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Lung transplantation has become an option of last resort for a small subset of patients with COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or pulmonary fibrosis. Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of Thoracic Surgery and director of Lung Transplant and ECMO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, discusses his experience performing lung transplants for patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19, including the first successful double lung transplant in the US for a patient with COVID-19-related ARDS. Related Content: Lung Transplants for COVID-19—The Option of Last Resort

Researchers Tie Severe Immunosuppression to Chronic COVID-19 and Virus Variants; An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic; COVID-19 and the “Lost Year” for Smokers Trying to Quit Related Content: Researchers Tie Severe Immunosuppression to Chronic COVID-19 and Virus Variants An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic COVID-19 and the “Lost Year” for Smokers Trying to Quit

Whistleblowing pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, and JAMA Medical News Associate Managing Editor Jennifer Abbasi catch up on Flint, Michigan’s lead-in-water crisis. Dr Hanna-Attisha, a physician at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, revealed the tainted water’s effects on children’s blood lead levels during an unorthodox press conference in September 2015. This January, a grand jury handed down indictments charging 9 former and current state and local officials, including former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, with obstruction of justice, extortion, involuntary manslaughter, and other offenses for their alleged roles in the public health tragedy. Related Content: Lead, Mistrust, and Trauma—Whistleblowing Pediatrician Discusses the Legacy of Flint’s Water Crisis

COVID-19 leaves some people with a troubling constellation of symptoms that has been known as long-haul COVID but now has a more formal name: postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Currently, 33 states in the US have at least 1 clinic dedicated to caring for patients with PASC. Aluko Hope, MD, a pulmonary and critical care physician, cofounded the Montefiore-Einstein COVID-19 Recovery Clinic in New York in 2020. Now the medical director of the Long Covid-19 Program at the Oregon Health & Sciences University, Dr Hope provides insight into the care provided at a post-COVID-19 clinic. Related Content: An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic

In this Medical News podcast, Rita Rubin interviews retired neurologist Daniel Gibbs, MD, about his efforts to lessen the stigma surrounding Alzheimer disease, which he was diagnosed with 5 years ago. Related Content: Neurologist Faces His Alzheimer Diagnosis Determined to Lessen Stigma Surrounding the Disease

How Sharing Clinical Notes Affects the Patient-Physician Relationship; Experts Discuss COVID-19—Variants and Vaccine Efficacy, Immunosuppressed Patients, and More; The Push for Timely Follow-up After Abnormal At-home Colon Cancer Screening Results Related Content: How Sharing Clinical Notes Affects the Patient-Physician Relationship Experts Discuss COVID-19—Variants and Vaccine Efficacy, Immunosuppressed Patients, and More The Push for Timely Follow-up After Abnormal At-home Colon Cancer Screening Results

In this Medical News article, William Pettit, DO, dean of the new Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation, discusses how the first US medical school on tribal land came into being. Related Article(s): A Partnership With the Cherokee Nation Advances Medical Education on Tribal Land

The Price of Success—How to Evaluate COVID-19 Vaccines When They’re Available Outside of Clinical Trials; When the Human Voice Speaks Volumes About Lung Function; COVID-19 Vaccines vs Variants—Determining How Much Immunity Is Enough Related Articles: The Price of Success—How to Evaluate COVID-19 Vaccines When They’re Available Outside of Clinical Trials When the Human Voice Speaks Volumes About Lung Function COVID-19 Vaccines vs Variants—Determining How Much Immunity Is Enough

Researchers Investigate What COVID-19 Does to the Heart; “Important Conversations” Are Needed to Explain the Nocebo Effect; Therapists Donate Their Time to Counsel Distressed Health Care Workers Related Article: Researchers Investigate What COVID-19 Does to the Heart “Important Conversations” Are Needed to Explain the Nocebo Effect Therapists Donate Their Time to Counsel Distressed Health Care Workers

Pandemic Spotlights In-home Colon Cancer Screening Tests; Does Vitamin D Deficiency Raise COVID-19 Risk?; COVID-19 Conspiracies and Beyond: How Physicians Can Deal With Patients’ Misinformation Related Article(s): Pandemic Spotlights In-home Colon Cancer Screening Tests Does Vitamin D Deficiency Raise COVID-19 Risk? COVID-19 Conspiracies and Beyond: How Physicians Can Deal With Patients’ Misinformation

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges to people experiencing homelessness because they can't easily practice mitigation measures such as frequent handwashing and social distancing. Jennifer Tan, MD, a Massachusetts General Hospital dermatologist who has been caring for Boston's homeless population for several years, helped assemble special care kits, which included hand sanitizer and masks as well as over-the-counter treatments for skin problems, for distribution in Boston and Portland, Maine.

