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Rahul Ganatra

@rbganatra.bsky.social
402 followers 221 following 69 posts

Medical Attending and Director of CME at VA Boston | Critical Appraisal enthusiast @thecurbsiders.bsky.social & Journal Watch. Easily fascinated. Views mine, but I'll share.

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Reposted by Rahul Ganatra
thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
🥞 HOTCAKES ARE SERVED! 🥞 New episode, fresh off the griddle: #540 Hotcakes 🔥 We’re serving up a stack of recent practice-changing articles, including: 💊 Varenicline by mail for smoking cessation 🫀 Anticoagulation for intermediate-risk AF…and more! 👉 Listen to #540 at thecurbsiders.com
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
It feels like critical appraisal is about to have a bit of a moment... let's do it right, people!
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 17/09/2025
One insurance denial for Teressa's husband stated, “your newborn does not meet the criteria for coverage.” “This is when I really start to think they’re just denying,” she recalled. “They’re not even looking. They’re just ‘deny, deny, deny.’” ➡️ Full story: www.propublica.org/article/ment...
Screenshot of article excerpt: Highmark refused to pay for the emergency medical treatment for the colon infection. In a bizarre twist, that denial letter listed her husband as the patient but made reference to the care of a newborn, not that of a 52-year-old man having a mental health crisis.

“It was determined,” the letter said, “that your newborn does not meet the criteria for coverage of an inpatient hospital admission.”

