Monica Shah, PharmD

Despite evidence that optimal glycemic control can help reduce disease progression and complications, most patients do not achieve recommended treatment goals.

Patients suffering stroke often do not seek immediate help. Just as disturbing, lack of stroke expertise in many hospitals and skepticism among ER physicians may prevent tPA from being administered to the patients who need it most.

Bacterial contaminants have been traced back to a robot in a Winston-Salem, N.C. health center pharmacy

A final ruling from CMS states that "We now believe a more targeted and less disruptive approach is warranted"

The International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) has released the first international guidelines for managing heart failure (HF) patients prior to heart transplantation. HF is a serious condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood at a rate sufficient to meet the needs of the body. "The new guidelines will enhance the effectiveness of patient care, optimize patient outcomes, and improve overall cost by focusing resources on the most effective strategies," said Mariell Jessup, M.D., ISHLT task force chair and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

In an effort to improve the care of patients with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recently updated its STD guidelines. The update is an evidence-based document, the result of experts' evaluation of the medical literature since the previous publication of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines in 2002.

Pediatricians have so much faith in a drug for treating neonatal hyperbilirubinemia that even though it hasn't been approved by the Food & Drug Administration yet, they are recommending its use in their just-released guidelines.

One antifungal was just approved and a few others are waiting in the wings.