CardioExchange Archive

March 6th, 2013

The Influence of Medical School Gift Restrictions on Doctors’ Prescription Decisions

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS and John Ryan, MD

A new study found that gift restrictions in medical schools resulted in graduates writing fewer prescriptions of newly marketed psychiatric medications compared with older, less expensive alternatives. Might this also translate to cardiovascular agents?

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February 5th, 2013

The Sun Is About to Shine

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Will the Physician Payment Sunshine Act help to prevent conflict of interest or will it limit good science?

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October 12th, 2012

PCI Public Reporting Programs: Incentivizing Better Decisions?

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Joe Ross wonders what’s really behind the lower rates of PCI use in states that have public reporting programs.

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September 20th, 2012

Why I Applaud the Skeptical Physicians

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Is skepticism of industry-funded trials warranted even when they are designed, conducted, and reported with the utmost rigor?

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May 23rd, 2012

Panel: Azithromycin and Cardiovascular Risk

Paul Sax, MD, Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS and Jeffrey Lance Anderson, MD

Three experts offer perspective on a large database study showing an association between azitrhromycin use and increased risk for cardiovascular death.

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September 29th, 2010

How Are You Managing Co-Morbid Conditions?

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Some of you may remember a 2005 paper in JAMA, in which relevant clinical practice guidelines were applied to a hypothetical 79-year-old woman. This woman had multiple co-morbid conditions, otherwise known as multimorbidity, including COPD, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, and osteoarthritis. The authors surmised that, if guideline-directed care were followed, this hypothetical patient would be […]

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March 26th, 2010

Hospital Volume and Outcomes: Size Matters, but Only to a Point

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

This week we welcome CardioExchange Contributor Joseph Ross, MD, to answer questions about his study in NEJM, Hospital Volume and 30 Day Mortality for Three Common Medical Conditions (co-authored with CardioExchange Editor, Harlan Krumholz, MD). CardioExchange Editors: What does this research add to our current knowledge about volume and outcomes? The relationship between greater volume […]

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March 17th, 2010

March Madness—In the Wake of ACC, Name the Head-to-Head Match-Ups You’d Like to See

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

If you work for the NIH, you’re not allowed to bet on your favorite NCAA basketball team. But here at CardioExchange, you can channel your enthusiasm into a different set of brackets. The elegant simplicity of March Madness, despite the chaos, is that we get our questions answered: “Who’s better? Syracuse or Georgetown? UCLA or USC? […]

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February 7th, 2010

Tackling Tobacco Cessation

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Last week, I posted a Voices blog detailing my concerns about a recent randomized controlled trial of varenicline that, in my opinion, was just another weak safety study. Absent from that post was a discussion of varenicline’s effectiveness, which was significant. At 12 weeks, 47% of varenicline users had been continuously abstinent, versus 14% of […]

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January 22nd, 2010

Chantix and Cardiovascular Risk: Another Weak Safety Study

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

In 2008, Dr. John Spangler of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine wrote a letter to the editor of Current Medical Research and Opinion expressing concern about a Pfizer-funded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix). By 1 year, the varenicline group had experienced a higher rate of serious adverse events than the […]

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