Endocrinology

It has been many years since Howard Schatz was a practicing physician and while he said the retina specialty has changed he has also seen the field of photography change as digital passes the age of film.

It was supposed to be just a one year sabbatical for Howard Schatz to take a break from his work as a retina specialist and enjoy what had become a growing hobby of photography. More than two decades later Schatz said he misses some parts of practice but is greatly enjoying what has become a second career.

Analysis of adult diabetics between 1998 and 2014 has found a significant shift in how kidney disease presents itself, a shift that may have implications for both diagnoses and treatment.

A team from Philadelphia set out to uncover visual outcomes associated with switching to aflibercept from bevacizumab or ranibizumab.

Researchers from three institutions in Illinois collaborated to examine real world visual outcomes for people with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs.

In a poster presentation at the 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS 2016) in San Francisco, California, researchers looked at how patients responded to telemedicine in ophthalmology.

Despite established criteria for patients at risk for vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy from the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), referral rates don’t reflect the number of people who should visit optometrists, ophthalmologists, and retina specialists.

It’s been unclear whether statins affect the development of diabetic microvascular complications, therefore, Alam Park, MD, from the Ajou University School of Medicine in Korea, and colleagues set out to uncover just that.

Patients afflicted with severe psoriasis may be at higher risk for chronic pancreatitis (CP).

“Our study has taken us to the most complete understanding yet of the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes,” say the researchers.

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, who served as FDA Commissioner and CMS Administrator, will be the keynote speaker at the fall meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, presented by The American Journal of Managed Care. The meeting will be October 20-21, 2016, in Philadelphia.

In this Medical News Minute, Dr. Bobby Lazzara looks at pharmacy industry-sponsored meals and rates of prescribing the promoted drug.

Following extensive clinical trials, the FDA today announced its approval of Adlyxin (lixisenatide), a once-daily injection for glycemic control. Adlyxin is a hormone that works to normalize blood sugar levels, and could be a treatment option for the well-over 25 million Americans living with Type 2 diabetes.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from July – did you read them all?

While the influenza vaccine has endured its fair share of controversy, new research shed light on one of the flu shot’s added benefits: diabetes patients who get the vaccine may not suffer as many cardiovascular or respiratory problems.

A new meta-analysis of 102 randomized controlled diet trials found that consumption of polyunsaturated fat instead of carbohydrate or saturated fat reduces blood sugar levels and insulin resistance while also increasing the body’s ability to make insulin.

New research comparing patients and controls suggests that the body’s inflammatory response to psoriatic arthritis can lead to atherosclerosis and then to cardiovascular disease.

The field of population health may still be a relatively new venture but work is being done on a variety of levels to raise its profile and make it a larger contributor to the medical community as a whole.

For many veteran doctors there may be a leaning toward staying the course that has guided them through their careers. As times change there have been signs that doctors must also adapt to the changing medical landscape.

There may not be a lot known about population medicine across the medical community but those involved believe as more is known about the specialty the more benefit it can provide for doctors and patients alike.

At the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago the opening discussion in front of thousands of the top doctors across the country focused on a developing specialty aimed at improving patient health in non-traditional ways.

Formerly known as alternative or complimentary medicine, integrative medicine is a new venture in the field aiming to bring together the best of traditional care and other approaches to help patients in a variety of specialties.

What can you do when seeing a patient costs more than his or her insurance pays you?

The annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association provided many studies looking at the condition from a variety of angles. What doctors did with those results when they went back to their practices was up to them.

As patients with diabetes progress throughout their lives there may be a need to increase treatment to help manage their symptoms. A recent study looked at how likely patients are to intensify their treatment and what that can mean for their care.

Patients with diabetes face many challenges over the course of a day, not the least of which is ensuring their blood glucose levels stay in a safe range. Technological advances have helped make this an easier obstacle to overcome.

While technology is helping patients with diabetes improve their quality of life there is only so much that technology and their health care providers can do for them. In many ways a patient can and must now play a larger role in their overall care.

With so many patients dealing with diabetes on a daily basis the burden of trying to help can be too much for even the biggest and most advanced companies. By working together they can not only reach more patients but also provide a higher level of care.

Although intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents has become the therapeutic mainstay for diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration, it poses a risk of noninfectious uveitis or infectious endopthalmitis.

A retrospective analysis of diabetes and prediabetes diagnoses found that screening guidelines from the United States Preventative Service Task Force (USPSTF) would have detected less than half of all cases that were discovered.