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NEJM opinion
The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q3 of 2026

  • NEJM
Payer studies of cheaper biologics, lentiviral in vivo CAR-Ts, new hope for COPD patients, base-editing PCSK-9, ADCs for SCLC, and the Rolls-Royce of data packages (or the holy grail?). Much to reflect on this quarter.

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q2 of 2026

  • NEJM
Peeved by AI A perspective on Utah’s much reported experiment allowing…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q1 of 2026

  • NEJM
What to do with an astonishing finding? Once in a long while, a paper…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q4 of 2025

  • NEJM
Looking for zebras “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebr…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q3 of 2025

  • NEJM
Exercise with cancer: it’s about more than fitness Retrospective obser…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

It was bioengineering at its best: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Q2 of 2025

  • NEJM
The first porcine kidney transplant (in a live recipient) It’s been a …

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the first quarter of 2025

  • NEJM
Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy for hemophilia Roctavian an…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the fourth quarter of 2024

  • NEJM
Preempting severe genetic disease Around 2% of births come with a gene…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the third quarter of 2024

  • NEJM
The new Humira? It’s not that often that you see industry-sponsored h…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the second quarter of 2024

  • NEJM
The quest for solid tumor CAR-T For all their success in hematological…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the first quarter of 2024

  • NEJM
Hitting reset for the immune system Every time I get into a new issue …

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the fourth quarter of 2023

  • NEJM
A Chinese study uncovers a new use for an old drug Bleeding in the sma…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the third quarter of 2023

  • NEJM
How the US taxpayer saved 25M+ people A short piece celebrating the 20…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the second quarter of 2023

  • NEJM
Preparing for the next pandemic: don’t waste the value of waste During…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for the first quarter of 2023

  • NEJM
Hypertension?! Antihypertensive drugs are so 80s and 90s (well, except…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2022

  • NEJM
An unusual article on road safety Motor vehicle accidents are a major …

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The New England Journal of Medicine

Hearts and souls: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October and November 2022

  • NEJM
A psychedelic for refractory depression While major depression is awfu…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

Some very disappointing failures: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August and September 2022

  • NEJM
Is Parkinson’s α-synuclein going to be as elusive a target as β-amyloi…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An excellent July vintage: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for July 2022

  • NEJM
Tirzepatide in pole position As previously described in this blog, GLP…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for June 2022

  • NEJM
A cell therapy success against a solid tumor In CAR-T therapies, T-cel…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May 2022

  • NEJM
A step forward for kidney xenotransplantation A report on the recent, …

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March-April 2022

  • NEJM
The opioid crisis and patient abandonment A perspective from a Februar…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January-February 2021

  • NEJM
Gene therapy in beta-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia Beta-thalassem…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

Wrapping up 2021: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for November-December 2021

  • NEJM
In search of a diagnosis: deploying genomics at scale A substantial nu…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

Taking on tough indications: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October 2021

  • NEJM
What makes an indication especially tough? The combination of a lack o…

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The New England Journal of Medicine

From bleeding edge to basics: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August and September 2021

  • NEJM
The weird world of synthetic biology In biology 101, one learns about …

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Summer catch-up: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May-July 2021

  • NEJM
Cancer and mutational complexity Probably the biggest news in cancer t…

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Remodel, rewire, repopulate: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for April 2021

  • NEJM
Remodeling to health? Chronic disease progression is often due to a ma…

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Balancing the humors: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March 2021

  • NEJM
A new approach to schizophrenia Antipsychotic agents treat schizophren…

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All immunity: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for February 2021

  • NEJM
We can cure Hep C but not immunize against it Sovaldi and other drugs …

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While we wait for our shot(s); an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January 2021

  • NEJM
Incremental progress in the fight to treat heart failure After a decad…

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Closing a tough year: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2020

  • NEJM
Cardiovascular health – go big or go narrow? A follow up on the devel…

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We are back and catching-up: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for Sep, Oct, and Nov 2020

  • NEJM
Small but real progress in ALS: Despite enormous public attention and …

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A slow summer: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August 2020

  • NEJM
A cheap, low tech intervention for a common Achilles’ heel When I am o…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for July 2020

  • NEJM
Stunting and the microbiome Stunting (low growth for age) affects >…

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Covid, medical education, and a bit of RNAi: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for June 2020

  • NEJM
What’s your blood type? The first report of a genome wide association…

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Covid, iPSCs, and ADCs: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May 2020

  • NEJM
Remdesivir works… but not enough to change the public health perspecti…

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Covid and the rest: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for April 2020

