Dr. @ShikhaJainMD is orienting audience to the amt of time #MedTwitter spends doing prior auth & peer-to-peer calls, in many cases w/ insurance company "peers" w/ no training in the specialty. Some could not even pronounce the tumor type or drug name. #DenialOfCare#FixPriorAuth
Dr. @ShikhaJainMD says that she cares for a patient with #cancer whose insurance company only allow 4 CT scans LIFETIME for their #cancer, which prevents her from assessing how well the treatment is working. This is absurd & MUST be fixed. #DenialOfCare#FixPriorAuth#MedTwitter
The audience at tonight's @MedicineForward & @ACPinternists mtg to #FixPriorAuth was asked about key drivers for overly burdensome prior auth processes. Payers/insurers (96% of respondents) & PBMs (74%) are overwhelmingly viewed as key culprits (>1 response allowed). #MedTwitter
I just sent email to both of my Senators about this in 2 actual minutes. Action gets things done. Scrolling does not, #MedTwitter. Let’s get this done! Reply with your screenshot. #FixPriorAuth
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If you are age 12+, it’s been at least 2 mos since your last dose of #COVID19#vaccine or any # of #booster dose, & you haven’t gotten your updated #Omicron bivalent #boostershot, get it! Likewise anyone 6m old & up who hasn’t had a #FluShot this fall, go get one. Same day is👌.
There is unfortunately no vaccine vs #rhinovirus or #enterovirus. For that, our best bet is to improve air quality (open windows if possible, Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, etc), #MaskUp, & try to get those around us to #WearAMask too. Really concerned for folks with #asthma etc like us.
FDA has extended emergency auth of Novavax #vaccine to age 12-17y. Given as 2 doses 3w apart, it was 78% effective in preventing confirmed symptomatic #COVID19 7d after dose 2. It is a protein-based vaccine like many familiar vaccines in use for decades, e.g. tetanus. #MedTwitter
Those under 18 are much less likely to be fully #vaccinated against #COVID19 than adults in the US, even though we now have vaccines authorized & recommended for kids as young as 6 mos. We'll see fewer kids missing school this fall/winter the more we #GetVaccinated now.
When I am trying to decide about something outside of #MedTwitter, I ask what professionals in that field do themselves. In case that approach is helpful to you, here's a poll.
I’m more cautious than @Bob_Wachter when it comes to #WearAMask indoors (basically always w/ ppl from outside my 🏡 except briefly when I have to eat). I share his🧵 because this approach is sound: choose deliberately knowing current trends & weighing risk vs benefits. I differ…
On one point: I don’t agree that “the tools now exist” means everyone has the tools. We know that #COVID19 treatments are being underutilized in low-income & minoritized groups. We know that the high-quality N95 😷 that Dr. Wachter concedes are tough to wear all day every day…
Are what is needed to optimally protect workers in high-risk settings (think public mass transit workers, etc). Each time any one of us chooses not to #WearAMask & risks getting infected, we make it more necessary for others to wear N95 level masks to stay safe from us.
Please reply with a few words or a story about an amazing nurse in your life. Patients, caregivers, #MedTwitter or #NurseTwitter, chime in. Our nurse colleagues are exhausted in this #pandemic & need to know how much they are appreciated. Bring it.
I’ll start. I want to recognize Mary Evans at @HopkinsGynOb. With my firstborn, I had a difficult labor & then he was in the NICU for breathing problems. She held my hand for ages, long after her shift was over. Nearly 2 decades later, her presence still means everything to me.
And I’d like to recognize the many #OncTwitter nurses I have had the joy & honor of working with at @hopkinskimmel, but especially @JHHMartha, the late Margaret Gardner, & @LillieShockney. They share a common trait, which is almost magical to witness...
I’m concerned that labeling #monkeypox a sexually transmitted infection (STI) will cause confusion & delay (🚂) in public response. It’s transmitted most often by direct skin-to-skin contact w/ the rash (see the whole list of ways it spreads from CDC 👇), and sex includes … 1/
plenty of direct skin-to-skin contact, but you certainly don’t need to have sex to get it. That means that we will identify cases regardless of sex/gender/age, & whether or not ppl are sexually active. We have to get this right in #SciComm headlines & opening paragraphs …/2
because most people won’t read the whole article (or 🧵). They skim. We want people to understand that common STI risk reduction advice like “wear a condom” is valuable but will still leave ppl open to a lot of risk if a partner has #monkeypox. /3
For the first time in nearly a decade, we have a case of #polio in an unvaccinated adult. Per CDC, ~1 in 14 US 2y olds are currently NOT fully vaxxed & thus at risk. The US polio vaccine is safe & effective. Please verify you & your kids are up to date. washingtonpost.com/health/new-yor…
#Polio most commonly spreads via the "fecal-oral" route which usually means not washing hands after using toilet then eating (or biting nails or, for kids, thumbsucking) but may also spread via airborne route. #WashYourHands#GetVaccinated#MedTwitter
There are no meds to treat polio, it's all prevention. Here's info from CDC about #polio, but a better use of your time would just be to ensure you/kids are fully vaxxed. The IPV vaccine is highly effective & safe, & then you can go back to not thinking about it. #VaccinesWork