JAMA Clinical Reviews

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been a major breakthrough in cancer treatment but can have many serious adverse effects. Pankti Reid, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in rheumatology at the University of Chicago, discusses the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of toxicities from immune checkpoint inhibitors as outlined by the 2019 NCCN guidelines. Related Article: Management of Immunotherapy-Related Toxicities in Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy

Howard Reber, MD, emeritus professor of surgery at UCLA, discusses how to treat acute pancreatitis. Related Article(s): Acute Pancreatitis

Howard Reber, MD, emeritus professor of surgery at UCLA, discusses how to diagnose acute pancreatitis. Related Article(s): Acute Pancreatitis

Ethnic and racial minorities have been particularly hard hit with COVID-19 in some communities. Mitchell Katz, MD, president and chief executive officer of New York City Health + Hospitals, and former Los Angeles County health agency director, discusses this problem and what has been learned from COVID-19 that can help resolve the general problem of health care disparities. Related Article: Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Related to COVID-19

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the world, but most attempts to quit are unsuccessful. Atul Jain, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Mayo College of Medicine, discusses new guidelines from the American Thoracic Society on pharmacologic management of tobacco cessation, including target population and deciding when to initiate. Related Article(s): Initiating Pharmacologic Treatment in Tobacco-Dependent Adults

Mitchell Katz, MD, president and chief executive officer of New York City Health + Hospitals, and former Los Angeles County health agency director, discusses causes, similarities, and differences between the spike of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the 2 cities. Related Article: Modernize Medical Licensing, and Credentialing, Too—Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the world. Joshua Stein, MD, MS, associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Michigan, reviews the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma. Related Article: Glaucoma in Adults—Screening, Diagnosis, and Management

A new trial reports that a third of emergency department patients presenting with appendicitis admitted for oral antibiotic treatment had outcomes no different from those admitted for intravenous antibiotic treatment. Paulina Salminen, MD, PhD, professor of surgery at the University of Turku in Finland, discusses the findings. Related Article(s): Effect of Oral Moxifloxacin vs Intravenous Ertapenem Plus Oral Levofloxacin for Treatment of Uncomplicated Acute Appendicitis

Gregory Armstrong, MD, director of the Advanced Molecular Detection Program for the CDC, explains what is currently known about the new mutations of SARS-CoV-2. Related Article(s): Genetic Variants of SARS-CoV-2—What Do They Mean? Next-Generation Sequencing of Infectious Pathogens Next Generation Sequencing of Infectious Pathogens in Public Health and Clinical Practice Understanding SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Variants

Next-generation sequencing is a catchall term for new, high-throughput technologies that allow rapid sequencing of a full genome. It can be used to sequence a patient's DNA in diagnosing a genetic disorder or characterizing a cancer, but it can also be used to sequence the genome of a pathogenic bacteria, virus, fungi, or parasites. In this JAMA clinical review podcast, we talk with authors Marta Gwinn, MD, MPH, and Gregory L. Armstrong, MD, from the CDC, about how next-generation sequencing of infectious pathogens is being implemented in clinical practice and in public health surveillance for infectious disease. Related Article(s): Next-Generation Sequencing of Infectious Pathogens Podcast originally published 2/14/19.