  • NEJM
Hydroxychloroquine does not seem to help much in Covid-19 (with caveat…

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The infectiologists have the floor: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March 2020

  • NEJM
A first Covid-19 interventional study – unfortunately negative The fir…

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Coronavirus and more: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January/February 2020

  • NEJM
Keeping up with COVID-19 It’s not easy for a refereed weekly print per…

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Tax dollars doing good work: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2019

  • NEJM
The loneliness of the patent-less drug Colchicine is a very old drug c…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for November 2019

  • NEJM
A triumph for cystic fibrosis patients (and for Vertex) Phase 3 confir…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October 2019

  • NEJM
Genomic applications and scalability Two very different papers about a…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for September 2019

  • NEJM
Best care vs. good care In wealthy countries, the recommended standard…

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Busy summer: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for July/August 2019

  • NEJM
Is the lack of new (non-viral) antibiotics a market failure? A lament…

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Fishing for nucleic acids: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for June 2019

  • NEJM
Huntington’s disease: light at the end of the tunnel? The awful thing…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May 2019

  • NEJM
TAVR for all? TAVR has become the standard of care for patients who ne…

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It’s in the brain: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for April 2019

  • NEJM
He’s dead, Jim As previously widely advertised, the BACE-1 inhibitor v…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March 2019

  • NEJM
Target assessment with genetic polymorphisms Please bear with me for a…

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February was short and cold: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for February 2019

  • NEJM
Targeted conjugated cancer therapeutics – so few, but may be more soon…

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Methods towards better care: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January 2019

  • NEJM
The bundle Unlike many other CMMI experiments, the Comprehensive Care …

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On the uses of genetic information in disease: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2018

  • NEJM
Genetic trade secrets In 2012, the US Supreme Court decided a case kno…

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Eating your way out of disease: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for November 2018

  • NEJM
Peanut medicine that won’t cost peanuts Allergy to peanuts is a major …

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T-cells are everywhere: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October 2018

  • NEJM
One century after the use of convalescent serum, convalescent T-cells …

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for September 2018

  • NEJM
Primary care organizations are better ACOs when it comes to achieving …

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August 2018

  • NEJM
Transthyretin heats up Last month saw a couple landmark papers about t…

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What’s harder, making new drugs or improving care delivery at scale? An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for July 2018

  • NEJM
RNA drugs coming of age Hereditary Transthyretin Amyloidosis (ATTR) is…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for June 2018

  • NEJM
It’s hard to quit (and E-cigs don’t help) A large trial (6000 particip…

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Struggling: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May 2018

  • NEJM
One more on the chin for Alzheimer’s A report of a large phase 3 study…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for April 2018

  • NEJM
Are we nearing an asymptote with implantable cardiac pumps? Severe hea…

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EHRs + Genomics = Drugs? – An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March 2018

  • NEJM
GWAS, Regeneron and Geisinger, and liver disease Genome wide associati…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for February 2018

  • NEJM
A-fib in heart failure – time to be aggressive Over the last 15 years,…

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Two steps forward, one step back: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January 2018

  • NEJM
Playing chess against cancer Tumors are not intelligent, but, because …

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A golden age for gene therapy: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2017

  • Biopharma , 
  • NEJM
Successes in gene therapy for hemophilia B and A Hemophilia A and B ar…

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Gene therapy, headaches, and tattoos: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for November 2017

  • NEJM
Two new therapies against a horrible congenital disease – but trouble …

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Between the very common and the very rare – An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October 2017

  • NEJM
Between the very common and the very rare – An opinionated take on NEJ…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for September 2017

  • NEJM
A new drug to address hard-to-treat severe asthma In ~10% of people wi…

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Price, costs, value, and rules: An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August 2017

  • NEJM
At last, drug prices influence physician usage patterns Association of…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for July 2017

  • NEJM
Taking stock: two decades of progress in heart failure: Here comes a c…

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June was negative-to-ambiguous: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for June 2017

  • NEJM
Stent news First there was angioplasty, then bare stents, then drug-e…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for May 2017

  • NEJM
A hammer finds new nails (which happen to be eyeballs) The insulin gro…

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April was a light month: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for April 2017

  • NEJM
Calendaring care The length of our sidereal year is an accident – we h…

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Regeneration and mitigation: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for March 2017

  • NEJM
Gene therapy for sickle cell disease Typical diseases targeted by gene…

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It’s in the blood: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for February 2017

  • NEJM
A knock at the door of a monster franchise Adalimumab (Humira, Abbvie)…

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Keeping the pipes clean and the wires intact: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for January 2017

  • NEJM
An innovative modality to suppress PCSK9 Antisense technology relies o…

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A strong close to a banner year for progress against cancer: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for December 2016

