Please join me in this interview with Sabrina Paganoni, MD, Ph.D., who presented clinical trial results at the American Academy of Neurology 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting that promise new hope for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A new drug, AMX0035, demonstrated functional improvement and survival benefit, according to Dr. Paganoni. Any hope for patients with this devastating disease is welcome! Here's the 10-minute interview: https://www.medscape.com/viewar

New Medscape Article Patient privacy, a key concept of medical care since at least Hippocrates, is regulated largely in the US by HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA protects patient privacy, but misinterpretations of its purview have interfered with patient care as well. In this Medscape article, I explore HIPAA's purview regarding filming patient's seizures for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment. Your comments are appreciated! N

Many thanks to Maheen Mausoof Adamson, Ph.D., for joining me to discuss gender differences in traumatic brain injury. Dr. Adamson is Clinical Research Director for Rehabilitation Services at the Veterans Administration Palo Alto, CA, and Clinical Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA. I’ve interviewed Dr. Adamson before on ReachMD.com, and I’m grateful for this additional opportunity to discuss her research. As the number of women in

Many thanks to Kyla Plaxton for sharing her personal story and professional tips about the ancient art of acupressure. Kyla learned about acupressure while still a teenager. She was so enthralled with how good it made her feel that she made it her profession. Acupressure is a hands-on therapy that utilizes the same energy meridians as acupuncture but relies on fingertip pressure instead of needles. Kyla explained that people can also self-administer acupressure, eliminating t

In my spare time, I host Neurofrontiers, a program on ReachMD that explores research, diagnosis, and treatment of neurological disease. ReachMD is a large broadcast network for medical professionals with millions of subscribers. Kenneth Tyler, MD, was kind enough to speak with me about COVID-19 on two episodes of Neurofrontiers. Dr. Tyler is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, and double-boarded in i

Psychiatric Times asked me to expound for a few minutes on locum tenens and work-life balance for their program, the “Mental Health Minute.” While work-life balance was never a serious consideration when I was in residency, it’s a modern concept that has taken hold and probably will never let go! I stumbled upon work-life balance when I started locum tenens in 1982. Locums is a great tool that every physician should consider if they are struggling to reign in their profession

Many thanks to Jeff Anzalone, DDS, for sharing his hard-earned wisdom about passive real estate investing during this 20-minute interview. Just two months before starting his first job, his new employer canceled the contract without explanation. Jeff found himself $300,000 in debt, saddled with a mortgage, and faced with supporting a young family. Jeff had to resort to one of his previous professions to pay the bills, mowing the neighbors’ lawns. That experience was his wake-

Many thanks to Gene Sung, MD, Director of Critical Care at LAC-USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, for discussing his recent paper "Determination of Brain Death"—The World Brain Death Project. This monumental work took five years to complete and includes input from experts in 45 countries (JAMA 2020;324(11):1078-1097). The paper proposes uniformity of the clinical definition of brain death. Dr. Sung related that his academic interest in brain death began many years ago as a

Many thanks to Dr. Scott Strome, Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN. During this 15-minute Medscape interview, Dr. Strome shared the challenges and satisfactions of working as Dean during COVID-19. Please join us for an interesting discussion and leave your comments! https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/938236 #education #COVID19 #Dean #artofmedicine

Great news for my podcast, “The Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner!” Thanks to your support, the program reached the required number of subscribers to qualify for an easy-to-remember YouTube URL address rather than its cryptic current one. Old URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdkI_RRoMm-_w8GRJJ35xpAhas New URL: https://www.youtube.com/c/andrewwilnerMDauthor Yay! But wait, why not make it even simpler and dispense with the “MDauthor “suffix? Simple answer, the URL htt

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkI9sYryaQ&t=16s Many thanks to writer Alfie Alcorn for doing this terrific interview on The Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner! Mr. Alcorn wrote a prescient novel, "Sugar Mountain," about a devastating pandemic, published in 2013, long before anyone had heard of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Before devoting himself to writing full-time, Mr. Alcorn graduated from Harvard University and worked as a journalist, teacher, and trave