JAMA Medical News JAMA Research of the Year With Editor in Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
Dec 12, 2025
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Editor in Chief of JAMA and a leading physician-scientist, delves into groundbreaking research from the past year. She discusses the laryngostat trial for treatment-resistant hypertension and how GLP-1 agonists can lower heart failure hospitalization. The podcast also highlights the POINTER trial's lifestyle interventions for dementia risk and the implications of the TRAIN trial on transfusion practices. Kirsten emphasizes the importance of real-world data and AI in healthcare, wrapping up with reflections on the year's most impactful studies.
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Research Reflects Hot Clinical & Method Trends
- JAMA's top studies reflect hot, high-impact clinical areas like cardiology and GLP-1 therapies.
- They showcase diverse methods and real-world evidence complementing randomized trials.
Real-World Trial Emulation Strengthens GLP-1 Evidence
- A clinical trial emulation used real-world data on ~60,000 participants to study GLP-1 effects in HFpEF.
- Such observational methods can complement trials and increase confidence in therapy use.
Quasi-Experimental Design Reduces Vaccine Bias
- The shingles vaccine–dementia study used a quasi-experimental birthdate cutoff to limit healthy-vaccinee bias.
- That design makes groups more comparable and strengthens causal inference in observational vaccine research.