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Covid, RSV, Influenza: The 2025–26 NEJM Update 🧬🔥📊 show art Covid, RSV, Influenza: The 2025–26 NEJM Update 🧬🔥📊

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

📘 New NEJM Evidence for the 2025–26 Vaccine Season is out—and it delivers clarity at a time we need it most. The systematic review of 511 studies shows strong, consistent protection against hospitalization from Covid-19, RSV, and Influenza, with reassuring safety profiles across age groups. 💉🛡️   Key insights: improved VE for updated Covid-19 strains, high efficacy of maternal RSV vaccination and nirsevimab for infants, and solid influenza performance. 📊👶   A valuable guide for clinicians, health systems, and policymakers as we prepare for the upcoming...

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Winning Against HFrEF 🥇💓🛠  Diagnose Early. Treat with GDMT. Follow Through show art Winning Against HFrEF 🥇💓🛠 Diagnose Early. Treat with GDMT. Follow Through

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

New Lancet Seminar on heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.  💓📘, this videocast walks listeners through the essentials of diagnosis, natriuretic peptides, imaging pathways, and the four foundational therapies shaping modern heart failure care. It’s a clear, evidence-driven journey—designed to inform, clarify, and elevate bedside practice. Tune in to explore the science, the strategy, and the future of treating HFrEF. 🫀🔬✨  🫀🔬✨

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Seeing CAD Clearly 🔍❤️: Plaque, Perfusion, Prognosis 📸💓📈 show art Seeing CAD Clearly 🔍❤️: Plaque, Perfusion, Prognosis 📸💓📈

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🔍💓 Chronic Coronary Artery Disease: Seeing What Matters Before It Hurts   Just finished reviewing the 2025 Lancet paper on contemporary non-invasive imaging for chronic CAD, and the message is striking: how we see the heart shapes how well we save it.   From CT angiography that unmasks non-obstructive plaque 🖥️➡️🫀 to stress PET/CMR that maps true ischemia under load 💨📊, multimodality imaging is redefining diagnosis, risk, and long-term outcomes.   The evidence is clear: better imaging leads to better prevention—and in many cases, fewer invasive...

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Dr RR Baliga's Philosophical Discourses: David Hume (Scotland, 1711–1776 CE) – Skepticism and Empiricism show art Dr RR Baliga's Philosophical Discourses: David Hume (Scotland, 1711–1776 CE) – Skepticism and Empiricism

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

Exploring David Hume 🧠✨ Just revisited David Hume’s extraordinary contributions to modern thought — a reminder of how deeply empiricism, skepticism, and the science of human nature shape our intellectual world. His insights on causation, the limits of reason, and the power of moral sentiment continue to resonate across philosophy, psychology, economics, and evidence-based decision-making. 🌍📚 Hume challenges us to look closely, question boldly, and reason with humility — a timeless guide for scholars, clinicians, and leaders navigating uncertainty. 🔍💡 #Philosophy #Hume...

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Heart Failure Rising 📈 | Risks Rewired 🔄 | America’s 35-Year Shift 🇺🇸 show art Heart Failure Rising 📈 | Risks Rewired 🔄 | America’s 35-Year Shift 🇺🇸

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

The U.S. heart failure landscape is transforming—and fast. 🫀📊   A new JACC analysis reveals a 35-year shift from ischemic to metabolic drivers of heart failure, with obesity, dysglycemia, and chronic kidney disease rising sharply, even as blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, and myocardial infarction decline. 📉⚖️   These trends demand a new generation of HF trials—more inclusive, prevention-focused, metabolism-centered, and designed to capture outcomes beyond cardiovascular death. 🚀🧬   A powerful reminder: heart failure is not inevitable—but the way we...

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Clocks, Clues, and Clarity ⏳🔬🧠 — Decoding Organ-Specific Aging show art Clocks, Clues, and Clarity ⏳🔬🧠 — Decoding Organ-Specific Aging

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🧬⏳ New Insights into Organ-Specific Aging! 🧠❤️🩺   Just explored a remarkable Nature Aging study showing how organ-specific proteomic clocks can forecast disease, cognitive decline, and even longevity with impressive precision. These clocks—built from >2,900 plasma proteins—reveal that the brain, kidney, and arteries age on their own timelines, each carrying unique clues about future health.   What struck me most is how brain aging outperforms traditional risk markers, predicting dementia even after accounting for age, APOE genotype, and cognitive scores. A...

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Vaccines. Viruses. Vital Signs. 💉🦠❤️  Adult Immunizations as Cardiovascular Prevention show art Vaccines. Viruses. Vital Signs. 💉🦠❤️ Adult Immunizations as Cardiovascular Prevention

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

Respiratory vaccines are not just infection-fighters—they’re cardiovascular protectors. 💉🫀 The 2025 JACC Consensus reminds us that influenza, pneumococcal, COVID-19, RSV, and zoster vaccines reduce MI, HF decompensation, hospitalizations, and death in our most vulnerable patients.   As clinicians, we hold the power to translate evidence into prevention: strong recommendations, simple pathways, and clear conversations can save lives long before interventions do. 🌟   Vaccinate to protect the heart. Shield to preserve life. Prevent to empower patients. ❤️‍🩹  ...

