brain connectivity.

Older adults comprise the fastest growing global demographic and are at increased risk of poor mental health outcomes. Although aerobic exercise and sleep are critical to the preservation of emotional well-being, few studies have examined their combined mood-enhancing effects, or the potential neural mechanisms underlying these effects. Here, we used a randomized crossover design to test the impact of acute exercise on mood and the intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of the cingulo-opercular network in physically healthy older adults.

Carotid Atherosclerosis Is Associated With Poorer Hearing in Older Adults.

Objectives: Cardiovascular disease may be linked to hearing loss through narrowing of the nutrient arteries of the cochlea, but large-scale population-based evidence for this association remains scarce. We investigated the association of carotid atherosclerosis as a marker of generalized cardiovascular disease with hearing loss in a population-based cohort.

Design: Cross-sectional.

The association between obesity, diet quality and hearing loss in older adults.

Background: With the aging population, the prevalence of age-related hearing loss will increase substantially. Prevention requires more knowledge on modifiable risk factors. Obesity and diet quality have been suggested to play a role in the etiology of age-related hearing loss.

The Contributions of Physician-Scientists Within Divisions of Infectious Diseases.

Physician-scientists, no matter their particular disease or research focus, within divisions of infectious diseases serve a number of key roles. Foremost, they promote scholarship and excellence in research endeavors with the potential for impact not only within their division or university but globally. These individuals also make important contributions to the training experiences of infectious diseases fellows and internal medicine residents, helping to foster an understanding of how evidence-based (or not) our patient care delivery actually is.

Predictors of acute care utilization and acute pain treatment outcomes in adults with sickle cell disease: The role of non-hematologic characteristics and baseline chronic opioid dose.

Despite its rarity in the United States, sickle cell disease accounts for a disproportionate amount of healthcare utilization and costs. The majority of this is due to acute care for painful crises. A small subpopulation of patients accounts for most these costs due to frequent visits to emergency departments and acute care facilities.

Racial Differences in Prostate Cancer Treatment: The Role of Socioeconomic Status.

Objective: This study examines whether socioeconomic status (SES), measured at both the individual and neighborhood levels, is associated with receipt of definitive treatment for localized prostate cancer and whether these associations mediate racial differences in treatment between non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black men.

Design: The Philadelphia Area Prostate Cancer Access Study (P Access) is a mailed, cross-sectional survey of men sampled from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, combined with neighborhood Census data.

Setting: Eight counties in southeastern Pennsylvania.

How Men with Prostate Cancer Choose Specialists: A Qualitative Study.

Objective: The specific specialist that a patient sees can have a large influence on the type of care they receive.

Methods: We administered semistructured interviews with 47 men diagnosed with prostate adenocarcinoma between 2012 and 2014. Telephone interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a systematic thematic approach.

Using a Mystery-Caller Approach to Examine Access to Prostate Cancer Care in Philadelphia.

Purpose: Prior work suggests that access to health care may influence the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. Mystery-caller methods have been used previously to measure access to care for health services such as primary care, where patients' self-initiate requests for care. We used a mystery-caller survey for specialized prostate cancer care to assess dimensions of access to prostate cancer care.

Hearing Impairment and Incident Dementia and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: The Health ABC Study.

Background: Age-related peripheral hearing impairment (HI) is prevalent, treatable, and may be a risk factor for dementia in older adults. In prospective analysis, we quantified the association of HI with incident dementia and with domain-specific cognitive decline in memory, perceptual speed, and processing speed.

Methods: Data were from the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, a biracial cohort of well-functioning adults aged 70-79 years.

Balancing digital information-sharing and patient privacy when engaging families in the intensive care unit.

Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) may lack decisional capacity and may depend on proxy decision makers (PDMs) to make medical decisions on their behalf. High-quality information-sharing with PDMs, including through such means as health information technology, could improve communication and decision making and could potentially minimize the psychological consequences of an ICU stay for both patients and their family members. However, alongside these anticipated benefits of information-sharing are risks of unwanted disclosure of sensitive information.

Do wealth disparities contribute to health disparities within racial/ethnic groups?

Background: Though wide disparities in wealth have been documented across racial/ethnic groups, it is largely unknown whether differences in wealth are associated with health disparities within racial/ethnic groups.

Methods: Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (2004, ages 25-64) and the Health and Retirement Survey (2004, ages 50+), containing a wide range of assets and debts variables, were used to calculate net worth (a standard measure of wealth). Among non-Hispanic black, Hispanic and non-Hispanic white populations, we tested whether wealth was associated with self-reported poor/fair health status after accounting for income and education.

Bath salts: an emerging danger.

We report a case of psychosis in an individual who has ingested a new compound known as "bath salts." Bath salts represent an emerging public health threat due to serious neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms associated with their use.

Life amidst the contrivances.

The established dogma of 'horror autotoxicus' was overturned 50 years ago with the publication of a paper showing that autoimmune thyroiditis could be induced in animals. Noel Rose recounts the events that led to the establishment of autoimmunity as a cause of disease.