“This is when I really start to think they’re just denying,” she recalled. “They’re not even looking. They’re just ‘deny, deny, deny.’”
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 15/09/2025
After a North Carolina man attempted suicide twice, his wife tried to get him help at an inpatient clinic. But their insurance provider refused to cover the treatment, deeming it “not medically necessary.”
propublica.org
“Just Let Me Die”: After Insurance Repeatedly Denied a Couple’s Claims, One Psychiatrist Was Their Last Hope
After a North Carolina man attempted suicide twice, his wife tried to get him help at an inpatient clinic. But their insurance provider refused to cover the treatment, deeming it “not medically necess...
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Question for folks in medicine and science: What are some of the best invited editorials you have ever read? What made them so good?
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Lots of gold in this list!
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thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
🥞 #496 Hotcakes are here! 🩺 www.thecurbsiders.com We’re diving into: 🌿 CBD-induced liver injury 💉 IV iron for HFrEF 🛏️ Bedtime BP meds ✋ Carpal Tunnel & RA ❤️ FDA approval of finerenone for HFpEF ✨ featuring @paulnwilliams.bsky.social @rbganatra.bsky.social, Dr. Nora Taranto, Dr. Matthew Watto
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
“The study authors asked GPT 4o-mini to evaluate the quality of 217 papers. The tool didn’t mention in any of the reports that the papers being analyzed had been retracted or had validity issues. In 190 cases, GPT described the papers as world leading, internationally excellent, or close to that”
cen.acs.org
ChatGPT tends to ignore retractions on scientific papers
Study finds the chatbot doesn’t acknowledge concerns with problematic studies
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
"Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who oversees the CDC, did not make a statement the day of the shooting. Late the following morning, more than 30 minutes after posting photos of fishing with his family, Kennedy posted condolences on his official X account..." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...
nytimes.com
After Years of Anger Directed at C.D.C., Shooting Manifests Worst Fears
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Fewer than 10% of published observational studies in this sample used DAGs to justify confounder selection. This is a huge missed opportunity for both readers and researchers. DAGs are invaluable in research design and critical appraisal.
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Sam England @samjakeengland.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS
The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Updated CAP and UTI guidelines??? Yes please!
media.tenor.com
Bill Hader Eating Popcorn GIF
Alt: Bill Hader Eating Popcorn GIF
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Antibiotic Steward 🅱️C🆔🅿️🌟 @absteward.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
🔥🔥Just published 🔥🔥 ATS CAP guidelines 2025 Diagnosis and Management of Community-acquired Pneumonia. An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline Free access pdf #IDsky#EMIMCC www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/...
atsjournals.org
Diagnosis and Management of Community-acquired Pneumonia. An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | Articles in P...
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Brandon Moore, PhD @rando.insalubrio.us · 18/07/2025
Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, use sponges on their beaks while hunting fish to protect them from sharp rocks while they forage at the expense of echolocation. Only about 5% of the population has mastered this culturally transmitted skill! 🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
A bottlenose dolphin wearing a marine sponge on its nose to forage while swimming in Shark Bay, Australia.
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Did you know that a subset of patients with atrial fibrillation have symptoms triggered by cold drinks?! Neither did I! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Characterizing Patients With Cold Drink‐Triggered Atrial Fibrillation
Introduction Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia with significant health implications. Identifying modifiable lifestyle triggers is important in mitigating recurrence and improving patie.....
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Elliot Tapper @ebtapper.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Wake up new cause of liver enzyme elevation just dropped
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
You're looking at three golden tortoise beetles (Charidotella sexpunctata). They're native to the Americas, generally the east coast of North America all the way down to Argentina. The gold coloration is structural, semi-reflective layers in the cuticle selectively reflect wavelengths of light.
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Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I'm not saying you can't generate a hypothesis from data. I'm just saying that generating a hypothesis from the entirety of human knowledge that preceded your data is a much safer bet.
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Seth Trueger @mdaware.org · 18/06/2025
en.wikipedia.org
Gell-Mann amnesia effect - Wikipedia
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
This little fart-squirrel (Mephitis mephitis) is stamping, a warning behavior before the *big show*. She's hoping to scare you off with her ferocity so she doesn't have to use her scent glands. These types of bluffing moves are "deimatic" behaviors, from Greek 'deimatóo' = "to frighten".
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josh farkas 💊 @pulmcrit.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
new IBCC chapter: constipation! most ICU patients are constipated, so we manage this on a daily basis. but our approach is often super random ("I was taught this in residency") so I tried to create an evidence-based treatment strategy for constipation...🧵 #1/7 #EMIMCC emcrit.org/ibcc/constip...
media.tenor.com
a cartoon character from south park is sitting on the floor and making a surprised face .
ALT: a cartoon character from south park is sitting on the floor and making a surprised face .
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josh farkas 💊 @pulmcrit.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
what we truly care about is tonicity (forces that pull H2O across membranes) not osmolality sodium is actually a pretty good proxy of tonicity (ie “effective” osm), maybe better than measured osm also if we start juggling sodium levels and osmolarity at the same time it gets too damn complicated
media.tenor.com
a man with a beard is surrounded by mathematical equations on his face .
ALT: a man with a beard is surrounded by mathematical equations on his face .
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Really enjoyed this one despite @paulnwilliams.bsky.social abstaining from some top-shelf trial name-related humor with "the eagle has landed" - take a listen and see what i mean!
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Joel Topf @kidneyboy.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
I had google AI create this podcast for tonight's NephJC podcast. Take a listen. Tell me what you think Would you like NephJC to produce this as a regular part of the educational package? This would not replace the irreplaceable Freely Filtered. notebooklm.google.com/notebook/8e8...
notebooklm.google.com
Sign in - Google Accounts
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Question for my #Geriatrics #GeriSky brain trust: What are the best apps for scheduling home health aides or other elder care professionals? Something with: - A shared calendar for scheduling shifts - Hours logging - Any other features you have found useful Thx!
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The BMJ @bmj.com · 20/05/2025
NEW @bmj.com research determines the incidence and prevalence of dementia in a nationally representative cohort of US Medicare beneficiaries www.bmj.com/content/389/...
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Professor Amanda Sturgill @drsturg.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Sunday sillies: "I'll allow it" edition. #math
