US traffic fatalities increased 15% on the release days of the top 10 most-streamed albums. That's 18 more deaths per day new research from Patel @chrisworsham.com Liu & Jena
Chris Worsham
@chrisworsham.com
Christopher M. Worsham, MD, MPH is a pulmonary & critical care physician, faculty researcher at Harvard, co-author RANDOM ACTS OF MEDICINE https://www.chrisworsham.com https://www.randomactsofmedicine.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisworsham
Need a reminder of what American science can accomplish? Go watch "Apollo 13" My latest essay with Bapu Jena for Random Acts of Medicine on some of the lessons readily gleanable from the classic film, now 30 years old www.randomactsofmedicine.com/p/need-a-rem...
My thoughts in this feature from @medscape.com on what is lost when we cut biomedical research funding www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
For a written deep dive by the exceptional @kyracloudy.bsky.social Read “Apocalypse on the Runway: Revisiting the Tenerife Airport Disaster“ by Admiral Cloudberg on Medium: admiralcloudberg.medium.com/apocalypse-o...
Apocalypse on the Runway: Revisiting the Tenerife Airport Disaster
An attempt at a more thorough accounting of the deadliest air disaster in history.
admiralcloudberg.medium.com
Finally got around to finishing this rather fascinating book full of unusual research and findings in medicine. Very US-focussed, but particularly enjoyed the final chapters on public health and what can actually influence uptake etc. Random Acts of Medicine by @chrisworsham.com and Anupam B. Jena.
Proud of the work we did here exploring the effects of a quasi-random increase in gun availability on different varieties of gun violence, and thrilled to get a byline! Write-up in Times Ideas based on our study published BMJ:
Chris Worsham@chrisworsham.com · last yr.Our latest piece for TIME Ideas, based on our new study time.com/7277814/gun-...
The start of hunting season was associated with increased rates of hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents in the US, finds this study, most plausibly because of the increased availability of firearms and ammunition www.bmj.com/content/389/...
Our latest piece for TIME Ideas, based on our new study time.com/7277814/gun-...
Gun Injuries of All Kinds Go Up During Hunting Season
"The start of hunting season poses gun injury risks outside of hunting," write Christopher Worsham, Charles Bray, and Anupam Jena.
time.com
Chris Worsham@chrisworsham.com · last yr.Our latest out today in @bmj.com finds increases in firearm incidents during the beginning of deer hunting season in the U.S.--both hunting realted AND non-hunting related firearm incidents--using data from the Gun Violence Archive. www.bmj.com/content/389/...
Our latest out today in @bmj.com finds increases in firearm incidents during the beginning of deer hunting season in the U.S.--both hunting realted AND non-hunting related firearm incidents--using data from the Gun Violence Archive. www.bmj.com/content/389/...
Firearm availability and firearm incidents: quasi-experimental analysis using start of US hunting seasons
Objective To take advantage of the arbitrarily timed increase in firearm and ammunition availability brought on by the start of deer hunting seasons to study its impact on hunting, and importantly, no...
bmj.com
Very interesting and insightful perspective on whether zoster vaccines reduce dementia risk from @chrisworsham.com and Bapu Jena t.co/EBUyx3kRbT
https://time.com/7275048/shingles-vaccine-dementia-christopher-worsham-anupam-jena/
t.co
"In an age where data are collected in nearly every aspect of our lives, troves of natural experiments in health care are waiting to be uncovered—as long as researchers have the opportunity and resources to find and analyze them." Our latest for TIME Ideas: time.com/7275048/shin...
Could the Shingles Vaccine Help Prevent Dementia?
The shingles vaccine may have a protective effect against dementia, write doctors Christopher Worsham and Anupam Jena.
time.com
Shingles vax appears to prevent dementia! Our Nature paper is first of many from my group to show this. We use a really neat natural experiment to provide causal (not just correlational!) evidence. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...; video (👏 @DrMayaAdam): bit.ly/4ciRfLh
Geldsetzer Lab Recent Discovery
Using unique natural experiments that avoid common biases, Pascal Geldsetzer and his team found that shingles vaccination has a large protective effect for dementia. The first study from his group was published in Nature in April 2025: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x. His team is now trying to raise funds from private foundations and philanthropy to conclusively test this link in a randomized clinical trial. They want to trial a version of the old live-attenuated shingles vaccine, which is no longer being manufactured. If you are interested in helping to fund this effort, please reach out to pgeldsetzer@stanford.edu This video was directed by Stanford's Global Health Media Innovation Lab. Animation by Janine Van Schoor (janinevanschoor@gmail.com). Sound design by Misha Seeff @mishaseeff
bit.ly
If the CDC plans to dedicate resources to do a vaccine safety study, it should do so in a way that results can be trusted by mainstream scientists & skeptics alike. I write with Bapu Jena in TIME Ideas about an approach called "adversarial collaboration" time.com/7272138/cdc-...
