Credit: Original article published here.The following question refers to Section 4.4 of the 2021 ESC CV Prevention Guidelines. The question is asked by Dr. Maryam Barkhordarian, answered first by medicine resident Dr. Ahmed Ghoneem, and then by expert faculty Dr. Noreen Nazir. Dr. Nazir is Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she is the director of cardiac MRI and the preventive cardiology program. The CardioNerds Decipher The Guidelines Series for the 2021 ESC CV Prevention Guidelinesrepresents a collaboration with theACC Prevention of CVD Section, theNational Lipid Association, andPreventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association. Question #21 Ms. J is a 57-year-old woman with a past medical history of myocardial infarction resulting in ischemic cardiomyopathy, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and major depressive disorder who presents today for follow-up. She reports feeling extremely overwhelmed lately due to multiple life stressors. She is on appropriate cardiovascular GDMT agents and is not prescribed any medications for her mood disorder. True or false: in addition to psychotherapy for stress management, it is appropriate to consider Ms. J for anti-depressant SSRI pharmacotherapy at this time to improve cardiovascular outcomes. A True B False Answer #21 Explanation The correct answer is

Credit: Original article published here.The novel therapy intervention known as practitioner-supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy self-help (MBCT-SH) is better for treating mild to moderate depression than the standard practitioner-supported cognitive behavioral therapy self-help (CBT-SH), according to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Depression impacts almost 11% of people worldwide. It very often recurs, and comes with deleterious personal and economic consequences. Despite the effects of depression, treatment disparities exist whereby many people suffering with the disease fail to procure evidence-based treatments, making it mission-critical to develop effective, and scalable interventions. The Current Mode of Treating Depression Currently, CBT-SH is the recommended mode of treatment for people with mild to moderate depression. This intervention, according to the researchers, “explores and evaluates the interrelationships between thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and behaviors in the maintenance of depression, along with the historical antecedents of unhelpful thinking patterns.” While specialist CBT is regarded as effective, the self-help practice is less accepted, and comes with a high dropout rate. Ergo, alternatives to CBT-SH to treat depression are necessary. MBCT, which is an in-person group program which “involves deliberately bringing nonjudgmental awareness to present-moment experiences (eg, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, behavioral urges),” can be honed through mindfulness

Credit: Original article published here.A new study finds that female sex, being over the age of 40, and being overweight are among the factors associated with post-COVID-19 condition, or Long COVID. The study also showed that being vaccinated significantly lowers the risk of Long COVID. findings were reported this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has appreciably increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. Its postviral symptoms – which include but are not limited to – dyspnea, headache, loss of smell and/or taste, and fatigue – have received many labels, but they are perhaps most commonly referred to as Long COVID. The World Health Organization defines Long COVID as post-acute COVID symptoms which persist 3 months post-infection with a duration of at least 2 months. Previous studies have assessed which individuals may be at a higher risk of Long COVID; however, as the researchers noted, these studies often had relatively few patients. In this large-scale meta-analysis, researchers assayed Medline and Embase databases to identify 41 articles consisting of 860,783 patients with the goal of discerning risk factors and/or predictors of Long COVID in adult (18 years and older) patients. The risk factors for Long COVID which were measured included included:

Credit: Original article published here.Amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic, the interest in cloud engineering in healthcare sparked. According to Research and Markets, in 2021, the global healthcare cloud computing market reached $28.36bn, and by 2026, the market value is expected to double.  Is it a sustainable long-term trend in medical software development services? We explore the matter below. Why the interest? Deploying medical software systems in the cloud offers healthcare providers a range of unbeatable benefits. While this has been in the air for a long time, the pandemic made these benefits shine bright, fueling the adoption of cloud technologies. Workload relief  Even before the pandemic, the immense workload was a pain point for clinicians. But, curiously, it’s not their professional duties that wear them out. Apart from regular clinical workflows, they have to take up some extra tasks unrelated to their medical field, such as paperwork, charting, etc. According to Medscape’s 2022 Physician Burnout and Depression Report, these bureaucratic tasks are the top cause of burnout, with 60% of the interviewed highlighting the issue. Above all those extra tasks, clinicians allocate time to protect their patients’ personal health information (PHI). Cloud solutions can be helpful here as they