Health care professionals want AI tools that are clinically accurate, offer privacy protections and can be integrated into existing workflows, according to data from a Healio survey.
In March, Healio fielded a 27-item survey to understand how health care professionals are using AI in practice and their sentiments toward AI tools. Among 618 eligible respondents (49.5% men), 52.3% were physicians and 48.4% had more than 21 years of experience. Respondents’ primary affiliations were with private practices (45.1%), academic medical centers (21.4%) and community hospitals (19.9%), among other

CHICAGO — An app that actively monitors symptoms and provides self-management advice could significantly improve quality of life for patients with advanced cancer in palliative care.
The randomized trial data, presented at ASCO Annual Meeting and copublished in JAMA Network Open, showed patients who engaged with the SUPPORT+ digital self-management and clinical support tool maintained superior quality of life over the course of 4-plus months compared with usual care, had better self-efficacy and fewer unplanned hospitalizations.
“Palliative care delivery can shift from a reactive, visit-based

High inflammatory risk was estimated to be present in nearly 40% of patients with heart failure and was closely tied to signals of cardio-kidney-metabolic syndrome such as more severe HF, obesity and kidney disease, researchers reported.
Independent predictors of elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were similar across HF subtypes, including HF with preserved ejection fraction, HF with mildly reduced EF and HF with reduced EF, according to results of a real-world study presented at the European Atherosclerosis Society Congress and simultaneously published in the European Journal of

A wrist-worn device automatically detected induced cardiac arrest with a high degree of accuracy among patients undergoing subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation or ventricular tachycardia ablation, data show.
Shockable cardiac events induced by operators during ICD implant or ventricular tachycardia ablation procedures were, for the first time, detected via a wearable device using a photoplethysmography algorithm, according to data published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.
“This is the first external validation in patients of a wearable-based

CHICAGO — Obesity has been associated with multiple gastrointestinal cancers, but patients with these malignancies and obesity who have been treated with immunotherapy appear to survive significantly longer than those with normal BMI.
Data from a retrospective analysis, presented at ASCO Annual Meeting, reveal an “obesity paradox,” where patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or colorectal, pancreatic or upper gastrointestinal cancers survived 22% to 34% longer than those with a BMI between 18 and 24.9 kg/m².
“There is a link between BMI and how patients with gastrointestinal cancers are

Adults who quit smoking may have a lower risk for developing dementia, although this association was weakened with post-cessation weight gain, according to a study published in Neurology.
Hui Chen, PhD, research associate at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues cautioned, however, that the observational nature of the study and unmeasured confounders prevent definitive causality in the findings.
“Smoking cessation is clearly beneficial for cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention, but its relationship with dementia risk has been less clear,” Chen told

Calcium and vitamin D supplementation do not reduce the risk for falls or fractures among older adults, according to findings published in The BMJ.
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 69 trials that included a combined 153,902 participants, researchers found no associations between calcium and vitamin D monotherapy and risk for fractures and falls. Calcium and vitamin D used in combination was tied to a slightly reduced risk for fractures. However, the researchers wrote that the association did not meet the study’s criteria for clinically meaningful benefit.
“Based on absolute risk

ORLANDO — Patients with asthma who use marijuana have greater risks for mortality and respiratory support following admission for an exacerbation, according to an abstract presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference.
“Marijuana is one of the most commonly used psychoactive substances used worldwide, with increased prevalence due to recent legalization,” Juan Martinez Ortega, MD, a third-year medical resident at Lincoln Medical Center in New York, said during his presentation.
Yet previous studies on the effects of marijuana on asthma have offered conflicting evidence

A novel anal insert appeared to improve certain quality of life measures among patients with fecal incontinence, but did not achieve a clinically meaningful reduction in incontinence severity compared with usual care.
Nearly 8% of adults experience fecal incontinence, and management of the condition can be challenging, according to study author Sadé L. Assmann, MD, of Maastricht University Medical Center, and colleagues.
Surgical options are available, but they have varying success and carry higher risks and costs than less invasive interventions, researchers noted.
Little is known about the

Low-dose aspirin initiated giant cell arteritis diagnosis reduced the risk for major adverse cardiac events at 1 and 3 years, but increased risk for major hemorrhage at 1 year, according to data published in JAMA Network Open.
“As in other inflammatory diseases,1 patients with GCA face an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD),” Maxime Beydon, MD, MPH, of Sorbonne University and Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, and colleagues wrote. “This risk is highest in the months following GCA diagnosis, when vascular inflammation is maximal and exposure to corticosteroids