Alfie Health ’ s New AI-Powered ObesityRx Platform Helps Determine Sustainable Weight Loss Approach for Patients with Obesity, Using Precision Medicine and Telehealth Support
With $2.1 Million in Funding, Alfie Health Reports a Cohort of 300 Patients Lost an Average of 10-15% of Body Weight over Nine Months of Following its Holistic Approach
The AI Platform Analyzes Patient Data, Recommends Medication (or Combination Meds) Precisely Prescribed, as well as Behavioral Changes, and Provides Ongoing Telehealth Support
With 42 percent of Americans now struggling with obesity, doctors and their patients are looking for a sustainable approach to weight loss. Currently, prescription medications known as the GLP-1 class of anti-obesity medications (such as Ozempic®, Wegovy®, Mounjaro, etc.) are becomi...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - July 21, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Alexander Singh Alfie Health Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute Dr. W. Scott Butsch GLP-1 Goodwater Capital Health IT Funding Health IT Fundings Health IT Investment Source Type: blogs
Two Patients With More Than One Diagnosis
BY HANS DUVEFELT
I have written many times about how I have made a better diagnosis than the doctor who saw my patient in the emergency room. That doesn’t mean I’m smarter or even that I have a better batting average. I don’t know how often it is the other way around, but I do know that sometimes I’m wrong about what causes my patient’s symptoms.
We all work under certain pressures, from overbooked clinic schedules to overfilled emergency room waiting areas, from “poor historians” (patients who can’t describe their symptoms or their timeline very well) to our own mental fatigue after many hours on the...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 16, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Hans Duvefelt neuralgia sinusitis Source Type: blogs
Magnum, P.I.
An 11-year-old boy with cerebral palsy presented to the emergency department unresponsive. His mother said the child was in his normal state earlier that morning, but was blue and unresponsive when she tried to wake him from his morning nap. A home pulse oximeter reported an oxygen level of 55%.The mother placed the child on oxygen and called 911. He was still unresponsive on arrival, and his physical examination demonstrated flaccid paralysis and a GCS score of 3 with fixed dilated pupils. He was tachycardic with shallow respirations. His initial vital signs were a temperature of 36.9°C, a heart rate of 136 bpm, a res...
Source: The Tox Cave - June 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Medications That Can Cause Depression
There is nothing more frustrating than when the cure is part of the problem. Because depression is prevalent in patients with physical disorders like cancer, stroke, and heart disease, medications often interact with each other, complicating treatment. To appropriately manage depression, you and your physician need to evaluate all medications involved and make sure they aren’t cancelling each other out.
A review in the journal Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience a while back highlighted certain medications that can cause depression. The following are medications to watch out for.
Medications to Treat Seizures and Parkinso...
Source: World of Psychology - March 31, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Depression Medications Drug Interactions Mood Disorder Source Type: blogs
Topiramate renal toxicity
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - March 21, 2019 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: nephrology Source Type: blogs
Is the ketogenic diet dangerous?
Answer: No—unless you do it for more than a few months. After a few months, the upfront metabolic and weight benefits will begin to reverse and new health problems arise. We know this with confidence. I raise this question once again because more and more people are coming to me reporting problems. It may take months, even years, but the long-term consequences can be quite serious.
Achieving ketosis by engaging in a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat lifestyle is—without a doubt—an effective means of losing weight, breaking insulin and leptin resistance, reversing type 2 diabetes and fatty liver, redu...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - March 12, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: ketones bowel flora ketogenic ketotic undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Alcohol use disorder: When is drinking a problem?
Over the past few months, a conversation about alcohol use has been center stage in the national news. Stories about underage drinking, blacking out, and harmful behavior associated with alcohol use are quite common in many families around the world. The rise of the opioid epidemic in the US has rightly caught our attention, but overshadowed a much more common problem. In the United States, from 2006 to 2010 alcohol-associated deaths accounted for 88,000 deaths annually, or almost 10% of all US deaths.
While many people are becoming aware that medication assisted therapy can help treat opioid use disorder, very few know th...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 20, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Marcelo Campos, MD Tags: Health Source Type: blogs
Johnson and Johnson's Latest Ethical Misadventures: Settled Kickback Allegations, Reportedly Concealed Knowledge of Adverse Effects of a " Sacred Cow " Product
Giant pharmaceutical/ biotechnology/ device company Johnson& Johnson has its famous" credo " which starts withWe believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. In meeting their needs everything we do must be of high quality..Nonetheless, the company has a long history of ethical misadventures (lookhere, and see appendix below). Now late in 2018, we note two more Johnson& Johnson misadventures. In chronological order,$360 Million Settlement of Allegations of Kickbacks to Medicare/ Medicaid Patients to...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 15, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: adulterated drugs adverse effects deception impunity Johnson and Johnson kickbacks legal settlements Source Type: blogs
Behavioral weight loss programs are effective — but where to find them?
