{search_term} articles: NEJM.org

Original ArticleJul 06, 2017Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years
The GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators|N Engl J Med 2017; 377:13-27The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide. Epidemiologic studies have identified high body-mass index (BMI, the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) as a risk factor for an expanding set of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease,…

Special ReportFeb 20, 2020Syndromic Surveillance for E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use–Associated Lung Injury
Hartnett K.P., Kite-Powell A., Patel M.T., et al.|N Engl J Med 2020; 382:766-772On August 1, 2019, the first cases of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), or vaping, product use–associated lung injury (EVALI) were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The cluster was an initial signal of an outbreak that by December 17, 2019, had resulted in 2506…

Medicine and SocietyApr 13, 2017Who Decides When a Patient Can’t? Statutes on Alternate Decision Makers
DeMartino E.S., Dudzinski D.M., Doyle C.K., et al.|N Engl J Med 2017; 376:1478-1482Many patients cannot make their own medical decisions, having lost what is called decisional capacity. The estimated prevalence of decisional incapacity approaches 40% among adult medical inpatients and residential hospice patients and exceeds 90% among adults in some intensive care units. Patients…

Medicine and SocietyMar 10, 2016N-of-1 Policymaking — Tragedy, Trade-offs, and the Demise of Morcellation
Rosenbaum L.|N Engl J Med 2016; 374:986-990When Ms. B. a 28-year-old black woman, noticed last spring that she looked pregnant, she assumed she was just deconditioned after a long winter and a stressful job transition. But her annual gynecologic exam revealed several uterine fibroids, one of them 12 cm long on the outside of the uterus. She…

Case Records of the Massachusetts General HospitalJul 16, 2015Case 22-2015 — A 20-Year-Old Man with Sore Throat, Fever, Myalgias, and a Pericardial Effusion
Hunt D.P., Scheske J.A., Dudzinski D.M., and Arvikar S.L.|N Engl J Med 2015; 373:263-271A 20-year-old man presented with fever and a pericardial effusion. Five weeks earlier, sore throat, fever, malaise, and myalgias had developed. Broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy was administered, without improvement. A diagnosis was made.

Case Records of the Massachusetts General HospitalAug 23, 2012Case 26-2012 — A 70-Year-Old Woman with Fever and Back Pain
Drapkin M.S., Kamath R.S., and Kim J.Y.|N Engl J Med 2012; 367:754-762A 70-year-old woman was admitted to this hospital because of intermittent fevers and new-onset back and leg pain. Imaging of the lumbar spine revealed abnormalities in the vertebral bodies adjacent to the L5–S1 disk space. A diagnostic result was received.

Original ArticleMay 03, 2007Once-Yearly Zoledronic Acid for Treatment of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis
Black D.M., Delmas P.D., Eastell R., et al.|N Engl J Med 2007; 356:1809-1822Fractures are an important cause of disability among postmenopausal women, and the costs of medical care associated with osteoporosis are estimated to be more than $18 billion annually in the United States alone. Bisphosphonates, the most commonly used treatment for established osteoporosis, inhibit…

Special ArticleDec 22, 2005Disciplinary Action by Medical Boards and Prior Behavior in Medical School
Papadakis M.A., Teherani A., Banach M.A., et al.|N Engl J Med 2005; 353:2673-2682In this large case−control study, disciplinary action among practicing physicians was found to be associated with nonprofessional behavior among students in medical school. The strongest associations were with severe irresponsibility during medical school. The findings underscore the need to evaluate medical school applicants and, once they have matriculated, to teach and instill professionalism as a critical component of the medical school curriculum.

Special ArticleJun 22, 2000A Comparison of Observational Studies and Randomized, Controlled Trials
Benson K. and Hartz A.J.|N Engl J Med 2000; 342:1878-1886Observational studies have several advantages over randomized, controlled trials, including lower cost, greater timeliness, and a broader range of patients. Concern about inherent bias in these studies, however, has limited their use in comparing treatments. Observational studies are used primarily…

PerspectiveMay 21, 2009Digital Disease Detection — Harnessing the Web for Public Health Surveillance
Brownstein J.S., Freifeld C.C., and Madoff L.C.|N Engl J Med 2009; 360:2153-2157…help to guide medical decision making and underscore the importance of vaccination and other preventive measures. An example of the power of search-term surveillance can be found in an examination of the recent peanut-butter–associated outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium. Using…

