An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
October 27th, 2019
The Enduring Appeal of Live, Face-to-Face, Real-Time Continuing Medical Education
Around 15 years ago, after high-speed internet became a de facto part of work life and was rapidly becoming more widely available at home, I attended a meeting with other medical educators to decide what to do about our various post-graduate courses. The wisdom in the room was that most continuing medical education (CME) would […]
October 21st, 2019
Amoxicillin for Chronic Low Back Pain? Are You Kidding Me? In Defense of a Controversial Clinical Trial
The BMJ just published a randomized trial comparing amoxicillin to placebo for people with chronic low back pain. I kid you not. The appearance of this trial elicited all kinds of snark from the medical community. Here, check this out, along with the responses: Important RCT for anyone who’s been treating low back pain with […]
October 14th, 2019
Common Questions About the Shingles Vaccine — Answered Here!
Here’s an interesting email from my friend and ID-colleague Dr. Carlos Del Rio (shared with his permission): Went Tuesday to see my PCP for a routine visit and had my second dose of Shingrix that day. I had gotten my first dose about 3 months ago and had severe chills and even a fever of […]
October 7th, 2019
Our HIV Testing Algorithm Has a Major Problem — Here’s How to Fix It
Mostly, HIV testing works great. It’s long been so accurate that we can strongly support HIV testing even in relatively low-risk people. The 2014 revised lab testing guidelines made it even better, recommending a combined antigen/antibody screening test (called the 4th generation test), and replacing the Western blot with the HIV-1/2 differentiation immunoassay as the […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
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