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a team of volunteer experts from various primary care medicine and nursing fields. They identify big medical problems, review the research, and translate it into action plans (called practice recommendations) for doctors like me.
Just this fall, they tackled obesity, with the goal of identifying effective ways we in primary care can help people to lose weight.
And it’s not about aesthetics. This is about disease prevention, especially diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, which are particularly associated with obesity.
They were NOT looking at surgeries or oth...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Diet and Weight Loss Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Acute Angle Closure: Mastering Tonometry
Identifying and managing disease often requires the delicate and skillful use of temperamental emergency department machinery. The ability to apply these may appropriately help determine a difficult diagnosis.Glaucoma, we all know, can cause blindness, and acute narrow angle glaucoma refers to the angles within the eye that are not as wide and open as normal. People with acute angle glaucoma have abnormal anatomy within the eye where the angle changes as the eye is dilated. This can cause blockages of fluid drainage from the anterior to posterior changes resulting in increased intraocular pressure. It ca lead to acute a...
Source: The Procedural Pause - November 9, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 49-year-old woman with obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 49-year-old woman is evaluated during a follow-up visit. She is overweight and has hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, both of which are well controlled. For several years, she has attempted to lose weight through various commercial diets; dietician-monitored, calorie-restricted diets; and physical activity. She has worked with a behavioral therapist, and although she has not achieved weight loss, her weight has remained stable. She exercises 30 minutes daily. Medical history is also remarkable for glau...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 1, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Obesity Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Depression: Common medication side effect?
This study is especially thought-provoking, given that more and more people are taking medications with depression or suicidal thoughts as possible side effects. The CDC just released updated data showing a troubling recent rise in suicide rates, and that 54% of those who die from suicide do not have a known mental health disorder, so this is an important public health issue.
That said, it is important to note: in this study, people who used these medications were more likely to be widowed and have chronic health problems, both of which are associated with a higher risk of depression. And many (but not all) of these medica...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 16, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Anxiety and Depression Drugs and Supplements Health Source Type: blogs
Might Depression Be Linked to One of These Popular Medications?
If you’re taking beta blockers, certain kinds of anxiety drugs, certain types of painkillers (including ibuprofen), proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) (used to treat acid reflux), ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure), or anti-convulsant drugs, you may be at greater risk for depression. That’s according to a new, large-scale study published earlier this week in JAMA.
However, this was a correlational study, so it can’t say that these medications actually cause depression or not. It may be that people with greater health problems are more likely to take one of these medications and be depressed abo...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: Depression General Medications Psychiatry Research Drugs cause depression popular medications Source Type: blogs
A neurologist talks about kids and headaches
It’s not uncommon for a child to complain of a headache. But what should a parent do? When should you worry? What are features that are cause for concern and should prompt a call to the pediatrician, or even a trip to the emergency room? For kids with headaches, do they necessarily need to take medication, or are there other nondrug treatments that may be just as effective?
When to call your pediatrician
The cardinal rule for thinking about headaches is “first or worst.” In practical terms, if your child has never had a headache before, you need to evaluate carefully.
Did he have any recent head trauma, such as a fa...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 29, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Carolyn A. Bernstein, MD, FAHS Tags: Children's Health Headache Parenting Source Type: blogs
What Are the Signs of Binge Eating Disorder?
Binge eating is often something we have done at one time or another. Perhaps at a celebration or a birthday, we have continued to eat just for the taste or because it feels good. Binge Eating Disorder is different.
The signs of Binge Eating Disorder include:
Feeling uncomfortably full while continuing to eat
Eating a lot of food quickly despite lack of hunger
Feeling out of control
Shame surrounding food
If you eat more than others during the same situation or meal time and have binged at least once a week for three months, you may have Binge Eating Disorder.
Binge Eating Disorder is the most common eating disorder in th...
Source: World of Psychology - November 7, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rebecca Lee Tags: Addiction Binge Eating Eating Disorders Health-related Bingeing Food Addiction Obesity overeating Source Type: blogs