Communication science expert Brian Southwell, PhD, recently launched a training workshop at the Duke University School of Medicine to address a major clinical problem: What should physicians do when patients are misinformed about their health? It’s one of only a few such programs in the nation. Southwell, a scholar with the medical school’s Social Science Research Institute and a senior director at the independent, nonprofit research institute RTI International, chatted with JAMA Medical News Associate Managing Editor Jennifer Abbasi about the viral spread of false health information and malicious disinformation campaigns, why we’re vulnerable to falling for them, and how time-pressed physicians can deal with all the noise. Related Article(s): COVID-19 Conspiracies and Beyond: How Physicians Can Deal With Patients’ Misinformation

JAMA Network Articles of the Year 2020; Looking to Long-term Survivors for Improved Pancreatic Cancer Treatment; Musical Spine Surgeons Lift Spirits With Songs of Hope Related Article(s): JAMA Network Articles of the Year 2020 Looking to Long-term Survivors for Improved Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Musical Spine Surgeons Lift Spirits With Songs of Hope

Ala Stanford, MD, founder of Philadelphia's Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, talks with JAMA Medical News staff writer Mary Chris Jaklevic about her work to establish COVID-19 testing sites for the city's Black residents. Related Article: Surgeon Fills COVID-19 Testing Gap in Philadelphia’s Black Neighborhoods

JAMA sat down with Elvis Francois and William Robinson to talk about their unexpected fame as a musical duo. Videos of the 2 performing uplifting songs, with Francois on vocals and Robinson on the piano, have gone viral, leading the 2 spine surgery fellows to record an EP at a Nashville studio this past spring. They're donating all the proceeds from the successful EP to COVID-19-related charities. Related Article: Musical Spine Surgeons Lift Spirits With Songs of Hope

Could Frequent Testing Help Squelch COVID-19?; Nursing Homes’ Next Test—Vaccinating Workers Against COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 Testing Hesitancy Could Hamper Mitigation Efforts Related Articles: The Challenges of Expanding Rapid Tests to Curb COVID-19 Nursing Homes’ Next Test—Vaccinating Workers Against COVID-19 First It Was Masks; Now Some Refuse Testing for SARS-CoV-2

JAMA Medical News comes to you live from the American Heart Association’s first-ever virtual Scientific Sessions conference. Host Jennifer Abbasi chats with conference chair and AHA president-elect Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, about this year’s hottest clinical trials and themes: fish oil vs corn oil placebo for primary or secondary prevention; Polycap polypill with or without aspirin for primary prevention; statins, side effects, and the nocebo effect; ferric carboxymaltose iron infusion in acute heart failure; omecamtiv mecarbil, a novel cardiac myosin activator, in HFrEF; sotagliflozin, an SGLT2/1 inhibitor, in diabetes with recent worsening heart failure or in diabetes and chronic kidney disease; MINOCA’s underlying cause in women; rilonacept, an IL-1α and IL-1β Trap, in recurrent pericarditis; COVID-19’s cardiovascular effects, risk factors, and racial/ethnic disparities. Related article: Omega-3 Fatty Acids vs Corn Oil and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients at High Risk

Large Meta-analysis Digs Into Obesity’s COVID-19 Risks; As Their Numbers Grow, COVID-19 “Long Haulers” Stump Experts; Telephone Visits Surge During the Pandemic, but Will They Last? Related articles: Large Meta-analysis Digs Into Obesity’s COVID-19 Risks As Their Numbers Grow, COVID-19 “Long Haulers” Stump Experts Telephone Visits Surge During the Pandemic, but Will They Last?

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill nutrition scholar Barry Popkin, PhD, and JAMA Medical News Associate Managing Editor Jennifer Abbasi discuss new findings on obesity and COVID-19. Popkin is the lead author of a systematic review and meta-analysis on the topic that was published recently in Obesity Reviews. He is a distinguished professor in the department of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Related Article(s): Large Meta-analysis Digs Into Obesity’s COVID-19 Risks

What Happens When COVID-19 Collides With Flu Season?; Flu Vaccination Urged During COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 and mRNA Vaccines—First Large Test for a New Approach Related Article(s): What Happens When COVID-19 Collides With Flu Season? Flu Vaccination Urged During COVID-19 Pandemic COVID-19 and mRNA Vaccines—First Large Test for a New Approach