JAMA Clinical Reviews

COVID-19 continues to rapidly spread throughout the world. In the past few months, the population affected by the disease has shifted from older to younger patients. Public health officials are concerned that younger people seem not to be very compliant with recommendations regarding masking and social distancing. It is believed that younger people think that the adverse consequences of the disease occur in the elderly and not in them. Garrett Salzman, MD, is a resident physician at UCLA and contracted the disease. He is young and healthy, but he has had substantial disability from COVID-19. He tells a cautionary tale of his experience with COVID-19 that this is not a benign disease in young people, that they need to be careful. Related Article: Potential Implications of COVID-19 for the 2020-2021 Residency Application Cycle

David Arterburn, MD, MPH, senior investigator from Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, discusses the effectiveness of bariatric surgery in inducing weight loss and managing diabetes. The podcast explores a retrospective study comparing bariatric surgery to non-surgical treatment, benefits and complications of bariatric surgery, cost of weight loss drugs, managing post-bariatric surgery patients through a holistic approach.

The new American College of Gastroenterology guideline on ulcerative colitis is discussed by one of its authors, David T. Rubin, MD, from the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the University of Chicago, and Maylyn Martinez, MD, also from the University of Chicago. Related Article(s): Ulcerative Colitis in Adults

Acute pancreatitis can be a devastating disease. Complications of pancreatitis can be minimized by appropriate early, initial management. Joe Hines, MD, and Raman Muthusamy, MD, from UCLA discuss the recent American Gastroenterological Association guideline on managing acute pancreatitis. Related Article(s): Initial Management of Acute Pancreatitis

Patients with serious disease fear the unknown. A physician with a serious disease knows the potential outcomes, making it far more difficult to cope. How does a physician react to developing cancer? Adam Stern, MD, an assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, developed metastatic renal cell carcinoma when he was just 33 years old. He wrote about his experiences as a cancer patient in a Piece of My Mind article in the March 3, 2020, issue of JAMA and spoke about this to JAMA Clinical Reviews. Related Article(s): The Secret About Achieving Your Dreams

Before COVID-19, even though most children got vaccinated for measles, too many did not, resulting in worsening outbreaks of measles. People forgot how bad a disease measles is and became lax about getting their children vaccinated. Now in the COVID-19 era everyone is aware of what an out-of-control infectious disease can do and we are all anxiously awaiting a COVID-19 vaccine. Will this experience help encourage parents to get their children vaccinated? We discussed the problems of an adequate measles vaccination with Dr. Saad Omer, PhD, from the Yale Institute for Global Health at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Related Article(s): Vaccine Refusal and Measles Outbreaks in the US

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, flu season is almost upon us. This is concerning because there will be an overlap between flu and COVID-19 and patients could get both diseases. Daniel Solomon, MD, from the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, discusses COVID-19 and how the flu might pan out this year. Related Article: Influenza in the COVID-19 Era

The use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 serves as an example of what is wrong with medical information being widely disseminated before it is thoroughly vetted by peer review. Preliminary studies of this treatment modality were spread widely, creating false hope that a treatment for COVID-19 existed. Several randomized trials have shown that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective therapy for COVID-19. David Juurlink, MD, PhD, from the University of Toronto summarizes the evidence base regarding hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19. Related Article(s): Pathophysiology, Transmission, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

One of the most contentious issues relating to COVID-19 is when to reopen schools. This is a complicated matter because placing people in close quarters risks spread of the disease. Yet children being at home makes it difficult for their working parents to manage their affairs and can potentially affect the learning experience. JAMA Associate Editor Preeti Malani, MD, chief health officer for the University of Michigan, discusses school reopening and how the University of Michigan is addressing this problem. Related Article: Association Between Statewide School Closure and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in the US

A major study recently published in JAMA showed that many children who have appendicitis do not need surgery and, if they undergo surgery, may have more disability than if they were treated with antibiotics alone. JAMA Clinical Reviews spoke with a patient in the study whose mother happens to be JAMA Associate Editor Preeti Malani, MD, JAMA’s infectious diseases editor and chief health officer for the University of Michigan. This patient initially was treated with antibiotics, later required appendectomy, and discussed the difficulties he experienced following laparoscopic appendectomy. Related Article: Association of Nonoperative Management Using Antibiotic Therapy vs Laparoscopic Appendectomy With Treatment Success and Disability Days in Children With Uncomplicated Appendicitis