Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Blogs This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Is There a Medication to Stop Drinking?
While there is no magic medication to stop drinking, there are medications to help you along your journey in early recovery. Overcoming alcoholism is much more than just abstaining from alcohol — it is a process that involves behavioral therapy, holistic therapy, evidence-based treatments, and medication. All of these things work together to put you on the best track toward long-term recovery. Medication-Assisted Detox Alcohol is one of the most dangerous substances from which to detox due to its potentially deadly withdrawal symptoms. According to MedLine, these withdrawal symptoms most often occur within 48 to 96 hour...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - December 18, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Alcohol Alcohol Rehab Information Alcoholism Detox Resources for Alcohol and Drugs/Opiates alcohol abuse alcohol detox alcohol treatment alcohol treatment center alcohol treatment facility Source Type: blogs

Gene Testing for Antidepressants & Psychotropics: Not There Yet
An increasingly common question I get asked is, “Will gene testing help my doctor know which antidepressant to prescribe?” Popular tests such as GeneSight suggests that they can “shorten your road to recovery” and how you, as an individual, will respond to specific antidepressant medications. Does drug-gene testing, also referred to as pharmacogenomics or pharmacogenetics, work? And if so, does it only work for certain types of medications? Let’s find out. The Promise of Gene Testing The idea of gene-drug testing is pretty simple. By testing your DNA, companies hope to be able to predict your...
Source: World of Psychology - December 11, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: Depression Disorders General Medications Treatment drug-gene testing gene-drug gene-drug test pharmacogenetics pharmacogenomics Source Type: blogs

Another Candidate for the Micro-Sample Diagnostics Market; CBC Results in Minutes
The Theranos fiasco (see:The rise and fall of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that went from Silicon Valley darling to facing fraud charges) served to cast a pall over the micro-sample diagnostics market. Now comes news about an Israeli company with a similar strategy but this time with an instrument providing a complete blood count (CBC) and a green light from the FDA (see:Unlike Theranos, startup ’s blood test device ‘delivers on promise’ with FDA nod). Below is an excerpt from the article:Israeli startupSight Diagnostics has received US Food and Drug Administration clearance to market a blood test device...
Source: Lab Soft News - December 11, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: AI Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Food and Drug Administration Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Point-of-Care Testing Source Type: blogs

Doctors shouldn ’t be horse whisperers
I scribbled my signature on a pharmaceutical rep ’s iPad today for some samples of Jardiance, a diabetes drug that now has expanded indications, according to the Food and Drug Administration. This drug lowers blood sugar (reduces HbA1c by less than 1 point) but also reduces diabetes-related kidney damage, heart attacks, strokes and now also admi ssion […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 28, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/a-country-doctor" rel="tag" > Hans Duvefelt, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Cardiology heart failure Primary Care Source Type: blogs

New Portable MRI Could Change the Way We Approach Emergency Imaging
Jonathan Rothberg, an entrepreneur with a knack for developing creative solutions for imaging needs, is adding a portable MRI scanner about the size of a photo booth to his growinglistof accessible imaging inventions. The scanner was spun out of Rothberg ’s latest startup, Hyperfine. According to STAT News, the MRI is priced around $50,000, it ’s 20 times cheaper to build than traditional MRI, 10 times lighter, and consumes 35 percent less energy than a 1.5 Tesla MRI. It was designed for emergency situations, and can be easily wheeled around and patients don’t need to remove any metal accessories to use it. Ke...
Source: radRounds - November 15, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs

More and More Pills for 25-30% Better Odds of This, That and The Other – Some Patients Want That, and Some Will Run the Other Way
By HANS DUVEFELT, MD I scribbled my signature on a pharmaceutical rep’s iPad today for some samples of Jardiance, a diabetes drug that now has expanded indications according to the Food and Drug Administration. This drug lowers blood sugar (reduces HbA1c by less than 1 point) but also reduces diabetes related kidney damage, heart attacks, strokes and now also admission rates for heart failure (from 4.1% to 2.7% if I remember correctly – a significant relative risk reduction but not a big absolute one; the Number Needed to Treat is about 70, so 69 out of 70 patients would take it in vain for the heart failure indicat...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 13, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Patients Physicians Primary Care Hans Duvefelt Source Type: blogs

War on Drugs Meets War on Vaping--This Won't End Well
Jeffrey A. SingerLast summer, Brian Besser, Drug Enforcement Administration District Agent in charge of Utah, told reporters that Mexican drug cartels have “all of a sudden gotten involved in this vape cartridge industry, and reasonably so, because they know they are going to make money off of it.”This makes sense. Prohibition incentivizes innovations in the production and distribution of illicit substances to make detection more difficult. It is very hard to identify illicit drugs that are processed in liquid form and combined with scented juices in vaping cartridges.On November 1, Agent Besserinformed reporters of ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 4, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

