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Clinical Practice

Canada's 'pioneering' guidelines on adult obesity

Pioneering guidelines on obesity management in Canada are challenging doctors to consider the health problem as a complex chronic illness rather than something a...

Health professionals wary of medicinal cannabis misuse and adverse effects

A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) analysis of studies gauging attitudes to medicinal cannabis has found that while health professionals are broadly supportive, they...

Two-thirds of SA patients prescribed unnecessary antibiotics by their GP

In  South Africa, 78% of 'mystery' patients sent to a public clinic and 67% of patients sent to a private general practitioner (GP) received...

GPs exceed antibiotic duration guidelines for most infections

For most common infections treated in primary care, a substantial proportion of antibiotic prescriptions have durations exceeding those recommended in guidelines. Substantial reductions in...

Novel test speeds diagnosis of multi-resistant hospital pathogens

A team of researchers at the University of Cologne's faculty of medicine and the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) has achieved a scientific...

Daily aspirin has 'no effect' on healthy life span in older people

Daily low-dose aspirin in healthy older adults without previous cardiovascular events did not prolong healthy, independent living (life free of dementia or persistent physical...

Traditional methods for testing BP no longer adequate — study

Traditional methods of testing for high-blood pressure are no longer adequate and risk missing vital health signs, which can lead to premature death, a...

Statistics SA: The swings and roundabouts of how we die

In 2016 women in South Africa were 36% more likely to die from diabetes than from the combination of car accidents, violent crime, suicide,...

BP in the elderly starts decreasing about 14 years before death

Blood pressure in the elderly gradually begins to decrease about 14 or so years before death, according to a large UK analysis. Researchers from University...

Concerns raised over accuracy of melanoma diagnoses

A study of US pathologists shows that diagnoses can vary among pathologists, particularly for cases in the middle of the disease spectrum, suggesting the potential...

Why are so many people popping Vitamin D?

There is mostly no reason for the patients to receive vitamin D tests. Yet US patients are demanding them and many physicians are initiating...

Cardiologist warns against dissolvable stents

An expert commentary in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial encourages cardiologists to continue using conventional drug-eluting stents, instead of the newer bioresorbable...

The heavier, the less chance of experiencing a 'good death'

The heavier someone is, the less likely they are to have what many people might call a 'good death', with hospice care and a...

Clinicians must understand information needs

Clinicians need to understand the differing needs of cancer survivors in order to better address concerns about cancer recurrence, late effects, and family members' risks.

Accurate one-minute frailty assessment

Emory University surgeons have developed that an approximately one-minute frailty assessment that can accurately determine how likely a patient is to have complications after an operation.

'Ethical imperative' for mammography information

Women exposed to evidence-based information on the risk of over-detection and over-diagnosis associated with mammography screening have lower intentions to have a breast screening test, according to an Australian study.

Dematitis increasing with improved hand hygiene

A University of Manchester study shows that the incidence of dermatitis has increased 4.5 times in British health care workers following a drive for increased hand hygiene to reduce infections such as MRSA.

Combination drug to fight fungal infections

Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that Candida albicans — a leading cause of potentially fatal hospital-acquired infections – rarely develops resistance to combination drug therapy and, when it becomes resistant, it also becomes less dangerous.

Eight signs of impending cancer death

US and Brazilian researchers have identified eight highly specific physical and cognitive signs associated with imminent death in cancer patients. The findings could guide both the medical team and caregivers on complex decision making, such as discontinuation of tests and therapy, plans for hospital discharge and hospice referral.