  • NEJM
Successful use of CAR-T therapy in a solid tumor Chimeric Antigen Rece…

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We may figure out cancer before we figure out the healthcare system: an opinionated take on NEJM highlights for November 2016

  • NEJM
“My name is T-Cell…, James T-Cell” Immune T-cells are licensed to kill…

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An ad page in the NEJM and the future of cancer care

  • Providers , 
  • NEJM
I am not sure how many docs continue to do this, but I still read the …

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for October 2016

  • NEJM
Continued progress in multiple myeloma About 25,000 patients are diagn…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for September 2016

  • NEJM
Taking a page from HIV to build a response to opioid abuse A couple of…

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An opinionated take on NEJM highlights for August 2016: cleanliness is not next to healthiness, testing before thinking, a long slog for precision medicine

  • NEJM
There is such a thing as too much hygiene The prevalence of asthma in …

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NEJM Highlights for July 2016: Bayesians vs. frequentists, PCPs vs. specialists, SGLT-2 vs. GFR

  • NEJM
Adaptive clinical trials slowly coming of age In an adaptive clinical …

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NEJM Highlights for June 2016: Improving care delivery is just plain #%^*! hard

  • NEJM
Disappointing interim results from two ACA experiments Two papers repo…

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NEJM Highlights for May 2016: Referral for surgery, and a miscellany of interesting biochemistry

  • NEJM
Surgical volume and referral for surgery: The impact of surgical volum…

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NEJM Highlights April 2016: Value and values: RBRVS, ACA and readmissions, E-cigs

  • NEJM
RBRVS: an acronym we ought to think more about RBRVS stands for the Re…

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NEJM Highlights March 2016: Getting value for money in healthcare, Zika bad news, linking the microbiome to the metabolic syndrome

  • NEJM
Could Uber happen to healthcare? A Perspective article that points ou…

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NEJM Highlights Feb 2016: metrics for all, ROI perversion, less memory loss, the value of a kinder gentler residency

  • NEJM
Defining success in health care A perspective advertising yeoman’s wor…

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NEJM Highlights January 2016: a medley of social service, OB, data mining, obesity, and ESRD

  • NEJM
Leveraging community services for health In poor individuals, a lot of…

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NEJM Highlights December 2015: providing effective healthcare is hard and expensive – but ineffective care can be even more expensive – and defining what expensive means in healthcare is hard

  • NEJM
A new focus on the diagnostic reliability of clinicians Two perspectiv…

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NEJM Highlights November 2015: systems biology, RSV progress, a first in diabetes, hypertension goals, the case of Maryland

  • NEJM
Systems biology finally gets real: an unexpected use for a diabetes dr…

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NEJM Highlights October 2015: what to do, how to do it, and to whom

  • NEJM
What are annual physicals for? Annual physicals are costly (~$10 billi…

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NEJM Highlights September 2015: cells, cells, cells

  • NEJM
Promise for systemic amyloidosis (and beyond?) Systemic amyloidosis is…

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NEJM Highlights August 2015: cancer and joints

  • NEJM
The emergence of a new approach to drug development in cancer Cancers…

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NEJM Highlights July 2015: a first in class drug for cancer, Sovaldi cures renal failure too (sometimes), convenient primary care

  • NEJM
Palbociclib – first to target cyclin dependent kinases – breast cancer…

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NEJM Highlights for June 2015: the flavor of the month is distinctly cardiovascular

  • NEJM
Interventionalist treatment for stroke: In the 80s and 90s, treatment …

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NEJM Highlights May 2015: a read on ACO performance, progress in cystic fibrosis treatment, yes developing new drugs is expensive, rethinking industry-medicine relationships, CVS Caremark and smoking cessation

  • NEJM
Early results of the ACO experiment: directionally right, but impact i…

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NEJM Highlights April 2015

  • NEJM
The rise, fall, and rebirth of the Chinese healthcare system A fascina…

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NEJM Highlights March 2015: Progress against Crohn’s, PCSK9 inhibitors coming through, comparative effectiveness for diabetic macular edema, Eric Lander encourages the FDA on genomic testing regulation

  • NEJM
A promising agent for Crohn’s Disease, a miserable illness Crohn’s is …

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NEJM Highlights February 2015: the most boring month in my NEJM reading memory

  • NEJM
Our selection from a month with relatively few exciting articles - per…

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NEJM Highlights January 2015: Dengue vaccine, Informed consent, Cancer drugs and Tiering for selection

  • NEJM
A vaccine for dengue finally nears the market Dengue is a mosquito tra…

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