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In a February 2021 update Dr. Howard Zucker, the Commissioner of health of New York State, recalls a story of an earlier vaccination challenge that…
Should the ACC Have a Live Meeting?
The American College of Cardiology is planning to have some live participants at its annual scientific sessions meeting in May. The college said it is also partnering with a technology company to offer these participants a wearable monitoring device “as an added safety measure for monitoring possible COVID-19 symptoms.”
In my view both decisions are mistaken and send messages that are the exact opposite of what responsible medical and scientific organizations should be promulgating during the pandemic.
Chunkification of Clinical Trials: Why aren’t we adopting the Win Ratio more widely?
Most of us like our news (medical or otherwise) pre-digested into understandable chunks for consumption. This need for this is inevitable because we expect to…
Salt Intake, Life Expectancy and Mortality: A Not-So-Salty Story for the Holidays
Numerous publications attest to the observation that a high salt intake can trigger hypertensive cardiovascular disease de novo or accelerate pre-existing hypertension. For decades practicing physicians have warned their patients about excessive salt intake.
CVCT Forum 2020: An Interview with John Teerlink about Omecamtiv
What’s unique about omecamtiv? Darrel Francis speaks to GALACTIC-HF PI, John Teerlink about that dirty word in heart failure… “inotrope”. The new language is myotropes,…
CVCT Forum 2020: An Interview with Paul Armstrong about Vericiguat
Darrel Francis speaks to Paul Armstrong, PI of the VICTORIA trial, about the mechanism of new heart failure drug, Vericiguat, and the trial’s unusual power calculation: “The trial was deliberately overpowered on the primary endpoint”.
Charlie and the Medicine Factory (Do we really need to understand mechanisms?)
One of my favorite books growing up was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. I revelled in the comeuppance meted out to the likes of Augustus…
CVCT Forum 2020: An Interview with Dan Mark on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Angina
At the Patient-Reported Outcome Session of CVCT Forum 2020, Dan Mark discussed the angina results of ISCHEMIA and ORBITA and the placebo effect.
CVCT Forum Teaser 2020: SGLT2 inhibitor trials in CKD
SGLT2 inhibitors are probably the hottest new drug on the scene in cardiology this year. They were bandied about for lowering glucose in diabetes but…
What Happened to Hospital Attendance: A Perception Trap
Hospital admissions for almost everything came to almost a complete halt this year because of the pandemic. In March and April 2020, people stopped coming…