In the past, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices routinely issued recommendations on seasonal influenza shots prior to the start of the fall and winter flu season.
Not this year.
With the ACIP in a state of limbo since a federal judge’s ruling in March blocked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s selections for the panel, leading medical groups stepped up to issue science-based vaccine recommendations for the fall respiratory disease season.
The recommendations include guidance for adults aged 65 years or older, who are eligible to receive one of three

The FDA approved an additional warning in labeling, stating Kybella injection may cause neuromuscular and other serious adverse events with unapproved use, according to a drug safety communication from the agency.
In a review of FDA Adverse Event Reporting System reports and medical literature, the agency determined adverse events may occur when Kybella (deoxycholic acid; Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company) is administered outside of the submental fat region, also known as the double chin area. The agency also approved the addition of a warning for the serious risk for injection-site

Infants who received nirsevimab to prevent respiratory syncytial virus were less likely to be prescribed antibiotics for respiratory tract infections, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
“Nirsevimab is a tool that has shown to be effective in preventing RSV infections in infants since its debut in 2023,” medical student Mahaa M. Ahmed, MS, and Torsten A. Joerger, MD, MSCE, a pediatric infectious diseases attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a joint email to Healio.
“Nearly half of children hospitalized with RSV and those who present to

In this video, Adam Friedman, MD, FAAD, emphasized the need for physicians to address misperceptions in atopic dermatitis and work with other specialties to manage the disease.
Friedman, professor and chair of the department of dermatology at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Healio Dermatology Peer Perspective Board Member, discussed guiding patients and their families through disease management and focusing on evidence-based decision-making.
“Understanding the comorbidities of atopic dermatitis, having a script in your head of how you talk about

In this video, Adam Friedman, MD, FAAD, emphasized the importance of systemically screening for comorbidities in atopic dermatitis.
Friedman, professor and chair of the department of dermatology at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Healio Dermatology Peer Perspective Board Member, noted that physicians should discuss allergies, asthma and more with patients who have atopic dermatitis.
“We should ask about infection history. We should ask if they’re sleeping. We should assess for anxiety and depression, and we should also figure out how  skin disease

On Sept. 23, Healio Community will host its first Mentorship Networking Event at 4 p.m. EDT, featuring an opportunity to connect with a mentor and gain career advice.
The free webinar includes insights from four mentors in a range of specialties:
Priya Bansal, MD, clinical assistant professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, is in private practice at the Asthma and Allergy Wellness Center in St. Charles, Illinois.
Chandana Keshavamurthy, MD, associate professor of medicine and program director of the rheumatology fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, is a

Using a virtual reality headset may improve patient experience during noninvasive cardiac imaging for those who reported anxiety or claustrophobia related to the ordered study, a speaker reported.
The VR headset was well tolerated by patients and not disruptive to staff workflow during PET or CT imaging and may save procedural costs by reducing aborted studies, according to a study presented at American College of Cardiology Quality Summit.
“The project began with a very practical clinical problem. We were seeing patients who needed cardiac PET/CT imaging but struggled to tolerate the

People with type 1 or type 2 diabetes reported higher quality of life if they had greater glycemic variability the prior day, according to findings that will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting.
In the PRO-MENTAL study, 400 people with diabetes self-reported their quality of life for 14 consecutive days using an assessment based off the WHO-5 questionnaire. While quality of life scores were higher among participants who spent more time in normal glycemic range, Dominic Ehrmann, PhD, senior researcher at the Research Institute of the

Around 18% of patients with COPD referred to a virtual pulmonary rehabilitation program who declined enrollment did so because the program was out of network, according to study findings.
This study, published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, also reported that patients who enrolled and completed the virtual pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program had significant improvements in functional capacity, quality of life, shortness of breath and mood after the program.
“The practical message for clinicians is to refer your patients with COPD to pulmonary

The inflection point has arrived.
More than a dozen studies presented at ASCO Annual Meeting added to a growing volume of research that suggests GLP-1 receptor agonists may protect against several types of cancer.
However, as evidence mounts, so do reminders that findings have emerged entirely from database-driven retrospective cohort studies, which are prone to systematic biases and cannot prove causality.
“The signal is as strong as it has ever been — and probably as strong as it will ever be — but we are still talking about associations,” Colton Frisco Jones, MD, a hematology/oncology fellow