Many retinal diseases begin long before patients experience noticeable vision loss.
Clinicians frequently manage patients with early age-related macular degeneration, diabetes or glaucoma who maintain normal visual function despite underlying disease processes.
This clinical reality raises an important question: Are we detecting retinal disease at the point at which we have the greatest opportunity to preserve vision?
Emerging evidence suggests that structural retinal damage often represents a relatively late stage of disease progression. Functional abnormalities and metabolic stress regularly

NEW ORLEANS — Results presented here showed platelet-rich plasma injection within 6 months of total shoulder arthroplasty may lead to an increased risk for acute postoperative infection.
“PRP is widely assumed to be safe with low risk because it is the patient’s own blood product, but there is no good data that has ever really looked at does it have a complication profile associated with it or not with respect to shoulder arthroplasty,” Midhat Patel, MD, of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and Banner University Medical Center, told Healio

The FDA approved an update to the neffy 1 mg prescribing information so that age is not a factor in when to use the epinephrine nasal spray for emergency treatment of type 1 allergic reactions, according to a press release.
With this update, patients do not need to be aged at least 4 years to use neffy 1 mg (ARS Pharmaceuticals). The only requirement is that patients weigh at least 33 lb.
The release further highlighted that this dose is for patients weighing at least 33 lb but less than 66 lb. For those weighing at least 66 lb, the recommended dose is 2 mg.
In addition to the age requirement

A young soldier developed fever, chills and a retro-orbital headache 5 days before returning home to Texas from a 2-week military summer leave to visit family in Puerto Rico.
By the time he was scheduled to return, he felt better and did not have a fever. However, 36 hours after returning to Texas, he reported to sick call (urgent care) with chills and a fever of 104°F. Although other vital signs were normal, he now had a generalized erythematous, maculopapular rash (Figures 1 and 2), with petechiae that were accentuated in his lower extremities (Figures 3 through 5).
Medical history included

Researchers created an algorithm that uses electronic health records and standardized diagnostic criteria to identify and track pediatric sepsis across the United States.
They estimated that there were more than 18,000 pediatric sepsis cases — including more than 1,800 deaths — in 2022 alone.
“Pediatric sepsis has long been recognized as a major cause of illness and death, but there has not been a reliable, standardized way to track it across hospitals,” Chanu Rhee, MD, MPH, associate professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Sepsis Epidemiology

LOS ANGELES — It is important for primary care providers to understand new federal regulations surrounding wearables, wellness and clinical decision support, especially because it will impact reimbursement, according to a speaker here.
Aubrey Shick, a former official in the FDA’s Digital Health Center of Excellence, offered a presentation on FDA’s January 2026 updates, and how they “change the game” for wearables, clinical decision support and wellness at Cedars-Sinai’s eighth annual iteration of its Virtual Medicine Conference, vMed.
Healio spoke with Shick to learn more about the changes, the

The FDA approved a once-weekly, long-acting basal insulin for adults with type 2 diabetes as an alternative to daily basal insulin, Novo Nordisk announced.
Insulin icodec-abae (Awiqli, Novo Nordisk) is a 700 U/mL injectable insulin approved as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control for adults with type 2 diabetes. According to Novo Nordisk, insulin icodec-abae is the first once-weekly basal insulin approved by the FDA.
The approval was based on findings from the ONWARDS phase 3a trial program, which included four randomized, active-controlled, treat-to-target trials.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — Setidegrasib exhibited durable clinical activity among pretreated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to updated data from a phase 1 trial presented at European Lung Cancer Congress.
The agent — which also appeared active in pretreated pancreatic cancer — exhibited what investigators characterized as a manageable safety profile.
“These are very promising efficacy data within these specific disease settings and, compared with other therapies we use in oncology, this is a very well-tolerated medication,” researcher Christos Fountzilas, MD, FACP,

Advances in diagnostics and disease-modifying therapies have significantly expanded treatment options for MS over the past 2 decades.
With more than 20 FDA-approved therapies now available, clinicians face increasingly complex decisions about when to initiate treatment, how to monitor disease activity and how to individualize care over a patient’s lifetime.
Healio spoke with Jonathan R. Doty, DO, neurologist with the Michigan Institute for Neurological Disorders, about how the changing treatment landscape influences clinical practice, the significance of specialized MS care and how

DENVER — People with scarring alopecia face a higher risk for psychiatric comorbidities than those with non-scarring alopecia, according to a speaker at the 22nd Annual Skin of Color Society Scientific Symposium.
“Regardless of the type, alopecia can have a profound psychosocial impact that goes beyond just the physical nature of the disease,” Nicole J. Baker, BS, a medical student at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, told Healio. “However, scarring alopecias are unique in that they are often permanent and progressive.”
Scarring alopecia occurs when patients not only