Embedded text reads "I told my math students they could bring a one-sided cheat sheet and this is what they come up with." It is a photo of several sheets of paper with writing on all sides, taped together to create a mobius strip, which is topographically one-sided.
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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 11/05/2025
Thanks to everybody who chimed in! I arrived at the conclusion that (1) there's a lot of interesting stuff about interactions and (2) the figure I was looking for does not exist. So, I made it myself! Here's a simple illustration of how to control for confounding in interactions:>
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thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
🎙️Brand New!!! #482 #shmconverge25 recap is here!!!!! Highlights and Pearls from SHM’s Annual Meeting 🥼🩺🩻🎰 We recap the top pearls for the hospitalist from #SHM #Converge25 hitting updates in GI, stroke, anticoagulation, perioperative medicine, artificial intelligence, and more.
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thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
🔥🔥🔥 Dr. Rahul Ganatra dishing all the pearls from #SHMConverge25 We recap the top pearls for the hospitalist from #SHM #Converge25 hitting updates in GI, stroke, anticoagulation, perioperative medicine, artificial intelligence, and more. 💊 @rbganatra.bsky.social www.thecurbsiders.com 🎙️
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
As disturbing as this is, this paper showcases a nice suite of fraud detection techniques:
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JAMA @jama.com · 17/04/2025
Past-month binge drinking among young adult females in 2021-2023 was higher than among males, reversing 2017-2019 patterns, whereas males in other age groups continued to binge and heavy drink at higher rates. ja.ma/42pf2V6 #MedSky
ja.ma
Sex-Based Differences in Binge and Heavy Drinking
This cross-sectional study compares differences in binge and heavy drinking among male and female adults in recent years.
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thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Throwback to 2016! 🔙 Dr. Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social and this week’s guest Dr. Molly Brett! This hotcakes episode can’t be missed! 🥞 #medsky thecurbsiders.com/curbsiders-p...
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thecurbsiders.bsky.social @thecurbsiders.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
What if???? 🤔 🙊 We’ll be back soon with a brand new hotcakes episode where we talk Suzetrigine for acute pain, SGLT2i and PAD, Safety of Lowering LDL, Restrictive vs Liberal Transfusion Strategy in MI revisited and more! 💊💉🎙️ ##medical #internalmed #medsky
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
The first person to document that light had a speed is, arguably, Danish astronomer Ole Rømer, in 1676. Our story starts with the challenge of calculating longitude. In 1598 Philip III of Spain offered a large prize for any method to accurately determine east/west coordinates for a ship at sea.
A painted portrait from 1700:  A man in an elaborate long hairstyle or more likely, grey wig, with a prominent nose and frilly white lace crevette. with red jacket picked out by golden embroidery, against a dark, featureless background.
"en:Ole Rømer (1644-1710), Danish astronomer.
Jacob Coning - Farvereproduktioner efter 20 portrætter af berømte danske mænd (København 1943)"
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Elliot Tapper @ebtapper.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
The Red Cross is explicitly allowing blood donations for people with hemochromatosis Did you know this? Apparently, this policy was updated late 2023 and was long overdue @shematologist.medsky.social #liversky
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Swapnil Hiremath 🍁🇨🇦 @hswapnil.medsky.social · 03/03/2025
This table from @drjmluther.bsky.social needs to be disseminated more widely (We added it to our @cmaj-jamc.bsky.social 5 things for that reason www.cmaj.ca/content/196/...) #NephMadness
Table of drugs and substances that can cause hypertension
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Ken Koon Wong @kenkoonwong.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
5.6% of CDI patients had ↓fidaxomicin susceptibility; 3 developed resistance during treatment & failed therapy; resistant strains showed RNA mutations; evidence of transmission. @abhishekdp.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Emergence and Spread of Clostridioides difficile Isolates With Reduced Fidaxomicin Susceptibility in an Acute Care Hospital
In an acute care hospital, 6 of 108 (5.6%) fidaxomicin-treated patients with Clostridioides difficile infection were infected with isolates with reduced fi
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
This is an emergency. Decisions at the individual level and the population level both play a role. In the current moment, how should physicians and scientists best advocate for decisions that will benefit both individuals and populations?
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Superbly ambiguous sign at a restaurant in O'Hare: Alcoholic beverages MUST be consumed in the airport (do it, or else!!). Or Alcoholic beverages must be consumed IN the airport (not outside, dummy!!). Who's to say which is the correct interpretation? 🤷
Act responsibly! The same advice applies to precision in language.
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Carolina Forward @carolinaforward.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Here's what the entire federal workforce actually looks like. It's mostly doctors, nurses and healthcare workers in VA hospitals, the military, and then everything else.
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Timothy Li @drtimothyli.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Things We Do for No Reason: Routine use of antibiotics for acute uncomplicated diverticulitis (UD) ⭐️Non‐inferiority of non-antibiotic management of UD supported by 2 landmark RCTs ⭐️Selective (vs routine) use of antibiotics for UD recommended by societies incl AGA and ACP doi.org/10.1002/jhm....
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Med Peds Hospitalist @medpedshosp.medsky.social · 06/02/2025
Changes in Incident Schizophrenia Diagnoses Associated With Cannabis Use Disorder After Cannabis Legalization jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Incident Schizophrenia and Cannabis Use Disorder After Cannabis Legalization
This cohort study of more than 13 million individuals aged 14 to 65 years examines changes in the population-attributable risk fraction for cannabis use disorder associated with schizophrenia after li...
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Timothy Li @drtimothyli.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Rethinking Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis in Patients with Cirrhosis ➡️Standard of care since the 1990s and is currently recommended by several major GI societies ➡️Weak supporting evidence ➡️No clear mortality benefit doi.org/10.1093/cid/... #IDSky
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Jonathan Ryder, MD @jonathanrydermd.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
New retrospective eval of 1000 Karius tests Clinical impact: positive 16%, negative 2%, none 82%(!) Cx neg IE and fastidious/zoonotic/vector-borne increased likelihood of positive impact, but not immunocompromised status #IDSky @ichejournal.bsky.social pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39881594/
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Joseph Marcus @josephmarcusid.medsky.social · 31/01/2025
Post-hoc analysis of 📷 📷 study in MSSA/MRSA bacteremia: Persistent fever = indicator for complicated infection Fever on Day 4️⃣: aOR (3.7 (95% CI: 1.58-8.67)) mortality Fever on Day 7️⃣: aOR: (8.78 (95% CI: 2.78-27.7) 🚫 assn between ⬆️CRP/WBC and mortality #IDSky academic.oup.com/ofid/advance...
academic.oup.com
Association of daily body temperature, white blood cell count, and C-reactive protein with mortality and persistent bacteremia in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia: a post-hoc analysis of...
AbstractIntroduction. Classification of patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) as complicated versus uncomplicated is based on a combination
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Rahul Ganatra @rbganatra.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Can't wait to read
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