Jermaine Heath

#MedTwitter, allow me to reintroduce myself: I'm Jermaine Heath, an M4 @HowardU applying to General Surgery Residency #Match2025 My interests include health policy, delivery system reform, & health disparities I also enjoy cooking 🇯🇲 food & being tormented by NY sports teams

These guys weren’t even ready to be in the same room with Bilas on this discussion

The framing for this has always seemed strange to me. Surgery has a 0% failure rate at preventing recurrent appendicitis (yes if done well) and antibiotics a 44% failure rate. Unless surgery is strongly contraindicated, appendectomy seems like the right choice.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has just officially canceled nearly all of its grant mechanisms, and awarded only ONE new grant last year. Congress, you appropriated $202M in FY26 for #AHRQ research grants - tell HHS to act as you directed! grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/n…

Surgical training teaches us anatomy, technique, and evidence-based practice. It rarely teaches us what to do with the grief, guilt, or self-doubt that follows a difficult case. Dr. Christine Nembhard writes honestly about the emotional terrain of surgical complications — and what both individuals and institutions can do better. A thoughtful, important read for surgeons at every stage of training. Read it and share it with someone who needs it: aasurg.org/navigating-the…

I’m so excited to share my friend Dr. Lola Fayanju has been appointed Chair of Surgery at Queens University! We are so excited to see your continued success! healthsci.queensu.ca/stories/news-a…

Medicaid expansion was associated with reduced mortality and increased surgical resection rates for patients with #PancreaticCancer, with improvements most evident several years after expansion and for those with stage II-III disease. ja.ma/4ujSlz9

Hey look! @nejm moved my writing to a new spot. Here's the first post, a rant about a particularly annoying requirement for those of us in work in hospitals (link below) 1/3

Whenever I speak or post about obesity I always get the comment “we need to change the food environment not give drugs” Yes, we need to change the food environment. Absolutely. Now tell me the timeline… 5 years? 10 years? A generation? I still have a 25-year-old in clinic today with a BMI of 40 kg/m2. Prevention is a long-term goal. Clinical care is immediate. We need both and pitting them as mutually exclusive options is naive.

NEW in @TheLancet: We used a natural experiment to evaluate the health effects of cutting food assistance All-cause hospitalizations ⬆️ sharply within 1 year of ⬇️ SNAP benefits Timely as H.R.1 delivers steep SNAP cuts ≈$200 billion over next decade. bit.ly/4qtPsbR

This doesn't seem good...I just hope nothing remotely bad happens...

Doctors are generally not good at Bayesian reasoning or diagnostic test ordering. This is well known and established. This is why we have campaigns like Choosing Wisely. Doctors tend to over test. They tend not to apply pre-test prob or think about post test prob. They react.

The effects of enhanced ACA premium subsidies expiring are starting to hit home.

As the 4th-down discussion continues... Teams have gone for it 29 times on 4th & 1 or 4th & 2 this postseason. They converted 10 of 13 times (77%) when calling a run. They converted 8 of 16 times (50%) when dropping back to pass. The play call is as important as the decision.

📢New research in @Health_Affairs with @SoyeonKang_PhD: How is Medicare drug price negotiation affecting pharmaceutical R&D? We find clinical trial activity remained stable overall, but manufacturers with negotiated drugs initiated fewer trials, especially in certain cancers.

Implementation of a Global Budget Revenue payment model, which incentivizes hospitals to reduce care costs while improving care quality, was associated with an acceleration in the shift from inpatient to outpatient settings for surgical procedures. journals.lww.com/annalsofsurger…

For clinicians starting patients on the Wegovy pill, a few high‑yield counselling points can make or break efficacy: ✅ Take one tablet once daily after an overnight fast, on an empty stomach with a small glass of plain water only; swallow whole, do not split, crush, chew, or dissolve. ✅ Wait at least 30 minutes before any food, coffee, or other oral meds so #SNAC can create the local gastric “window” for semaglutide absorption. ✅ If a dose is missed, skip it and take the next dose the following day; never double up or take more than one tablet per day. ✅ Titration per the label: 1.5 mg once daily (days 1–30) → 4 mg (days 31–60) → 9 mg (days 61–90) → 25 mg once daily from day 91 onward, slowing escalation if GI tolerability requires it and reassuring patients that early nausea is usually transient. ✅ Emphasize that not following these administration rules often presents as “non‑response” rather than true drug failure. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

Not even trying to be dramatic, but this definitely borders on fireable for LaFleur

Residents - Remember the main financial goal of training is to tread water for the benefit of 1) quality training 2) good health 3) good relationships No amount of savings or debt reduction is worth sacrificing any of these three things.