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Sun, Skin, Survival 🌞🧬🛡️ – The Modern Landscape of Keratinocyte Carcinomas show art Sun, Skin, Survival 🌞🧬🛡️ – The Modern Landscape of Keratinocyte Carcinomas

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

The latest JAMA article on keratinocyte carcinomas 🌞—a timely reminder that BCC and cSCC remain the world’s most common cancers, with more than 5.4 million cases annually in the US alone . The review highlights essential updates in epidemiology, high-risk features, prevention, and evidence-based management, especially the role of sun protection, actinic keratosis treatment, and risk-stratified surgical care 🔬⚕️. A great resource for clinicians committed to early detection, thoughtful treatment, and lifelong surveillance of at-risk patients 👀🛡️. If you work in dermatology,...

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Food In, Fire Out 🍽️🔥—The Leukotriene Story 🧬 show art Food In, Fire Out 🍽️🔥—The Leukotriene Story 🧬

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🚨 Food Anaphylaxis: New Mechanisms Unveiled 🍽️🧬   A superb NEJM review highlights how cysteinyl leukotrienes act as gatekeepers in the gut—opening antigen passages, expanding mast cells, and amplifying the risk of oral anaphylaxis. The work elegantly bridges basic lipid biology with real-world food allergy challenges, and points toward new preventive strategies beyond current IgE-based therapies.   🔍 A must-read for clinicians, scientists, and anyone navigating severe food allergies.

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Cannabis: Promise, Peril, and Practice 🌿⚖️🧭 show art Cannabis: Promise, Peril, and Practice 🌿⚖️🧭

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🌿 What does the evidence really say about medical cannabis? A new JAMA review highlights a clear message: cannabis helps few conditions—and harms may outweigh benefits for many. 📉 Small benefit for nausea ⚡ Moderate benefit for select pediatric seizures 💊 Limited evidence for pain, insomnia, or psychiatric use ❤️ Risks rise with high-potency products, especially for heart and mental health.   🧭 Clinicians: guide with evidence, screen carefully, use lowest-risk options.

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More Episodes

Coronary CT angiography-guided management of patients
with stable chest pain: 10-year outcomes from the SCOT-
HEART randomised controlled trial in Scotland


Michelle C Williams, Ryan Wereski, Christopher Tuck, Philip D Adamson, Anoop S V Shah, Edwin J R van Beek, Giles Roditi, Colin Berry,Nicholas Boon, Marcus Flather, Steff Lewis, John Norrie, Adam D Timmis, Nicholas L Mills, Marc R Dweck, David E Newby, on behalf of theSCOT-HEART Investigators*


Summary
Background The Scottish Computed Tomography of the Heart (SCOT-HEART) trial demonstrated that management
guided by coronary CT angiography (CCTA) improved the diagnosis, management, and outcome of patients with
stable chest pain. We aimed to assess whether CCTA-guided care results in sustained long-term improvements in
management and outcomes.


Methods SCOT-HEART was an open-label, multicentre, parallel group trial for which patients were recruited from
12 outpatient cardiology chest pain clinics across Scotland. Eligible patients were aged 18–75 years with symptoms of
suspected stable angina due to coronary heart disease. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to standard of care plus
CCTA or standard of care alone. In this prespecified 10-year analysis, prescribing data, coronary procedural
interventions, and clinical outcomes were obtained through record linkage from national registries. The primary
outcome was coronary heart disease death or non-fatal myocardial infarction on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial
is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01149590) and is complete.


Findings Between Nov 18, 2010, and Sept 24, 2014, 4146 patients were recruited (mean age 57 years [SD 10], 2325 [56·1%] male, 1821 [43·9%] female), with 2073 randomly assigned to standard care and CCTA and 2073 to standard care
alone. After a median of 10·0 years (IQR 9·3–11·0), coronary heart disease death or non-fatal myocardial infarction
was less frequent in the CCTA group compared with the standard care group (137 [6·6%] vs 171 [8·2%]; hazard ratio
[HR] 0·79 [95% CI 0·63–0·99], p=0·044). Rates of all-cause, cardiovascular, and coronary heart disease death, and
non-fatal stroke, were similar between the groups (p>0·05 for all), but non-fatal myocardial infarctions (90 [4·3%] vs
124 [6·0%]; HR 0·72 [0·55–0·94], p=0·017) and major adverse cardiovascular events (172 [8·3%] vs 214 [10·3%];
HR 0·80 [0·65–0·97], p=0·026) were less frequent in the CCTA group. Rates of coronary revascularisation procedures
were similar (315 [15·2%] vs 318 [15·3%]; HR 1·00 [0·86–1·17], p=0·99) but preventive therapy prescribing remained
more frequent in the CCTA group (831 [55·9%] of 1486 vs 728 [49·0%] of 1485 patients with available data; odds ratio
1·17 [95% CI 1·01–1·36], p=0·034).


Interpretation After 10 years, CCTA-guided management of patients with stable chest pain was associated with a
sustained reduction in coronary heart disease death or non-fatal myocardial infarction. Identification of coronary
atherosclerosis by CCTA improves long-term cardiovascular disease prevention in patients with stable chest pain.