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The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has updated the recommendations regarding colorectal cancer screening. The Task Force strongly recommends screening average risk adults age 50 to 75 for colorectal cancer, and then making individual screening decisions for adults age 76 to 85, taking into account the patient's overall health and screening history.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and about one-third of adults in the United States have never been screened.

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According to a new study, in 2013 to 2014 there was an increase in obesity rates among U.S. women but not U.S. men. The overall prevalence of obesity during this time period was 40 percent among women and 35 percent among men.

Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics examined trends in obesity among U.S. adults from 2005 to 2014. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), researchers looked at a sample of more than 13,000 men and 13,000 women. They found no recent changes in obesity or extreme obesity rates among men, but saw an increase in both for women.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Gene Kestenbaum

When children are confronted with serious chronic diseases, parents often go to extraordinary lengths to advocate on their children's behalf. In some cases, this mission expands into tireless efforts to raise awareness and fundraise for research towards a cure. Guest Gene Kestenbaum did just this when his son was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease several years ago. His advocacy work for his child led him to become a national activist, and he served as President for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Mr. Kestenbaum, who participated in the expert panel for the Villanovans in Healthcare event. They discuss his past and present involvement with Crohn's and Colitis Foundation and supporting ongoing efforts to find a cure for inflammatory bowel diseases.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Michael Russomano

In many discussions that focus on achieving quality improvements for clinical care, the roles of healthcare industries are often either excluded or, worse yet, painted as oppositional to patient interests. But a new model of health care delivery positions the industrial sector as a key partner in the interprofessional team, with a common mission to improve patient outcomes nationwide.

From the Villanova Healthcare Speaker Event, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with Michael Russomano, President, CEO, and Global Business Head of Wyeth Nutrition, a Nestle business. Mr. Russomano, who also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer's Association, joins Dr. Birnholz to discuss opportunities for the healthcare industry to partner with clinical, administrative, educational, and patient advocacy groups in advancing quality of care.

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Despite targeted efforts to reduce obesity through diet and exercise, these rates continue to rise. A new study from Ontario, Canada found that obesity and diabetes rates were lower in more walkable neighborhoods compared to less walkable neighborhoods, where they saw an increase in these rates.

Researchers from St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto studied almost 9,000 neighborhoods in Southern Ontario looking at walkability scores, along with government health data and survey results during a twelve-year period. They examined whether neighborhoods that were more walkable experienced a slower increase in obesity and diabetes compared to less walkable neighborhoods.

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Many critically ill patients are unable to make medical decisions for themselves. Family members or close friends are often asked to serve as surrogate decision makers. However, expectations about a patient's overall prognosis sometimes differ between physicians and surrogate decision makers.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh enrolled 99 physicians and 229 surrogates who made decisions for 174 critically ill patients in a new study. They found that in about half of the cases, surrogates were substantially more optimistic about a patient's prognosis compared to physicians and that the physician's estimates were much more accurate than that of surrogates.

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Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Patricia Sulak, MD

The American Heart Association instituted a Strategic Impact Goal to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular deaths and disabilities by 20% by 2020.

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz chats with Dr. Patricia Sulak, Endowed Professor of the Texas A&M University College of Medicine about the 7 key health metrics to reduce cardiovascular deaths including blood pressure, physical activity, and healthy diet, among others.

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Therapeutic substitution is a practice that replaces chemically different compounds within the same class of medications for one another. A new study examined how using this practice could save money on prescription drug costs.

Researchers from the Ohio State University reviewed records of more than 107,000 patients between 2010 and 2012 and looked at their prescription drug use and estimated how much money could be saved using therapeutic substitution.

The authors report that an extra $73 billion was spent between 2010 and 2012 on brand name medications. Therapeutic substitution could help lower those costs. Although therapeutic substitution is somewhat controversial, the authors conclude that if implemented in a way that does not negatively affect quality of care, this is a useful approach to decreasing healthcare costs.

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Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP
Guest: Daniel Tropeano

How do we manage the rising costs of healthcare while still maintaining a high level and quality of care? With more costs falling on the consumer these days, one of the biggest challenges in healthcare is dealing with these increased expenses.

From the Villanova Healthcare Speaker Event, Host Dr. Brian McDonough chats with Daniel Tropeano, Executive Director of United Healthcare, about the challenges insurance companies are facing with the growing costs of healthcare.

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Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OCHA) is a major public health problem in the United States. Bystander CPR has been shown to double or even triple survival from OCHA. A new study examined whether providing CPR instruction over the phone ("telephone CPR") with the help of trained 9-1-1 dispatchers could improve survival rates after cardiac arrest.

Researchers from the Arizona Department of Health Services provided additional training to dispatchers in two regional centers in the Phoenix on how to be more assertive and confident while on the phone with rescuers. They measured outcomes from more than 2,300 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during a three year period. The researchers found increases both in the number of patients that survived to hospital discharge as well as those with good functional outcomes, which means patients were able to return to their normal baseline.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP
Guest: Sandra Gomberg

Technological advances over the past decade have rapidly changed the ways people seek, access, and respond to health care at all levels: patients self-research medical information via health websites, clinicians counsel and treat patients from remote telemedical settings, insurance companies promote patient-controlled health savings accounts, and healthcare organizations monitor internet reviews to predict future cash flow rises and falls. All of these changes point toward a consumer-driven healthcare (CDHC) model, but where will it lead?

