Today’s Top Story
AMA House of Delegates addresses high drug prices and other key issues.
At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA), currently under way in Chicago, the AMA House of Delegates over the weekend deliberated several measures aimed at combatting high prescription drug prices. These measures include providing support for Medicare to negotiate lower prices and requesting that federal regulators require drug makers to advertise the suggested retail price of their products. Modern Healthcare reports that a majority of the delegates expressed support for the proposals, despite questions regarding whether the lobbying group might be overstepping its bounds by asking the federal government to control prices.
During the meeting, Andrew Gurman, MD, AMA’s outgoing president, also urged physicians to speak up on healthcare issues, MedPage Today reports. He noted that while the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not perfect, it did expand health coverage to more than 20 million people. Instead of stripping that coverage through a repeal, he called on Congress to improve the ACA and, in particular, to help stabilize the insurance marketplace.
The AMA also heard testimony from delegates on gun safety, and the AMA’s role in protecting school-age athletes from traumatic brain injury (TBI). With regard to the latter, the New York delegation offered a resolution asking AMA to push for federal legislation that would require parents to provide informed consent acknowledging the short- and long-term risks of TBI. The resolution was amended to include a push for AMA to also introduce model state legislation and education. Other delegates, however, expressed concern about the logistics of obtaining informed consent as well as liability issues. Read more…
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Other News

Study: Decreased core muscle around spine associated with higher mortality for hip fracture.
Researchers examining CT images of older adults with hip fracture found that survival rates were diminished in those with decreased thoracic muscle size about the spine. The retrospective 10-year study, appearing in the American Journal of Roentgenology, involved 274 patients who had been treated with surgery for first-time hip fracture. Researchers measured the size (cross-sectional area, indexed for patient height) and attenuation of the paravertebral muscle at T12 and the psoas muscle at L4. Overall mortality rate increased from 28.3 percent at 1 year to 79.5 percent at 5 years. Mortality was associated with decreased thoracic muscle size as well as attenuation. Decreased lumbar muscle size and attenuation trended with decreased survival but did not reach statistical significance. Read more…
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Study: Lower-weight female runners at greater risk for stress fractures.
A study appearing in Current Orthopaedic Practice reports that stress fractures are more likely to develop in female runners with a body mass index (BMI) lower than 19 than in those with BMI 19 or greater. The lighter runners with stress fractures also had longer recovery times. The researchers used the Kaeding-Miller classification system, which evaluates patient signs and symptoms, along with radiographs, bone scan and CT images, and MRI findings. The injured runners with BMI 19 or greater took around 13 weeks to recover, while those with BMI less than 19 took 17 weeks. The authors observed that the higher incidence of stress fractures in the lower-weight women was likely related to diminished cushioning provided by the lesser muscle mass. Read more…

Study: Timing of hip-fracture surgery may not affect postoperative outcomes.
Findings from a study published in the June issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery suggest that the hour at which a hip fracture surgical procedure is performed (normal, after hours, overnight) may not affect the quality of the procedure nor increase the probability of a postoperative adverse event. The authors reviewed the outcomes of 87,647 patients treated surgically for hip fracture, of which 68 percent underwent surgery after hours (5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. or over the weekend), 31.1 percent underwent surgery during normal hours (7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and 1 percent underwent surgery overnight (12:00 a.m. to 7:00 am.). At up to 6-month follow-up, they found that adverse outcomes were similar across all cohorts. Read the abstract…

Study: No difference in gait mechanics between fixed and mobile-bearing implants for TAA.
A randomized study published online in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research suggests no significant difference in gait mechanics or pain between fixed and mobile-bearing implants for total ankle arthroplasty (TAA). The researchers used a series of effect-size calculations and two-sample t tests to compare preoperative and postoperative increases in outcome variables between the implant types to determine the differences in magnitude of improvement between the two patient groups from presurgery to 1 year postsurgery. At 1-year follow-up, they noted no difference in outcomes across study groups, and effect-size analysis suggested that changes in outcome differed between implant types by less than 1 standard deviation. Read the abstract…

July 17 deadline for Orthopaedic Video Theater presentations.
July 17, 2017, is the last day to submit Orthopaedic Video Theater presentation abstracts for the 2018 AAOS Annual Meeting, to be held March 6–10, in New Orleans. Nowhere else will your discoveries reach such a wide-ranging orthopaedic audience. Presenters and all coauthors must disclose financial relationships in the AAOS Disclosure Database Program prior to abstract submission Disclosure reported on April 1, 2017, or later is acceptable. Submit your abstracts…
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Call for volunteers: International Committee.
Aug. 1 is the last day to submit your application for a position on the International Committee. This committee directs and reviews the international activities of the AAOS. The following openings are available:

  • Member (two openings)
  • International member (one opening)

Applicants for the member position must be active fellows, resident members, resident members osteopathic, candidate member applicants for fellowship, or candidate member applicants for fellowship osteopathic. Applicants for the international member position must be international members of the Academy. Learn more and submit your application…(member login required)