Closer Look
'It's going to be OK': How Nick Jonas handles his diabetes
Courtesy HLTH
You may know Nick Jonas (above) as one-third of the illustrious Jonas Brothers band. You may not know he lives with type 1 diabetes and is a celebrity spokesperson for Dexcom, maker of the continuous glucose monitor he wears. He recently talked with STAT's Nicholas St. Fleur at HLTH in Las Vegas.
Have there been times when you wish you didn't have this disease?
Absolutely. Before I had the technology that we have today, it was 12 or 14 finger sticks, as well as injections and other things while going through major hormonal changes during puberty. I was going on tour in front of thousands of people while also trying to be a spokesperson for a disease that is incredibly challenging and not predictable, for sure.
What did you decide when you were diagnosed at age 13?
I'm going to try to normalize speaking about diabetes. When I was scared sitting in a hospital learning about what my new reality was, there wasn't a person on a platform that I could point to and say, it's going to be OK.
Read the full interview.
health
After abnormal cancer screening results, more than an EHR reminder brought more patients back in
For preventive cancer screening to work, patients must come back if those tests show abnormal results. A new study in JAMA analyzed what approaches worked best to bring overdue patients back to their primary care doctors — who ordered the tests — within four months of receiving abnormal results. Among nearly 12,000 patients, a combination of electronic health record reminders, letters, and phone calls were more successful than EHR reminders alone in bringing patients back in after abnormal results for breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancer.
Still, the more intensive strategies worked for only about 31% of patients, which was better than the 21% of patients who got only EHR reminders. "Patient factors may include need for education about the meaning of the test results, what follow-up procedures involve, and assessing patient preferences," the authors write. "Practitioner factors such as knowledge of guidelines and improved access to prior test results may also be important."
health equity
Chronic kidney disease tied to elevated risk of sudden cardiac arrest in Hispanic and Latino adults
Sudden cardiac arrest — when the heart abruptly stops beating — has a terrible fatality rate of 90% among the 350,000 Americans it strikes each year. Predicting who's vulnerable isn't as easy as pointing to heart disease. A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association reports that chronic kidney disease was the strongest risk factor for sudden cardiac arrest among Hispanic or Latino adults. In the first study to evaluate this population for risk factors, the researchers found that half of the sudden cardiac arrests occurred in people diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, 20% of whom had end-stage disease requiring dialysis.
Previous research studies have suggested that the progression of chronic kidney disease to complete kidney failure occurs rapidly among Hispanics and Latinos. This may be come from lower access to care, including dietary counseling, dialysis, and kidney transplantation, among this population, study co-author Sumeet Chugh told STAT's Anika Nayak. Read more.
In this week's First Opinion Podcast, First Opinion editor Torie Bosch speaks with endocrinologist Jody Dushay and cancer patient Laurie Brunner about the logistical and medical problems that the ongoing shortages of GLP-1 medications are creating. Listen here.
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