From the Villanova Healthcare Speaker Event, host Dr. Brian McDonough talks with guest Sandra Gomberg, Chief Operating Officer at Aria Health System. They discuss ways in which medicine has adopted consumer-driven healthcare over time, and what the future holds for patients and clinicians in this system.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Ronald J. Wapner, MD

Innovations in medical genetics are changing the practice of obstetrics and gynecology. With advancing knowledge of underlying genetic predispositions, doctors can provide more precisioned care plans for patients in women's health centers.

Dr. Matt Birnholz talks with Dr. Ronald J Wapner, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of Reproductive Genetics at Columbia University, about how the ever-changing field of medical genetics is revolutionizing OB/GYN treatment options and patient care.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP
Guest: Michael Russomano
Guest: Sandra Gomberg
Guest: Daniel Tropeano
Guest: Gene Kestenbaum
Guest: Lawrence Sherman

An expert panel of health professionals representing hospital admistration, pharmaceuticals, insurance providers, patient advocacy, and medical education convene to strategize new ways for health care industry sectors to work together to improve quality of care for patients. The panel participants also discuss their respective and complementary visions for the future of health care services, including ways that technological innovations such as social media are changing the landscape of medicine.

The panel participants are:

• Michael Russomano: President, CEO and Global Business Head of Wyeth Nutrition, a Nesle Company
• Sandra Gomberg: Chief Operating Officer at Aria Health System
• Daniel Tropeano: Executive Director for United Healthcare
• Gene Kestenbaum: Past Chair of the Board for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America
• Lawrence Sherman: Senior Vice President of TOPEC Global

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An estimated 15 million Americans do some kind of rotating shift work, including overnights, evenings and early morning shifts. But can this type of shift work increase the risk of coronary heart disease? A new study examined the link between rotating night shift work and heart disease in a group of female nurses.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital used data from the Nurses' Health Studies (1 and 2), which followed participants for a twenty-four year period. They specifically looked at 189,000 women who reported their lifetime exposure to rotating night shift work. Over the course of the study period, more than 10,000 new cases of coronary heart disease were reported.

The results suggested that rotating night shift work was associated with modest risk of coronary heart disease, but further research is needed to help determine whether the association is related to specific work hours and/or individual characteristics.

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Guest: Lawrence Sherman

What happens when you suddenly become a patient and are faced with a life-threatening illness? How do the interprofessional members of the medical team work together to help you recover as safely and quickly as possible?

From the Villanovans in Healthcare Speaker Event, join Lawrence Sherman, Senior Vice President of TOPEC Global, as he talks about innovative and collaborative interprofessional approaches to care stemming from lessons learned through his own experience as an educator-turned patient.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Dr. Carl Schultz, Research Director at the Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Schultz is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UC Irvine and recipient of the Disaster Medical Science Award at ACEP. He talks about the challenges of securing funding for disaster relief in the field and the integration of citizen volunteers in a disaster incident.

How do you make sure that the right people are doing the right jobs at the right time, helping medical practices function more efficiently?

Alicia Sutton chats with Ray Saputelli, Executive Vice President and CEO of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians, about transforming medical practices to run as more cohesive units.

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In a new study, researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles studied tumor response and overall survival following the administration of a new treatment among patients with advanced melanoma. This agent, called pembrolizumab, is an antibody that blocks PD-1, a protein which prevents the body's immune system from attacking the cancer.

The researchers tested pembrolizumab on more than 650 patients in North America, Europe and Australia. They looked at tumor response before and after treatment and found that the lesions were smaller in about one third of patients. In patients who responded to the treatment, seventy-five percent maintained the response at one or two years.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Cannabis is gaining increased acceptance within the medical community for pain relief and other supportive care applications. But for oncology specialties, the use of cannabis may additionally extend into therapeutic purposes for patients.

From the floors of the A4M Conference in Las Vegas, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with Constance Finley, Founder and CEO of Constance Therapeutics, a California-based cannabis collective. The two discuss cannabis and cannabis oil applications for cancer patients, and their potential therapeutic effects.

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Air pollution is associated with chronic respiratory health problems in children. A new study examined whether decreases in air pollution levels are associated with significant reductions in respiratory symptoms in children.

Researchers from the University of Southern California followed over 4,600 children in eight Southern California communities across three different time periods from 1993-2012. In addition to monitoring air quality, they also looked at children with and without asthma, and whether they reported respiratory symptoms like bronchitis, congestion, phlegm production, or a daily cough for three months in a row, during the previous year.

Along with significant improvements in air pollution levels, the authors found a decrease in reported respiratory symptoms in children both with and without asthma. Respiratory symptoms decreased by 32 percent in children with asthma and 21 percent in children without.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]