In this episode of the AGA podcast Small Talk, Big Topics, hosts Drs. Matthew Whitson and Nina Nandy interview Dr. Sheryl Pfeil. Sheryl is a professor of clinical medicine and a gastroenterologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She is a big name in medical education, and she also directs the clinical simulation center at the Ohio State University. Sheryl is an active mentor, and Matthew is one of her mentees! He and Nina are excited to talk with her today, and are most looking forward to discussing her journey into the medical education field, an overview of her career, and…
Author: Praveen Suthrum
Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer substantially improves survival. However, over half of cases are diagnosed late due to the demand for colonoscopy—the ‘gold standard’ for screening—exceeding capacity. Colonoscopy is limited by the outdated design of conventional endoscopes, which are associated with high complexity of use, cost and pain. Magnetic endoscopes are a promising alternative and overcome the drawbacks of pain and cost, but they struggle to reach the translational stage as magnetic manipulation is complex and unintuitive. In this work, we use machine vision to develop intelligent and autonomous control of a magnetic endoscope, enabling non-expert users to effectively perform…
When something innovative comes along, people instinctively compare it to something that already exists. Automobiles in the early 1900s, for instance, were thought of as nothing more than motorized versions of the horse-drawn carriage (all revved up on “horsepower”). Before there were highways, gas stations and roadside motels, people could only envision what was, not what could be. A century later, our jobs, food sources, cultural institutions and communities all revolve around our motorized vehicles. It almost always takes a generation for innovative technologies to gain proper recognition for all they can do. In this century, telemedicine is one such innovation, underappreciated…
Clinical hypnosis can be an effective therapy for treating inflammatory bowel disease in children, promoting improvements in both symptoms and aspects of daily living, such as school attendance, according to a randomized controlled trial of the approach. Noting that hypnosis has been found to be effective for treating irritable bowel syndrome, pain and anxiety, and may have anti-inflammatory effects, the researchers, from Vanderbilt University, sought to assess the impact of the intervention as an adjunctive treatment in Crohn’s disease. They assessed the impact of hypnosis on abdominal pain, quality of life (QOL), psychosocial measures and disease activity compared with standard…
Scientific teams around the world have developed successful Covid-19 vaccines in incredibly short order. In a feat that even a couple of years ago would have seemed completely out of reach, vaccines to protect against the new disease were being used before the first anniversary of the disclosure that a new threat existed. This is truly extraordinary. In the United States, three vaccines are available, two of which are fully licensed. In August 2021, the FDA gave full approval to the vaccine developed by the partnership of Pfizer and German manufacturer BioNTech for people 16 and older. On Jan. 31, 2022, the…
Telehealth visits accounted for approximately 30% of total outpatient visits early in the COVID-19 pandemic, with uptake varying among specialties and by patient characteristics, according to research published in Health Affairs. “In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine use grew dramatically within a matter of weeks,” Sadiq Y. Patel, PhD, National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral research fellow in the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues wrote. “After years of slow adoption, many clinicians used telemedicine for the first time to limit patient and staff exposure to the virus.”
Do you know which biologic therapies are most helpful for your patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)? IBD plagues three million Americans and is common enough of a condition that you need to understand all the available therapeutic options, how they impact patients and what factors should determine which therapy will work best. In response to a learning need advanced practice providers (APPs) have cited, AGA has launched APP Pharmacology: IBD Series – Biologics, a free course, which provides detailed insights on pharmacological therapies for: TNF antagonist (anti-TNF). Anti-integrin. Interleukin. Janus Kinase (JAK) inhibitor. Leading APPs, Kimberly Kearns, MS, ANP-BC, Erin…
In August 2020, social media giant TikTok reported more than 100 million monthly active users from the United States on its platform. While the app is known for short, catchy dance videos and challenges — some of which have led to FDA warnings — it also serves as an opportunity to provide medical information to users.
UC Davis researchers are the latest to predict there will be more deaths over the next decade as a result of COVID-19-related delays in screening and treatment of cancer, local NBC affiliate KCRA reported Jan. 28. The researchers examined screening rates for colorectal cancer and breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. Richard Bold, MD, physician-in-charge at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, believes there will be at least 10,000 more deaths over the next decade because of delays in screenings and treatments.
Feb. 3 marks National Women Physicians Day, a day to celebrate and honor the many women doctors in the country. It falls on the birthday of the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S. — Elizabeth Blackwell. This year marks Blackwell’s 200th birth anniversary and it is just the fourth National Women Physicians Day. As the first woman to earn a medical degree from an American school, Blackwell did face a lot of rejection in her time. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), her applications were rejected by 29 colleges simply because she was a woman.