iCare parent company acquires Visionix, maker of Optovue OCT

Revenio Group, the parent company behind the iCare product line, has agreed to acquire Visionix, maker of Optovue OCT systems and other tools for optometry practices, according to a press release.
“This is a landmark moment for Visionix and for the eye care industry in the United States,” Marc Abitbol, CEO of Visionix, told Healio. “By joining forces with Revenio Group, we gain access to a broader portfolio of world-class diagnostic technologies, greater scale and the resources needed to better serve our customers — from independent optometrists and optical retail

Strategies for clinicians to catch cancer early in young adults

SAN FRANCISCO — Breast, colorectal and prostate cancers account for most screen-detectable cancers in adults aged under 50 years, with most “unfortunately diagnosed symptomatically,” a presenter at ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting said.
“These patients are coming to their doctors once symptoms already develop,” Veda N. Giri, MD, a professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine and director of Yale’s Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program, said. “We know at that point that the chances of having the cancer caught at an earlier stage potentially reduces, so the outcomes can be tougher

Vyzulta yields high satisfaction among eye care practitioners

WASHINGTON — A survey found high satisfaction rates among eye care practitioners who prescribed Vyzulta to treat open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
“There are a multitude of real-world studies looking at patients on [latanoprostene bunod] with [open-angle glaucoma] and ocular hypertension, but there is limited evidence looking at eye care practitioner, or ECP, satisfaction and utilization patterns with the product,” Jason Bacharach, MD, who presented the study at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting, told Healio.
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Vitamin K shot refusal uncommon, but rising over recent years

CHICAGO — The prevalence of intramuscular vitamin K refusal among parents of newborns is low but has risen in recent years, according to data presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.
“Our findings point to an urgent need for health care professionals to provide prenatal counseling to parents to ensure they understand that vitamin K can dramatically reduce preventable brain injury and its lifelong impact,” Kate Semidey, MD, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, said in an AAN press release about the presentation.

Q&A: Lancet to convene first commission dedicated to global skin health

The Lancet announced a new international commission to address the burden of skin disease, with the goal of creating measurable targets and delivery models that will improve skin health and build a workforce that can meet patient demand.
The initiative is the first time the publication will focus a commission entirely on skin health, according to the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS). In a press release, the ILDS, which represents more than 175,000 dermatologists worldwide, called the decision a “major step forward in achieving global recognition that skin diseases are

Dietary advice clinicians can give amid ‘paralyzing confusion about nutrition’

SAN DIEGO — Developments in nutrition methodologies have led to contention about certain dietary approaches, according to the keynote speaker at the Obesity Medicine Association’s annual conference.
“In some ways, we are living in the best of times, as we have witnessed unprecedented break-throughs in obesity medicine” via developments in GLP-1 receptor agonists and disease prediction tools, Frank Hu, MD, PhD, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said.
But “in other ways, we are in the worst of times as we are facing global

AI model may predict immunotherapy response in lung cancer

A deep learning platform may help predict how people with advanced lung cancer will respond to immunotherapy, according to study results.
Patients determined by a biology-guided AI model to be at high risk for poor outcomes exhibited more than twice the risk for disease progression or death after immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy than those deemed to be at low risk, findings presented at American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting showed.
“Not all patients benefit from immunotherapy,” lead author Rukhmini Bandyopadhyay, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas MD

Integrating multifamily real estate into financial portfolio

Physicians spend a decade mastering the science of medicine yet receive almost no formal training in personal finance.
From medical school through residency and fellowship, the curriculum focuses on anatomy, physiology and clinical decision-making, but topics such as tax strategy, asset allocation and income diversification are rarely addressed. This gap is striking given that physicians graduate into one of the most complex financial environments of any profession, often carrying substantial educational debt while simultaneously entering the highest tax brackets.
At the same time, the economic

Data show AKI diagnoses differed before, after kidney biopsy

Kidney biopsy confirmed 24% of clinical diagnoses of acute interstitial nephritis and 57% of acute tubular injury diagnoses, according to study data published in Kidney360.
Steven P. Menez, MD, MHS, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote that percutaneous kidney biopsies are “the gold standard” for AKI diagnosis. However, biopsies are sometimes not performed when clinical suspicion or procedural risks may outweigh potential benefits, they wrote.
“In patients suffering acute kidney injury, kidney biopsies can be extremely helpful in

New study could change practice for treating sinusitis in adults

MUNICH — A large observational study involving hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States saw no difference in treatment failure among adults who received one of two common antibiotic regimens prescribed for acute sinusitis.
The finding is potentially practice-changing, one of the researchers said.
Guidelines published in 2012 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend amoxicillin-clavulanate over amoxicillin alone as empiric antibiotic therapy for acute sinusitis in adults, but the recommendation was based on low-quality evidence. (Clavulanate, a beta-lactamase