Tom Collins is a freelance writer in South Florida who has written about medical topics from nasty infections to ethical dilemmas, runaway tumors to tornado-chasing doctors. He travels the globe gathering conference health news and lives in West Palm Beach.
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Alcohol abstinence questioned as addiction treatment goal
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – Data suggest that patients often achieve significant improvements by reducing alcohol intake short of abstinence.
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Checklists, colleagues key when psychiatric patient overdoses
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – Psychiatrists grieve when a patient overdoses and dies, but talking to other clinicians and using specialized checklists...
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Technical issues inhibit data collection on fentanyl
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – When it comes to mortality, the data on fentanyl are sometimes available, but they are cumbersome to collect, an expert...
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Understanding properties of fentanyl, other opioids key to treatment
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – Fentanyl has opioid receptor affinity similar to that of morphine, research shows, and it’s not known why it is up to 100...
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Drug test results ‘should not dictate treatment’
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – Many clinicians say they’re unsure about interpreting urine drug screens, but a 30-minute training session can make a big...
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Rural teleprescribing for opioid use disorder shows success
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – More than 56% of rural counties in the country have no buprenorphine provider.
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Psilocybin yields encouraging results in addiction studies
BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. – Small but tantalizing studies are showing benefits from treatment with psilocybin, the...
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Paradigm shifts in palliative care
Hospitalists must be more keenly tuned in than ever to patients' precise needs.
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Hospitalist NPs and PAs note progress
Integrating NPs and PAs into hospitalist groups successfully is a “nuanced and multilayered” process.
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Researchers identify potential sickle cell disease target
The identification of heme-regulated inhibitor (HRI) was made using a tailored CRISPR screen of adult human erythroid cells.
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Melanoma survival shorter in those given high dose glucocorticoids for ipilimumab-induced hypophysitis
Melanoma patients who take higher doses of glucocorticoids for hypophysitis induced by the checkpoint-inhibitor also had a shorter time to...
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Benefits, drawbacks when hospitalists expand roles
Not all role expansion in hospital medicine is good role expansion, experts say.
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Rethinking preop testing
ORLANDO – Think twice before ordering that preoperative test, experts say.
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Eye-opening findings cast spondyloarthritis in new light, expert says
New findings show that, in a surprisingly high number of patients, inflammatory back pain does not lead to axial SpA
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Caution crucial for stem cell transplant in scleroderma, despite potential interest
Long-term success of stem cell transplant in severe scleroderma patients might prompt patient interest, but most won’t be eligible, an expert says...