In a continuation of their trailblazing work, Peter Reese, MD, MSCE, and David Goldberg, MD, MSCE, report more encouraging results for patients who need transplants. A total of 20 have now successfully received hepatitis C positive kidneys plus antiviral therapy.

New research led by Vincent Lo Re III, MD, MSCE, shows that people with hepatitis C still frequently meet with insurance denials for once-a-day pills that became available in the United States in 2014 and have a 95 percent cure rate, with few side effects. Read more.

Providing aids such as nicotine patches and chewing gum doesn't help employees kick the smoking habit, and neither does giving them e-cigarettes, shows new research led by by Scott Halpern, MD, PhD. Supplementing the aids with financial incentives is three times more effective than giving them alone. Read more.

Dogs born in the summer are at higher risk for heart disease than pups born at other times of year, according to a new study led by Mary R. Boland, PhD. Exposure to outdoor air pollution during pregnancy and at the time of birth, a culprit previously implicated in a study of humans, may be to blame. Read more.

Children and adults treated with some oral antibiotics have a significantly higher risk of developing kidney stones, finds a study by Gregory Tasian, MD, MSCE, and Michelle Denburg, MD, MSCE. “The overall prevalence of kidney stones has risen by 70 percent over the past 30 years, with particularly sharp increases among adolescents and young women,” says Dr. Tasian. Read more.

Douglas Wiebe, PhD, argues that we need to use more rigorous research methods and a patient-centered approach to a clinical/surgical issue he has experienced personally.

What evidence do we have—and what evidence is still missing—about how cannabis and its derivatives harm or benefit our health? Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, comments in detail for the public affairs show Up to Date.

A study led by Christopher Morrison, PhD, shows that on the days they hosted President Trump's campaign rallies, cities saw an average of 12% more assaults. Dr. Morrison is a postdoctoral fellow of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics.

Just 10 opioid pills, or a three-day supply, is the recommended prescription for acute pain. Making that the electronic-medical-records system default effectively "nudges" physicians toward this approach that leaves little room for misuse or abuse, found a new study led by M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS.

In this moving commentary, M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, writes from direct experience about the unacceptable number of U.S. fatalities that result from drunk driving. Dr. Delgado, an emergency physician-investigator, and colleague Douglas Wiebe, PhD, contributed to a new report by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.