Talk Evidence

Starting to measure sustainability, and changes in breast cancer screening

Measuring the carbon impact of healthcare interventions is essential if we're going to make the sector sustainable, however tracing all of the emmission from even a simple treatment can be tricky. Romi Haas, a research fellow at Monash Department of Clinical Epidemiology joins us to explain how it works, and how research could be more efficient.

New U.S. guideline on breast cancer screening  have been extended to women in their 40s -  Katy Bell, from the University of Sydney, and Stacy Carter, from the University of Wollongong explain why the good intention of that change wont be mirrored in outcomes - and may even induce harm.

 

Reading list:

Clinician and health service interventions to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by healthcare: a systematic review 

Breast cancer screening from age 40 in the US

 

The evidence on deprescribing

It's a therapeutics evidence feast this month.

We start with deprescribing in older adults - Anna Hung, assistant professor at the Duke University School of Medicine has written a summary of the evidence, and we discuss why there are so few trials on an important topic.

Metformin is typically first line for type II diabetes, but what should be next? A new cohort study emulating a comparative effectiveness trial has been published, and the team discuss using observational data for this very common problem.

Finally, a new trial on nirmaltrevir for covid 19 in those at higher risk of severe disease or those who are unvaccinated.

 

Links

BMJ - Deprescribing in older adults with polypharmacy

BMJ - Comparative effectiveness of second line oral antidiabetic treatments among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus: emulation of a target trial using routinely collected health data

NEJM - Nirmatrelvir for Vaccinated or Unvaccinated Adult Outpatients with Covid-19

Will semaglutide buck the trend of other weight loss drugs?

Helen Macdonald, BMJ's publication ethics and content integrity editor, and Juan Franco, editor of BMJ EBM are back with another episode of Talk Evidence.

This month, we'll be focussing on semaglutide, for managing obesity. Interviews with James Cave, editor-in-chief of Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin, and Lene Bull Christiansen, who has personal and professional experience with obesity, are featured. They discuss the history of drug therapies for obesity, and wonder if the wonderdrug semaglutide will turn out to be as disappointing. They discuss the evidence base for use of semaglutide, its effectiveness in weight management, and the broader societal issues surrounding obesity treatment.

Next, the hosts delve into undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in the DSM-5, focusing on a study led by Lisa Cosgrove and colleagues. The study reveals significant ties between DSM-5 authors and pharmaceutical companies, raising concerns about industry influence on psychiatric diagnosis and treatment recommendations.

The episode concludes with a discussion on survival rates after in-hospital cardiac arrest, based on a study using data from the Get With The Guidelines Resuscitation database. The hosts analyze the implications of the study findings for clinical practice and advanced care planning.

 

• Interview with James Cave: 00:03:15
• Interview with Lene Bull Christiansen: 00:11:07
• Interview with Lisa Cosgrove: 00:25:07
• Survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest: 00:31:25

Reading list

NEJM - Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Obesity without Diabetes

DTB - Semaglutide: a new drug for the treatment of obesity

BMJ - Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5-TR: cross sectional analysis

BMJ - Duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and outcomes for adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest: retrospective cohort study

 

 

 

Insulin without refrigeration and the complexities of consent

The December edition of the Talk Evidence podcast discusses the complexities of seeking consent from patients who are part of large data sets, and some new research to help patients living with diabetes in places without certain power supplies.

First patient consent and data - in the UK,  two stories that have made the public worry about the use of their health data. Firstly the news that UK biobank, who hold a lot of genomic and health data, allowed research by an insurance company, and second that the NHS has entered a contract with Palentir to do analysis on NHS data.

Natalie Banner, director of ethics at Genomics England has been thinking hard about putting patients at the centre of decision making about their data, and explains why she thinks a sole reliance on a consent model falls short.

Next, uncertain power supplies, such as in conflict or disaster zones, means uncertain refrigeration. Hard enough for most people to survive, but if you need to keep your insulin cold, it can be lifethreatening. However a new cochrane review has found good news about the thermostability of insulin at room temperature.

We ask Phillipa Boulle, MSF Intersectional NCD Working Group Leader and Cyrine Farhat,is  a global diabetes advocate based in Lebanon, how this will affect care for patients around the world.

