Led by the moderator, the panelists discussed persistent efficacy, tolerability, and adherence gaps in antidepressant treatment, noting that only about 60% of patients with MDD receive treatment and roughly 30% develop treatment resistance, with early adverse effects often undermining adherence before benefits take hold.
Combination regimens, monoclonal antibodies, and gene therapy aimed at de-integrating viral DNA are reshaping what a hepatitis B cure could look like. This episode looks ahead to the next five to ten years
Age shapes more than pill-swallowing ability in pediatric vitiligo care. Dr. Lal explains how activity level, motivation, and comorbidities guide the choice between topical and oral therapy in younger patients, more than any single BSA threshold.
Trial enrollment ranges become policy boundaries in practice. Dr. Desai explains how broader BSA inclusion supports patients with widespread disease, while Jason describes how narrower criteria let payers manage the bulk of cases through topical therapy first.
New multi-center registry data confirm MAC as the dominant cause of NTM pulmonary disease, while culture conversion with standard therapy still fails in nearly half of patients.
Better risk stratification, more tolerable regimens, and outcome measures beyond culture conversion top the list of unmet needs Dr. Losier identifies for MAC and NTM pulmonary disease heading into ATS 2026.
Almandoz challenged one of the most persistent misconceptions in metabolic disease management, that obesity treatment is primarily about weight loss, arguing instead that obesity is a systemic driver of healthcare utilization across multiple high-cost disease states including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, chronic kidney disease, and MASH, and that by the time a patient develops liver cirrhosis, heart failure, or end-stage kidney disease, the financial and human costs have already become enormous and largely preventable with earlier intervention.
Almandoz described his interpretation of the SYNCHRONIZE-1 findings, noting that while substantial and statistically significant weight reduction was observed, what captured his attention most was the nature and distribution of that weight loss, with the MRI sub-study demonstrating meaningful reductions in visceral and liver fat alongside relative preservation of lean mass, collectively pointing to a quality of weight loss that is biologically distinct from generalized weight loss.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous disorder with many unique symptom combinations.
Hepatitis B and hepatitis C behave nothing alike once treatment succeeds. This episode explains why hepatitis B's genomic integration makes true virologic cure fundamentally more complex than hepatitis C clearance.
Welcome back to another AJMC Peer Exchange series. In this episode titled, "The Burden of Major Depressive Disorder: Setting the Stage for Managed Care."
Guideline inconsistency and treatment thresholds continue to create gaps in chronic hepatitis B care, particularly in primary care settings. This episode also examines what functional cure means for cancer risk and long-term antiviral safety.
Different inclusion criteria, different primary endpoints, different eras of the pandemic: Dr. Rosmarin unpacks why the pivotal topical and oral vitiligo trials resist direct comparison, and where a meta-analysis might still help.
A payer's view of competing JAK mechanisms centers less on selectivity data and more on price. Jason explains why a wide cost gap between topical and oral therapies will likely keep the topical option as first-line policy.
Learn how doctors spot mild cognitive impairment early using MoCA, Mini-Cog, caregiver insights, and blood biomarkers to guide MRI/PET treatment.
Clinicians unpack Alzheimer’s rising risk, why early detection and lifestyle prevention matter, and how delaying onset could cut costs dramatically.
Almandoz explained that while GLP-1 receptor agonism alone delivers meaningful benefits in appetite regulation, satiety, glycemic control, and cardiorenal and liver outcomes, the addition of glucagon receptor agonism introduces a distinct and complementary layer of biology that goes beyond weight loss alone to address the metabolic drivers most closely linked to insulin resistance, cardiometabolic risk, and MASH progression.
Jaime Almandoz characterized the historical management of metabolic disease as paradoxically siloed given how biologically integrated these conditions are, noting that a patient may have their obesity managed by one clinician, their diabetes by another, their cardiovascular disease by a third, and their liver disease, if addressed at all, evaluated in yet another separate setting, while the patient is experiencing all of these as one interconnected metabolic condition, creating fragmentation that delays diagnosis, duplicates effort, and leaves critical windows for intervention unaddressed.
Quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen testing is emerging as a critical tool for identifying which patients may respond best to next-generation therapies. This episode reviews new guideline recommendations and finite-duration therapy conversations.
Unlike hepatitis C, chronic hepatitis B does not always progress through classic fibrosis, making liver cancer possible without significant liver damage. This episode reviews how genomic integration drives that risk and how monitoring should adapt.
JAK inhibitors mark a genuine shift in vitiligo care, offering stabilization before repigmentation and color that matches native skin tone. Dr. Desai and Dr. Lal weigh their promise against the patience and compliance they demand.
From corticosteroids and calcineurin inhibitors to phototherapy, oral supplements, and emerging JAK inhibitors, Dr. Rosmarin walks through a treatment landscape defined by combination therapy rather than any single modality working alone.
Almandoz framed obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and MASH not as separate conditions but as different manifestations of the same underlying metabolic dysfunction, making MASH not merely a liver problem but a signal of broader cardiometabolic burden that demands comprehensive attention.
Noureddin drew on the prior Phase 2 survodutide data published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which demonstrated improvements in steatohepatitis histology and significant fibrosis reduction to contextualize the SYNCHRONIZE-1 findings, noting that MRI-based proton density fat fraction reduction has been shown to correlate with histologic improvement in steatohepatitis and fibrosis, suggesting the magnitude of liver fat reduction observed in SYNCHRONIZE-1 is a predictive surrogate for the histologic endpoints being evaluated in the ongoing Phase 3 LIVERAGE and LIVERAGE Cirrhosis trials.
Chronic hepatitis B remains highly prevalent yet chronically underdiagnosed in the United States. This episode reviews global and domestic epidemiology, new universal screening guidance, and a health-system model built to close the gap.
Chronic hepatitis B is often framed purely as a viral disease, but immune suppression from surface antigen excess is central to how it behaves. This episode examines why targeting that immune dimension is essential to curing it.
A recent JAMA Dermatology analysis refines mild-moderate-severe cutoffs for vitiligo, but Dr. Desai and Dr. Lal argue that psychosocial burden, anatomic site, and cultural context can make even limited disease profoundly severe for patients.
Halting progression early is more achievable than reversing it. Dr. Rosmarin details how oral steroids control active disease while payer barriers persist for later-line options, and Jason explains how benefit design and step therapy shape access.
The SYNCHRONIZE-1 trial was a Phase III double-blind study in which patients with elevated BMI were randomized in a one-to-one-to-one ratio to placebo, 3.6 mg, or 6.6 mg of survodutide alongside lifestyle counseling, with the primary endpoint of at least 5% weight loss at week 76.
Noureddin framed the emergence of dual GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonism as a significant development, placing it alongside artificial intelligence as a transformative force in medicine, noting that while GLP-1 receptor agonists have already improved the management of metabolic syndrome and generated robust data across obesity and cardiovascular outcomes, the bar has now moved higher, with tolerability, injection frequency, oral versus injectable delivery, and liver-specific activity all emerging as key differentiators among the next generation of incretin-based therapies.