PerspectiveMay 21, 2009Influenza A (H1N1) Virus, 2009 — Online Monitoring
Brownstein J.S., Freifeld C.C., and Madoff L.C.|N Engl J Med 2009; 360:2156…Web-based communication strategies. Though traditional official and media communication channels remain in place, Web-based mapping, search-term surveillance, "microblogging," and online social networks have emerged as alternative forms of rapid dissemination of information. Understandably,…

Sounding BoardApr 17, 2008Tectonic Shifts in the Health Information Economy
Mandl K.D. and Kohane I.S.|N Engl J Med 2008; 358:1732-1737In a recent shift in the health information landscape, large corporations are seeking an integral and transformative role in the management of health care information. The mechanism by which this transformation is likely to take place is through the creation of computer platforms that will enable…

Case Records of the Massachusetts General HospitalNov 25, 2004Case 36-2004 — A 23-Day-Old Infant with Hypospadias and Failure to Thrive
Stoler J.M., Leach N.T., and Donahoe P.K.|N Engl J Med 2004; 351:2319-2326Presentation of Case. A 23-day-old male infant was admitted to this hospital because of difficulty feeding and failure to thrive. His weight at birth was 2580 g; he was 45 cm long, the product of an uncomplicated, full-term pregnancy, and born by spontaneous vaginal delivery at another hospital to a…

EditorialMay 03, 2001Racial Profiling in Medical Research
Schwartz R.S.|N Engl J Med 2001; 344:1392-1393Two articles in this issue of the Journal deal with the treatment of heart failure in white and black patients. One, concerning carvedilol, reports that the benefit of this beta-blocker is similar in nonblacks and blacks with chronic heart failure. The other contends that enalapril, an…

Occasional NotesOct 28, 1999Direct Sale of Sildenafil (Viagra) to Consumers over the Internet
Armstrong K., Schwartz J.S., and Asch D.A.|N Engl J Med 1999; 341:1389-1392In May 1999, Dr. Leandro Pasos, an orthopedic surgeon, was accused of unprofessional conduct by the Washington State Health Department for prescribing sildenafil (Viagra) over the Internet to patients he had neither seen nor examined. This case was one of the first to highlight changes in medical…

CorrespondenceMar 18, 2010Clinical Trials That Explicitly Exclude Gay and Lesbian Patients
N Engl J Med 2010; 362:1054-1055To the Editor: We recently encountered proposed studies that explicitly excluded persons in same-sex relationships. We therefore decided to gather data on clinical trials to see whether this phenomenon is common. We performed exploratory searches of the ClinicalTrials.gov database to identify…

Book ReviewDec 25, 2008Living Healthier and Longer: What Works, What Doesn't
Lawrence R.S.|N Engl J Med 2008; 359:2852-2853As Paul S. Frame observed at a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in the early 1990s, "An ounce of prevention is a ton of work." This observation remains true today, and Carl Bartecchi and Robert Schrier have done much of the heavy lifting necessary to make an important contribution…

Book ReviewDec 09, 2004Marginal to Mainstream: Alternative Medicine in America
Straus S.E.|N Engl J Med 2004; 351:2561The search term "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) retrieves more than 40,000 titles from Amazon.com's prodigious Web site. Even the apparently more specific retrieval algorithm at Barnes & Noble's Web site provides 1532 titles. With this plethora of sources, one wonders whether…

CorrespondenceAug 09, 2001Web Sites with Misinformation about Illicit Drugs
N Engl J Med 2001; 345:469-471To the Editor: As part of our research on the relation between the Internet and substance abuse, we have identified several Web sites that promulgate information about illicit drugs. These "partisan" Web sites are easily identified by common search engines if one uses the names of illicit substances…

Book ReviewDec 07, 1995Harrison's on CD-ROMHarrison's Plus: Harrison's on CD-ROM linked to the U.S. Pharmacopeia's Drug Information and more
Blumenthal E.Z. and Mimouni D.|N Engl J Med 1995; 333:1576-1577Major medical textbooks have recently started to appear in full text on CD-ROM. This new form of technology offers superior searching capability, with split-second retrieval time, compact storage (i.e. an entire shelf of medical books can be put on a single disk), frequent updates, and the ability…