Physician's Weekly

As a family medicine physician, I have seen how medication costs shape patient choices long before they enter the exam room, influencing whether they fill, ration, or delay a prescription—tradeoffs no patient should have to make. Real access will require more than isolated price cuts; it will require a healthcare system that makes high‑value medicines easier to choose with confidence.

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) hypoglycemia alerts, integrated into intensive care unit (ICU) workflows, reliably signaled impending hypoglycemia and prompted clinical responses while adding only a modest alarm burden, according to findings from a prespecified secondary analysis published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. Results showed that nearly all confirmed hypoglycemic events were preceded by validated CGM signals.

A recent publication in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology & Venereology provides consensus recommendations from a multidisciplinary expert panel convened by the Skin Inflammation & Psoriasis International Network–Foundation René Touraine (SPIN‑FRT), which assessed and incorporated disease‑pathway, clinical trial, and real‑world evidence on the risk of malignancy associated with biologic and oral targeted therapies prescribed to treat and manage psoriasis (PsO) and atopic...

After receiving FDA clearance in 2023 for the treatment of primary and metastatic liver tumors, histotripsy saw rapid uptake, with most treatments being performed in outpatient settings and low overall rates of laboratory toxic effects and procedural complications, according to findings from a retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Network Open.

Two patients walked into urgent care on the same day. One had a urinary tract infection (UTI), a textbook primary care visit. The other had a minor fracture that could just as easily have been treated in the emergency department (ED). Neither chose urgent care because it was the clinically “correct” option. Both chose it because it was the fastest one.

Among eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) that achieved complete polypoidal regression following an initial treatment of 3 or 6 monthly intravitreal anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections, 50% remained quiescent for 2 years without additional injections, whereas the remainder required resumption of treatment for recurrent exudation, according to findings from a prospective cohort study published in JAMA Ophthalmology.

BOISE, Idaho — Joshua and Ashley Durham run a family medicine practice, and for the first time in their lives, they have no health insurance. When the Durhams began their practice at the end of 2023 — he as a primary care physician and she as a pharmacist who handles the billing — the couple bought coverage for themselves and their two kids on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

An Indigenous Food is Medicine (FIM) intervention involving medically and culturally tailored meals reduced the incidence of hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits among patients with heart failure (HF), according to findings from the Medically Utilized Tailored Traditional Foods to Optimize Nutrition in Heart Failure (MUTTON-HF) randomized controlled trial (RCT) published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home. Abortion access is important to McCoomb. She wants her daughter to grow up in a state where the option is available if needed, and the sign was a keepsake from the day Missourians voted to reverse the state’s near-total ban.

Emerging evidence suggests that hormonal factors may influence the risk of chronic respiratory diseases in women. In a recent analysis, Alexander Geyer, MD, and colleagues found that a longer reproductive lifespan was associated with a lower likelihood of developing bronchiectasis, particularly among women who had never used hormone therapy.