Robocop: Drug Diversion

Stopping drug diversion usually relies on those pesky, flawed humans — tracking and tracing, keeping tabs on one another, and ratting out their co-workers, D.A.R.E.-style. But you know what’s better at catching human crooks? Computers.

At least, that’s what researchers at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens found. They used a machine-learning algorithm (i.e., they showed the computer what drug movements should and shouldn’t look like), then tested it on 10 hospitals.

“[T]he machine learning model demonstrated 96.3% accuracy, 95.9% specificity, and 96.6% sensitivity detecting transactions at high risk of diversion.”

And it was fast, auditing ADC and EMR records in 10 to 30 minutes, rather than the “four to 20 hours of manual reconciliation” that would normally be required.

Big drug successes

Tirzepatide and weight loss

It’s the latest “game-changer” — the diabetes drug tirzepatide works even better than the previous game-changer, semaglutide, for weight loss in non-diabetics. Tirzepatide users in a trial “lost as much as 21% of their body weight — 50-60 pounds in some cases.”

Oh, and for people just starting their diabetes journey — half of them went into remission while taking it.

Dostarlimab and rectal cancer

ICYMI: Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center were curious how a checkpoint inhibitor might fare with rectal cancer. They ran a small study — 18 patients. But the results were … shocking:

The cancer vanished in every single patient, undetectable by physical exam, endoscopy, PET scans or M.R.I. scans.

100% success, zero adverse reactions after a six-month course of the drug. Obviously it will need to be replicated, and there’s always the chance the cancer could return. But at the moment, there are 18 very happy patients.

Monkeypox sitrep

• There are cases in 12 states plus D.C., including Georgia.
• There are at least two known strains now.
• It’s mostly spread by prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
• There’s a vaccine and it’s being given to people likely to be exposed.
• It’s still disgusting but still treatable.

Cutting salt with heart failure

There’s good news and bad news about reducing your sodium intake if you have heart failure. The bad news: It probably won’t increase your lifespan, nor will it keep you out of the hospital.

The good news: Cutting back will probably improve the quality of your life. Canadian researchers conducting “The largest randomized clinical trial to look at sodium reduction and heart failure” found that …

[R]educing salt intake did not lead to fewer emergency visits, hospitalizations or deaths for patients with heart failure, [but] the researchers did find an improvement in symptoms such as swelling, fatigue and coughing, as well as better overall quality of life.

Their advice: “Avoid anything in a bag, box, or can.”

Dogs: the faster better Covid test

You may have known that dogs can detect Covid-19 infections, but did you know they can A) detect asymptomatic cases and B) do it faster than rapid PCR tests?

Melatonin troubles

There’s been a rise in melatonin poisonings among kids — “a six-fold increase from about a decade earlier” — and there’s no single reason for it.

Melatonin has risen in popularity as a sleep aid, especially with pandemic stress levels, so there’s more of it around, which is probably at the heart of it.

That’s led to little kids taking it unsupervised, possibly because it can come as gummies, and we all know that gummies = candy. And teenagers might be using it to attempt suicide.

Parents may think of melatonin as the equivalent of a vitamin and leave it on a nightstand. “But really it’s a medication that has the potential to cause harm, and should be put way in the medicine cabinet.”

Adult bed-rail danger

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning people not to use Mobility Transfer Systems Adult Portable Bed Rails because they “can create an entrapment hazard and pose a risk of serious injury or death.”

Three people have already died. The manufacturers refuse to recall them or even offer a remedy.

(Other companies, including Essential Medical Supply and Compass Health have recently recalled similar products because they killed people.)

Still true

“Taking a break from social media improves psychological well-being, depression, and anxiety”

Fun facts: Using either Twitter or TikTok can cause depression, while TikTok use can also raise anxiety. Oh, and quitting Facebook just for a week led to overall “higher levels of well-being” and “had positive effects on life satisfaction and emotion.”

Interesting Covid statistic

A whopping 62 percent of duty-related law enforcement deaths in 2020 were from Covid-19. Why? Lots of contact with people (including overcrowded jails) and high vaccination-refusal.