The Rounds Table

Send us Fan Mail This week we are replaying our first episode of the season. Originally aired on January 11, 2016, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, talk about his 10 favourite papers of 2015. Rate us on iTunes! Follow us on Twitter @roundstable. The Papers 1. Teixobactin, a new antibiotic:  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7535/full/nature14098.html...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at University of Toronto, and Reena, general internist at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, discuss two recent papers: What exactly defines sepsis and how should sepsis be assessed? The Third International Consensus Definitions Task Force worked to define sepsis as “life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host ....

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Fahad, staff internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, discuss 2 recent papers: Is dementia in decline? A study using the well-characterized Framingham cohort found that dementia rates in the last four decades have declined by 20%. Fahad evaluate the quality of ... The post Proud to be Here...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Nathan, general surgery resident also at the University of Toronto, discuss two recent papers: Resident duty hours have been a hotly debated topic for some time. A randomized control trial of United States residency programs compared conventional American duty hour regulations that ... The post A...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Fahad, staff internist at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, discuss 3 papers: Where do physicians die? What is the intensity of the care they receive at the end of life? Fahad discusses 2 papers that attempted to answer these questions. The first ... The post Changing Gears Completely: How Physi...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, discusses the GOLD 2016 COPD management guidelines, and compares it to the new Star Wars movie! While many clinicians will have a well-practiced approach to managing COPD exacerbations, Amol examines the evidence for why we do what we do. He talks about the ... The post Pure GOLD: Updated 2016 COPD M...

Send us Fan Mail January is Alzheimer Awareness Month in Canada! To bring this to light, Amol and Nathan discuss three recent papers: The first is a systematic review and meta-analysis of risk factors for post-operative delirium. Among other findings, the study identified two nutritional-related variables, low BMI and low albumin, as delirium risk factors. Nathan relates this study to a ... The po...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we debut our new “Two Truths, One Lie” segment! Join us and put your knowledge to the test. As always, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Reena, staff physician at St. Michael’s hospital, discuss 2 recent papers: A multi-centred cross over trial conducted in the UK tried to ... The post Old Questions, New Options: Spironolactone f...

Send us Fan Mail Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Reena, staff physician in internal medicine at St. Michael’s hospital, discuss 2 recent papers: Opioid prescription is an increasing public health crisis. A retrospective cohort study found that patients who experience non-fatal opioid overdose almost always get re-prescribed opioids at large doses a month...

Send us Fan Mail Happy new year! In our first episode of 2016, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, talk about his 10 favourite papers of 2015. Rate us on iTunes! Follow us on Twitter @roundstable. The Papers 1. Teixobactin, a new antibiotic:  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7535/full/nature14098.html 2. Modified Valsalva manoeuvre: http://www.thelancet...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Fahad, general internist at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, discuss two recent papers: Fahad and colleagues recently published a study in JAMA that looks at severe adult undernutrition in low and middle income countries. Using 20-year health survey data collected by USAID, ... The post Fahad’s...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are replaying our first episode of the season. Originally aired on September 18, 2015, Amol and Fahad discuss: 1. A randomized controlled trial shows that a new approach to vagal maneuvers for supraventricular tachyarrhythmia was shown to be significantly more effective than traditional maneuvers. 2. A survey in California adolescents shows that there is ... The post...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, resident in General Internal Medicine at University of Toronto, and Mike Fralick, chief medical resident at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, talk about 2 blood pressure studies: A meta-analysis and systematic review found that more intensive blood pressure lowering was associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes and albuminuria. Amol discusses the trade-off...

Send us Fan Mail Amol, general internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and Nathan, general surgery resident at the University of Toronto, discuss 2 recent studies: Does it matter which hospital patients return to after surgery? A large retrospective cohort study showed that when post-operative patients are re-admitted to the same hospital where they had their surgery, ... The post...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Amol, general internal resident at the University of Toronto, and Reena, General Internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, discuss two papers: Reena shares a large registry-based study that found adult patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Sweden had a 15% higher mortality rate than the general population. Amol and Reena wonder why this ... The post Diabetes Week: Mort...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are replaying one of our favourite episodes from earlier this season: Originally aired on October 3, 2015, Amol, general internal resident at the University of Toronto, and Fahad, Staff Internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, discuss two papers. It’s phototherapy without the need for electricity. Fahad discusses how filtered sunlight is found to ... The post R...

Send us Fan Mail Amol, general internal resident at the University of Toronto, and Raed Joundi, neurology resident at the University of Toronto, discuss 2 recent studies: Is early mobilization helpful for stroke patients? A randomized control trial showed that early aggressive rehabilitation for acute stroke patients resulted in worse outcomes. Amol and Raed speculate reasons behind this counter-i...

Send us Fan Mail Amol, general internal resident at the University of Toronto, and Janice, general internist at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, discuss 2 recent studies: Dying with dignity is not easy, especially in a highly charged environment like the Intensive Care Unit. Janice talks about a mixed methods study that examined the impact of soliciting and fulfilling ... The post Wishes and P...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are replaying one of our favourite old episodes, due to many of our team members being away at the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine Conference. Originally aired on April 17, 2015, Nathan and Amol want you to understand the following: 1. There was no significant difference between three different call schedules in ... The post Replay: Resident Call Schedules in th...

Send us Fan Mail Amol and Janice, general internal medicine residents at the University of Toronto, discuss 2 recent studies that challenge 2 widely accepted medical practices. Does using acetaminophen to treat fever improve outcomes? A randomized control trial found that giving acetaminophen to critically ill patients did lower their fever, but did not affect the number of ICU ... The post Questi...

Send us Fan Mail The “broken heart syndrome” – not always caused by a broken heart? A multi-national, multi-centered observational study on takotsubo cardiomyopathy found that physical triggers are more common than emotional triggers, patients present predominantly with chest pain, ECG changes, and troponin elevation. The study also generated surprising hypotheses about what medications have long-...

Send us Fan Mail It’s phototherapy without the need for electricity. Fahad discusses how filtered sunlight is found to be equivalent to conventional phototherapy in treating infants with elevated bilirubin levels. The film that filters the sunlight is low cost and low-tech, yet has the potential for global impact. Amol discusses using text messages to battle cardiovascular disease. Semi-personaliz...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan discusses a randomized trial about breast cancer screening that found that sending women information about both the risks and the benefits of breast cancer screening resulted in more women making an “informed choice” and fewer wanting to undergo screening mammography. Amol discusses the BRIDGE trial, which found that not bridging patients’ anticoagulation around the ... The...

Send us Fan Mail Amol and Fahad discuss: 1. A randomized controlled trial shows that a new approach to vagal maneuvers for supraventricular tachyarrhythmia was shown to be significantly more effective than traditional maneuvers. 2. A survey in California adolescents shows that there is an association between eCigarette use and subsequent tobacco use, raising concerns about a ‘gateway’ effect. The...

Send us Fan Mail Season 2 of The Rounds Table kicks off next week. To get things started, here’s a short episode with ‘good stuff’ recommendations from our excellent new team: Jennifer Peng, Anthony Maher, and Annie Wang. Good Stuff Jennifer: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-dutch-village-where-everyone-has-dementia/382195/  Anthony: http://blogs.plos.org/globalhealth/2013/11/...