The Evolution of " Wearable Health Ecosystems " and Associated Partnerships
I am coming to understand that various types of"wearable health ecosystems" (i.e., wearable business models) are evolving. This is an important step in the creation of consumer-facing, healthcare/wellness systems. The latest example is that of Fitbit partnering with pharmaceutical companies (see:Fitbit collaborating with pharma giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer). Below is an excerpt from this article:Fitbit and pharmaceutical giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer have inked a multiyear partnership to accelerate the detection and diagnosis of atrial fibrillation to reduce the risk of life-threatening e...
Source: Lab Soft News - October 31, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Health Wearable Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Public Health Telemedicine Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs

New Report on Pharmacy Closures Is Another Reason to Make Naloxone OTC
Jeffrey A. SingerAreport in the October 21 issue ofJAMA Internal Medicine offers another reason for the Food and Drug Administration to reclassify the opioid overdose antidote naloxone over-the-counter. The study finds that despite a growing number of community pharmacies in the U.S. between 2009 and 2015, the overall numbers don ’t reflect the “churn” in the community pharmacy industry. The number of pharmacies increased from nearly 63,000 in 2009 to nearly 68,000 in 2015. But of the nearly 75,000 pharmacies in operation at any point during this time period, one in eight had closed by the end of 2015. It found a dis...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 22, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

Top 7 Evidence-Based Mental Health Apps
According to a recently-published interview with John Torous, MD, MBI, Director of the Digital Psychiatry Division at the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, there are seven great evidenced-based mental health apps you should consider. Evidence-based means they’ve met the minimum requirements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or have at least one randomized clinical research study that supports their use and effectiveness. The recommendation for these evidence-based mental health apps comes in an interview with Dr. Torous found in the Oct. 2019 issue of The Carlat Psychiatr...
Source: World of Psychology - October 16, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Medications Mental Health and Wellness Mindfulness Psychology Self-Help Technology evidence-based mental health apps Smartphone Source Type: blogs

Now Here Is An Issue It Will Take A While To Get Our Collective Heads Around!
This was published last week.October 4, 2019Potential Liability for Physicians Using Artificial IntelligenceW. Nicholson Price II, JD, PhD1; Sara Gerke, Dipl-Jur Univ2; I. Glenn Cohen, JD3 JAMA. Published online October 4, 2019. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.15064 Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly making inroads into medical practice, especially in forms that rely on machine learning, with a mix of hope and hype.1 Multiple AI-based products have now been approved or cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and health systems and hospitals are increasingly deploying AI-base...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - October 15, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs

Medtronic Launches Evolut Pro+ TAVR System: Interview with Dr. Pieter Kappetein
Last month, Medtronic announced receipt of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for and launch of the Evolut Pro+ TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) System to treat patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. Aortic stenosis is characterized by stiff, often thickened aortic valve leaflets that struggle to open and close, requiring the heart to work harder to pump blood throughout the body. Chronic, untreated patients risk death from heart failure. Building on the already successful Evolut TAVR platform, the new offering provides four valve sizes (23, 26, 29, and 34mm), the lowest available d...
Source: Medgadget - October 15, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Exclusive Source Type: blogs

Add PreP and PEP to The List of Drugs the FDA Should Make OTC
Jeffrey A. SingerThis week California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that allows people at risk for contracting HIV to obtain both pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)directly from a pharmacist, avoiding the inconvenience and expense of having to visit the doctor for a prescription. Drugs that provide HIV prophylaxis are classified as prescription-only by the Food and Drug Administration. States get to determine the scope of practice of their licensed health care practitioners. Expanding the scope of practice of pharmacists to allow them to prescribe a prescription-only drug has...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 11, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs

Have You Considered Serving as an Audiologist or SLP in Uniform?
Have you heard of the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS)? It’s one of the United States’ seven uniformed services and has existed for more than 200 years. During those two centuries, an elite team of 6,500 men and women in health care professions served to protect our nation’s public health. Often called a “best kept secret,” the USPHS Commissioned Corps offers audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) a way to serve in uniform while protecting, promoting, and advancing the health and safety of the nation. As a member of the USPHS, I’ve been an SLP in uniform for a ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - October 9, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Courtney Wood Tags: Audiology Health Care Slider Speech-Language Pathology Professional Development Schools Source Type: blogs