 

Reading list

Thermal stability and storage of human insulin

 

Outline

 

00:06 introduction and overview

00:24 the challenge of seeking consent in big data sets

01:34 understanding consent issues in large datasets

01:52 the role of participant panels in data accountability

02:44 the complexity of public attitudes towards data use

04:54 the importance of transparency and engagement in data use

05:48 the impact of external factors on public trust in data use

07:49 the ethical challenges of using health data

09:17 the limitations of consent in ethical discussions

09:23 the need for more conversation about group benefits, risks, and harms

10:41 the role of governance in ethical decision making

12:05 discussion on the interview with natalie banner

14:59 the challenge of managing chronic conditions in disaster zones

15:15 the impact of temperature and storage conditions on insulin

17:32 interview with Philippa Boulle from medecins sans frontieres

29:10 interview with Cyrine Farhat, a person living with diabetes in lebanon

36:18 discussion on the interviews and the challenges of diabetes management

 

 

Low carb and cancer screening

Each episode of Talk Evidence we take a dive into an issue or paper which is in the news, with a little help from some knowledgeable guests to help us to understand what it all means for clinical care, policy, or research. 

 

In this episode:

Helen Macdonald take a deep dive into cancer screening tests, prompted by a paper in JAMA which showed most have no effect on all cause mortality, and news that the NHS is evaluating a single test which screens for 50 common cancers - we ask Barry Kramer, former director of the Division of Cancer Prevention, at the U.S. National Cancer Institute to help explain how to hold those two pieces of knowledge.

Juan Franco has been looking into diet and obesity, prompted by new research in The BMJ and a new Cochrane review, looking at the role of low glycemic index foods in weightloss - we ask Khadidja Chekima, nutritional researcher at Taylor’s University in Malaysia, to define low GI foods, and why it’s so hard to research their role in diet and weightloss 

 

Reading list;

JAMA research - Estimated Lifetime Gained With Cancer Screening Tests; A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

The BMJ news - Clinicians raise concerns over pilot of blood test for multiple cancers

The BMJ research - Association between changes in carbohydrate intake and long term weight changes: prospective cohort study

Cochrane review - Low glycaemic index or low glycaemic load diets for people with overweight or obesity

Talking overdiagnosis

In this month's Talk Evidence, Helen and Juan are reporting from Preventing Overdiagnosis - the conference that raises issues of diagnostic accuracy, and asks if starting the process of medicalisation is always the right thing to do for patients.

 

In this episode, they talk about home testing, sustainability and screening. They're also joined by two guests to talk about the overdiagnosis of obesity - when that label is stigmatising and there seem to be few successful treatments that medicine can offer, and the need to educate students in the concepts of overdiagnosis and too much medicine, to create a culture change in medicine.

 

Links;

The Preventing Overdiagnosis conference

The BMJ EBM papers on choosing wisely.

Ensuring the integrity of research, and the future of AI as authors

In this month's Talk Evidence, we're getting a little meta - how do we keep an eye on research to make sure it's done with integrity. Helen Macdonald is BMJ's Publication ethics and content integrity editor - and we quiz her about what that actually means on a day to day basis.

Ensuring the integrity of research could be made both easier, and harder, by the ascendance of large language models, Ian Mulvany, BMJ's chief technology officer joins us to talk about how we can harness the power of this new technology.

Talk Evidence - post pandemic pruning, breast cancer screening, and orphan drugs

In this episode of Talk Evidence,  Helen Macdonald, Joe Ross, and Juan Franco are back to update us on what's happening in the world of medical evidence.

Firstly, the news about the end of the covid-19 pandemic was trumpeted, but the changes to research funding have been more quite - and the team discuss what this means for ongoing work to understand the effects of covid, but also in terms of preparedness for the next pandemic.

Next, breast cancer screening recommendations, in the USA, have been reduced from women over the age of 50, to those over the age of 40. We discuss the modelling study which lead to that recommendation change, and what the consequence may be in terms of overdiagnosis.

Finally, 40 years ago, the U.S. Orphan Drug act was passed to encourage the development of treatments for rare conditions - but new research looks at how many clinically useful drugs have come onto market, and an analysis examines the way in which the system could be gamed by narrowing disease definitions to create small populations of patients.

 

Reading list

Is the UK losing its world leading covid surveillance network just when it needs it most?

Breast cancer: US recommends women start screening at 40

FDA approval, clinical trial evidence, efficacy, epidemiology, and price for non-orphan and ultra-rare, rare, and common orphan cancer drug indications