The New CDC Study on Vaccines and Autism Should Take a Radical Approach
"An adversarial collaboration on vaccines could serve as a model," write Drs. Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam B. Jena.
time.com
Medicare's competitive bidding program for oxygen services brought down costs for pts with COPD, but the program is not a good fit for all oxygen needs, as I write in @jama.com Internal Medicine on the SOAR Act, a bill sponsored by @klobuchar.senate.gov & Bill Cassidy jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Medicare Competitive Bidding Program and the SOAR Act
To the Editor Duan et al presented results of an important quasi-experimental analysis1 of the impact of Medicare’s competitive bidding program (CBP) for oxygen supplies on Medicare beneficiaries with...
jamanetwork.com
Our latest piece for TIME Ideas, based on findings from a new study out in JAMA Internal Medicine about mortality among health care workers. TIME: time.com/7261514/fema... JAMA IM: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Women Live Longer Than Men—But Not in Medicine
"What could explain this mortality puzzle?" write Dr. Christopher Worsham and Dr. Anupam Jena.
time.com
Congress must decide if it will extend Medicare telehealth coverage beyond March 2025. Our new JAMA IM study shows how this may benefit Medicare patients + taxpayers. TLDR: Telemedicine ⬇️ some low-value test use + spending (eg,onsite EKGs,blood tests) + ⬇️ total visit spending. shorturl.at/w6l5l
Telemedicine Adoption and Low-Value Care Use and Spending Among Fee-for-Service Medicare Beneficiaries
This cohort study aims to quantify the association between telemedicine adoption and low-value testing among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.
shorturl.at
Physicians & most health care occupations carry lower mortality rates than the general population. Yet our analysis out today (led by Vishal Patel, link 👇), taking advantage of new data linking jobs to death records, revealed some surprising patterns among our ranks jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Mortality Among US Physicians and Other Health Care Workers
This cross-sectional study compares all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates among physicians, health care workers, and non–health care workers by sex, race, and ethnicity.
jamanetwork.com
🚨New paper🚨The emergency department (ED) is like a box of chocolates; you never know which doc you're gonna get. What happens when you get a doc that admits patients more often? Are you less likely to die? @stephencoussens and I explore this question in @JAMAInternalMed.🧵1/
Check out our new piece (with video!) in @time-magazine.bsky.social, about how science is often used to justify someone’s values, rather than inform tradeoffs based on those values, in debate on health issues (More to come with @time-magazine.bsky.social Ideas, too!) time.com/7198764/scie...
Column: Why We Can't Rely on Science Alone to Make Public Health Decisions
Discussing the tradeoffs in public-health decisions might help us make better choices, write Dr. Christopher Worsham and Dr. Anupam Jena.
time.com
I never would have thought that my love for both pulmonology and Christmas Vacation could overlap, but thanks to the Osterland family of Wadsworth, Ohio, they do! A tribute to the classic movie that supports cystic fibrosis research www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/u...
‘It’s a Beaut, Clark!’ What’s It Take to Light Up the Griswold House? (Gift Article)
The blinding light display in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” dazzled the Griswolds and nearly broke the power grid. What would it cost, and how much power would it really need?
nytimes.com
Check out this great writeup in @planetmoney.bsky.social by @elliswonk.bsky.social about our working paper and the types of cognitive biases that might be affecting medical care surrounding various holidays--or really any day www.npr.org/sections/pla...
How the holidays could be affecting your medical care
A new study suggests that holidays can affect your provider's decision making.
npr.org
NBER@nber.org · 2y agoADHD diagnoses among children increase on Halloween, consistent with changes in behavior and highlighting subjectivity in the medical diagnosis, from Christopher Worsham, Charles Bray, and Anupam Jena https://www.nber.org/papers/w33232
Beep beep! Which occupations are associated with the lowest risk of death from Alzheimer's disease? Check out our analysis in @bmj.com Christmas Issue with some interactive graphics to explore links between Alzheimer's and navigational jobs 🚕🚑✈️🚢🚌 www.bmj.com/content/387/...
Alzheimer’s disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers: population based cross sectional study
Objective To analyze mortality attributed to Alzheimer’s disease among taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, occupations that demand frequent spatial and navigational processing, compared with other occ...
bmj.com
Our working paper out in @nberpubs.bsky.social: can we take advantage of Halloween to study the role of diagnostic subjectivity at the pediatrician?
NBER@nber.org · 2y agoADHD diagnoses among children increase on Halloween, consistent with changes in behavior and highlighting subjectivity in the medical diagnosis, from Christopher Worsham, Charles Bray, and Anupam Jena https://www.nber.org/papers/w33232
Online dissemination of scientific research (at least how @altmetric.com defines it) changed dramatically over just one month. Eyeballing this plot, it looks like there was both a shift from Twitter/X to @bsky.app and an addition/awakening of sharing here that was not happening previously. #medsky
Altmetric@altmetric.com · 2y agoThe Rise of Skywalkers
This is awesome! Can’t think of a better way to test this out than by sharing our Barbie movie study, where we found that Google searches about gynecologists spiked following the film’s release, with its closing joke about Barbie’s health care jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Online Search Interest in Gynecologists After the Release of the Film Barbie
This cross-sectional study evaluates whether the film Barbie was associated with increased public interest in gynecologic care in the US after its release.
jamanetwork.com
Altmetric@altmetric.com · 2y agoBLUESKY MEGA-THREAD Altmetric is thrilled and also LITERALLY RELIEVED to officially announce: We are now tracking research attention as it happens on Bluesky! We have been picking up posts on the site since late Oct. Our team is on Bluesky all day answering questions. Let's get into it!
Hello, Bluesky! We've finally started building out our starter pack for our ATS member community. If you're a current or former member, let us know and we will add you. go.bsky.app/GLzJtqT #medsky #lungsky #pedsky
